Be

the guy’s got a pretty good flow. quality hip hop.

Gear: Grado Hemp Artwork: sympathischer Kerl! Sollte man nicht meinen, dass der es auf John Wick abgesehen hat Mix: Bass-Intro ballert, Vocals smooth und mit Soul, rundum bekömmlich gemischt Musik: wirklich erste Sahne Hip-Hop - die R'n'B-Abstecher versauern es mir aber leider doch etwas Wertung: 🦤🦤(🦤)/5

Not my style

It’s fine nothing earth shattering here. As I drove my hip hop loving son to school I asked if he ever heard of this guy and he said I think so, sounds familiar. As he got out of the car he leaned back in and said, oh that’s Kanye on this track. The only song that stood out to me was They Say.

This was fairly good - the production was good, although sometimes it felt a little too smooth for my tastes

Ну ок

Solid

Enjoyable listen.

This was a great throwback

Good music.

Du bon hip-hop qui se démarque de ce qui se faisait à l'époque. Ça sonne beaucoup plus recherché que la majorité du bling era qui était plus populaire. Ce n'est pas l'album hip-hop qui m'a le plus impressionné, mais c'est définitivement à réécouter. 7/10

Good album.

Bit the same but I liked it.. Love de kanye song

Solid album. Not much to note, good classic mid 2000 rap. 6/10 (3/5)

This is a really deep album. I appreciate the flow of his vocals, and there's a lot of poignant commentary. Good beats, good rhythm. Fav tracks: The Corner, Be (Intro)

Nice beats, good storytelling, some content was great, some not so much. Listens: 1 Fave Tracks: Be, Testify Rating: 3

Excelente disco, se agradece su escucha, con momentos muy disfrutables. Las aportaciones de K.West, J.Legend o J Dilla le dan un soplo de elegancia que lo convierte en uno de sus mejores obras,. A destacar : Be, The say, It´s your world, Go, y sobre todo Faithfull y esa joya que es Love is. Otros discos de 2005: Illinoise, I am a bird now, The great destroyer, Gimmie fiction, el segundo de Franz ferdinanz, Some cities, Arular, Late registration, Chaos and creation in the backyard, Confessions on a dance floor, Alligator, Picaresque, Tender bottons, Oceans apart...

3+

A few ups and downs. Some tracks on here I really enjoyed. Will I listen to again: 45%

Listened to this while playing Scholars of the South Tigris. I bought this album back when it came out and liked it a fair amount...but I also liked Kanye back then. Fortunately, this album aged better than Kanye did...a solid 3.

A poor man's Kanye.

cool

Common sure is a really good rapper. But his preachy religious lyrics and Kanyes pompous production with lots of R&B just aren't for me.

I have not heard of this album or artist before. I don’t listen to rap mainly but I found this music to be kinda good. Though there were no songs that stood out to me so I probably won’t listen again.

I say this for most rap/hip hop albums, but I'm not a great person for rating these. It's not my area and I just don't have a wealth of knowledge to compare accurately. However, in the limited experience I do have, Common is one of the best with the lyrics and flow. The best way I can describe it is that it feels real. Deducted points for Kanye though Favorite track "Go" 3/5

Common's lyrics are great, but the music doesn't move me. It’s a good album, but not one I’d come back to. 3/5.

S'alright

The music was really good but I wasn’t keen on some lyrics so decided to skip to next recommendation

I only really know common through his acting career so it was interesting to hear his singing/rapping voice since it’s so different from his gravelly acting voice. My main takeaway from this album was that goddamn Kanye really is such a good producer but past that I’m already forgetting a good bit of it. If I had relistened I’d probs have given this a 4 but whatever.

Nothing to get exited about here

Not my favourite Common album

Liked what i heard but did not finish cuz my wifi stopped working

I'm not a fan of rap, so it's easy to dismiss this and move on, but it was an alright, okay listen and it played well as background for me. It was a promising start with the opening track, Be (intro), but once Common started rapping, it eased back into a generic and unmemorable rap record, though it was one level higher than most.

intro findi mad geil, kanye het produziert pre nazi. the corner isch premium früene kanye beat mit de ufepitchte vocals. common cha reime hoppla. faithful au sehr geile beat. nocher. de gospel gsang isch cool aber find chli viel. chi-city chli viel scratches. kein fan vo z viel scratches. aber beat isch hammer. oke echt z viel scratches.

This is better than the other Common record I got largely because it's about half as long. Common is a good lyricist and these are well produced albums. Not for me. But 43 minutes is a lot better than 78 minutes.

I really have no basis to critique hip-hop. It's the genre I understand and appreciate the least. Having said that, I didn't hate listening to this. It's just incredibly foreign to me.

I enjoyed this album more than I expected to. Testify is an incredible song

p good but not one I'll relisten

Haven't listened to hip hop since I was a kid, but this has some nice grooves in it

Not groundbreaking but much more enjoyable than Like Water For Chocolate, mainly down to a tighter runtime and Kanye’s production. Testify is one catchy choon.

