Be

It opens with some bass riffing, it's got me. Great lyrics, superb flow, inventive beats, this album matches the clever defiance of old "conscious" hip hop with the brash thrust and musical vocab of anything that's come since - timeless? I miss old Kanye. Favourite tracks: The Corner, Testify, Love Is..., The Food

Pretty good album but the intro is the best intro song I can remember. 3.5/5 but goes down to 3/5.

I wouldn't have listened to this in a million years, if it weren't for this challenge. It was quite a ride!

Enjoyable. A bit samey

Better actor than rapper

First listen. and I liked it. I also think math is hard, yet I successfully complete it daily. Smooth rap, the lyrics were not for me, but it was still an enjoyable listen.

Great flow. Good background singing and instrumental. Strong lyrics and delivery. I liked this and feel it had a strong base and did a lot with it but I can't point to anything specific that I loved.

Great blend of R&B/Soul and rap. I’m not usually a big fan of modern rap, but I like old school rap like this. It’s like Motown meets rap. Well done, sir!

I didn't think this was too bad, actually. I even enjoyed a couple songs.

chill hiphop

This album was very good! It was cool and laid back. Didn't really seem to do anything GROUND BREAKING for me, but I enjoyed it. All the features throughout were well done (especially Kanye's). The rappers voice is so SMOOTH and the female singer is really really good. Actual rating...3.5 Liked Songs: "Be (Intro)" , "Faithful" , "Testify" , "Love is..." , "Chi-City" , "The Food"

liked songs: Real People, It's Your World This wasn't bad. I liked the songs that had more jazz undertones. I hated The Food; yet again, Kanye proves that he's a shit singer. 2.5

Enjoyed this, quite chilled out hip hop but don't think it stood out massively

I’ve just got an Honours Bachelor of Commerce so what do I know.

Surprised myself in enjoying this album even though this is not my type of rap. I could probably listen to some of these songs again like "The Food"

Not bad. Hadn’t heard of him before. Had some Kanye on there.

I listened to it a couple of times and although nothing really stood out to me I still really enjoyed it. Very nice beats and lyrics. I never listened to this when it came out so it was nice to hear it now. Interesting to hear the track of Common and Kanye on the Dave Chappell Show.

Chill. Bassy and cool, but not my thing

- gute Platte, war ziemlich fix durch irgendwie - insgesamt nice Beats, guter Flow

Liked this more than I thought I was going to. I'd listen again for sure.

Pretty good, very chill nostalgic vibes. Possibly would relisten

Common is very talented and the album was decent for sure

One of my last reviews was a rant about the huge amount of American rap records in this list. This is another case. But on the other hand, I liked this one more than I thought. Good bases, a positive vibe (not an abuse of swearing words and cringe gangsta attitude), and clear singing for a non-native speaker. Not sure if I'll listen to it again, but who knows!

Just not my thing.

Some bangers but some lows too. I thought the good ones were really good but the bad ones were realllyyy bad

really good, extremely underrated as i never heard about it. just gave it a 3 to be consistent. i feel like it deserves a 3.5

It was fine.

Not even the best Common album I've heard. Y'all are acting like it's some great achievement of his when it's really quite mediocre.

Like this more than I thought I would, but I still cringe at some of the language.

No-one can honestly say that there aren't some genres they like less than others. For me Rap is one of those. However, this albun was a very pleasant surprise for me. I can't say that I really heard the lyrics, but I really liked the overall musical sound of it all. I shall listen to this album again

Ok

Technically a great rapper but this music has always left me cold. The best verses on this are by Kanye

7/10 definitely not the typical music id listen to, a few songs I like the sound of and whole album has a nostalgic feel which I really like. Not a huge fan of the kanye participation for obvious reasons but i can appreciate its a greatly produced album

Meh.

Similar in sound, themes and rhythm as other hip hop recordings on this list. It is good to hear this point of view while at the same time maintaining a realization that I am not the audience.

Nice and relaxing

Instrumentals and beats were on point actually.

