Common - Be
Album of the Week
Date - 2005-06-26 00:00:00
I first saw Common back at the beginning of freshman year. He put on a show on our residential quad in front of about 90 people who could care less. It was an unfortunate spectacle and made me somewhat dismissive of him as an artist. What a huge mistake. Sometime at the end of freshman year it came to my attention that Common was really talented. He has incredible flow and his material is full of actual substance. On top of this, he has a real classic approach to hip-hop, with his samples usually coming from 70's soul and jazz, making his sound more in line with Tribe Called Quest... though much more modern. Anyways, I have a few beefs with his latest album, Be, but he does do a lot of things right and overall this album is definitely worth listening to.
Track one, "Be", is incredible. It starts out with a tentative bass riff that sounds like it was pulled straight from a Miles Davis CD. The bass gets going, and before you know it, you're bobbing your head. Then the synth kicks in, a wonderfully classic, low-fi sounding synth that plays a perfectly complimentary riff. By the time the strings kick in to make the beat complete, you are already enveloped in the song. The rapping is perfect and the one complaint is that the song is too short. I know sometimes good songs feel like they are over in a second, but this song really is about two and a half minutes. This is one of my major beefs with this album - it is too short. There are only eleven tracks, all of them ranging from really short to short. The whole disc does not even last long enough for my drive to work. While this does mean I get to hear track one again, it is still pretty annoying.
I thought tracks two and three were pretty good in their own right, but not as good as "Be". Track two is entitled "The Corner", and I believe it is the first single. The name of the game here is substance, and this song has it in spades. It is also the first song of many on this album to have the fingerprints of Kanye West all over it. Kanye does a good job producing this album, but it seems that he might need a bit more variety in his beats. Then again, I do not think producers should be identifiable on listening to a song, but that is not necessarily a bad thing in a heavily produced genre such as hip-hop. What I'm saying is I don't know if it is good or bad. Regardless, track two is tight, and track three, "Go!", is oozing with sex and John Mayer(!). As if the two are not interchangeable to begin with. Regardless, the beat is cool, the song is sexual lyrically and musically, and Common's flow again shows itself to be very strong.
It's at this point that things pretty much fall apart. Common shows flashes of brilliance and Kanye does his thing but the album pretty much falls into averageness, at least by the high standards I have for Common. Track 8's "The Food" is pretty cool, and it is taken directly from a performance for the Dave Chappelle Show, which is a neat idea. The performances on that show are not live, but they are not recorded in a formal studio, so this track is a contrast to the rest of the album's in-the-studio sound. Tracks 6 and 7 are kind of boring, track 5 is cheesy, track 4 is way too short... Common just could not put together a full album, despite the brevity of the tracks he put on it. The album seems to end strongly with track 11 ("It's Your World"), a full circle kind of thing, with kids talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up (Be? Get it? "Be"?!), but unfortunately there is a long, stupid, Baz Luhrmann-esque monologue by some deep voiced guy that totally kills the innocent understatings of this track.
Damnit, now I'm worked up. The thing is, the album is excellent when you compare it to something like Jay-Z, but it falls short when compared to something like Talib Kweli or Outkast - the beats are not varied enough, the imprint of Kanye West is almost too much, the lyrics are a bit heavy-handed at times, and the songs are too short. Despite all this, I have to admit that I like this album and will listen to it again. Track one is amazing and makes the whole experience worth it on its own. Adding in the good moments through the rest of the album, and I have to give this album a 7.5 out of 10. I recommend this album to anyone who is interested in the more intelligent and interesting side of hip-hop, and again, I strongly recommend "Be", because that song is the shit.
