Reviews (page 3 of 8)
I enjoyed this album. Good mix of sounds and lyrics
Some really cool songs but 77 minutes of it started to drag on. And I know it’s a sign of the times, but a lot of sexist and homophobic lyrics that rubbed me the wrong way today
I just kept getting a lil bored
77 minutes of fake woke. Beats were good doe.
Not sure Common was going for pleasant with this but that's pretty much what I found it, and I liked it.
Thought I never heard of this guy but I actually have a liked song in my playlist. Must have been a recommendation from one of my sons. Anyway it’s another rap album. Lots of collabs and nothing got me interested. Too long. It’s fine. Sometimes when I listen to rap I feel like. Am being lectured or preached to.
Good enough overall. But I wonder why everyone feels the need to have an Ike and Tina line.
A second Common record and still no Tupac. I feel like this thing is messing with me now. This one is chill outside of the homophobia but didn’t keep my attention like the other one and this one’s too long.
Com todo respeito, não gostei
я ничего не расслушала, но голос у него умиротворяющий
Common's cool-professor aesthetic has always stood out, even among his fellow Soulquarians, as claiming a spiritual and intellectual high ground for his music. And the flip side of that is that, like professors everywhere, he has always seemed the most susceptible to believing his own bullshit about the revolutionary nature of the (legitimately great) work he's doing. He brags on the opener about being a piano player in his last lifetime, but the false notes here sound particularly false - "A Film Called (PIMP)" goes for some profound statement about Black masculinity but just comes off clunky, as does the saccharine "A Song for Assata." But there are way more strong moments than weak ones, from "The Questions" (with crucial contributor Mos Def) to "Payback Is a Grandmother," a much more convincing tale of the streets. Not a bad dissertation, ultimately.
The Light
170/1001 First listen. I’m not big into rap but this had a good flow and vibe to it. 4/10
I don't think I've heard anything by, or even heard of, Common before this album, which is always an intriguing proposition with this collection. And thankfully, this was one of those positive surprises. Although it's nearly twice as long as it probably should have been, nearly every track is both solid and musically more interesting/varied than most of the rap/hip-hop albums in this collection. My favorites were mostly the ones that had guest artists on them, like the opener "Time travelin'", "Cold blooded", and "A song for Assata", plus "The 6th sense" and his dad's "Pops rap III". And while the "conscious rap" aspect isn't all that subtle, Common has a good sense of rhythm (and rhyme) and a sense of humor, and enlisted a great production crew in the Soulquarians to blend in a nice variety of music and samples over and under the beats. I'm not sure it's quite in four-star territory, but it's definitely worth at least 3.5.
A little editing and a little more of the music would have made this a great album. Sometimes the rapping dominates in a way that becomes more like spoken word.
there’s something about the production here that’s turning me off. this thing is really damn long.
This grooves and was really catchy throughout. It was definitely a little longer, but I enjoyed it overall. Actual rating...3.5 Liked Songs: "Time Travelin' (A Tribute To Fela), "Cold Blooded" , "Dooinit" , "The Light" , "Funky For You" , "Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For The World)" , "Thelonius" , "Payback Is A Grandmother"
2.5
Classic rap
love how chill it is
find it very hard to get excited about conscious rap which, as a genre tag, feels stuffy and moralizing, more focused on being an alternative to something else than anything in/of itself. it also immediately invites itself to scrutiny - i find the homophobia and misogyny here a lot harder to forgive when Common's positioned himself as a healthy alternative to hip-hop's regressive aspects. maybe he's only interested in the aspects that feel regressive for straight guys, i don't know. the whole thing of pretending there isn't any "consciousness" to Mobb Deep's street-level grindhouse, or Wu-Tang's comic book mythmaking, is so silly. but! i'm reviewing a record, not a movement, so i do have to say that this is pretty listenable as a collection of songs. it does sometimes get preachy, the awkward moments stick out really noticeably, and like so many potentially-good hip hop records it's just way too fucking long. but i just can't stay mad at the Dilla production, the lovely Soulquarian features (god, was D'Angelo a breath of fresh air) and the energy and inventiveness, which i have to admit to, of Common at the center. he's a sturdy MC with a kind of warm expansiveness to his lyrics - i can't say i find him too exciting, but you do get the feeling he was going for a real everything-record here, and i did find myself wrapped up in that. won't return to this, but it does seem like a really well-executed example of a certain thing that isn't entirely for me. looking forward to getting to Be, which appears more focused - here's hoping!
Really nice, would listen to again
Solid album, but for this style of Hip Hop: too late to be lefendary.
The production and features can’t make up for how corny Common can be.
Lowkey soulful.
“The world’s oldest proFESSION… whole thing is like a LESSON… ain’t no second GUESSIN…” Cmon dude be serious
Liked the jazzy influence behind the old skool hip hop. 'A Film Called (Pimp)', 'A Song For Assata' were highlights
Tried, didn't like it. Not for me.
This album was incredible. It did so many things that made it stand out from other rap albums I've heard including, but not limited to: vocal effects that are unconventional for the genre, having a wide range of instrumentalists across the record, censoring expletives, and dipping its toes into jazz and hip hop. It was so refreshing to hear rap music with deep, meaningful lyrics as opposed to mostly talk about sex, drugs, and guns. I FELT something good in my soul listening to this! The final track on the album, "Pops Rap III... All My Childen" was fucking beautiful. I was playing a game while listening to this album, and I shut it off to play better attention to what they were saying. Fucking amazing album; a piece of gold I'm so glad this collection introduced me to.
Enjoyed this, though on first listen I think I might have preferred Be. The Light is a great track
2nd listen to this album this year. I just can’t get into it, although I think overall I prefer this album to ‘Be’
Fine, very much in my wheelhouse but not sure if I needed to listen to two Common albums before I died. I've managed 1.5.
Is every day going to be a duplicate from now on…great album though, 3 stars!!!!!!
Solid, rap, album, pretty enjoyable. But nothing crazy for me personally, three stars.
