Retrospect For Life
by Common (featuring Lauryn Hill)

Album: One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • With guest vocals by Lauryn Hill, this song takes a stance against abortion. Common raps about a woman he impregnated, and implores her to have the baby.
  • The hook is built on Lauryn Hill interpolating "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" by Stevie Wonder. It also samples the tinkling piano from "A Song for You" by Donny Hathaway. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Donovan Berry - El Dorado, AR, for all above
  • No I.D. and James Poyser produced this track; Poyser also played keyboards on it. According to No I.D., the song tells a true story, and when the girl who it's about heard it, she "spazzed out about it."
  • Lauryn Hill, who grew up acting, directed the video, which contains a scene at the beginning where Common trades dialogue with the actress N'bushe Wright, who plays his girlfriend. This scene marked the first time Common did any acting.

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