(CNN) -- The rapper Common wants to take hip-hop in a new direction, he says, and he has an unsuspecting ally -- President-elect Barack Obama.

Common says he was looking for a new sound on his eighth album, "Universal Mind Control."

Obama "is going to change hip-hop for the better," predicted the rapper, whose eighth album, "Universal Mind Control" (G.O.O.D. Music/Geffen), hits shelves Tuesday.

"I really do believe we as hip-hop artists pick up what's going on in the world and try to reflect that," he told CNN, outlining his belief that mainstream as well as so-called "conscious" rappers -- the more socially aware -- will pick up on what he sees as the more optimistic prospects of an Obama presidency.

"I think hip-hop artists will have no choice but to talk about different things and more positive things, and try to bring a brighter side to that because, even before Barack, I think people had been tired of hearing the same thing," he said.

Likewise, "Universal Mind Control," with its hook-heavy, synthed-out tracks, represents a "broadening" of hip-hop's audience -- one that demands evolution rather than hackneyed revamps of old beats, rhythms and rhymes, Common said.  Listen to clips from the album and Common's interview with CNN.com Â»

Not that Common, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., is altogether removed from the temptations of his hip-hop brethren.

He serves as a spokesman for Lincoln Navigator and purports on his new album to "rebel in YSL," a reference to designer Yves Saint Laurent. Money is also a weakness, as Common -- No. 14 on Forbes magazine's 2008 list of richest rappers -- regularly invokes the greenbacks he makes and spends. iReport.com: Talk Grammy Awards and more showbiz with Todd

Still, Common has come at hip-hop from a different angle from many of his colleagues. He was generally considered "underground" until he linked up with Kanye West, who produced his albums "Be" (2005) and "Finding Forever" (2007).

Even now, while paying homage at mainstream hip-hop's altar, the Chicago-born lyricist also enters parishes where most rappers wouldn't be seen. He's helped front movements for HIV/AIDS awareness and vegetarianism, and he's written two children's books emphasizing the importance of self-esteem.

Lyrically, violence has never been his thing; soft-drug use has been mentioned but rarely glamorized; he removed homophobic references from his lyrics years ago; and while there have been hints of misogyny and the occasional N-word in his verses, neither has been a staple of his rhymes.

"I've always been conscious, honestly," he said. "I made a choice on this album, 'Universal Mind Control,' to really make some music that was bright, that would be a little more lighthearted, just because of what was going on in the world." Read more from the interview

With a few exceptions, his latest lyrics are consummate Common. In his beat poet's cadence, the 36-year-old rhymesmith aggressively courts the ladies, personifies hip-hop, aggrandizes himself and his hometown (lovingly, "the Chi"), and respectfully doles out props to hip-hop's forefathers -- most notably to Afrika Bambaataa on the album's title track.  Hear the title track Â»

The album's sound, however, is atypical, moving -- sometimes jerkily -- from club-banger to anthem to ballad to Top 40. The latter even runs counter to the opening verse of "Everywhere": "No pop, no pop, no pop, no pop/We gonna do this thing till the sky just drop."

But the sound is part of "a whole new sound and a new movement" in hip-hop, something he explored out of disdain for repetition and predictability, he said. That might
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