Like the intro, well made hip hop somewhere between modern and old school. Well made

Wow, a mid-2000s hip hop record I could actually get to the end of! This might be an unusual record for the time because it isn't full to the brim with braggadocious peacocking or the toxic masculinity/misogyny one-two combo punch so prevalent in the genre. There's some overly descriptive sexual content here, but it's not so far out of line or blue as to be vulgar. Common comes across as much more mature than his peers, and a more thoughtful lyricist. I appreciated it. There's always an exception to the rule, and Common is that sexy exception.

Honestly trying to find any info on common is funny as hell because it's like, it's always cool when artists play in prisons and then try and do something related to that, and the like link to Fela Kuti whose album was also on here previously is really neat to see, but then it's like and then he did a clothing line with Microsoft, like what the fuck are you talking about lmao (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPtG8Xb_Dqs if you wanna see some). Anyways the album is like a normal amount of fun to me, some of the lyrics are hella funny to me like the section around the line "What if God was a Her?" or fuckin "Ooh baby she liked it raw / Like rain when she came it poured" ;LSKDJFD like sometimes the way he writes about women is just fucking funny I'm not even saying like oh it's fucked up or some shit but the fucking being a dad and being like and then I realized I'm gonna learn through her, change the world through her LMAO like come on. I feel like I've heard more /personally/ interesting (content-wise and musically) before but like it's cool

The smooth sounds Kanye's production brings to this album makes sense for Common, especially as it appears he made this album after the birth of his daughter. Feels like he's coming at this LP with a lot slower flow, a bit more accessible for some. I think it ends up being a decent album, not one I will say is a classic like many others but a good album still. Some of Common's lyrics are just a bit too blunt at times for my liking, even if they make sense, and I think the peak of the best songs instrumentation and sampling overshadow the worst ones to make them a bit unmemorable.

There are some interesting musical moments and sonically it's well produced. It's a very lyrical message type album but overall it's not really my bag. But it deserves a place on the list and I was glad to give it a listen

Sounded ok 1 listen wasnt enougth to engage with lyrics altough sounded fairly generic. Was idnetikit reqlly altough some nice moments sonically.

I had his album Electric Circus when it came out and had a similar thing, that I wanted to really like it, it's intelligent hip hop touching in themes of the black American inner city experience. There was a little bit of misogyny in there, and none of the music really hooked me, so I didn't ever get into Common as much as, say Curtis Mayfield, Arrested Development or Mos Def.

Instrumentally I quite enjoyed this, lyrically I could appreciate the flow Cadence and some of the word play; but as a middle-aged white man from Suburban Canada I wasn't able to entirely connect with the lyrical content and messaging. And I don't think I'm expected to be able to in anything more than a superficial way.

Adds to Chicago playlist

enjoyed the music, especially in the first 3rd. need to re-listen for lyrics

Some food lyrics and some cool production and instrumentation. Sounds very 2005, full of hip hop tropes of the time.

Enjoyable tunes and well produced

This was rather pleasant to listen to, the production on this is absolutely stellar. It didn't grab my attention too much overall, but I'd throw it on again every now and then if I owned it.

It's got a good groove with a lot of soul samples, and it sounds very very polished, but not feeling much of a visceral impact on me. I may need to listen to this more to see if I find something in it on future listens. Best songs for me are Love is... and GO!

This was better than I thought it would be. I’m not the biggest rap fan so common to be is a mediocre actor. But this was good. I really enjoyed the gospel and soul influences of the tracks. His rapping style was quick and sharpe and lyrically interesting. Not sure this raises to a 4 star album but could definitely be a 3.5 star. Pleasantly surprised.

Don’t like the entire album, but I appreciate Common’s vibe.

common

Sounds good, but I didn't remember much of it after one spin. Favorite song: Be (intro)

Surprised to hear Kanye on this album. I like the music on this.

Für Rap erfreulich harmlos.

non male ma decisamente non uno dei miei preferiti

I know Common well as an actor - a good one. This is innocuous, listenable, musical, but if I'm going to listen to rap/hip-hop, I'm more likely to pick Public Enemy or Wyclef Jean. this has a sort of R&B vibe. A Barry White feel here and there.

It was a good listen

Not my cup, although it’s starting to grow on me…

Common is a little boring but I respect what he does. This is a solid album with a great ode to Chicago. At least this album is much better than Like Water for Chocolate.

Not the type of music I usually listen to and I’m still not crazy ab it but this was pretty decent. 7/10 round down

Pretty enjoyable, last song was more just talking than I wanted though 6.5/10

Common's delivery isn't lightning speed, but he works his way through some serious verses here - more reflexive and inviting than the relentless 'lyrical mystical' style - smoother and easier going, this oozes relaxed confidence. There's a solid verse/chorus structure to all these songs, bringing the lyrical excursions back to a central hook and thematic idea every minute or so. The production is all Gospel soul and funk woven together for some a rich warm sound over pretty laid back loungey beats.

Ahh, takes me back to my Kanye days. Common is really good, he knows how to flow, the beats are laid back and easy to vibe to. I think the social-conscious rap can sometimes be cheesy though, like Faithful. But Be, GO!, are good

3.5 even though it’s not my favorite genre I can still recognize it’s a good album that I enjoyed for the most part. Standout songs were “Real People”, “They Say”, and “Be(intro)”. However there were some poor songs with “Faithful” being borderline terrible. Who thought the Alvin and the Chipmunks backup vocals were a good idea

Soulful and fantastic

I like trip hop and smooth jazz as a general thing, so this album musically is not far off my usual tastes. That being said I found myself just sort of listening to most of the songs and only occasionally really connecting emotionally to any. While I will pay more attention to Common and have been woken to a genre I have paid too little attention to, I would like to give other artists, even some who collaborated on this very album, a closer listen.

