1001 Albums Summary

Great record. Wu-Tang comes out strong on their first album. 90s hip hop just hits the spot in a way that newer entries in the genre just can’t reach.

Common - Be I had only known Common as an actor until I listened to this album. This album came out in 2005 but it feels a lot older. Common is a year older than me so it makes sense that his influences would be 70s-90s rap and hip hop. This album is more melodic than a lot of rap albums I've listened to. It also seems more story oriented than many. Much of his rap feels spoken in a way, which makes me wonder if Eminem was influenced by him. The closing narration sounded a bit like Bill Cobbs but was Lonnie Lynn a former basketball player and poet.

More commentary on American society. Really nice relaxed soul album. Curtis’ falsetto is smooth and invigorating.

This album was ok. It’s hard to fully enjoy a foreign language album. The rhythms and music were very familiar as I played a decent amount of samba and other Latin style music in jazz bands in my time.