Seemed reasonably unemarkable to me.

An easy enough listen but I couldnt quite find reason to give 4 stars. Thought it could have been a Jay-Z produced album to begin with but clearly heard Kanye’s influence later in the album. Loved the last track.

Tydelig Kanye produktion. Det her er hiphop messigt mere mig. Det er melodierne som bære oplevelsen. Så det var ret let at komme igennem.

Motown Rap. The more Motown, the better.

Rap/pop sur samples

I've never even heard of this, but then I'm not that well versed in hip hop Got a bit nervous with some Owl City esque sounding keyboards on Be (Intro), thankfully that didn't come back. It's maybe vaguely in the Kanye pop-rap realm (unsurprising since he produced it), where I tend to prefer stuff like ATCQ, MF DOOM, but I like Common's voice enough that it kept me engaged. Kanye is/was pretty genius at sampling too so that helped keep my attention as well To be fair, I am a hipster with a humanities degree so it's unsurprising that I like this Highlights: Go!

Started out promising, but ended up just being OK. Plenty of other 2000s acts blow this out of the water

Background rap influences by tu pac and kanye

Feeling bad I laughed at: "I was rollin around, in my mind it occurred / What if God was a her?" Highlights include: Be(Intro), Testify, Chi-City, The Food - Live, Kanye's verse on They Say Good album, but I am not used to rap lyrics/production being kind of saccharine? I could see this pairing well nice with a sunny day, but some of the lyrics are a bit corny.

great instrumentals great voice thoughtful reflective lyrics nice best tunes: go!, faithful, love is..., chi-city, real people

My first Rap LP listen, ever! The samples give BE a 70's vibe. I like this. Some off the song ends are super cold. Strong; The Corner & They Say

I know who Common is but not much about his music. I did not realize how long he's been around. On this one, Common has a smooth voice and there was a nice groove that seemed to run through the whole album. Ye produced and it sounds good. He definitely had some talent back when he was still on his meds. Definitely a good way to spend some time and worth a listen.

I appreciated this, but nothing on the album really got its hooks into me on a first listen. It seems like an album that would reward multiple listens, though. Hope to return to this in the future.

Hooked me at the start with the Intro's heavy groove of 70's soul. Unfortunately, that influence seemed to wane as the album went on.

Once is enough

Generic

Good chill hip hop, but of Kanye mixed in with him in his prjme. 3.2

Quite nice, quite pleasing, but nothing absolutely new.

Not bad, but not an album that belongs on a list of the best 1001 albums of all time, either. 3/5

I think someone in the comments referred to Common as someone who writes “dad rap”? Is that true? I’m not a dad, I’m not even a guy, but I didn’t mind this album. It was easy to listen to, because there wasn’t a bunch of cussing and yelling. Will I listen again? No. Did I listen to the whole thing? No. But the fact that I listened beyond the first song is really saying something, because I don’t like rap. And you know what, I don’t care if that makes me “uncool” or “a wet blanket” or “no fun at parties.” I know my truth.

I never considered myself a fan of Common. I’m not a fan of hip-hop or rap in general, but for some reason I specifically never liked Common. I think it might have been back when Glory from the movie Selma won for Best Original Song at the Oscar’s, which felt like it won because it was close to Eric Garner’s death, as well as the Oscars So White controversy. I remember hearing the song and thinking it was ridiculous that the song won since it was basically just a chorus repeating the word Glory over and over again. Now this was a decade ago, so I was younger and stupider, but it made me think Common was this straight edge, social justice rapper who was more notable for his activism than his songs. I was low key dreading doing this album as it popped up. Fortunately, this was not as bad as I thought it would be. However, I wouldn’t call it great. The album has great production and it’s nice to hear Kanye West before he completely lost his mind. And I didn’t know John Legend was singing around 2005. I mean, I was nine at the time this came out and I really didn’t know John Legend until All of Me. I know, I’m really ignorant. Anyway, most of the album is good Chi-rap. It covers all the bases lyrically; rapping about the problems facing the black population in Chicago with a semi-positive outlook. Most of it is good, but nothing particularly mind-blowing. And Common does like rapping about the cops a lot. I mean, I sympathize with him, but it’s a little repetitive. Overall, this wasn’t bad. I take back that beef I had with Common a decade ago. Favorite track: They Say Other hits: Faithful, Testify, It’s Your World, Go!