Aujourd'hui on parle de Common et de son disque Like Water For Chocolate, sorti en cette année charnière qu'était l'an 2000. Pour moi, c'est une période de transition brutale : je terminais ma décennie à la radio et mes quatre ans de sacerdoce dans mon magasin de disques indépendant. J'avais passé des années à jongler entre les imports obscurs de neofolk, les pressages limités de chez 4AD et les sorties industrielles les plus abrasives. Alors, quand ce disque est arrivé sur le comptoir, porté par une hype critique qui frisait l'hystérie collective, j'ai voulu y croire. On nous vendait le retour du vrai hip-hop, celui qui a du cœur, des instruments et un cerveau. Le disque s'ouvre sur un hommage à Fela Kuti, et là, j'admets que le côté organique m'a tout de suite titillé l'oreille. Il y a cette chaleur, ce grain de son qu'on ne trouve que chez les Soulquarians. Avec Questlove à la batterie et J Dilla aux manettes, on est dans le haut du panier de la production. C'est rond, ça bave juste ce qu'il faut, c'est vivant. Il y a un petit côté A Tribe Called Quest qui n’est pas pour me déplaire, cette nonchalance jazzy qui te donne envie de hocher la tête mollement. Mais très vite, un sentiment de "déjà-vu" s’installe car c’est classique, très classique, voire trop classique. On sent que chaque note est à sa place, que chaque rime est pesée pour ne pas trop bousculer l'auditeur. Tout est maîtrisé, tout est trop "bon élève". Common, c'est le rappeur que tu peux ramener à un dîner de famille sans que personne ne s'étouffe avec son rôti. Il est conscient, il est spirituel, il est respectueux. C'est admirable, certes, mais artistiquement, c'est parfois un peu anémié. C'est du "conscious rap" qui se regarde un peu trop dans le miroir, s'assurant que son bonnet est bien ajusté et que son message est bien clair. C’est propre, c’est lisse, et au bout de 77 minutes — parce que oui, le mec prend son temps — on finit par avoir envie d'autte chose pour se réveiller les neurones. Le groove est là, c’est indéniable. Des morceaux comme "The Light" sont des modèles de production soul, des sucreries qui passent toutes seules. Mais c’est bien ça le souci : ça passe trop tout seul. Ça glisse sur l'esprit sans laisser de griffure. Pour moi, la musique doit être une confrontation, ou au moins une expérience qui te sort de ton confort quotidien. Ici, on est dans le confort absolu. On est dans la moyenne haute de ce que le hip-hop peut produire quand il veut se donner des airs de grand art, mais ça reste un exercice de style très balisé. Au final, si je dois être honnête avec mon parcours de disquaire et de radio-man, ce disque mérite sa place dans les "1001 albums" plus pour son statut de jalon culturel que pour sa capacité à me faire vibrer aujourd'hui. C'est le témoignage d'une époque où le rap cherchait une légitimité dans le passé (la soul, le jazz, l'afrobeat) plutôt que de s'inventer un futur radical. C'est un 3 sur 5, ni plus, ni moins. C'est la note d'un bon artisan qui a rendu une copie impeccable mais sans génie provocateur. Un disque dans la moyenne, pour un moment de détente organique, mais qui finira inévitablement par prendre la poussière entre un album de D’Angelo et un Tribe Called Quest, parce qu'au fond, je préférerai toujours l'original à la copie certifiée conforme. C'est le paradoxe de ce genre de disques : c'est tellement "classique" que ça en devient presque transparent.
Man, this is loooong, and the length doesn't help with the fact that this is less than average.
Great production and some very good songs, especially The Light. Not as good an album as Be though, and it's way too long. Still too much homophobia and misogyny on here, which kind of undermines a lot of the more "conscious" messaging of the lyrics. Kinda mad there's two Common albums in this book but no Mos Def! Rounding this up to a 3 though, because I think more hip hop albums in this style are needed in the book.
Amazing album.
Коммон репует хорошо, но мне не хватает нерва
Same as The Roots. Cool, but no idea what any of it means.
nice 4/5
Twice the length it should be, otherwise it would be fine. 2.0/5.0: Disappointing
i enjoyed most of this, it could've easily been two pretty good albums. instead we get one decent album that feels bloated.
This was 🤷♀️ Beats were good but I didn’t find myself caring too much about the rest of it
First song started and I was pleasantly surprised and was hoping the rest would follow but sadly it devolved for me after that.
Overall: 8/10 I love these beats so much, they fit great with Common's lyrics and flow. There are times I don't enjoy the lyrical content, but that's mostly due to personal preference. Common is clearly a talented rapper. Fav Song: The 6th Sense
Not what I expected. Pretty good! 3.5.
Rap ist nicht so meins...
Really cool stuff. Haven't listen to much hip hop from this scene, but I should! It's great!
I don't even know where to start with this album. It's too long at almost an hour and a half. Some of the beats are pretty good, some sound boring and generic. The lyrics are where he really loses me. Misogyny and homophobia are not something I would ever rate highly. It's honestly getting repetitive and tiring in this genre. Do they not have anything else to talk about? I severely disliked the outro of 'The 6th Sense', and think that was the moment of the album he earned his one star rating. Something else to complain about lyrically is how many times he says "broad" on this album. It was at least once every song, very annoying. One star. (Favorite track: The Light.)
Before Common helped define a new wave of Conscious Hip Hop moving into the mainstream around the middle of the 2000s, he dropped a criminally underrated and under-appreciated project called Like Water For Chocolate. Despite it now garnering quite a bit of love on online music forums and online Hip Hop circles, I almost never hear this album discussed out in a broad sense with other people like Be is. If I am being honest I wasn't really vibing with this album all the time, especially with how spotty I thought the first half of this project was, but the more time I gave it the more it started to grow on me until an absolutely stellar closing put a nice pretty bow on this project. I don't think it is nearly on the same level as Be, but there are some highlights here that utterly clear anything on Be without a shroud of doubt. The features from the likes of Neo Soul classics like Jill Scott, Bilal, Cee-Lo Green, and of course my favorite of the bunch D'Angelo really help tie the bridge between Soul and Rap into a very stylish blend on Common's part. Like Water For Chocolate may not be the best album in the world, but if you let it enthrall you in a world full of creativity and inspiration, you will walk out moved regardless. Maybe I will give this a relisten down the road but for now I feel pretty happy with where I stand with this project.
Cool
As far as Hip Hop/ Rap albums go I quite enjoyed this, and by that I mean I was able to listen to it all the way through and nod my head along at certain tracks. Did I connect with it enough to listen again, no! But I got through it and it wasn’t half bad for a genre I am not into.
Vibes The light was zeer scheun, de rest ook
I really tried.
I loved Common’s features on so many tracks from the 2005-2015 period but this was a little lukewarm for me. A bit long, although I really enjoyed the last few tracks in particular.
Amazing hip hop album. Love the first song is for fela kuti and amazing afrobeat musician and activist. This might be a new favorite hip hop album. It really feels what he’s lived through. The song about the pimp is really strong too.
Cool, vibe, the song the light sounds really familiar, Erykah Badu has a version, but it gave me general vibes. New school hip-hop.
