Like Water For Chocolate

begon goed... toen trok Common zijn bek open en de sfeer has left the building...

As stated last time when an album by Common came up, not a huge fan of rap and urban music but he is skilled with the lyrics and his sound is good.

Don't think I'm a fan. It's the kind of rap picked to be played at vegan cafe's. And don't get me wrong, I don't hate vegan cafe's, and I don't hate this, but at the same time, there are plenty of other places I'd rather go.

Actually, not bad

Having listened to 'Be' before, I had this one as a pending listen on my bucket list. It was probably not the greatest day for me to indulge in this album, and while overall my appreciation has been high, I cannot say that I got into it at all. Will definitely need to revisit this later on. 7/10 [REVISIT]

I'm generally gonna like anything described as progressive whatever genre. I had no idea Common was going to show up on this list. I had no idea he made progressive rap. This is really cool. I loved the instrumentals and he's got a lot of great features on here like Bilal, D'Angelo, and Jill Scott. The frequency of the N word and the use of other slurs was distracting for me, but musically this is so cool.

I appreciate the message in a lot of the tracks here, just wish it had some catchier beats and flow to go with it.

Pretty cool music.

1. Time Travelin' (A Tribute To Fela) - 6/10 2. Heat - 5/10 3. Cold Blooded - 7/10 4. Dooinit - 5/10 5. The Light - 7/10 6. Funky For You - 8/10 7. The Questions - 5/10 8. Time Travelin' Reprise - 5/10 9. The 6th Sense - 7/10 10. A Film Called (PIMP) - 5/10 11. Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For The World) - 5/10 12. Thelonius - 5/10 13. Payback Is A Grandmother - 4/10 14. Geto Heaven Part Two - 6/10 15. A Song For Assata - 7/10 16. Pops Rap lll....All My Children - 6/10 OVERALL - 5.8/10

Does this guy really deserve two albums? The last one wasn't great and is only notable on this site for the math guy's review and responses. Anyway, this is a solid rap album with many soul influences. It's not the best rap album technically or lyrically, but it's better than many of its predecessors and contemporaries. The beats are probably the album's strongest part, and even then they're not exactly great. This is a pretty good album, but it's not really list-worthy and not as a second album from the artist.

Gangsters things

Hip hop is not normally my thing but a lot of this had genuine groove and something to say. The rest, well it hit some of the tropes I don’t like but then immediately disagreed with itself. It’s again too long but that’s normal for its time.

Day 75 This is an S-tier album cover but the content itself is a hit or miss. Dilla and Common did not work that well for most of the first half but things picked up around 6th Sense which happens to be my favourite. Not bad but Ye clearly gave this man a defined sound Fav track: The 6th Sense

I want to like Common more than I actually do. He seems cool. Seems smart. Is handsome and has great style. He includes good instrumentals into his music. But his rapping is like a bad version of mid/late 80’s rap when it was first going kind of mainstream. It’s not good.

This seems like a good representation of rap at the time, for better or worse. There's some real dated rap tropes in here like when he says "C to the O to the..." and lots of weird repetitive stuff that acts like a chorus. The Questions kinda pissed me off. The beats are really cool throughout though. There's definitely some jazz influence. I feel like the album should just start at The 6th Sense.

consistent pretty good conscious rap with a couple moments of real good. there's a lot of very solid features. like 3 separate points where i couldve sworn the album ended and it didn't. favorite song is The 6th Sense or Payback Is A Grandmother. strong 3

Um what is this? Listening to tis album has given me far more questions about it than answers. It feels avant garde even in 2026. I'm so curious as to if the underlying beat is made up of samples or recorded for this album. And like the transitions between sections are so smooth but they remind me of like dj transitions. Does this album count as rap? Surely it does. Were other rappers doing this sort of music in 2000? Like who are commons contemporaries? I feel like Childish Gambino was a fan of Common, as there feels like musical cross over to me and if that's the case it's no wonder I like this album.

