Be

I have a master's degree in literature, so surely I should like this? I don't. Boy was that painful. The lyrics are dumb and often sexist, and they're written with the most bland and boring rhymes known to man, sung with the energy of a house plant. Some songs have soul elements, and they're almost good, but there's too much dogshit on this album for it to matter. I did the math.

There were some elements of the album I liked, some of the sound and vibe. But. Once he opened his mouth the whole thing just fell apart for me. I just can't get behind rap. Just can't. I endeavoured through the full album but it's not a good sign to start counting down tracks till it's completed. 4 tracks counted down each one about 3 minutes in length... Then I got to the final (double) track coming in at 8.5 minutes. I could have cried into me steering wheel. EIGHT FRICKING MINUTES. Dear god, never again.

Couldn't finish, too boring. Not my cup of tea. 1/5

favs: they say it’s your world (part 1 & 2) rating 0.8/5

I like rap and am pretty good at math, so have no way of explaining why I didn't like this album. Common is okay (if a little corny), but this is not my fave listening experience.

Not for me

Ah, interesting, blah blah, the foundation of punk, blah blah, provenance, blah blah meh meh.

not my cup of tea to be honest. too many not so tasteful sex references as well lol

pretty bland surface level lyrics with uninteresting instrumentals

Nope. Rapper, Crapper.

He’s a good lyricist but I hated the production of this album, the looping back tracks and the high pitched backing vocals drove me crazy.

Not my thing at all. I did try and finish the album but I didn't.

It is hard to keep talking about the exhausting effect of the looped beat, but trying to avoid it just makes the effect more prominent. Similarly, the thought-terminating cliches of hip hop lyricism shouldn't overshadow some of the clever wordplay on display here, but it does. When the vocalist reiterates the boring old claim that oral sex isn't cheating, it is deflating - okay, you too, Common. I'm sure he doesn't mean it any more than his peers mean every bitch or motherfucker - these are just vocal tics used to extend a metre, versions of um and er. Cliched bravado and machismo is probably much the same and seasoned listeners can ignore them. But, for me, the clangers sound much louder than anything else. I'm sure seasoned listeners have stamina for the looped beats too, never expecting development or progression and just grooving it out. But I am frustrated that all the tension is repeated and there is no release. It's not impossible in the form - it's there in Public Enemy and NWA - but it is largely absent from smooth 21st hip hop and r'n'b. There isn't even a bass drop. Some of the music here is pretty nice, but it doesn't know what to do with that. Go is a good example. The title suggests dynamism. The three-note motif charges it to launch somewhere... but the release of this tension is literally the tune to The Bells of St Clements. I get that what frustrates me are qualities inherent to the style, but that only makes it more frustrating. 1.5 First of all - only 42 minutes long and a big smile on the front cover. Well done Common! Hey other rappers, what’s your problem? Even Will Smith doesn’t smile on the covers of the hour-long ‘Big Willie Style’ and ‘Willenium’. Too ‘cool’ I suppose. I listened to this album while cooking. By the fourth track ‘Faithful’ something like anxiety had materialised in me. This was partly because there were 7 tracks still to go but also because I had begun to think perhaps I had missed a satirical element. Was that the ring of a penny finally dropping on ‘Faithful’ when Common dropped the lines: ‘I was rollin’ around/ in my mind it occurred/ what if God was a her?’ Had the joke been on me? Weren’t the lyrics so far all so conspicuously terrible that surely you were to laugh with Common rather than at him? I pondered this too long and, distracted, burned my olive oil. I had to scrub the pot and start again. My Bucatini all’Amatriciana turned out great in the end. Common turned out to be in earnest. You can see why aficionados of this genre think Kendrick Lamar is James Joyce. 0.5/5

langweilig

0.00 Another album that should be sponsored by Hoover. Because it really sucks.

Not for me.

I have undergrad and post grad degrees in both STEM and humanities so I feel sufficiently qualified to judge this album…. harshly. Vapid, boring, self-congratulatory. Common has nothing to say but says stuff loudly anyway. I hope I never encounter this album again. Be? Should’ve called it Not To Be.