First time listening to him but I think I might have heard him on other's people songs. The beats are rather nice but the songs are boring in general eeeh 2/5
I’m not entirely sure, but I think this may be the first album that was credited with production by the Soulquarians (as The Soulquarians.). When Questlove and D’Angelo met at the Source awards… the collective was borne. From 97 to 02, the collective had jam sessions in Electric Lady Studios. This resulted in Things Fall Apart, Phrenology, Voodoo, Mama’s Gun, this album, Electric Circus, the first Slum Village, the first two Bilal’s… it was some fertile shit. Questlove, J Dilla, James Poyser and D’Angelo. That’s a hell of a team to have behind your albums. Common was the most positive of the group. I happen to think his best album is One Day It’ll Make Sense…. That album transcended Jazz rap into just Jazz that happened to be rap. I think Things Fall Apart is the best thing the Soulquarians produced, but there’s not a bad album among them with at least two more all time classics in Voodoo and Mama’s Gun - who cares if Electric Circus kind of flopped. Well, the label did since they shelved Bilal’s second album and cut off funding for the whole shebang. This album took me ten or so listens when it first came out - it sounded like it came from outer space, but once it clicked it clicked hard. I miss Dilla, I miss D’Angelo and I miss this collective. I miss Mos Def not being an asshole. I miss this era of hip hop. It has always felt like the golden age died with the end of this Group’s activity. And how about that feature list: Femi Kuti, Bilal, Roy Hargrove, Rahzel, Jill Scott, MC Lyte, Slum Village, D’Angelo…
I think this album has squandered potential. A lot of homophobic and misogynist lyrics that aged poorly, which isn't unexpected for old rap , but this is mostly a conscious rap album so its very paradoxical and contradicting to the entire narrative. The production is quite dated with a lot going on in the background, and the vocals are very muted in the mix. At 77 minutes the album is very bloated.
I was expecting to really love this album because Be is just so good, however I found it really underwhelming. My main issue is with how incredibly cluttered it is, so many spoken interludes, sound effects and background yapping, totally disrupted the flow of the music and distracted me, I don’t even think it added anything to the tracks except annoyance for me. The mixing was also… bad? The vocals sit so low that they get muddled in with the music, which seems ridiculous given lyrics are one of commons strengths. I do think maybe I have just missed the point of this album and it is supposed to be an emotional cultural piece with a lot of ambition, however as a listening experience, it was poor.
This funky jazz hip hop pocket where Common lives is a very cool little cul-de-sac. Incredible opening track and other highlights didn't stop me from getting impatient at the hour-mark.
‘Twas long, ‘twas fine. A record for playing a little too loud while you get your hair cut.
Nothing on Be.
Nice, soulful rap. Some of the lyrics are a bit dated but overall I love Common’s flow. He has a way of being thoughtful and soulful one moment, then tough in the next. The production features some great soul and funk samples too. The tracks blurred together by the end, but I like the style and energy.
Nice album. I like Common and have listened to him more because of this list but I do feel at times that he does a lot of things pretty well, but doesn't really shine in one or a few areas and this ultimately is a knock against the listening experience for me. His voice is nice but also somewhat uncharacteristic. I like his lyrics (and he tends to avoid a lot of rap tropes that I find uninteresting, like "I'm the best", which I appreciate), but I also find that I'm not getting enough out of them. The beats and instruments are.. there? I don't really ever leave a Common song and think "man that beat was so great". Common has a really good "hangout and chill" kind of rap sound. It's nice, but not really what I look for when I want to listen to the genre. Not trying to be too much of a hater but sometimes I think his rap name is pretty apt.
Fav Songs: The Light, The 6th Sense, Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For The World), Geto Heaven Part Two Least Fav: A Film Called (Pimp) 8.9/10
Not usually my thing but definitely broadened my horizons. Love the mix of r&b and African beats
It was good without the singing / talking. Maybe there is a remaster that removes the vocals?
Just perfect. 5/5
Another rap album that I just don't like.
very good
2000s soul, hip hop. Critical breakthrough. Pretty minimalist rap with jazzy beats. Cool enough but MOR.
It was alright.
Very funky and chill to listen to
Solid
I tried, but no.
Amazing story telling and flow, with good beats. Really smooth. 4.5
I feel like I should like this album more than I did. I really didn't connect with the first half at all - it was perfectly fine hip hop, but the album didn't grab my attention until the 2nd half started. Bonus points for the songs all being blended together, nice touch. Perfectly fine overall, just not wholly for me. Top tracks: The 6th Sense, Payback Is A Grandmother, A Song For Assata
There are a lot of strong beats here, and the overall sound is smooth and easy. Musically, it’s consistent and well produced. The trouble comes in the lyrics from song to song—he can go from uplifting and building women up to talking about them like property.
Not a fan of Common rapping. Bit the beats, amazing production.
Unique rap album. Listened as I drove into Chicago. Enjoyed the vibe a ton with great instrumentals, I was not locked in on the lyrics. Enjoyed pretty well
Best Track - "The Light"
Sweetner?
Nice vibes but not totally my scene. Great beats. Have enjoyed the Common albums but not tooo much ya know. Like the random scenes . Bit long and repetitive at times 6 / 10 best track/s: Geto Heaven, Payback is a Grandmother, Time Travelin'
didnt actively listen to the lyrics of this, and some other reviews wrote about some homophobic + misogynistic tones so eh. easy to listen to though, jazzy feel. not a stand out
Four!
A bit bloated, but otherwise solid - the production is great, and Common is a skilled orator. Skits weren't nearly as jarring as some of the other gangsta rap albums on this list.
Not a rap guy per se but I respect good music. This is a pretty decent offering from Common. I like socially conscious music and it seems mot rap is truly that.
This is the second Common album I have listened to this year. I think I prefer this one… it’s got some good tracks on it but as an album it’s too long…. 2.5
On the positives, good delivery, some great backing tracks, and some glimmers of humour, but on the downsides, it just doesn’t stand out that much and covers many of the same preoccupations of hip-hop
Com can definitely flow. Just wish the beats were a bit more on point. Favorite track: The Light
There's a lot of problematic framing in these lyrics. I like the flow, but it outdated itself fast.
I like the backing - mix of soul, funk, jazz, reminds me of Tribe called Quest. The album grew on me with each listen.
One of those albums I'd presumed I'd already heard all the way though... but don't think I actually had. A groovy, jazzy piece of hip hop that sets a mood, even if none of the individual songs really jumped out at me.
Another solid entry from Common. Best when it feels a bit jammy and like a group of talented people riffing (The Questions, Time Travelin'). I admit this might be the cynic in me, but the only thing keeping this from being a 5 is the faint whiff of cheese that seems to hang over everything Common does. I want to like tracks like 'A Song for Assata' and utterly agree with the message within it, but there's something too preachy, self-aware and/or try-hard about it (and a few others) that keeps me from loving the whole album unequivocally.
It’s fine
Comfortable, relaxed positive-vibe hip-hop with nice high points and an endearing charm
It's a rap album, a common rap album
J dilla, questlove help, conscious rap Dooinit The sixth sense A film called pimp
vibe carina verso la fine, abbastanza chill quindi un po’ diverso dal solito
Common has a great voice. I enjoy hearing him speak. I don't enjoy speaking music (rap).
I really don't have much to say about this. Long, straightforward, narrative raps, uninventive, pedestrian backing.