Decent outing.

Kanye DNA. nearly 20 years later it's still solid.

Pretty solid outing this one. I enjoyed this after having never really listed to common before. Can hear the Kanye influence for sure. 3.5

The beats are nice

Buena intro, me gusto mucho la primer canción. La segunda y tercera, también están bien, cumplen, pero fuera de eso no tengo nada más para destacar, en general me pareció bastante meh.

It's fine but I don't have a lot to remember or say about it. 5/10

decent but nothing special, a standard rap album

Cool stuff. Not so common after all.

Probably should be a 4. I enjoyed it but don't see myself going back to it.

I know this one is considered an R&B classic but I just couldn't get into it

7/10

Is that - wait - yes it is - *wholesome vibes* I hear coming from these hiphop tunes? I will never be a hiphop convert, but I can appreciate these beats much more than their vulgar counterparts.

I like most of the songs, but wouldn’t want to own the album which is what makes it a 5 for me. I would skip a few of the lesser known songs.

i think if i had been way into this at the time I'd probably love it, but as it stands it's just fine

Great album, not usually a fan of hip hop and rap but this was poignant, varied, and sounds great

At first i thought it wouldve been amazing because i previously knew the first few songs, but i feel like it was just okay overall.

I'm not honestly the best judge of rap but I enjoy the complexities of the backing tracks. I'd give it a solid three stars. Got a nice groove but I didn't find myself liking any of the songs for repeat listening.

Other than "Testify", it's a decent album. Testify is a pretty bad song though.

Pretty good

Unaufgeregter Rap welcher in seiner ruhigen Art zu gefallen weiss.

One of the most innofensive rap album I've heard. Good tracks, but nothing's really awesome either.

This was a very good album, but I can't say any tracks was a total stand-out or will stay with me for a long time. Still, a pleasant listen and the beats were nice!

This is definitely it’s not you it’s me. But also didn’t hate it.

Beats

I've kind of always liked Common, but I've also never really listened to him. His rhymes are very deliberate, at times this can be cool, but it can also get sort of boring. Still liked this album, but I'm not going to put that many of these songs on a playlist. Best Song: Chi-City Worst Song: Love is...

Nothing stuck with me on this album.

Nothing mind-blowing, but some killer lyrics/production and pretty consistently solid. 3.5/5

Good hip hop, a little aged but good lyric and samples.

I appreciate it but just not my thing

I am the wrong guy to be rating rap/hip hop. I’ll just say this seems quite adequate for the genre.

The Corner was a good jam. The rest was a little heavy handed with the social messages

3.36

Good, but nothing stand out to me. No track rattles around my head afterwards

It was alright

Good production but likely won't relisten.

när det rappas är det jävligt bra men sen kommer töntiga soulbitar emellanåt. en stark trea

3.75

ganz nett mal zwischendurch zu hören

Another rap album, a genre I don't really care for. But I listened to it three times and I kind of like some aspects of it. Rap delivery always seems quite samey to me, and I guess the critical thing here is whether one can go with the lyrics and gain from them. To some extent, that's going to be (at least in part) dependent on the cultural references. One thing I'm really not able to form an opinion about is the extent to which this album was influential on other artists.