Tbh, I'd rather just listen to Kanye. Not a bad time at all but not super memorable

I like the use of jazz and gospel in the mix, and the verse has some good moments, but it hasn't aged all that well IMO. The first track is the high point.

decent album, nazi feature aside. a nice slow jam rap album that sticks around just as long as you would want it to.

#110. Decent, but had Kanye West on several songs, and all for the worse. I thought Kanye was supposed to be some lyrical genius or something? "I did what I did, because I had a kid"- for real? That's it? Come on dude, be better. 3/5: I don't hate it I guess. He's a better actor than rapper it seems though.

Features with Kanye is really cool. First Common album and it’s pretty good

OK hiphop album: easy listening and smooth, but it is also a bit too straightforward and a little boring. Favourite song: Testify, but that is just because of the catchy Honey Cone sample. Opinions seem to differ, but "Like Water For Chocolate" (also included the 1001 list) is a much better album.

Better than I thought it was going to be

Nice smooth head boppin’ hip hop. It’s like easy-listening rap. I don’t dislike it. It’s very nice. Less edgy than Queen Latifah. But nice. Skip Kanye the Nazi lover.

Not my cup of tea.

The kanye parts were so good, the common parts were kind of cheesy. overall the album sounded good

Better than expected. Got some quite viral songs on the album

Though not my style, it was very relaxing to listen to. 3.5/5

This is a pretty solid album and has some nostalgia for me. Common is super soulful but sometime his rhymes really fall flat. Def a chill time though!

A gorgeous listen due to the wonderful melodic jazz funk samples. Common raps with a mostly positive and kind-spirited socio-political awareness (however I do not agree on his negativity towards interracial relationships👎🏾). Another good jazz-rap listen.

Pretty good, didn't know Common got down like that

Album 287 of 1001 Common - Be Rating : 3 / 5 Favorite Track : It's Your World Likely serves its purpose well (hence the rating) but does nothing extra for me. I prefer music.

I didn't like the back ground ladies voice

Esuchable

not bad, not really good either

Oldschool Hiphop. ok aber mehr nicht. etwas langweilig

Die Musik ist toll, der Gesang eher meh.

Rap is not my thing

Enjoyable

Not bad, would revisit some tracks in the future. Enjoyed the first half more I think.

Usually melodically catchy, often nice rhyme schemes and such. Substantively, I could take it or leave it, probably thinks it's more meaningful than it is. And even musically, there are some duds. Though all of that speaks to it being a pretty varied album.

Liked faithful and go! The best

Pretty musical compared to today's crap. I liked several cuts, but won't return to it often.

Songs like ”Faithful“ take me to the moon and back.

I had this album in heavy rotation back in 2005/2006. Common is such a smooth lyrical MC and weaves tight and uplifting stories throughout this album. The early aughts Kanye production sounds are all there. The Alvin and the Chipmunks-ified soul samples sound a little dated now, but so do a lot of things from almost 20 years ago.

Macht einen recht guten ersten Eindruck, obwohl Rap nicht mein Favorit ist. Kann ich aber gut morgens beim ersten Kaffee hören. Ruhige, leicht jazzige Beats…

Blind album and artist. I really liked the intro/starting track. The rest was meh. Nothing caught my attention, nothing swayed me away. Instrumentals were kinda cool but wouldn't rate it above anything notable for sure. Same with the vocalist.

Some tunes on this

Not sure yet

I really liked this but we knock off a star for Kanye because fuck him forever

Very chill and vibey, you want to listen to this while driving down highway 1 in Santa Monica, not too special though.

a bit of a mixed bag, but some real nice ones in here

enjoyable though I don't think I am the target demographic for the messaging

never heard this before. not a big rap listener, but don’t mind this jazzy sub-genre.

I had a good friend who was raised in a tough Chicago neighborhood - Common was one of his favorite artists. I appreciate the artistry here and love how much of hip-hop/rap narrate Black history, struggles, and triumphs. I have a hard time judging if this is good or not because there’s so much in here beyond just the beat and music- lyrics, storytelling, collaborations, etc that I’d need to absorb more. I liked much of this album. Cool to see that this is regarded as some of Common’s best work. Three stars!

This wasn't too bad. I don't think Id go back and listen to it again though. The chill laid back beats were a nice contrast to the slim shady LP. 3 stars

Not really heard of this - Rap from 2005. Not usually a rap fan so going in with open mind. Sounds nice straight away, like the vibe. Quite enjoying. 3/5.

I used to love this album back when it came out and listened to it constantly. Coming back to it now almost 20 years later, I can still see the musical talent on display but I struggle to see what bound me to it so. All in all I walk away from the album feeling disappointed and remove it from my mental list of favorites.

really good very groove

Everything sounds nice and positive, Testify seems the most interesting to me, but overall it does not feel like it expands beyond a world it is comfortable occupying... that world has a beauty and a message that we all agree with.

John Legend lends distinction to this otherwise indistinct album.