I wanted to give this 4 early on but it's very long and gets boring for a good stretch towards the end. I'm not sure why people are fixating on the homophobia - maybe I missed something, but the lyrics sound relatively mild to me compared to others. It's hardly surprising that a hip hop album from the year 2000 has some objectable lyrics in it.
4/10 Waaaay too long - shows a real level of delusion to think you have so much to say it'll take 80 minutes. Cos Common really doesn't have anything new (to my ears) to say. A rap album elevated slightly by some decent backing music, but lyrically it is tiresome
Decent beats, but generic rapping
Starts okay, goes on way too long.
I had never listened to common before this, and I liked it a lot! Idk, not much more to say besides it was cool
3.5/5
super chill e belle musiche
Not my usual but this was good
First time listening to this and really the first time listening to Common. I like it, has sort of a Black Star or Q Tip feel to it in some ways. It’s not surprise to see Mos Def feat. I was just reading about everyone who contributes to this album and it all makes sense you have some very talented people working on the music. The lyrics themselves aren’t really connecting for me so far. But the soul, jazz, beats, and the music is a great vibe. This album is so long, I don’t know why artists continue to do this. You’re inevitably going to have things on the album that just should have been cut. Trim the fat give me the good stuff. All in all this is enjoyable, solid.
I thought Common was a poor man’s Mase or Puff Daddy protege. But this album makes me feel like he was sort of stuck in the 90’s with his delivery. This isn’t the type of hip hop I like nor can I find much interesting in it. The vocals seem muffled. The bass fails to hit. The samples are really few and far between. I think this is political rap. It’s meant less for selling out and more for a message in a time where that sort of mattered. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m not impressed.
Slow hip hop. I was not so keen.
This is ok. Overall, very mellow and inoffensive (except when gay men are mentioned, then it gets offensive in a different way). Looks like Common has since denounced his homophobic lyrics which is good to see. If I wanted to listen to jazz rap I'd probably go for A Tribe Called Quest or Nujabes but this is fine. 3/5
I prefer hip-hop that’s very fun or very aggressve, whereas this is a bit too laidback and neo-soul influenced for me. Groovy vibes.
Pretty good.
First official Common album of the list. I am familiar with his better known songs from this album, and I really like the album "Be". This one was also nice- some strong entries in The 6th Sense and The Corner. Some I also felt were just average. Overall- good album. 3.5/5
Heard Before? When it came out. I didn't really remember it. Notes: - tight grooves, classic beats. so many fun production details. - fantastic array of guests and features. - common varies his flow just enough to keep things moving and exciting. - lots of dated, prejudiced lyrics that are best ignored. - at the same time, a number of poetic moments and plenty of honest exploration of social issues. even occasional humor. - like virtually every rap album of the time, too much filler, on both the song and album level. Verdict: I'm clearly not the target audience for this style of rap lyrics, but I could listen to these instrumentals all day. Listen Again? Not the whole thing, but I put some tracks on a rap playlist.
Mellow rap beats - very enjoyable
Not my thing but liked some of the more relaxed, jazz-oriented material.
favorite track - the 6th sense
Didn’t listen to the entire thing because I ran out of time but liked the sound
Liked a lot of this. 6th Sense my favourite with its Gang Starr feel - which it would do with DJ Premier involved. Jazz and soul vibes on point mostly and some good collaborations. Point off for the smattering of casual homophobia thrown in and for being a bit long.
Didn't do anything for me
Prefer this to the more Kanye-centric Common album, it's looser and jazzier. The MC Lyte a definate High Lyte.
That was pretty bland rap that hasn’t aged well. Must confess I didnt make it to the hour mark.
This caught me by surprise. I liked Common's Be a lot. This might not be AS good as that one, but still, beautiful grooves, just smooth as butter all around. I don't think it should be an hour and 20 minutes long, but definitely a good time even with this looong runtime. Mid-Low 4
bit homophobic otherwise great
🎧Pretty good rap record, little too long
he's not bad but he should have stayed a rapper Would I listen again: Nah Deserves to be on this list: maybe 3.4
Common tries rapping over anything from Afrobeat to funky disco to gospel-tinged R&B, and is moderately successfully. Musically, it's better than average, but lyrically it's the same tired old shoot.
Okay, okay, I admit it. A good album can indeed be too long.
Good, but not enough to get me to listen to all of it
Yeah, this one's good. Not too surprising I don't think. It's been a hot while since my last time listening to a Common album, as Be was one of the final albums that I got for the project in 2023! Over 2 years have passed since than, and my taste is sure to have changed, right? Well, it has in some senses, but my thoughts on Common remain as positive as ever. Admittedly, I do prefer Be, but Like Water For Chocolate is cool in its own way. When it comes to album collaborators, Be was largely defined by its production courtesy of one Kanye West, but Like Water For Chocolate is seen as a defining release for the Soulquarians, a group of artists who worked together to release some of the most beloved albums of the late 90s and early 2000s. I mean, you've got some absolute legends in here! Questlove, Q-Tip, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, J Dilla, and the star of the show for today's album, Common. Many of the people I just mentioned show up here, and they're all great. J Dilla especially does an excellent job with the production, though I think my favorite beat on the album actually came from DJ Premier for "The 6th Sense." Amazing song. The whole album is just... cool. The production is mostly chill, which I like. Common's rapping is pretty great as well. There's some good wordplay and lyrical themes to appreciate. Common is most-often described as a conscious rapper, and while he may not have been conscious of everything at the time of this album's release, this does lead to the album's writing being more interesting and thought-provoking than other albums of the time. I like it. Somehow, despite the album being nearly 80 minutes long, I actually didn't really feel like the album dragged that much. It helps that there aren't very many skits on this thing at all. Maybe the album could've been a little shorter, but it's not that bad. Overall, Like Water For Chocolate is a cool album. It's got reflective writing, wonderful production, and a strong presence. Good stuff. 4/5.
Common-I really love the instrumental especially the Roy Hargrove parts. Problematic lyrics make it hard for me to enjoy the rest of album and rate higher. Tough to rate
This album is great in so many ways - amazing production, sick grooves, and stacked with si many of my favorite musicians. I just dont think common is great, i think his flow is weak and his lyrics are corny. He always surrounds himself with great talent which is a talent unto itself. I always like everything commong puts out but he’s always my least favorite part of it lol. 4.5
This just didn't do much for me. Decent but uninteresting rap.
Solid 2 from someone who isn't a fan on rap, but there are decent beats in this album. The second star is literally from the beats. Had they been crap, probably half a star.
Common generally doesn't do much for me. The whole conscious rap thing is as much of an act as gangsta rap was at the time, particularly when you’re still pretty homophobic. Overlong, but saved by great production of J Dilla and Questlove. 3⭐️
-this was pretty good!! def didn’t like it nearly as much as Be but i’m glad i got the opportunity to listen to more of Common’s stuff. seems like he had a pretty influential impact on 2000s hip hop -definitely could have been MUCH shorter, it felt extremely long. though i doubt Common fans would agree -Favorites: Time Travelin’ (A Tribute To Fela), The 6th Sense, A Song For Assata
Classic rap album, some nice songs on here but too long for me. Can’t listen to the same sort of beat for that long.
