2. Common - Be

'Be' by Common is the Chicago born MC's sixth studio album and is the follow up to the wildly unpopular and disappointing 'Electric Circus'. 2002's 'Electric Circus' was admirable in concept: an eclectic hip-hop album produced by The Soulquarians and The Neptunes, but in the eyes of most hip-hop fans (this one included), it just didn't deliver the goods. With this in mind it seems, to me at least, that the MC formally known as 'Common Sense' needed to go back to the drawing board. 


This album see's a pre-superstar Kanye West in the role as executive producer of this project, as a result of Common signing to his newly formed G.O.O.D. Music record label. Mr West handles the bulk of the production  (nine songs out of eleven), whilst frequent Common collaborator and fellow Soulquarians member, J Dilla, provides two stellar track to this near-perfect, modern-day hip-hop classic (wow, there were a lot of hyphenated words in that sentence).


What makes this album so good for me (pun, very much intended), is that it was different from a lot of other hip-hop albums released at the time (note that he's smiling on the cover, try to think of another hip-hop album where the MC is smiling on the front, not brandishing a gun or covered in gold). It's almost entirely produced by one person (something extremely rare in hip-hop these days), contains eleven excellent songs, there are no pointless interludes (which can kill an album for me) and most importantly, Common himself is on top form.


Common is at his very best when he gets introspective and this is demonstrated best on the opening song from 'Be' (which is coincidentally called 'Be') where he raps about wanting to be free, how Bush is 'pushing lines' (an obvious reference to George W. Bush's alleged drug using past) and how the way he can change the world through the way he raises his daughter. The  thing about this track which always gets me in particular is the beginning of it. This song starts with a simple few bass chords, which over the course of a minute, incorporate guitars, piano and then eventually the drums and the violins to make one of the most soulful hip-hop songs I can ever remember. I fucking LOVE this song.


Other huge tracks on 'Be' are 'Go', in which Common details his fantasy of a woman who has 'The body of a dancer' (one can assume this woman is a stripper of some sort), over another great Kanye West production which features 'Yeezy' himself and John Mayer singing 'Go' in regular intervals throughout. This really is a great song. 'Testify is a courtroom drama with a great twist and demonstrates 'Com' flexing his story telling muscles and 'The Food' featuring Kanye on the hook is also a great relaxing, chill out song.


It would also be remiss not to mention the two songs that were produced by the great J Dilla (I'm writing this wearing a Dilla t-shirt now.). 'Love is' and 'It's your world Parts 1&2' fit seamlessly in to the rest of the album. 'Love is' in particular, is a real gem of a song with an amazing Marvin Gaye sample that you could listen to without all of the layers that accompany it. 


To be honest, I could write about this album all day. It is one of my favorite albums of all time and I live in hope that there will be another hip-hop album that this good. This is the first review about one of Common's albums, it certainly will not be the last.


Until tomorrow.....
twitter.com/therealtomsmith
#365Albums


Favorite song: Be