Never got the hype surrounding this, I thought he peaked with Like Water for Chocolate. Once he dropped the Sense he was really just Common...YEAHHHHHHHHH

ну опять же, классный и мелодичный, но мне нехватает времени и языковой беглости понять его на 100% поэтому середнячок

This will be my second, and subsequently last, Common album to review. I really didn't care for Like Water for Chocolate, so I don't have high hopes for this Be. However, I see that Be clocks in at just over 40 minutes, which is considerably shorter than Like Water for Chocolate's runtime, so that's already a big positive. Let's see what this is all about. Well, I'm not a STEM guy, but this album wasn't really my jam. From an objective standpoint, I think it's good, but I didn't really enjoy listening to it. The album has a really cohesive feel to it, and the production work and beats were really good, but nothing really hooked me in. The songwriting was pretty good, and there were some clever lyrics, but I'm just not a big fan of Common's rapping. I don't think he's bad, he's just not my cup of tea, and I wish that wasn't the case. This album was fine, but it's not the sort of thing I'd listen to again.

oh yeah. The Kanye West production is pretty clear. This era of hip hop is not always my favorite, but I can just imagine this playing at a bar and it would bang. Okay but Faithful is amazing. I really do like this, I'm just not the biggest fan of this sound. Maybe it will grow on me more

Kind of a Kanye album with a worse rapper. Some good tunes but it proves that Kanye is kind of the talent here

Solid stuff!!! Think I’ve heard this before but enjoyed it. Kanye makes great beats unfortunately!

Gorgeous vocals over Tom and Jerry type beats

Very chill, but not a masterpiece

stands out for being a thousand times less gross than most of the hip hop on this list

Beats are AWESOME. I'd listen to a worse rapper with these beats tbh. 2005 Kanye complaining about the media LOL Fav Track - GO!

I like how he looks more than his music

Liked the arrangements, production, and sampling (thanks, Kanye?) but the songs didn’t grab me.

I get a little annoyed with people praising Common for being conscious rap. He’s not that different from a lot of other rap artists. There was one song maybe on here where he mentions police violence. The rest of it was just 00s-era hip hop, nothing special. I do like Testify and The Food. The rest was common.

enjoyable

Solid collection of tracks. Flow and beats were easy to listen to. A decent album overall.

I didn't listen to much of this. Wasn't bad...not really my thing though. 3/5

This album was a disappointment. It started strong, but the quality faded fast for me. I needed more Common and less Kanye here. Liked Songs Added: - Be (Intro) - The Corner

No tenía ni idea de su existencia. Empieza bien al menos. Me he guardado un par de canciones GO! y Faithful. No sé si lo volveré a escuchar, hay tanta música pendiente, pero debería.

I'm sure I might have heard this before, but it is catchy.

Never heard of this, Kanye and Dilla on production, rooted in 70's soul. I would say it's very consistent, but not monotonous.

I preferred this one to “Like Water for Chocolate,” just a vibe.

Better than expected. Felt more genuine.

"As high as the stakes get when paper get low..." I liked this one significantly more than Like Water for Chocolate. Reasonable runtime (not bloated) and a nice sound, with nothing I strongly disliked. Interesting sounds on "Be (Intro)." I also liked "Testify." I might return to this one, maybe. I believe there have been references to the film The Matrix in both of the Common albums that have come up here (here in "They Say"), which makes me think Common saw it and was obsessed. Maybe that was all of us for a time after 1999.

Pretty nice experience however some songs are repetitive.

Not bad

Good

You can tell Kanye west produced this album. Very 2005

This wasn't too bad, but just I can't shake the feeling that this is just a 2pac wannabe

Worth a listen. I liked the jazz sound. While listening I thought he sounded a bit like Kanye and then yesus appeared. Decent hip hop 6/10

Great lyrics

A nice, upbeat album for a sunny day. Totally fine but fairly unremarkable.

Great vibe and lyrics. Just not my thing.

Nice soulful hip-hop. A classic and while it’s not the greatest of its era, it definitely enhanced it.

Too much Kanye in 2024 but setting that aside this album is really solid. Common's lyrics are personal but still really interesting and creative. The beats are fantastic because whatever else you can say about Kanye (a lot), the dude could make a beat.

3 - It was okay, but a little bit generic for me

Chill hip hop that still maintains an edge.