Soul rap from the early 2000s, tender, comes out of the struggle. Emotional and inspiring ending to the album. Nice to listen to, two or three songs are very easy going

bliver holdt oven vande af nogle rigtig gode Kanye West beats (lyder meget inspireret af J Dilla i øjeblikke også?). Jeg kan bare ikke forstå hvorfor man vil lytte til så kedelig en rapper som Common hvis man kan lytte til Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch eller alle de andre neo-soul-agtige rappere fra 00'erne The Food er en god reminder om hvor gode musikindslagene var på Chappelle's Show!!

Common gjorde ikke *så* meget for mig, men Kanye var on fire på det her tidspunkt. Jeg ku rigtig godt lide beatsene.

Sounds like Kanye tbh

Best song - Chi-City

Generally inoffensive. Decent listen

Pretty good! But not entirely my vibe.

This one was alright

Probably more a 3.5, but it was a solid album. Had some good, maybe overdone production by Kanye.

Big Kanye West vibes on this one, so his involvement as producer was not a surprise to read. It even has chipmunk soul elements in 'The Corner'. As you would expect with the involvement of Me West, this is an accessible hip hop record. Rating: 3/5 Playlist track: GO! Date listened: 02/11/23

didn’t listen but i know it’s a classic

So the problems… The music is interesting. But is it original or is it sampled? You just never know where credit is due. And the lyrics. For me, the best music is universal. But life on the Chicago corners is not universal. I’ve seen The Wire, I don’t need it lyrically. And I don’t believe we see God through our children. So I’ve got issues with it. It’s not my genre, I get that. But it’s interesting. It holds my attention and I was interested enough to research the lyrics after an initial listen. I feel my smorgasbord is more varied as a result. Would I buy it? Would I fuck.

This site has certainly given me a lot of samey Hip Hop albums to review... and a lot of samey Country albums... I wonder if the person who compiled the list had a slight bias. It would be fair to say, I've yet to find any hip hop album that I'd say is good, they are all so samey in musical arrangements, and the default continued application of repeat lyrics with the N and F words, which although i'm no prude, I do find these type of lyrics completely boring and ignorant. For this album, it did have a lot of good bass, which made it more palatable on the ears, and having listened to a Kanye album for review yesterday, it was no surprise to recognise his involvement in the production of this album. Tracks I liked - intro Would I play this again - No

Probably should listen again

I'm a slave to the groove

Eh mid

Solides HipHip Album? Keine Ahnung von HipHop.. mochte den Anfang, dann ist nicht mehr so viel passiert. Ein Song in Playlist Zwischendurch Soul-Elemente Abgehackte Songenden Gut produziert

Knew I'd struggle with this as not a hip-hop fan usually. Appreciate all the instrumental stuff going on, although the overlapping vocals was confusing on some tracks

I am not a rap, fan, nor aficianado....yet, I enjoyed this album a surprising amount.

Enjoyed it

Didn’t have a lot of expectations coming in, but this album is actually pretty good, some good lyrics and doesn’t have that monotonous feel to it that a lot of similar albums suffer from

Wasn't bad - doubt I'll revisit.

For a musical genre I do not usually listen to, I rather liked that album. Heartfelt lyrics and a realistic, yet hopeful worldview.

Thank goodness I am not doing this project back when I hated and disrespected rap. I would've given this a 1, and it does not deserve a 1. This still isn't the kind of thing I usually listen to, but it's pretty good. Favourite tracks: Be (Intro), It's Your World

There's a listenable groove going on. I don't listen to enough rap to know if this is a good, bad or indifferent example, but it's pretty same-y throughout to my ears.

Singles are the best songs on the album. The Real People is also good.

The beats on this album are definitely my favorite part. There are some high points with the lyrics, but once again, I'm not listening that closely while working so a lot of the message gets lost on me. Overall this is a fine album. It had me head bopping a few times. If this was Album of the Week I would definitely spend more time active listening to these albums.

Never really listened to much Common besides any features or the Chapelle Show performance. After listening to a few songs I love Common's flow and you can kinda tell Kanye is all over this. Just shows how insanely talented that man is. Fuck him now though. Oh wow they have the actual Chappelle Show live track. Pretty weird to have that in the middle of a studio album but I'm not complaining.

Wayyy more vibey than I was expecting. Had to throw in the second earbud part way through The Corner. I don't love the refrains. They feel a little odd and sometimes uncomfortable and forced. The verses are incredible, though. The production of the album is fantastic. The produced noises are never overdone, and are finely tuned to the song. A really good album, particularly the first half. I will probably never listen to this again, though.

Beaucoup aimé l'intro et la dernière piste. Le reste c'est sympa de loin mais je ne m'y connais pas assez en hip hop pour apprécier les subtilités, et j'ai pas l'impression de prendre une claque niveau nouveauté

Okay so here’s the thing, Common is the worst part of his own record. His flow is non existent, it’s more like he’s doing slam poetry over a beat, but even then it’s not decisive enough to be poetry, I think he just has bad rhythm. Also, conscious bars are bad, but especially bad when like 10 years later you’re doing them in an American Express commercial. All his bars are like the Bill Cosby pull up your pants speech. The production is great, it’s clear why Kanye was so in demand as a producer at the time, he and Dilla crushed it. Anytime Ye gets on the mic he absolutely blows Common out of the water, and it makes me just wish this was a Kanye album. Idk, I enjoyed the record, but truly only because of the production. Common just makes shit way too corny, I mean give me a break with that ‘what if god was a her’ line. The finale I also thought was a little overdone, going from the kids all saying their dreams to some overly saccharine speech about dreaming. Idk, it was some Sesame Street stuff.

i miss the old kanye

51/100

6/10 Top 3: Be (intro) Go! The food

Decent album. The N word was used way too much for my liking. One of two songs stopped out for me.