Really not for me

Released in 2000 on my birthday (I turned 4), Like Water For Chocolate is another notch in Common's flawed but classic catalogue. The production on this thing is fucking elite: mostly Dilla, Preemo, The Roots, D'Angelo, it really is almost unfair. W/ that cast, it's guaranteed that it's gonna SOUND good. But Common the lyricist is also very much on his game, combining the conscious w/ the hardcore as the Chicago rapper at his best is wont to do. 'My train of thought is that of a hustler or a nigga w/ his shirt off / Tryin' to get his work off to customers / I rap w/ a chip on my shoulder.' Boasting one of the more underrated voices in rap history, Common commands both introspection & extroversion. W/ Resurrection, this is his must-have. Dope.

Понравилось

Meh

This is good rap, good hip-hop, which for me is a two - really enjoy Common as an actor, but this is so not my genre.

Rap is not my genre. It sounds very samey to me no matter the artist or year of release. Didn't offend me too badly though but not my music.

Uninteresting backing, irritating record-scratch effects from the 90s, lots of off-beat rapping that lacked flow, and plenty of homophobia and misogyny to boot. You'd think that as a genre largely coming from marginalised communities (and with album art here that shows this exact marginalisation), there would be a level of awareness about the hypocrisy of the lyrical content here... but no. Nothing "conscious" about this style.

It's not as bad as some over rap content on here but homophobia in this album sucks

Lots of slow jams on this. I vibes, but it's not my usual

It probably has very good and insightful lyrics which are lost on me as usual but I'll check it out again later on and see.

I was going to give this a 4 but unfortunately it was just too long. I think it could be cut down to be more concise, but I did really enjoy the jazz within this.

Common is one of those rappers that I could never really quite wrap my head around. He’s not quite underground, but not quite mainstream. He makes quality music, but some of it is better than others. This album is really good and I like it more compared to “Be”. However, I’ve been struggling to understand what makes this record special. Why is it included in the 1001 albums you have to hear before you die? Maybe it’s the fact that during this era of hip-hop, rap was very much still all about the gangsta culture. Guns, money, and bitches were the themes of a lot of the music in that era. They still are to an extent, but much more so then. This was one of the more popular albums to be different. Common still wraps about the struggles and plate of the black community, which of course includes the gangsta culture, but it’s also about other things and it definitely has a more positive spin. What I mean by that is it doesn’t necessarily glorify the violence and the drug dealing, it talks about escaping a lot of that. Common has always been deeper than much of the mainstream. I put him in the same category as Talib Kweli and Mos Def. Slightly more mainstream, but different enough to stand out.

hmm ouais c'est meh. J'avais vrm aimé son album avec Kanye mais ça je trouve ça mid de zinzin et surtout c'est loooooong. Il y a quand même des sons qui m'ont bien fait kiffer mais l'ensemble est super oubliable

Common is so up his own ass. I wish his music was interesting enough to justify that but it isn't.

Well this was a better effort compared to his attempts at acting.

Good hip hop

Nice rap, preferred the production on "Be"

Entertaining album with a diversity of music subjects with lots of guests. Good rhythms n beats with lyrical intellect.

uggggggggggggh

a great hang

It’s a fine album… but did it have to be so long? Generally I liked the songs and how they incorporated influences from different genres - but, again, I had to listen to this in chunks throughout the day.

I enjoyed the fusion of jazz, rap, spoken word, instrumental…creative evolution into sub-genre - zination?

Wasn't bad but all of the songs dragged on too long.

I quite enjoyed.

Só conheço Common por conta do seu fantástico disco “Be”, sendo que só conheço este tal por conta da produção maravilhosa de Kanye West. Mas por conta daquele disco, eu comecei a ouvir esse com uma certa expectativa até que alta. 1 hora de duração já me assustou, mas decidi deixar isso de lado e pular de cabeça aqui. Infelizmente, achei bem pedestre. Batidas ok, mas nada super interessante. Versos ok, mas nada super engajante. A voz de Common é basicamente pão de forma. Agradável, legal, ok, saboroso até, mas nada notável. O resultado final é um disco morno, que não causa reação forte para nenhum lado. Rapidamente se torna som ambiente, ainda mais com sua hora inteira de duração. 2/5

Hyväääää! En kunnolla kerennyt mutta tykkäsin!

Honestly quite enjoyed this. This is the kind of rap I enjoy, more chill. Idk how to describe it. No explicit takeaways, but firmly a 3.5 for me, was nice to listen to.