Wow! A second album by baby's bottom soft rapper Common featuring noted lunatic/"racist for clout" (what cursed days have befallen us?) Kanye West. What did I do to deserve this treatment? Unless I black out each night and become a werewolf or some other nocturnal monstrosity that terrorizes nearby villages, I believe I deserve better than quirky hat wearing rap with that disgustingly hollow and tinny 2000's rap production. Don't worry! Nobody will be subjected to essential death metal releases for the late 1980's, we need room for 12 David Bowie albums and TWO albums from the man who seems to be weaker than most of the kids I grew up with in upper middle class Canadian suburbs. At least two, I'm sure this bum will be shouting "go ugh go ugh go go go" into my ears at some dismal day in the future. This website feels like it has a large male demographic, but I implore each of you to imagine what it would be like to have a poorly considered relationship with bald man and have him release a truly dreadful hip-hop song about it. Just imagine the humiliation of hearing "she was freaky like the daughter of a pastor" and it's about you??? That's life-ending stuff. Especially when it leads into the song about Common maybe trying to fuck god if she was a woman. Anyway. It continues on like that. This is rap for people who say they don't usually like rap. 100% watered down drivel that only has eyes for the charts and to please one particular shiny-headed false prophet of Raffi-fied rap muzak feat. John Legend. 1 HIGHLIGHTS: Please cancel my order for that bald cap and puffy hat. Halloween is cancelled.

Nothing

No for me ta

Very smooth, and that’s not really my thing.

I’d never heard of this artist or the album before, and halfway through the first track I caught myself thinking, “This sounds like Kanye… but not in a good way.” Then I checked the credits and, of course, Kanye West is actually on it. I was fully jump-scared when his vocals came in on “The Corner.” And seeing that “Go!” has both Kanye West and John Mayer credited? double homicide.......

I gave it a try. The "music" didn't bother me as much as other hip-hop does. But I couldn't bring myself to listen to more than the first two tracks. 1/5

Not my cup of tea.

I like Common as an actor. Not a huge fan of his music.

Sorry, not listening to this one. Not giving Kanye any streaming royalties.

I liked "The Corner", sound and rhymes, even if for me the lyrics' meaning where hard to understand fully with all the slang words. The rest is too pophipop for me.

vabshe ar momewona gng. iseti album iyo udnercover ragac aravin ro ar icis and it should stay that way. 1/5

Some of the beats/backdrops on this are actually pretty good and mood-evoking - there's more than a hint of soul throughout the album. Bin off the vocals/lyrics and you'd have something that I might chuck on as background music. As it stands, though, this is just absolutely not my thing.

I cant remember what it sounded like I know first track sounded like a gameboy game. I didnt listen to it all, theres a limit to this speech impaired nonsense that I can listen to.

Oh my fucking god. Produziert und arrangiert wie ne B-seiten Sammlung, miese Beats, peinliche Lyrics... Abgrund much?

I'm not racist this is just bad music

Feels 3ish, but per the bylaws, anything featuring Kanye gets an automatic one-star deduction, as does anything produced by Kanye. For the purposes of calculating a final rating, each type of offence must be separately considered and assessed. Hey, I don't make the rules.

"be the owner of more land than is set aside for wildlife" 1 star. You lost me at this random and unnecessary greediness.

Shit

Tired

Not my thing.

Tämä oli täysin tuntematon artisti. Piti hammasta purren kuunnella albumi. Musat ja lähinnä biitti oli parasta antia. En ole mikään puhelaulun, eli räpin ystävä. Liikaa sanoja liian lyhyessä ajassa. Arvosana jäi pieneksi omien rajoitteiden takia. Ei riittänyt kuulijan ymmärrys tämän koukkuihin ja hienouteen.

Generic, personality-free rapping about mundane, overdone subject matter.

I think there might be something wrong with me - i just can’t make sense of records like this. It might be amazing, I just can’t tell. It’s like I can’t hear it. The problem is all mine. Give me three chords, a middle eight and some shouting and I’m all over it. Sorry Common, I bet you’re great, you’re just not what I’m looking for.

Off the cuff remark: I am sure that it says more about me than anything else that I have never heard of Common before - there said it. However that also meant I paid close attention to this album... is it deserving of its' place on this list..? My answer is a fairly resounding no. I can't hear anything different, innovative or even remotely interesting. It's not a genre I am huge familiar with, I'll admit, but this doesn't make me want to be either. Pretty dull overall.

I tried to listen to the album and give it a chance but honestly, It wasn't engaging enough for me. Maybe it's for another time, another me.

