Common Already Has The Believer in the Works...

Common's upcoming album Universal Mind Control is generating a lot of buzz it seems with the news that The Neptunes were going to produce a majority of the album. Many are comparing UMC to his album Electric Circus, which was Common's most experimental album to date. In working with The Neptunes, Common's aim is to please party-goers so the album will definitely will make you dance. Prior to the release of Universal Mind Control, many of us heard that Common was going to release an album The Believer. Then, we heard that the title of his upcoming album was titled Invicible Summer, which eventually turned out to be Universal Mind Control. Well, according to Common, The Believer will still be released. In fact, it will be the title of his next album and he is already developing plans for the release. In a recent interview with MTV, he stated:

"The Believer is definitely gonna be an album." "It's gonna be the next album. I was ready to make The Believer, then I started working on an EP called Invincible Summer [click to read]. Then I was like, 'OK, Universal Mind Control — that's the name of the single.' Like we said on the song, 'If you wanna dance, let's dance.' That's what that whole concept is like: Whatever you want the people to do, you create the music for them to do it."

I did a little research and actually found a tracklisting for The Believer album. Remember this was supposed to be released before UMC, but Common was inspired to go into a different direction. He made a comment to MTV news basically stating that the current state of the government influenced UMC. He needed to release and just break loose. Anyway, here is the tracklisting:

"Lost Alley (Coltrane's Reprise)"
"The Believer (Feat. The Philadelphia Experiment and Joshua Redman)"
"To Find Mecca is Within... (Feat. C.L. Smooth and Q-Tip)"
"Moonlight (Feat. Christina Aguilera)"
"The Cause"
"Nirvana is in the Blunt"
"Chicago School (Feat. Kanye West, Twista, Do or Die and R. Kelly)"
"Sinewave"
"@1AM (Feat. Roy Hargrove, Nas, Guru, and Greg Osby)"
"Green Room (Freestyle)"
"Empty Threats (Feat. Kool G Rap, Rahzel, Joe Budden and Talib Kweli)"
"Skyline (Feat. Estelle)"
"Stay Good"
"Ghetto Purgatory"
"Diagnosis (Skit)"
"Requiem for a Love"

Just by looking at the tracklisting, I can see that this album would've definitely been one of those classic hip-hop albums that Common is known for. There seems to be a lot of features on the album, primarily from classic hip-hop artists. And it looks like there is a touch of jazz on this album, which is cool. I am looking forward to UMC, but I am already excited about The Believer. I am pretty sure that once it is released, this tracklisting will be a lot different. I am sure there will be a lot of changes.