Definitely recommendable for a new town in the genre and spoken poetry, however, lack of musical intonation and explicitness art distracting
Sexist, homophobic, and lazy. This is boring too, and I am sorry I find it incredibly lazy, I can't remember a bar except the f bomb. I don't get it, there are plenty of rap album I love that should be here, this is not even fun.
this was solid but it just dragged on for too long - too much of the same thing over and over
An impressivly groove hip-hop venture into family and tradition. I think I prefered the other Common album "Be" by a landslide though, because it's more melodic.
His album 'Be' was Mythic Rare good. This album is only a mere Common.
8/10 Favorites: Heat The Light The 6th Sense
An American rapper named Common! Who knew...? Anyway, this largely passed me by, probably because musically it didn't really land. Apparently, in places, the lyrics are questionable, although I didn't really pick up on this because I zoned out fairly quickly. Heard before ❌️ Listened this time ✅️ Revisit ❌️ ★★★☆☆ (5/10) Total reviewed : 203 Already owned : 44 Purchased : 8 To buy list : 6 Nope : 145
I gotta be careful here. Between that one review of Be on this site, and the cringest Pitchfork review of all time (which they scrubbed from their website, look it up on the wayback machine), there's something about Common that brings out bad writing. I'll just say, Common's best skill is his ability to find great collaborators. It's hard to mess up the combination of Dilla, Premier, Questlove, and D'Angelo.
Not bad, but what’s with the N Word? Fuck this chump. The beat is there, the spew is ass.
I've never listened to this album (83).
This is just super average hip hop. Beats are fine, but the flow and message feel forced.
Rap/hiphop starts behind the 8-ball with me, because it’s so lyric-dependent and I focus much more on the music. This also was overly long in my opinion which knocks it down a bit more. More of a jazz/soul groove which was nice but pushed it to the background
I forgot about this guy
Man, I really don’t know what happened to Common in the 5 years following between this and his other album on the list, Be, but this album is astronomically different than that one. As terrible as he is now, Be being produced by Kanye likely has everything to do with that, and you’d be foolish to not see or accept that. While still good in its own right, Like Water For Chocolate doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. It’s full of that classic homophobia and misogyny we’ve all come to love out of Hip-Hop, and the songs are all pretty generic to be honest. They’re still good, but they aren’t very memorable. It’s long as hell and doesn’t have many real bangers, although “Payback Is A Grandmother” was my favorite for sampling “The Payback” by James Brown. I love that song. In fact, a good deal of these songs pay tribute to Black icons like Fela Kuti (“Time Travelin' (A Tribute To Fela))” and Thelonious Monk (“Thelonius”), which is pretty cool. Not exactly subtle either with the naming conventions on those two songs, but still cool. I only became familiar with Kuti, his talented family, and Monk because of this project. Getting to understand and listen to the inspirations behind some of these albums ahead of time has been a very rewarding experience I must say. Anyway, while this album is pretty violent and angry at times, Be I would call more grounded, more focused, less angry, and much more accessible to everyone. That being said, I guarantee you can probably find a bunch of people that prefer the more uncut feelings and vibes of Like Water For Chocolate compared to Be, and I would completely understand. While I gave that one a 4, minus one because of the Kanye tax, I’d give this one more of a 3.6. It’s very long, and it’s not tremendously memorable, but Common has such a great and catchy cadence, and I still have to say I don’t think this has a lot of filler, length be damned. Really fun features as well, even if I don’t recognize many of them. I have to confess something to you. Be was my 3rd most listened to album of 2025, and this project is entirely to blame/thank for that. While I largely prefer Be, I still thoroughly enjoyed listening to this one, even if it isn’t as focused. Common is absolutely on my radar now, and I vibe with his music pretty heavily.
To me, there were better albums. The Light is a classic.
really not my thing
Banging!
i enjoyed this actually i really liked common’s rapping style and the themes in especially a song for assata were super interesting. reminding me to brush up on my black american communist history actually. but probably not something i’d keep going back to.
Great beats with socially conscious lyrics, can see how it influenced subsequent releases like TPAB, not as tight as his later album Be
I think The Soulaquarians are probably the most important group of musicians of the 90s and 00s, this is so good
Didn’t resonate with me unfortunately. I can tell the it’s talent here though.
I wish more of the album had been like A Song For Assata.
5/10
Until this moment I've never heard of the bloke, apparently an American rapper. I'll listen to a couple of tracks but I'm guessing it's not for me really....... Nope!
Never heard of this album or artist. Well, here goes... Ugh, it's rap, spoken word mostly it seems. Very little to speak of musically. I have to admit I did not pay attention to the lyrics that much. Overall, I found it very boring. I skipped through most of the songs after 30 secs or so. Parts of "The 6th Sense" were tolerable. Going to give it my first 1 star rating out of the 7 I've listened to so far.
Overly long, but they guy has some great storytelling
I really enjoy Common’s flow, and the beats on this album are great. I didn’t connect to every song, but I enjoyed just letting the tracks happen.
Overall vibe is alright but doesn’t compare to his contemporaries (D’Angelo, Nas, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, etc.)
I'm not much of a rap guy. I find that they talk about things I struggle to relate to from my privileged position in life. I have to appreciate then as an outsider. As an outsider I have to say that this album has a really solid vibe to it even if it is a little long
Oh yeah. I think I had a Napster edition of this back in the day. Very nice. I think Common is very tall, good for him.
This album sounds great. The beats are warm, textured, and alive in that Soulquarians way, with grooves and samples that immediately pull me in. From a production standpoint, there’s a lot here to admire. It feels organic, human, and carefully crafted without being slick. Where it loses me is the rapping itself. I can tell the lyrics matter, and I respect the intent, but the delivery often fades into the background for me rather than cutting through it. The flow feels steady to the point of monotony, and while there are some solid hooks, the vocal presence doesn’t grab me the way the music underneath it does. This feels like an album made very much for a specific audience, and I’m not quite in the center of that circle. I appreciate the sound and the vibe more than the core performance. It’s good, sometimes very good, but it doesn’t fully connect with me. A three-star record for me: strong atmosphere and production, admirable in purpose, but the rapping itself is the least compelling element of the experience.
Easily the best hip hop artist I’ve had in this list. Another great album.
Phenomenal album. Common is such a gifted storyteller, production is stellar as well
Ahh the era of overstuffed records. This is like at least 30 minutes too long. Common is fine and the beats are fine. But this is just soooooooo long.
I am afraid I will never get hip hop, so I was not really impressed by this album but I didn't dislike its jazzy atmosphere...
Not my taste
Definitely not bad, but nothing remarkable.
I liked this one. Better than a lot of the other hip hop albums I'd been fed recently. Good vibe, good grooves. I'd come back to this.