¿Qué mierda es esto? ¿Un disco con colaboraciones y el subnormal de Kanye West? Pero de verdad, vamos a tener un poco de gusto...

Niggas smoking shooting and rolling with hoes Yeah, yeah Nothing new or original here, lyrically or musically

Nicht mein Geschmack

More rambling over hip hop beats and soul backing tracks. Just not my cup of tea.

This'll go down like a good drug deal in 'da hood' but for me? Rap is mostly all the same crap! Just cheap sounding as the beats are mostly all the same and derogatory lyrics hence the 'parental advisory' warning. It's just a pity there isn't a zero rating here because that's what I'd give it.

Why do rapper have to say nigger all the time?

Not my thing. I hate rap.

Not a fan

Repetitive instrumentals and looped samples with a constant and relaxed conversational flow, laid-back beats and elements of Soul making this HipHop Soul.

The first track started promising right until Lonnie decided to open his gob and it all went to shit. Only question still remaining is what I hate more, rap or punk. After this rap is winning. (is it winning if you are the most hated or should that be losing?)

Бе

On the count of there - for god's sake go!

Didn’t even listen, heard enough before

Nije mi trebalo dugo da odlučim da mi je ovo neslušljivo. 1/5, 1/10

Rapsy. Ale takie se

No interest.

Hip-hop, 29eme album => 1/5

I am trying to give all of these a fair crack, but there isn’t much of substance here at all. A single interesting track with wonky piano samples going crazy (says here it was produced by - oh wait, never mind), and a load of competent, inoffensive soul samples and slick beats beneath a nothingey rap vocal. The sort of thing you hear, for example, coming from a passing car full of NPCs. It features interesting guests such as The Last Poets and - err, nope, nobody else. It is the sort of album where you cannot wait for it to end, quite literally from the first few seconds of the first track. Also, you have to do Olympic level ear-squinting to not pick up the endless (and I do mean endless) religious messaging. Frankly it’s like being bashed to death with a bible by Reverend Lovejoy.

The Corner

Shite

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH SHITTY HIPHOP IN THIS LIST!

Toinen päivä peräkkäin samanlaista kuraa.

1. be - 1.5 2. corner - 1.5 3. go - 0 4. faithful - 1.5 5. teztify - 0 6. love - 1.5 7. city - 1.5 8. food - 1.5 9. real - 1.5 10. they - 1 11. uuorld - 1.5

Well, I listened to it, except of the last song. I quit that one. Don't feel any better for it though.

Gimme something without Kanye West on it.

Still, I tried, but not my thing.

Kinda groovy, has a good beat, but not our thing. Was enjoying it initially, however, many of thr songs sound similar. Think I'd need to listen a few more times to have a well-rounded impression. - but that, I won't do.

Well it’s Rap Jim but not as we know it. It’s devoid of misogyny, gangster speak, knives and willie references. So that is its favour. If Stevie Wonder was a rapper then maybe it would have sounded like this. But despite Stevie’s undoubted talent any imaginary fusion between him and rap would make no difference to my judgement of this type of music. 1/5 8/2/25

Not my thing

Definitely not for me. Nothing particularly interesting going on.

Bad language

Intro klingt wie ein 80 Nintendospiel. Und dann hört man 90er hiphop. Klingt cool, aber bekommt much nicht.

man, wat is dit voor lijst... heb de indruk dat het 'Listen to these 1001 albums and you surely will die' is... kutalbum!

Not for me.

no

*some music, mostly rap.

The best part of this album was Kanye West.

Not for me

Shit

Great voice. Not my style of music

nah

Not sure why this makes it into the top 1000? Rubbish.

Rap, 2005 -> 1

whatev

Maybe I am just not a rap guy, maybe this album isn't actually this good. Anyways, it's simply a bit boring to listen to, it's like a sip of warm water.

Didn't mind it but quickly became background dull noise. Another "rapper of the month" putting out same dull urban crap.

No

Awful

Rap isn't my thing albums produced by a nobody with a Napoleon complex doubly so

Das ist wirklich nicht meine Musik

Be Common. Fell asleep. It sounded less offensive than other Rap albums when I was awake. But due to its lack of draw on my consciousness. 1 star.

I just don’t like rap and I can’t get any enjoyment from this. Wonder if that’s a Common opinion?

No, this is nothing for me.

Langweilig

Oh no i dont like rap

HipHop / Rap - No!!!!