Definitely one of the best hip hop albums I've heard on this list yet

This was really fun. Absolutely something I would have never listened to before this so it was really cool to be tossed this from the generator. Also woa hi there lots of early kanye

Forgettable and uninspiring for me personally

Immediately put me back in high school. The 2005 oozes from this record and the genuineness feels like a bygone era. 3/5

High 3 for Common.

I'm all good with socially conscience or alt-rap, but Common just irritates me. That said, this is far superior to Like Water For Chocolate.

Smooth beatz - doesn't hit me squarely in the trouser, but was pleasant enough to listen along to in the background

Favourites: • Be (Intro) • Testify • It's Your World (Part 1 & 2)

Good starter but kinda fizzles out for me.

I have never heard of this guy before, but I was quite pleasantly surprised and definitely found myself digging some of the songs. I don't think this type of rap/hiphop is really my thing, but if it was I think it would've maybe gotten some higher ratings.

This is the kind of album I was really looking for today. Really excited to listen to this. The rapping in 'GO' reminds of Kanye West. EDIT: Turns out Kanye is rapping in this, Common is just the producer. Sadly it wasn't as good as I expected. Decent but didn't blow me away. Has to be a three. Will deffo re-listen at some point.

can’t go wrong with signature early 2000s kanye production

Funny to hear kanye in the songs, not necesarily as a feature. (He produced most songs) Very relaxed almost loungy 3/5

Really easy to listen to, classic rap album structure. Easy beats border on Lofi, lyrics border on funny, well produced, but nothing particularly stood out. I could see a world where I think this is a 4/5

я плохой ценитель репа, не ухватила

Wasn’t really enamoured of the rapping or the lyrics. But I did enjoy the beats and the melodies and the samples that underpinned everything. And I preferred the songs with collaborators who actually sang. I found Common’s droning a little lacklustre.

I listened to this Friday and remember very little about it today. I think that I liked Testify and the one with the kids I like Common as an actor.

Not bad, but I’m not big into rap so…

Not a fan of hip hop, but I’ve managed to stomach most of this. As usual what I enjoy the most is the interesting ways these songs use samples Saved tracks: The Corner, GO!, Testify

4/11, 36%

So I read the info on the front page and immediately cringed when I saw the words rapper and produced by the idiot, nutjob we know as Kanye asshole. Well, Kanye is still one crazy shit and and even bigger a-hole, but damn, this was a solid album. Bonus surprise, I kept thinking I've seen Common before but couldn't figure it out until I heard The Food and the introduction by Dave Chappelle. They (Commom and A-hole) performed this song at the end of one of Chappelle's shows. Dave use end his shows with musical guest. I verified and it's out there on youtube. Anyway, back to the album. This wasn't an in your face rap album, but more a of soulful, good grooving kind of album with some solid lyrics. I listened a couple times and found myself groovin in my seat each time. There were a couple tunes I didn't care for, but I did like quite a few. Shoot, first 6 songs were my favorites. Be, The corner, GO!, Faithful, Testify and Love is were all solid tracks. If I understood Testify, his girl is the killer and he's the one going to jail. That's one cold bitch. The Food and They say stood out to me as well. I pretty much named just about every song on this album. This album did surprise me, but maybe due to my dislike of the dude producing and having low expectations. Good album to throw on in the background while working! I am going to rate this album a 3, but probably much closer to 3.5 as I found this to be more of an R&B album, than a rap album. Love me that old R&B sound. 3

This was pretty okay! This is the way I like samples to be used. It's pretty front-loaded with the cool beats and catchy hooks though. Not that that's what it always has to be about but that's what keeps my attention. I like the lyrics when I noticed them. Common has a cool and almost relaxing style that I really enjoyed. I really only see myself going back to maybe half of this album. 3

3.5 After just having an album produced by the monster Phil Spector, it’s nice to have something produced by someone without any known controversy or offensive behavior. Man, what a refreshing rap record. I really, really, really, really don’t want to give Kanye any kind of credit for obvious reasons, but I can’t deny the production here is fantastic. There’s clearly quite a bit of old school R&B influence, and the album benefits so much from it - everything felt so alive and colorful without ever feeling repetitive or manufactured. That sound combined with Common’s effortlessly smooth delivery and insightful poeticism made this a really solid listen from front to back. For every infectiously catchy hook (“Before you lock my love away!”), there’s a socially-conscious one that’s just as profound. In particular, I really liked the message regarding the ability to create greatness regardless of one’s beginnings on It’s Your World - though I have to admit the line about being the “best swimmer in 500,000” was a bit much. That all being said, I actually struggled a bit with my rating for this one. I liked almost all of it, but I’m not quite sure how much of it I actually loved. There haven’t been any tracks I’ve gone back to since my listening, but I do see myself giving the full album a listen again in the future. So, there might still be some room for growth with me.