Garbage
6/10 first listen but i will say i didn’t have meaningful listen. there’s some bops and cool songs tho
I like the production/music better than Be, and the rapping/rhymes less. Gotta love the Fela/Tony Allen afrobeat shoutouts. Soulquarian shit. The real band providing the beats is always cool.
Calm listen. Enjoyed it.
Ne, ...
No.
Glad I've finally heard this, I had it on the list when I got into this specific time and era of Neo-Soul stuff, as I'm pretty sure this album was being made at the same time as all falls down by the roots and mamas gun by Erykah Badu, and maybe also Voodoo by D'Angelo (rip btw) and I think they were being made in the same studio (or at least very nearby), which is something that's not really happened ever, where such a wealth of material comes out in such a short time. A lot of these beats are J Dilla I think, and they are AMAZING, love the loose percussion and sample choices. He's a great rapper obviously and very socially conscious, in the same way that people like Black Thought also were. I do feel like its too long, I think some of the Roots albums also have this problem, but there's good quality the whole way through, and it doesn't feel like there's loads of filler. Features are good, both rapping and guest singers. Favourite songs: time travelin' (a tribute to Fela), cold blooded, dooinit, the light, funky for you, the 6th sense, Nag Champa (Afrodisiac for the world, Thelonius, payback is a Grandmother, geto heaven part two, a song for Assata. Overall around 8/10 (feels close to 9)
Started off okay but I liked it by the end.
This is my first time listening to a Common album start to finish. The production on this is top notch. There are a couple moments where the lyrics are a bit homophobic, but it's nice to hear that Common himself is displeased with that. This is a solid album.
Too moderate
One hell of an album. These beats are just so good. Solid 5 Stars.
I’m at a 5. It is a long album. That’s basically the only knock I have on it; there might be a few things that could be trimmed around the edges to flow a little more smoothly (personally, I might’ve cut “Heat” & “Thelonius”), but overall, I think this album makes the most of its 78 minutes to say everything it needs to say & more, behind some of the very best rap production of the late ‘90s / early 2000s I think I’ve heard. J. Dilla was in his fucking bag & earned his fucking bag on this one, man. There are some all-timer beats here, and Common flows on them wonderfully. OK, well, there is ONE other knock; for as socially conscious as Common generally comes across on this album, & for as much as he gives his love to the ladies (especially on something as wonderful as “The Light”), even he’s not immune to being a little too horny at times, a little misogynistic in how often he’s still using “broad”, “ho” & “bitch”, and pretty blatantly homophobic a few times. He’s gotten far better about it since, and the rampant homophobia of the era is prevalent across all of rap, so I’m not holding it against him too much. However, it is just a sudden surprise when practically everything else about this album holds up to modern standards 25 years later. It’s really hard to go track by track here, but my biggest standouts are “The Light”, “Funky for You”, “The 6th Sense”, “Geto Heaven Part Two” & “A Song for Assata”. The last of those, in particular, just captivated me deeply; Common is a great storyteller when he needs to be, and I think he captured everything about Assata’s story well. Assata Shakur (yes, loosely related) just passed away in September, and I’m sad we didn’t get this album before then. I might have some further reading to do. Ultimately, it’s an album that needs to be heard to really capture how good it is; eclectic soundscapes across the board, lots of great lines (& a few obviously bad ones), stellar production, smooth flow, and an all-star cast of features & contributors, all led by Common. I do think “Be” is still the easier casual listen, but this is probably a better overall album for my tastes & sensibilities (and it’s Kanye-free, which is a bonus nowadays). It’s a very easy 5 for me, though I can see the floor being a 3 if this thing’s length & occasional flaws just feels like too much of a burden.
I just do not like this genre much, so I don’t think it is particularly fair for me to rate it. But I am anal enough that it is hard for me to skip an album. Records that I don’t like but that I feel still have some value, get two stars from me, so there you have it. I did like Common on Hell On Wheels, however, so there’s that.
I liked it but too many times women got called bitches
Gear: HEDD Audio HEDDphone Two Artwork: ️🏪📸✳️ Production: 🎧😘🤌 Music: 🎛️📣😬 Rating: 🍫🍫(🍫)/5
Common is so underrated. A bit too much homophobia for my liking in a couple of the tracks but eh, it's a product of its time. We learned and got better.
A few good songs in the middle but I definitely preferred his other album
I guess it’s fine for those who like this genre. I’m not into hip hop and rap, so I get bored and loose interest pretty quickly.
Rap is not my thing. While I appreciate the skill and heartfelt lyrics, I'm clearly not the audience for this. So, I won't comment on that. What I did enjoy here is the super smooth, jazzy funk music bed. Class musicians for sure. That part was enjoyable. The weakness for me is (as with most albums recorded in the CD era) it's too long. Overall album length plus the nonstop explicit rap lyrics, I won't be coming back to this.
I just don't get rap.
164/1001 Common - Like Water For Chocolate Heard before? ❎ Revisit? ❎ There are undoubtedly some good lines in here, along with some interesting jazz influences, but feel too few and far between. Over the course of an hour and twenty, it's just far too long to sustain my interest.
3 - BAD
erm... its ok 3/5
Understandable lyrics, great grooves. Appreciate this as a great example of the art and style. If this is not your thing, it still deserves a listen
Not too bad so far. A 4.
Great, smooth hip hop, marred by a bloated album length and incredibly dated lyrics.
Sits in between the conscious rap and gangster rap both in themes and sound. A strong first half is diluted by songs that serve as skits rather than full fledged songs on the second half. Could have done with a trim.
I don’t know much about Common, but this sounds dated today and I think it would have sounded dated back in 2000. Groovy but I never really grooved with it.
Honestly liked this more than I expected. The beats and samples were really good - jazzy, engaging. Too long overall, probably, but didn't mind vibing with it today. Was torn between a 3 and a 4 - let's say 3.5, eh?
Beautiful album, really appreciate Common's ability to harmonize rougher narriatives into beautiful anthems of strength.
You can definitely tell this is before his Kanye influence still pretty good common is just kind of boring
Common has a good flow and decent writing, but this one aged quite poorly as many from this era have. Love the beats and production though, really vibey.
Ok
Some good sounds but a bit over long
enjoyed it, but dragged a bit.