I gave it a try, but NO to Rap!

Be …leaving

Was ok.

Kanye produced this and I don't want to give him indirect sound scans

Bland.

For rap fans, I’m sure this is great. It’s just not for me.

So far, awful. No discernible vocal or musical talent. Not even listenable. Come on! Just terrible!

Nicht mein Ding

Mmm

I only listened to a couple tunes. Didn't love.

Ok

Listened to only one song .... Glory.. The remainder of the songs I blocked due to explicit content which I chose to restrict.

Not a fan

Bad language

Not my style it is okay

Wasn't my thing. I can tell that the rhythm and lyrics are good, but I don't care for them, and the music wasn't interesting in itself. I honestly didn't even finish this one.

Too much rap

Annoying

i am not in to hip-hop-rap stop posting these to my feed

not into hip hop

First listen, not reading lyrics: 1. Got bored about halfway through and was simply waiting for it to end Second listen, reading lyrics: I'm confused. I barely understood anything, so it will be an unfair rating. Some lines are so stupid that they are hilariously funny but I can't tell if it was intentional. Or how he called himself the black pill, or how he called the cops nazis on a Kanye album, he had no idea this would sound funny in the future. Lyrics didn't help, still a 1.

I gave it a go. Common uses fairly clear dictation, I can understand him better than a lot of rappers. I didn't care for the lyrics. I tried for a few songs until he started talking about if God was a woman. Talking about if he was dating this woman. No thank you.

Not my cuppa

Didn’t like it

Not my cup of tea I’m afraid.

1. nope, still not into rap.

Its a jazz-electro-funk-rap thing and to be honnest its not really my kind of music so i dont find it very good, but its very personal

Not my type of music. Dont ever listen… so it was difficult to sit through

Felt like listening to a Kanye album with less charm. Not bad, just very forgettable

generic rap album не впечатлил абсолютно единственный трек Go! можно более менее слушать, остальное лоуфай на фон МАКСИМУМ

Terrible music, hate it

In my opinion— meh.

Not my music!!!!

Rap,some more interesting underlying music

Another album that has interesting music tracks being overshadowed by gibberish pretending to be edgy and/or poetic.

Nope, I still don't like rap music. I also don't like the collaboration with a celeb antisemite, though one could hardly blame Common for that.

The beats are nice, but the rap part isn't for me

Nope

Not my music..

Didn't liket he first time I listened to Common, didn't like this one, either. Super boring, except when it's annoying.

I've been putting off reviewing this for a few days, mostly because I wanted to find a positive thing to say about it while not offsetting that nice thing with how fundamentally boring it is. The beats are tepid and monotonous. His voice is tepid and monotonous. Yes, I'm sure the flow is there, but man I do not enjoy listening. It's certainly different to have a rapper sample cheesy lounge music, rather than the usual funk, soul and disco staples. Sure enough, this album is reminiscent of one of those torpid 70s flicks about a sales executive for a packaging company having an affair with his secretary. These samples come straight from the scene where he lays in bed smoking while his secretary showers in the hotel en-suite. It's not interesting there and it isn't interesting here.

Rap - I had excluded this from my albums as I absolutely detest it

The beginning was almost promising.. but no, I changed my mind really fast

It's just rap. I hate rap.

Just not into it

Итак, первый альбом из 1001. Прослушал от начала и почти до конца, последние две песни не зашли совсем, перематывал. Всё-таки чикагский хип-хоп и рэп - совсем не мои фавориты среди жанров музыки. Но трек №2 "The Corner" оказался очень даже слушабельным, почему-то прошла ассоциация с саундтреками к игре "Cities XL".

Horible. 1/5

Not for me

not for me, can't relate

No.

nigga this, nigga that...no thanks.

1 1/2

RAP CRAP - awful

Not my style

Did not like... not my jive...

Nope!

No

Meh

Advisory warning made me skip many of the songs.

Buenos sampleos, bien hecho pero nomás no.

La rola uno empieza con un 5, y a partir de las segunda el disco es de cartón. Qué pena. Todo mal hasta la segunda parte de la última canción, que lo que dice está chido pero no le alcanza para más de un 1.5

En efecto comenzó bien solo para rápidamente irse en picada. --...____

Didn't do anything for me.

First time hearing of this artist. Not my jam. I listened to the entire album.