Too soft

Some pleasure to ear beats (by Kanye obviously) and some fire lyrics.

Enjoyed it for the most part, started losing me at the chipmunk voice

3/5

This was surprisingly wholesome and uplifting. I only knew Common as the guy who wears a turtle neck and preaches about “A.I.” in those commercials before listening to this.

I think I’ve heard of Common before but I’m not completely sure. One thing I can be sure of it that his teeth look really nice on the album cover. Have you seen them? He has really nice teeth. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: Be (Intro), Go It isn’t often that an intro song is a highlight for an album, but that mix of bass and 8-bit melodies was a fantastic opener and had me interested from the beginning. I did start to tune out a little towards the middle of the album, but I do wonder if that’s my own bias in that it’s rare that I find a hip hop album that I love. It’s just never clicked for me as much as some other genres. Overall, I did still enjoy this album but I’m not sure if I’ll be rushing back to listen again, except for maybe that intro song.

Uszy nie bolą - wysłuchałbym jeszcze raz albo nawet dwa.

It was good, better than I thought it was gonna be.

Highlight: GO!, The Food (Live)

Didn't realise the extent of Kanye's involvement in this. Also very obviously where 360, Pez, Seth etc jacked a lot of their style.

Common is great, but I think he is much better as a feature

Why don't I know a single Common song? I know he's a famous rapper but that's literally it. Didn't realise he was this old actually. I can hear the Kanye influence, now I'm slowly learning he was actually good once. I enjoy the soulful undertones. First track I thought this was going to be really good, but after that it's basically very accomplished well produced mid - 2000s rap/hip hop, which I enjoyed while it was on but am unlikely to go back to. I am not looking forward to the 77 minute long album to come though, this is fine at 40 something. Best - Intro, Chi-City.

I listened to this album without even realising it was almost over Very good easy to listen to :+1:

While not groundbreaking, it's an enjoyable hip-hop album from the 2000's, with plenty of clever verses and catchy beats.

Wow it's cool to see Common on this list. I've heard so many good things over the years but I don't think I've ever listened to any of his music. Very cool instrumentation on the first 2 tracks. Love an album that starts with cool stuff like this. "GO!" you could almost tell right from the drop that it was produced by Kanye. I didn't however realize that it was John Mayer doing backup vocals, although I don't really love how the tone of his voice fits in with the rest of the track. Maybe he could have sang something more than an echo'd "go" and it would have fit my tastes better? Overall I think it's a middle 3/5

This is a solid rap album. Common has some great beats on this one and lyrically he does a solid job. He has some awesome features too with a young Kanye and mos def. This album is about as good the last one. Both of his albums aren’t typical violent rap or overtly sexual which is a nice change of pace since he does a good job production wise. 7.6/10 of his albums are generally positive and

I might have not been in quite the right mood for this, but it was still good. Definitely more musically interesting than some hip hop on this list. I could see this potentially being a 4 star album upon relistening. I think my favourite song was Real People.

Fine

Fine album.

Be (Intro) - first listen: 1.8/3 The Corner - fl: 1.6/3 GO! - fl: 1.5/3 Faithful - fl: 1.5/3 Testify - fl: 1.4/3 Love is.. - fl: 1.5/3 Chi-City - fl: 1.6/3 The Food (Live) - fl: 1.7/3 Real People - fl: 1.5/3 They Say - fl: 1.8/3 It's Your World - fl: 1.7/3 Final Verdict: Amazing from start to finish. Banger

fine

A little less violent and dangerous sounding than some other the others of the genre on this list.

I’m probably not the intended demographic... so unfair of me to judge if it’s ace or awful.

Not a rap listener, but this was nice and chill I liked it.

7/10

In general, I don't enjoy most rap music. Occasionally, something gets to me though. I thought this might be one of those albums after the first two tracks. After that, it descended into the cloud of general rap, then eased into r&b for the end of the album. Also, I'm only an occasional fan in that genre and this didn't quite move me either. But overall, it's ok to me.

Not a genre I usually listen to, but this album is definitely solid. I must admit it was a little weird hearing a track with Kanye on the Dave Chappelle show considering the modern climate around those two, but the track itself was pretty alright. Best tracks: Be (Intro), The Corner, Testify, and It's Your World.

Meh, standard rap type album, not bad, not especially good

Oh wow a guest appearance by Kanye West... That did not age well

Was ok

Common is stonekeeper

Could tell it was from College Drop out era and Kanye influence heavy throughout.

A lot of songs were like spoken poetry.

Good, sophisticated and high quality rap album. The lack of any stand out songs though made it tough for me to rate it more than 3 stars

Starts off great but runs out of steam about halfway through.

Decent album. Nice to get a r&b/rap album for a change. Some good music/beats

INT

Eh just a typical rap album I don’t get it

This was pretty bland, had a few okay tracks but I can't remember them now

Hip hop molt tenyit de soul, o bé r&b amb actitud rap. Lletres polititzades i una producció de quan Kanye West encara era un treballador clau en el génere i no un boig visionari. 'Go', 'Faithful', 'Testify'... el començament és de traca. Després el nivell va baixant, però el so és igual de poderós. Un dels àlbums de hip hop millor produïts i amb millors versos de la década

Cool hip hop album, never heard it in full but have heard many songs from the album. Surprised by how much Kanye on the album.