Very accessible. Buttery smooth flow and no edges to take offense at, but I don't see any highlights either. Everything drifts along and hardly anything sticks. The lo-fi to gospel to jazz beats are nice. 3.5/5

Not really sure what it was meant to be

Don't know what to expect here, but I like the bass intro on the first track. If I had to guess I'd say jazz, but the Parent Advisory warning, tell me otherwise. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We'll see. Hm I like it. It's rap but not the shitty kind. 3 Stars

Interesting religious theme to some of the songs. Otherwise, it sounds like so many of the others.

It was fine.

Sorprendente.

Earnest

I didn't object to this. I knew the name but couldn't name a song when it came up. Turns out to be fairly proficient middle of the road hip hop from early 2000's. Less of the misogyny and gun, more of the grove and flow.

good as far as rap goes

It was good, some would say (un)Common(ly) good

Hip hop albums always tend to [[be]] the hardest ones for me to review. I figure I've talked about this [[be]]fore, but just in case: I'm a melody girl. It's always what I tend to focus on, more than anything else. Like, I hafta **really** love an album or something to really pay much mind to its lyrics—and even then... The point [[be]]ing, anyway, that when I listen to hip hop albums, I'm mostly focusing on the beats and how the flow interacts with them. It's missing the point of the genre to not pay mind to the words, I know, but that's just how I [[be]]. And these, by man I've many times now expressed my dislike for Kanye West... Are fine. "The Corner" has the best best, and then the rest are just fine. Not even Dilla's beat wows me that much, surprisingly. So... I guess I'm at a 3? I'unno. If I allowed myself the time to really dig into and analyze the words, maybe I could rate it higher, bit with my autistic and undiagnosed ADHD ass... This is the best I can do. Take it or, I'unno, let it [[be]].

This is my first time hearing Common as a recording artist, I enjoyed the album.

Not a fan of this genre, but still gave a listen. I much prefer reading the lyrics. Call me crazy. Call me old.

I have never listened to Common before but this album was very enjoyable. It has a really chill vibe that's great.

solid album

Quite liked this.

Whatever.

Not too bad. Pretty good. The religious references really bring it down. For me anyway.

nice hip hop grooves, produced by Kanye. Not one I'll go back to very often though. 67/100

Really like the sampling and beats. I like the more laidback hip hop, it gets less repetetive than the gangster thing though the laidback stuff still hits the themes as any other laidback hip hop(from the hood,love family, God, bad habits, still hard but gentle, protect his daughter) It's a nice album, nothing groundbreaking but nice

High 2

Some people really like Common. I am not one of those people. Solid effort, his lyricism just doesn't work for me on a consistent enough basis to warran more stars.

2.9/5 listened 2x. good but nothing to come back to listen to.

Really well produced, not very exciting though.

Some songs have some real nice samples and instrumentation, like the intro, Real People and It's Your World. I don't even mind John Legend while I usually find him a try-hard.

Not my thing.

Not my bag but pretty goo. Common is a great actor, too.

Dope beats and lyricism, positive vibe, don’t love it

"I wanna be a duck!"

The first couple of seconds made me think that this was going to be funkier than it turned out to be .. it’s a cool 2000s hip hop album .. just not my cuppa tea.

Surprised how turned off I am by the Kanye-stank that's all over this, start to finish. Past that, there are some nice soul samples, but Kendrick and others have spoiled the rap game too much for me to really get into this. It's a 2.5 for me.

Kinda groovy

I just didn't get into it. The first song intrigued me, but then I couldn't make it to the end.

Not something I would normally listen to but really enjoyed it. Closer to a 4 than a 2.

Thoughtful lyrical oldheads unite 💯 This is solid, it’s a good, summation of what Common is all about. Except there’s so much Kanye on here. Constantly. Hard working 3

3.5

Not something I would normally listen to, but wasn't bad.

Outside my usual wheelhouse but I enjoyed it. A strong 3. “I’m back like a chiroprac’”

This is the kind of rap that makes me want to try more rap. Probably not something I would listen to very often, though.

Common's kinda mid, sort of average.

Not my thing but didn’t actually mind it. Catchy and smooth.

