Electric Circus is the fifth studio album by American rapper Common, released on December 10, 2002, on the now-defunct MCA Records.

An eclectic album, Electric Circus features fusions of several genres such as hip hop, pop, rock, electronic, and neo soul.

Among them were Mary J. Blige (who provided vocals for the album's lead single, "Come Close"), The Neptunes, Lætitia Sadier (of Stereolab), Cee-Lo Green, J Dilla, Bilal and Jill Scott.

The music on Electric Circus challenges the boundaries of the hip hop genre in a similar fashion to The Roots' Phrenology (2002) and Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003).

A triumphant sounding Common proclaims himself "the only cat in hip hop that can go into a thrift shop, bring that get up to the ghetto and get props".

[4] About "Liberation..." Pop Matters wrote that it's "one of those rare occasions when a male hip-hop artist owns up to his investment in some of the genre's more unsavory sexual politics".

The 8 minute-plus song is a duet between Common and his then-girlfriend Erykah Badu, which gradually builds up into its cryptic, chanting finale.

"Pushing past the accepted boundaries of contemporary black pop" is how PopMatters described the album by giving it all ten stars.

[21] The Independent gave it a favorable review and called it "is the most heartening recent development in hip hop, the kind of album that might help lead the genre out of its present darkness.

"[22] The Village Voice gave it an average review and said it "sounds chocolatey and recombinant even when it doth protest the Enlightened Guy angle too much.

"[23] RapReviews gave it a score of 7 out of 10 and said, "Last time around on 'Like Water for Chocolate' Common still had his Chicago flows, just spiced a little differently with Okayplayer oregano.

Corcoran concludes that artists like Kendrick Lamar would not have been "inspired to craft the transcendent" To Pimp a Butterfly without Electric Circus.

Part of the reason for its lack of promotion was MCA's absorption under Geffen Records in the summer of 2003, a mere six to seven months after the album's release.

The 87 people depicted in the photos are: Common (in the center), (from top-left to bottom-right) Prince, Leroy Matthais, Simon Johns, Chad Hugo, Larenz Tate, Stic.man, Pharrell, Mattie Turner, Kenyetta Snyder, Big Daddy Kane, Vinia Mojica, Erykah Badu, Rahsaan Abraham, James Poyser, Tim Gane, DJ Dumi, Questlove, Black Thought, Grandma Gipson, Marie Daulne, Richard Pryor, Marlon Everett, Jay Dee (J Dilla), Mary Campbell, Steef Van De Gevel, M-1, Don "Babatunde" Eaton, Tye Tribbett, Pino Palladino, Abiodun Oyewole, Andrew Dosunmu, Umar Bin Hassan, Louis Farrakhan, Joseph Sharrieff, Steve Mandel, Jimi The Cat, Dartanian Donaldson, Mary Hansen, Steve Hess, Morgane Lhote, Kimberly Jones, Aunt Stella, Q-Tip, Marc Baptiste, Grandma Mable Lynn, Derek Dudley, Uncle Charles, Uncle Steve, John Hancock, Bob Power, Koryan Wright, Ashaka Givens, Dwayne Lyle, Eevin Wright, Russ Elevado, Marcus Murray, Barbara Sims, Rachelle, Cee-Lo Green, Jill Scott, Bayatae Abraham, Charlie Malone, Jeff Lee Johnson, Assata Shakur, Leslie Sims, Angela Murray, Kolleen "Queenie" Wright, Lætitia Sadier, Cousin Bianca, Omoye Lynn, Mary J. Blige, Grandma Elva Brown, Millie Malone, Chris Webber, Bilal, Lonnie "Pops" Lynn, Jimi Hendrix, George Daniels, Fred Hampton Jr., Fred Hampton, Omar, Seven, Karriem Riggins, Ma, and Ralph.