J Dilla was a wizard. Common is already a great rapper but so many of these songs are elevated by some of the sweetest beats I’ve heard from this era of hip hop. I see the vision, and even if some of the lyrics haven’t aged the best since 2000, the songs are still slapping.

Feels like I never listened to anything. It just didn’t stick.

Crap

nice

Listened to this in the background while working and was surprised how much I enjoyed having it as my workday soundtrack

Del montón

Much better than expected

445/1089 it would seem that even “conscious” hip hop doesn’t mind a little homophobia and misogyny… i’m quite torn on this one, musically it had some good points but lyrically it didn’t resonate. eg i liked 6th sense but even then i get to the end and there’s the implied DV faves: the 6th sense, geto heaven part two, a song for assata, pops rap III 50/100

I was surprised by the earlier Common entry in this series, so I was very curious to hear this album when it popped up. At the end of the day it's all just perfectly fine. Standard rhymes, solid production from Questlove and JDilla, but the record can never seem to get out of this slow-rolling second gear, and at 70 minutes it's quite bloated and in need of an editor.

I was not previously familiar with the artist or album. I typically don't like hip-hop/rap albums, but this one was one of the better ones I've heard. The instrumentation and beats are good and the vocals are smooth, not screaming and shouting like others I've heard in this genre. I doubt I would come back to this but I wouldn't mind hearing it again.

Great album, it is musically very rich, it has a little bit of everything, and raps are cool, very well formed and bars are great.

really good grooves, especially on Ghetto Heaven, great flow in the raps

vraiment pas bon

supremely chill

Time travelin' (a tribute to fela) - 3 Heat - 3 Cold blooded - 3 Dooinit - 4 The light - 4 Funky for you - 3 The questions - 4 Time tavelin' (reprise) - 3 The 6th sense - 3 A film called (pimp) - 3 Nag champa (afrodisiac for the world) - 3 Thelonius - 3 Payback is a grandmother - 4 Geto heaven part two - 3 A song for assata - 3 Pops rap iii...all my children - 3

Really nice album to listen to and probably never think about again.

It's fine. I'm not super crazy about J Dilla's production here, just occasionally a beat and a bassline with some samples that don't really wedge themselves in particularly well, and Common is expressive but his vocal range isn't terribly vast and it kind of takes on a droning quality the more I listened to him. Like most of the Soulquarians albums I've heard, it feels more tame than it should be, more concerned with the message than the delivery.

Warm, soulful hip-hop with the Roots and Questlove fingerprints all over it. “Nag Champa” was a favorite. Accidentally listened on shuffle, so I enjoyed the chocolate; unclear whether I finished the box.

Chill jazzy Hip Hop

Just not my thing

flow incrível, bons samples e referências. algumas letras tem mensagens duvidosas, outras, mensagens mais fortes.

I did not care for this.

Unfortunately, a very unremarkable and forgetful hiphop album, from a very interesting artist who is capable of making much better music. 2/5

I used to dig this one back in the day 4 stars, brother

Listened to this today on the way to the mountains. I really enjoyed it. I’ve never listened to a Common album before.

Рядовой рэппер с унылыми битами

As a fan of D’Angelo and Questlove collabs, this seems like a blind spot for me. Soulful, jazzy, funky conscious rap. An enjoyable listen even with a long run time

I feel ambivalent towards common just because he did those commercials for AI telling people to become engineers or tech people so he could rap on Mars or whatever that was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liNemQ30Kog Okay weird reference/meme aside. he is undoubtably an amazing rapper with great production. He is the person who could provide this inspiration sincerely but stick to the art dont hawk your AI wares at us.

Amazing production, feels like it runs a little long and sometimes dips into cliches, but man when Common really gets in a groove this is amazing

Weak, unfunky g-funk with a slight sprinkling of homophobia. No thanks.

2 over an hour 2000s Hip Hop albums in a row?? That's just cruel. I preferred Be much more to this one, mostly because it is not so damn long. I might have liked this a bit more if I didn't get something similar yesterday, but yeah still not a big Hip Hop fan. ⭐️⭐️

I know who Common is, was aware that he was a rapper, but only really knew about him from movies I saw him in. Never actually heard his music before. Loved the political lyrics and Chicago Blues sampling. Such a great sound you don't really hear anymore.