Recognised a fair amount, enjoyed it but potentially marked down because of the flu factor
It was finally time for hip-hop again — and not the old-school variety I’ve mostly encountered so far, but something more modern, more expansive. And to be fair right away: my usual complaint doesn’t apply here. This album actually contains music. Real instruments, real musicians. Pino Palladino turns up on bass — a man whose résumé borders on the absurd — and several tracks feature proper drummers. Sonically, there’s ambition and breadth. And yet my appreciation remains limited, for one very obvious reason: this album is far too long. At 83 minutes (including a remake), it demands an almost supernatural level of inspiration to justify its own existence. Even Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, created by Billy Corgan at his creative peak, doesn’t fully manage that trick. Common certainly doesn’t. The result is exhaustion. The length flattens everything. Very little stands out because everything just keeps coming. If forced, I’d single out “A Song for Assata” as a genuine highlight, along with the remake of “Geto Heaven.” The big hit, “The Light,” I actively dislike — the R&B crooning smothers the track and drains it of urgency. Elsewhere, there’s heavy borrowing from George Clinton’s Parliament-era funk, which is hardly a bad lineage. Tracks like “A Film Called (Pimp)” and “Cold Blooded” wear that influence openly, even sampling Parliament directly. But influence and ambition aren’t enough. After three and a half listens, the album becomes a kind of sonic slurry — talented, well-intentioned, but ultimately overwhelming and shapeless. That’s the real disappointment: there is talent here, clearly so. It’s just buried under sheer excess. This could have been a much better album at 45 minutes. At 83, it’s simply too much of itself.
DNF. Meh.
His fourth album. Hip Hop / Soul. Smooth, soulful, jazzy vibes. It's a pretty chilled sound throughout. The production is crisp. Lyrically a little up and down but overall a decent album.
70
Common is a good rapper. Great vibes and times. This album in particular has great tunes, but should it be that long? I could not identify a solid thread that would justify the song list… well, few songs went to my playlist, for sure!
Ompahan taas paska
Tää oli huomattavasti parempaa räpäytystä mitä eilinen. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Taas commonilta hyvää sämpläystä ja räppiä. Ihan mielellään kuuntelin!
Good mix of old school and new school sounds. Easy listen
Solid album. I liked his voice, the flow was effortless, beats were catchy. He used some voice modulation I've never heard before. A good time
Day689 - a swing and a miss
Real good soulquarian rythmns and rhymes. I'm still learning about common, the other album on this list I liked a bit more. But this was interesting enough to hear what this transition period in 2000 may have sounded like. I hear inspo for big boy and andre 3000 within this album too. East coast for life.
Solid album, entirely too long though. I thought Be was better.
I should like this more based on my previous reviews of rap albums with a jazzy backbeat but this one didn’t hit for me.
A nothing burger.
Some good stuff but didn't love it.
Hard to get past a major prejudice with this one: the one thing I know for sure about Common is that Barack Obama is a big fan. I think if an artist exists in a subversive genre, and the president of the united states likes their art, that artist is doing something wrong. That aside, I liked this alright. Cool jazzy stuff, love a Femi Kuti appearance. A 2.5 but I have decided to round it down due to the President thing.
A very well done conscious hip hop album. The beats are top notch and Common’s style fits the vibe. The homophobic stuff is strange, and seems out of place . “The 6th Sense” is a great song. 3.5/5 Might listen again
Common is a great lyricist/poet but I find most of his music forgettable
Fine I guess? Nothing was overtly awful. But there were moments where I forgot I was even listening to a song. 3/5
1 - Rap - Hip Hop de mierda
In a determined effort to appreciate the finer points of hip-hop I somehow struggled past Dooinit to reach The Light, which I found myself able to treat with something approaching respect. But then, sadly, I dissolved into a puddle.
Cool vibe if you don't listen to the lyrics. Otherwise uncool.
Top 3: 1. Funky For You 2. Time Travelin' (A Tribue to Fela) 3. The Light Boombap clássico e muito agradável de se ouvir. O álbum tem seus destaques, mas depois da terceira música, parece que tô ouvindo a mesma música por 1h30 seguida.
Något som inte funkar helt för mig med beatsen här, känns lite styltigt liksom. Svag trea
Tvekar lite mellan att tycka det är lagom najs eller tråkigt, men det är för långt o ibland ba oskön vibe, eller så fattar jag bara inte grejen.
Åååh, påminder mig om mina favorit låtar på modern tid jag lyssnar på
Han den coola från Silo! Inte dåligt men hann definitivt tröttna inom dessa nästan 80 minuter.
Day 14. Best tracks: Time Travelin’ (A Tribute To Fela), A Song For Assata. … 6/10. Does it belong on the list? Maybe. There was a lot of really good hip-hop in this era, and Common's "Be" is already on the list and is a better album from him.
wow just wow was never a big fan of Common because in my country they didnt give him airplay. This is an amazing album. Really good order and structured. Simply a great album
5/10
Conscious. Great production, good variety, some surprises. Enjoyable for such a long recording. Because I'm not a hip-hop fan I can't judge this against anything else in the genre, but I really liked the Jazz through-line which brought some uniqueness to a genre that sometimes overstays its welcome.
I appreciate Common's unique Chi town style and flow. He is incredible in finding success through music and acting. This album is not my favorite. Instead I love Finding Forever start to finish.
It is a little long as others have said, but it's a great album with some good content. Nice beats, jazz fusion, challenging themes and mostly decent rapping. It's old skool with a twist. I quite like it.
Top track: Geto Heaven Part Two
Cool Common
Inoffensive.
Nice background music
More than 100 days late listening to this album but I got around to it eventually. It's great but I think making this album the full length of a CD did more harm than good. A lot of the songs run a little long and there are a few songs I wouldn't keep on the album. Past that, a lot of the songs are great. All of the little tributes and nods to historical stuff like jazz artists and movies were really nice and Common always has a really uplifting feeling to his music. The features make a lot of this album for me, like Femi Kuti in the opener or Slum Village showing up on Thelonius. A Song For Assata and is an incredible heavy-hitter at the end of the album. Reading about her lead me to find out she died recently. For anyone that doesn't know who she is, it's very important to learn about her. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assata_Shakur
Not my usual fare in terms of genre. The production and jazz elements were nice but there were some elements I just had a really difficult time getting into.
The slight jazz influence is nice, and many of the beats and samplings are excellent, but I'm not at all a fan of most of the lyrical content.
Common to me is a rapper who flirts with corniness but the production and guest appearances more than make up for it!
Schlechter Stil, schlechtes Album und ganz schlechte Musik. Rappen wie ein Pickel am Anus.