I really liked the one song on here where he’s thinking about what if god was a woman and it makes him get horny

Not really into rap, but enjoyed the samples he used and liked his voice a lot.

Not a massive hip hop fan but that was pretty good. Better lyrics than most rappers.

Nice voice, and backing music. Usual misogynistic lyrics despite some attempts to go the other way.

His name is Common because his music is nothing special

Common is really good at painting pictures with his lyricism. J Dilla's prod is on point. Not super into the neo-soul vibe though. I personally liked the tracks where Kanye was featured the best (I really prefer his production style to J Dilla's), and also Go! and Testify. Although I think this album is pretty OK I genuinely don't see what makes it stand-out enough to be on a top albums list. I think I just might have brainrot from listening to so much experimental hip hop that a dude rapping about how he loves his partner over a soul beat feels really corny and uninteresting. 3/5

It looks like a very influential album, but it sounds standard for 2022 ears. It probably deserves more than 3 stars, but it's hard to find reasons to rate it without the historical background. Maybe almost all hip-hop albums suffer from this problem since they are always too contextualized, but some of them (like this one) are hard to stay relevant after more than 10 years after their release.

2005 album that was entirely produced by Kanye or dilla not a fan of the vocal delivery but the beats are what make the album 3.5

16th November 2022 Listened on the drive and tube in to the office. Book club in the evening. Thought it sounded very Kanye then the man himself turned up later in the record. Liked this, 3.5 if I could.

Not much to say - enjoyed listening to the album, but cannot remember a single song so it didn't leave an impression on me.

Intro slaps Go! is cute Beats are chill Boring flow

Not a genre for me, but it was fine enough with good variety

Great groove but I was a little bored at times. Common is a really good lyricist and I think if I enjoyed the hip hop genre more I’d have given this a higher rating.

Enjoyed that a lot - Some really nice beats in there and heartfelt lyrics. A bit one-note but a good laid-back album to put on.

3 stars for the producing. 1 star for the feel and vibe. Subtract half star for inconsistent lyrics. Round down for some language choice.

Some nice tracks

HL: “They Say”, “Go!”, “The Food” 3.5 Mostly liked West’s production, though the sample on Testify got a bit annoying. Surprised I haven’t heard more from Common, though I’m really only starting to learn about hiphop beyond the loudest & brashest acts (aka West) in my twenties. October 17, 2022

Eh, 00s rap doesn't really do it for me. Definitely heard worse, but also better. Well produced, nice booming bass that's not overpowered, some cool samples throughout. Lyrics were pretty cringey in places. It really started to lose me when the words were something like "so I diiid, whad I hadda diiid"... like ugh that's the Kanye West shit I hate. Gotta give it a thumbs up for keeping to a sensible album length though. 3/5.

Rating: 3/5

It’s a rap album. It’s absolutely possible that I don’t get it, but it doesn’t seem particularly special.

Never listened to common. The instrumentals are great. Plenty of good tracks. 3.5 stars.

mistä tiedän nääkin biisit? varmasti siis klassikoita. GO! on aivan todella hyvä. toimiva kokonaisuus, pehmeä tunnelma läpi levyn olematta kuitenkaan lälly

Wasn't expecting much when the intro rolled in, but actually this was pretty good. Hadn't heard it before, but it captures that era of early-2000s rap/hiphop really well, a bit more accessible and commercial than most of what you got in the nineties but still keeping some edge. Quite refreshing subject matter too, only a bit of it about the streets/conflict with the police and a lot more about the broader culture of that area of American life. 3/5, none of the tracks really stood out for me.

Solid rap album, reminiscent of Tribe Called Quest which is on the whole a good thing.

Go go go go go go go go go

Track with Yeezy was my fav

Eh

6/10

Pretty enjoyable, although not what I usually listen to.

Common is one of those guys... Is he an actor? Is he a musician? I know he's been in plenty of movies and made plenty of albums, but I can't name one from either category. He doesn't have that one song that everybody knows, ya know? Ice Cube does. Ice-T does. Tupac does. So on and so on. So anyway - let's see. I don't know any of these songs. I can't say that they stuck. But this is a very listenable record. The production on it, the samples, the arrangements are all really strong. I wouldn't turn this off if it were on.

The loveliness of some of the sounds on this album (especially those that dip into the grab-bag of lush 1970s soul) can't quite balance out the rather characterless rapping. Perhaps Common is brilliant, but every time I properly tune in I'm left a smidge underwhelmed.

Was ok

Had some good enjoyable moments, including Chi City and It's Your World. 3/5

The production from J Dilla and Ye is enough to warrant the listen. It's incredibly soulful, catchy, and feel-good as each we're doing at this time. Common on the other is good but feels more like wallpaper to the music. He kept the energy at least but this didn't make me a Common fan.

Was cool but entirely my style. Too religious it had some catchy tracks.

It's okay. Feels like old school hip hop. I enjoy it. Kanye is mid 6/10

Not sure about this - it’s a genre I’m not that Into

Nice groovezz

A bit gospel. Lyric rhyming quality rap. Pop/mainstream, but decent. On the better side of rap for me.