This was an okay album, and every song sounded like it would playing during a cinematic shot of Las Vegas in a movie, or towards the end credits. I would say that it was maybe below average, but it was okay.

My 10-y.o. came home while I was listening to this and needed to comment "There's a lot of swears in that."

Meh

Not bad.

Ok

Common! I had never heard his music but knew him from Hell on Wheels and Silo. Decent.

Some decent tracks, good production. He's a good rapper even though I've hardly listened to him.

Pretty not bad

Was okay. Kanye and John Legend made this much better. 3/5

At first I thought it would be a cheesy 2000s album, but it got better as I listened. I thought it did a good job at portraying social economic issues within the US and especially challenges that African Americans face. The end was inspiring, and well executed.

Really solid. Chill with great flow

OK

It's fine. Not great.

I shouldn't have read who the producer was before listening to the album because I love Kanye's style and it definitely contributed to a higher rating. It's a solid album but it doesn't really stand out. I kinda wish someone else was rapping. Not a fan of the lyrics as well.

I wonder if Common still fucks with Kanye

Not a rap fan, but when done well it is good listening, and this was done well. Done very well in fact. I really enjoyed it. Musically it wasn't what I would expect to be with those vocals, but as a whole, they actually fitted very well. Would I buy it probably not, but you never can tell. And a very high 3 it is.

The intro on “The Food” really didn’t age well, did it? I had a Common album a couple months ago. It was long and pretty forgettable from what I recall. I also questioned some of the lyrics that seemed homophobic in nature. This is better. I didn’t hear anything that was controversial but I might’ve missed something. I did enjoy the part where he questioned how he would treat God if God was a woman. I thought that was a step up from the stuff I’d heard on the last album in terms of self awareness and open mindedness. Some of the instrumentals here are really fantastic. Whether they were samples or original, I don’t know. But I really could groove to some of them and that’s always a plus. I do think he gets a little self important and vain at times (he compares himself to Jesus at one point…? Or at least someone does; surprised it wasn’t Kanye honestly…). Overall this was a good listen. He’s got a lot to say, and evidence of growth is always welcomed. Three stars. Standout tracks: Testify, Chi-City, Real People

This was a pleasant enough listen but a bit too pop-rap to be truly mind-blowing for me.

A good album, not my usual style of music but I really liked it.

This is a great record. Very easy to listen to for the non-hip-hop folk as I think I am. Really it prob /should/ be a 4 star rating but it loses a point for being so over-the-top Kanye. I feel like this is an OK Kanye record that has Common on it sometimes haha

Super produziertes Album: aber mehr als einen Song dieses EVERY-TIME-GOOD-FEELINGS_VIBE-SONGS auf einmal halte ich meist nicht aus.

I like that his lyrics are more centered around promoting social justice and personal growth as opposed to just booty, bling and drugs. Super refreshing when he emerged back when and the beats stand the test of time.

I feel # #this is a slow burn. It’d probably take a few listens to really appreciate it. That being said, I listened to it once and have some initial reactions. This definitely feels dated, I didn’t look up when it came out but I’d guess around 2004. It’s definitely backpack rap, that’s not a bad thing, but that style just gets old after a while. It can be a bit preachy, focusing more on the message than the music. And that message oriented music across an entire album can be exhausting. Plus sometimes it veered into corniness. The beasts were pretty solid, some songs sounded like they were produced by Kanye, or a copycat, but this was definitely a Chicago album so I’d be willing to bet Kanye worked on it. Overall an enjoyable album that I won’t be throwing on all that often.

Yeah some of this was pretty OK.

It was alright, but i'm not big on 2000s rnb so it just wasnt for me

Flows quite smoothly, but not overly interesting.

This was okay, but I just couldn't get into it. It was like a spoken word fusion of jazz and rap. I admit that my mindset wasn't the best for listening to this style of music. I was distracted and couldn't give it the attention that it deserved.

Nice rap

Paia. Deve ser bom, mas não tava no momento

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.