Enjoy the vibe more than the album. Definitely do not miss the skit centered era of hip-hop, and most certainly do not miss the overt homophobia. 2.5/5
Like Water for Chocolate — четвёртый студийный альбом американского рэпера Common, выпущенный 28 марта 2000 года на лейбле MCA Records. Это был первый альбом Common на крупном лейбле, который стал прорывом как в коммерческом, так и в критическом плане. Он получил широкое признание в крупных музыкальных изданиях и разошелся тиражом в 70 000 копий за первую неделю. 11 августа 2000 года Американская ассоциация звукозаписывающих компаний присвоила альбому статус золотого. По данным Nielsen SoundScan, к марту 2005 года было продано 748 000 копий альбома. Альбом также официально ознаменовал появление Soulquarians — коллектива, в который вошли Questlove (из The Roots), Джей Дилла (бывший участник Slum Village), клавишник Джеймс Пойзер, соул-исполнитель D'Angelo и басист Пино Палладино, а также множество других музыкантов. Эта группа также приняла участие в записи следующего альбома Common, Electric Circus. На обложке альбома 1956 Alabama Гордона Паркса, изображена молодая чернокожая женщина в Алабаме, которая пьет из фонтана с надписью «Только для цветных». Название «Как вода для шоколада» происходит от названия романа Лауры Эскивель 1989 года, по которому в 1992 году был снят одноименный фильм. Фраза «Как вода для шоколада» имеет испанское происхождение. Во многих странах Латинской Америки горячий шоколад готовят на воде, а не на молоке. Эта фраза относится к человеку, который достиг точки кипения, как вода, из которой можно приготовить шоколад. В интервью Combustible the Poet Коммон сравнил страсть главной героини Титы де ла Гарса к еде со своей страстью к музыке.
𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 is a solid, well-produced conscious hip-hop record, but I don’t quite understand the massive praise surrounding it. Common’s flow is smooth and the production (especially courtesy of J Dilla) gives the album a warm, organic sound — yet it often feels too polished and predictable for its own good. It’s thoughtful, yes, but rarely surprising. A good record, just not the revelation it’s often made out to be.
He's good but this isn't my music
Better than the usual wannabe gangster shit from Wu-Tang but having said that I’m never going to play this again.
Some good jazzy beats but nearly nothing memorable about this album at all.
Fine
Can't say I needed this.
This was ok, but I struggled to form any kind of connection with it. It's quite long, and the chorus of almost every song consists of the song title repeated a bunch of times like a pokemon saying its name. Yer man has a nice voice though. Since watching Silo I can't hear it without thinking of Robert Sims, which makes it a bit harder to take the rapping seriously
Not great. But not as bad as the usual US gangster rap stuff I've listened to. The usual mysogyny and racism of course. I didn't notice the length of it as I was working - so maybe I was only half listening? Lucky for Common perhaps.
Too long. Some misogyny and homophobia which is pretty “common” in rap (see what I did there?) so not surprising. I don’t see myself listening to this again.
The Light
It's fine, but another one of those artists where you go "Grand - what, they have MORE THAN ONE ALBUM on this list? Why?!"
Ålreit å høre på. Blir litt lange og like låter, men viben er fet. Klink 3'er
mm not my thing
8,6/10
Less corny than some other Common stuff I've heard. A few really strong tracks on this.
Listen, I love Hip Hop, but Common is not a good rapper
Started of it sounds dated and a lot of the N word and homophobic references which seem a little wrong in the year 2000. I mean Eminem may have said them in the 90s playing the Slim Shady Characters but no excuse here. Then the later songs it got better and old school vibe well delivered and great rapping especially when the woman came in they helped well. Not bad nice break from guitar riffs
I tried. I really did. Why do they have to be SO LOOOOOONNNNGGGG 🥱
I liked this but it brought up an interesting internal question for me: what makes a rap album good? I was around in the 80s, when rap rose to mainstream, so I can put older stuff into historical context. But since 2000, I feel like other than vibes, I couldn’t tell you why this album is any better than Lil Snotzy or some other made up rapper that I’ve barely heard of. I’m old. And white.
Not quite to the same tier of excellence that Be is. The production here is still great. Common does his poetry thing. Favorite songs were Cold Blooded, The Light, and Geto Heaven Part Two.
This is my favorite Common album. It's a full course meal of hip hop, full of amazing beats and samples, socially conscious and philosophical and self-reflective lyrics, positivity mixed with dark realism, etc. Is it too ambitious though? Sometimes Common does seem up his own ass, maybe trying too hard. But the production throughout is outstanding-- shout out to J Dilla. I love the samples from funk and Afrobeat, like Fela Kuti and Parliament and James Brown. It all lends a certain organic chaos and movement. This is all balanced by the spoken-word tracks and parts which come back down and command your attention.
The last few songs were decent. Rest of the album doesn’t really hit. I also wanna take this time to apologize to The Refugess for ranking The Score a 2. Should have been a 3 for sure.
Tribe vibes. I like
I love the production on this record but I do find Common really corny at points. There are a few serious bangers but also a fair number of skips for me. Have def heard it a fair bit over the years but not in a while. I’m gonna give it another listen in the next few days and see if it grows on me more.
When I was younger I loved this album but listening to it now, it does grab me the same way. There’s maybe 3 tracks I love but it does not stand the test of time in my opinion.
I generally enjoy all the Soulquarians records. Dilla shines on this, but more than the others, this record feels like it’s made for a certain kind of person with a certain kind of life experience I don’t have. The Preemo track goes.
I tried again. The fact remains that hip hop is not music. 1/5
I listened to this split between my bad car stereo and then my headphones for the later tracks. The tracks are all pretty listenable there isn't anything that is just difficult to get through. I don't think it treads on any new ground as far as hip hop it's just a competent production of the hip hop of the time.
Just ok
Rap caviar. Some good writing but a lot of it stated to sound the same after Al while.
Mediocre
I could see myself liking this if I listened to it more.
This album surprised me. Is this east coast? I haven't had time to research like I've wanted. Whatever this is, I like it. Very R&B rooted with great flow and lyrics on top. A lot of fun.
I'm not really into this type of hip hop. I prefer the 80s/early 90s hip hop that was more energetic and used really clever samples. This isn't that. I liked the Fela Kuti tribute, and I feel there are some pretty hefty subjects being tackled here, but I just just couldn't get into it at all.
I really struggled through this one. Elias said that maybe I can't really get into rhythmic music as often and I think he's right. But also, what in the world is that grating effect they put over Common's voice in 50% of the songs on here? Surely this album did not need to be so long, either. I will say I found myself nodding along at some points, so I'll throw in a star for that. But mostly I felt like nodding off.
Now that is some socially conscious rap. Wow, that's also a long album. I immediately saw the runtime and thought about those long 90's albums, where they really tried to fill up the whole CD. About half way through this, I was thinking that it may live up to the runtime, but by the end, I was back to thinking that it couldve used some editing. Production and beats were incredibly, unsurprisingly given that J.Dilla and Questlove were behind them. A good amount of questionable "feminism" and lots of homophobia. It was a different time. Ultimately, its a good listen, production is great and certain tracks are classics. However, as an album, its a bit too long, and I dont think it fully holds up in the way that the BlackStar album, or D'Angelo albums do.
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Zvjezdica viška za Assatu, baš mi ovo dođe kad smo je izgubili neki dan. Inače je ovo neuporedivo gori Common album s liste, nije prošlo 5 pjesama a već sam pomalo gledala ima li kraja. Tekstovi u fazonu "ja sam bolji čovjek od svih drugih repera", pjesme gdje je jedini "instrument" kao škripa ploče, tako to, ali je on opet najbolji primjerak svog žanra općenito jer ima nečeg drugačijeg.