The irony is so thick, you can cut it with a knife: lately, there's been a lot of talk about the presence and/or absence of rap music being reissued, remastered and anthologized. The Guardian did a nice piece on the burgeoning rap reissue scene, and even yours truly threw his hat into the fray with a guest post on Record Racks back in August about seminal works of the genre that demand a reissue.

It's funny, then, that one particular rap reissue got lost in the shuffle a few months back. I'm talking about the newly expanded edition of Resurrection, the seminal breakout record by Common originally released in 1994. Though the rapper born Lonnie Rasheid Lynn, Jr. (son of noted Chicago basketball player Lonnie "Pops" Lynn) is known to some as an actor (having starred in mainstream films including American Gangster, Terminator: Salvation and Date Night) or, at worst, a rapper known more for critical acclaim than commercial success (to date, none of his singles have made the Billboard Top 40), Common's importance cannot be understated. Why? Five words: "I Used to Love H.E.R." That song, a metaphorical treatise on the soulful, conscious rise and gangsta-laden decline of hip-hop, is perhaps not only Common's singular greatest recorded work but one of the greatest of the entire genre.

That song was included on Resurrection, Common's sophomore effort (back when he was still called Common Sense). And that debut has been expanded and reissued by - ironically enough - a new player in the hip-hop reissue field, Get On Down Records. The label, which also has a vinyl reissue of Ghostface Killah's 1996 solo debut Ironman under its belt, expanded Resurrection to two discs (including a bonus disc of vintage remixes) and adds new liner notes from author Brian Coleman and Common (who previously collaborated on Coleman's book Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies) and a poster of the original cover art.

You can order the resurrected Resurrection here and check out the track list after the jump.

Common, Resurrection: Deluxe Edition (Get On Down GET-51266, 2010)

Disc 1: Original LP (released as Relativity 88561-1208-1, 1994)

1. Resurrection
2. I Used to Love H.E.R.
3. Watermelon
4. Book of Life
5. In My Own World (Check the Method)
6. Another Wasted Nite With...
7. Nuthin to Do
8. Communism
9. WMOE
10. Thisisme
11. Orange Pineapple Juice
12. Chapter 13 (Rich Man vs. Poor Man)
13. Maintaining
14. Sum Shit I Wrote
15. Pops' Rap

Disc 2: The 12" Remixes

1. Resurrection (Large Professor Remix)
2. Resurrection (Extra P. Remix)
3. Resurrection '95
4. Resurrection (Large Professor Remix Instrumental)
5. Resurrection (Extra P. Remix Instrumental)
6. Communism (A Cappella)
7. Communism (Instrumental)
8. I Used to Love H.E.R. (A Cappella)
9. I Used to Love H.E.R. (Instrumental)

Disc 2, Tracks 1-5 released as Relativity 12" single 88561-1250-1, 1995
Disc 2, Tracks 6-9 released as Relativity 12" single 88561-1209-1, 1994