Gotta revisit this when I’m in the mood for something more chill in tone. Had never heard Common before & this isn’t really what I was expecting

Should have had a song called Common Chameleon

This is one of the most boring hip hop or rap album I've ever heard. It's a lot like going to meet your all time favorite musican to do laundry at the Laundromat. It's cool & all but you're just doing laundry. It's boring.

Great warm beats. The jazzy playing and the rapping fit together really naturally.

I like water I like chocolate I don't like Common.

Perfectly highlights my major hip hop complaint- the sound on each individual song is awesome, but the repetitiveness over the course of the song just isn’t my thing. Especially in a 90 minute album. The Questions is hilarious though

The album is too long and no one would mistake Common for the world's greatest rapper, but the backing tracks are fantastic. (3.5)

Kinda funky and smooth. Liked it better than the other Common album but it was still far too long and lacked any real variety or interesting production beyond the standard turn of the century RnB/hip-hop fare.

Well this was pretty uneventful.

Another very strong album from Common. Like his other album it had passed me by on release, probably because it was during the period where my kids were growing up (my musical library had very few additions for a large chunk of 1998 to about 2010 as a result). I think it was the better of his two albums on this list, there were many really good tracks (too many to list). I've purchased a copy as a result, which is an automatic 5 star rating!

So listenable I can almost ignore the excessive runtime and comedically blatant F-slur.

I think this is good but it’s just too damn LONG man. Reign in the excess. They got EVERYBODY on this album huh? A lot of stuff probably flies over my head but I enjoyed large parts of it. Some of the rhymes are a little tortured and inelegant. Also I try to take all these albums as they are but I do think you undercut your message of being the more intellectual socially conscious rapper by still tossing around homophobic and misogynistic language. Genre conventions and all that, it was the 90s, I get it, but even so. The production and sound on this is realllllllly good, absolutely a highlight. Did you guys know Common is Stonekeeper? Second act montage needle drop in my biopic: “The Light”

never really listened to common before pretty much just knew of him as an actor guy,, but this album was goooood. i don’t think common’s bars are as deep and poetic as he thinks they are most of the time. there’s definitely uuhhhh some bars in here though! really got me with that fela tribute, aaaand interpolating the water get no enemy horn line on pops rap iii……. the thing i love most about this album is the collaborators, it’s kind of crazy how many incredible artists he brought together on this album. jill scott’s feature was soooo good, the features overshadow common’s actual performances for me tbh but most of the songs go hard nonetheless. those j dilla /questlove beats hit. groovy stuff. great storytelling, i really loved song for assata especially . really like 4/5 -1 star for the homophobia :( cmon now

This album is a vibe, combining styles across musical generations. The only issue I had is that I constantly thought one song had ended and a new one started only to realize it was a switch in styles within the same track.

sorry not for me. Rap, r&b. Just does nothing for me

Another turn of the century American Rap album... oh great. Nothing particularly significant about it. More of the same. Next!

Finns några riktiga bangers här men det är lite för många ointressanta låtar för ett högre betyg. Uppe och nosar på en fyra

En bra trea, inget fel här egentligen men sticker inte ut tillräckligt för högre betyg

En skiva där Roy hargrove tutar kan inte hamna under 4a

Rätt soft, lite bjäring. Bäst när han får hjälp. Klasskillnad när D'angelo kommer in. Sen händer något på The 6th sense, börjar rycka lite. Aha! "Dj Premier". Sen tillbaka till grundnivå tills nästa inspel från D'angelo

Funky, jazzy, easy to listen to. Favourite Track(s): The Light, Funky For You Least Favourite Track(s): Pop Rap III... All My Children

Songs kinda sounded repetitive to me

I haven't listened to rap regularly since probably middle school, so this will be interesting. I'm not really overly into Common's rap style. The rhythms and lyrics I'm getting aren't really appealing much to me. I'm probably only picking up on the silly stuff tbh. I'm generally not great at picking up lyrics anyway, so that's not a huge negative - I don't generally consider the lyrics too heavily in any music. The music under the raps? Fucking great. Super chill. Really digging the music. But the rap itself is kind of meh. Overall pretty middling.

Some really good tracks but some serious duds. Some of the lyrics didn't age well. It's my understanding he had acknowledged the homophobia and denounced it.