I remember the album being more enthralling when I was in high school. I thought it started off amazingly, but I sort of lost interest in the second half.

Solid album, basically Kanye with a common feature. Had some bangers but had a a couple duds

Another generic r&b offering. Yawn

never really listened to Common. i can hear Kanye throughout, which i hadnt expected. while really good, overall this album is too serious.

Huge fan of Kanye West as a producer. This album doesn't do that much justice to him. Maybe I need to listen to it more.

Decent as background music, but nothing outstanding.

Good rap, sounds just like 2005. Can definitely heard the early Kanye production on the tracks. Common has good bars. Never really heard much from him before

i want to be a duck

I'm really, really not a fan of rap music. So with very exceptions, 3 stars is about as high as it gets. But I did find this album very listenable and didn't skip any songs (very rare for rap albums). The music sounds smart, sophisticated and varied. I didn't pay any attention to the lyrics.

Common's voice is too smooth for me, working against the reifying-the-Street project he seems to be on in The Corner. Still, riding high on enjoyable music, I felt the significance of Be. Common, Kanye, and Dilla are all icons, and the producers' sounds come together here in a nicely compact package. However, the meandering closer gives up that production and leans heavily on the children-are-hope trope: An easy way to lose some goodwill.

Ive never been a huge Common fan, but I have also never listening through an entire album. I didnt realize this was basically a Kanye album (production wise). I don't love this album because I just dont love Common. The production is great though.

Excellent sampling and production elevate this album.

I thought this was a good album. At the beginning I wondered whether this had influenced Kanye because of the similar style. Then he came in towards the end. So perhaps that is true. Similar lines about them calling themselves Jesus etc.... Great samples and good beatz

Enjoyed this a lot but found some of the lyrics a little problematic.

very nice socially active album, music is alright i suppose, funny seeing kanye doing things

Pretty groovy stuff.

Listened to on 6/21/22 Favorite song: The Food, Love Is I liked this hip hop album way more than I thought I would due to the easy to understand but clever lyrics

Ah cool. J’ai souvent vu et entendu parler en bien de cet album. Un hip-hop jazz dans la veine de The Roots. J’aime beaucoup. Je vais assurément y revenir.

Kinda sounds like an early Kanye album, pretty enjoyable

Started well and then tailed off towards the end.

Not bad

Not really a fan of Common and I don’t think Kanye’s trademark chipmunk effects have really held up, so I didn’t connect to this. But it’s objectively pretty good stuff regardless. C

The intro was great. Unexpected Kanye Some pretty good hip-hop, I like it.

Much more melodic than the music the guy at the back of the bus was playing yesterday.

Hip-hop. Ni fu ni fa.

Hip-hop. Ni fu ni fa.

Rap & R&B... bueno...

Местами инструментал интересно звучал, что хотя бы как-то выделило альбом, но, в целом, он прошел довольно скучно и однообразно для меня. Выделю трек GO! 5- из 10

good hip hop even if it's not my taste

Yeah not bad. Not great, but not bad either. Just sorta.

J'ai beaucoup apprecié le moment de cet album où La Fouine s'exclame: "Attends attends... C'est la bite à Booba!" Il est vrai que le choix du duc de transmettre un cliché de son sexe dressé à une ratpi pouvait surprendre pour l'époque, à l'heure où les sextos n'étaient encore répandus. Un beau témoignage d'histoire sur l'évolution du digital somme toute.

3.5 + I gave this record a couple listens back in 2005 while living in Chicago. Common seems like the guy who's friends with everyone - tall, handsome, easy-going, always smiling. He's got powerful friends like Kanye who genuinely want him to succeed. There are some nice tracks on this record, and his vibe is generally positive. I especially love the samples on "They Say" and the fact that it features Ahmad Jamal, another Chicago legend. Overall, though, nothing really grabs me - Common's flow is middling and his worldview lacks a certain edge.

I really liked the instrumentals but not his voice.

Rap blandito y melodico. No es mi preferido pero me gusta

a nice listen! it was a different kind of hip hop here. the soul aspect of the album mellowed it out. this sort of soft hop pop was gentle on my ears. it's nice to hear good lyrics without forcing itself down your throat. should be a nice album to revisit!

As I was listening to this album, I kept humorously referring to its genre as "soft hip hop" in my notes; these qualities were no doubt brought on by its close soul and funk ties. For me, these qualities made it all the more enjoyable. In the last decade or so, rap music has mostly migrated away from gangsta rap to a different style of rap. This album predates most of those big names that were part of that cultural shift. Common (and credit where credit is due: his producer, Kanye) were clearly onto something with this sound. Not a big standout for me, but enjoyable to listen to!

OK tier.

Well crafted use of samples and vocalisation, but as a result nothing jumps off the page, although a pleasant listen.

3/16/22

a few of the songs came to be extremely repetitive and annoying but other than those specific songs it was pretty chill. could have been more interesting but it wasn’t awful.

Not bad but I will never listen to it again.

3.5

just alright

Better than the other stuff that I’ve heard by him but I feel like this is the type of album that needs more than one listen to really sink in

Quite a generally good hip hop album - but not the most memorable. Nice find though