Finding Forever

Finding Forever is the seventh studio album by Common, released on July 31, 2007, on GOOD Music and Geffen Records. Like Common's previous album, Be (2005), Finding Forever is primarily produced by Kanye West. The album debuted at the number one on the Billboard 200, selling 155,000 units in the first week, becoming Common's first chart topper. Selling over 500,000 units in the US, it has been certified Gold. Finding Forever was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, losing to Kanye West's Graduation at the 50th Grammy Awards.

Common explains that "Finding Forever really means to find a place in music where you can exist forever. Music can be forever if you make it from the heart, if you make it from the soul and it’s good. And I look at music like Bob Marley's or Marvin Gaye's or Stevie Wonder's or A Tribe Called Quest's, that's forever music. And I’m continuing on the quest to make forever music." Common also says: "And now with the death of J Dilla and other things, you start thinking about forever lasting for real through music [ ] Jay Dee will last forever through his music and hopefully generations down the line will know about Common through his music. And it's also saying: I been doing this for a nice period of time, so I'm trying to find the place where I can keep existing in the game and make music I love."

Common began working on the album in early 2006, recording it throughout the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, and Spain with Kanye West. Most of the album was recorded while he was filming his roles in American Gangster and Smokin' Aces. Common explained that "if you working on a movie or something [there is] less weight on writing the songs At a certain point, as an artist, you go through things like, 'Man, I gotta make something better than what I did before.' [But] I didn't feel like that this time, like I got to make this better than Be. I wanted to make a better album I definitely felt freer." Kanye West described the recording sessions as "a real easy environment".

Common said that on some tracks, Kanye tried to chop the samples in a similar way to Dilla as a way of honoring him. It has also been said that Kanye West attempted to bring back a really soulful feel to the album. "It's gonna be like College Dropout and Be and Illmatic all combined together". Its video premiered on YouTube on September 1, 2007. The fourth single was "I Want You", mixed by Dylan "3 D" Dresdow and produced by will. i. am of the Black Eyed Peas. The music video was co directed by Kerry Washington.

Finding Forever received mainly positive reviews from music critics. On Metacritic, it was given a score of 73 out of 100 based on "generally favorable reviews". The Village Voice gave it a favorable review and said, "Common delivers the expected political, lover man, and battle rhymes told with wit and complexity over street commercial beats in spades." XXL gave it a score of XL (four out of five) and said, "Once again, Common makes timeless hip hop seem easy." About. com also gave it four stars out of five and called it "a must have" and "a taut, concise composition. There is no need to stop, pause or fast forward over anything. Listen to it many times to catch the clever lyrics and absorb the multi layered sound. J Dilla would be proud." NME gave it a score of 7 out of 10 and said that the rest of the album "is soulful and intelligent where 'intelligent' is not exclusive to 'good beats and rhymes.' Which is what it's all about." The A. V. Club gave it a B+ and said, "It's tight, cohesive, devoid of filler, refreshingly brisk (at 50 minutes long), and sonically and lyrically focused." Canadian magazine Now gave it three out of five and said, "If you can stomach the contrived slow jams and the sensitive soul baring, there are a couple of decent joints produced by West."