Track one, "Be", is incredible. It starts out with a tentative bass riff that sounds like it was pulled straight from a Miles Davis CD. The bass gets going, and before you know it, you're bobbing your head. Then the synth kicks in, a wonderfully classic, low-fi sounding synth that plays a perfectly complimentary riff. By the time the strings kick in to make the beat complete, you are already enveloped in the song. The rapping is perfect and the one complaint is that the song is too short. I know sometimes good songs feel like they are over in a second, but this song really is about two and a half minutes. This is one of my major beefs with this album - it is too short. There are only eleven tracks, all of them ranging from really short to short. The whole disc does not even last long enough for my drive to work. While this does mean I get to hear track one again, it is still pretty annoying.
I thought tracks two and three were pretty good in their own right, but not as good as "Be". Track two is entitled "The Corner", and I believe it is the first single. The name of the game here is substance, and this song has it in spades. It is also the first song of many on this album to have the fingerprints of Kanye West all over it. Kanye does a good job producing this album, but it seems that he might need a bit more variety in his beats. Then again, I do not think producers should be identifiable on listening to a song, but that is not necessarily a bad thing in a heavily produced genre such as hip-hop. What I'm saying is I don't know if it is good or bad. Regardless, track two is tight, and track three, "Go!", is oozing with sex and John Mayer(!). As if the two are not interchangeable to begin with. Regardless, the beat is cool, the song is sexual lyrically and musically, and Common's flow again shows itself to be very strong.
It's at this point that things pretty much fall apart. Common shows flashes of brilliance and Kanye does his thing but the album pretty much falls into averageness, at least by the high standards I have for Common. Track 8's "The Food" is pretty cool, and it is taken directly from a performance for the Dave Chappelle Show, which is a neat idea. The performances on that show are not live, but they are not recorded in a formal studio, so this track is a contrast to the rest of the album's in-the-studio sound. Tracks 6 and 7 are kind of boring, track 5 is cheesy, track 4 is way too short... Common just could not put together a full album, despite the brevity of the tracks he put on it. The album seems to end strongly with track 11 ("It's Your World"), a full circle kind of thing, with kids talking about what they wanted to be when they grew up (Be? Get it? "Be"?!), but unfortunately there is a long, stupid, Baz Luhrmann-esque monologue by some deep voiced guy that totally kills the innocent understatings of this track.
Damnit, now I'm worked up. The thing is, the album is excellent when you compare it to something like Jay-Z, but it falls short when compared to something like Talib Kweli or Outkast - the beats are not varied enough, the imprint of Kanye West is almost too much, the lyrics are a bit heavy-handed at times, and the songs are too short. Despite all this, I have to admit that I like this album and will listen to it again. Track one is amazing and makes the whole experience worth it on its own. Adding in the good moments through the rest of the album, and I have to give this album a 7.5 out of 10. I recommend this album to anyone who is interested in the more intelligent and interesting side of hip-hop, and again, I strongly recommend "Be", because that song is the shit.
I've been aware of Common for a while. I guess ever since he came to play at Fall Fest at Tufts freshman year, and I downloaded some of his stuff off Napster beforehand (remember Napster?)
I never really listened to him though, so I was interested to check out this album. Well, it's another album I really liked. It's just... smooth. Mellow and upbeat, a pleasure to listen to. Kanye West is heavily featured. I wish there were more tracks.
This first track, "Be", is excellent... great flow, catchy beat, I wish it was longer. "The Corner" is good as well, it's the kind of song you subconsciously nod your head to while listening. The third track is "Go" (feat. John Mayer)... I didn't dig this song as much, but again it's smooth. I wasn't a huge fan of "Faithful" at first either, but it grew on me a bit, very souful song. "Testify" is another catchy song... it almost reminds me of a Fatboy Slim song somehow, with a rap track dubbed over it.
Track 6, "Love Is", is definitely one of my favorite tracks on the album. It reminds a lot me of "The Light" (if you're familiar at all with Common). "Chi City" is next, it has sort of a 70's funk-feel to it, another of my favorites. "The Food" (feat. Kanye), they chose to use the live version from the Chapelle Show... I don't think it takes anything away from it, the song is awesome.
Track 9, "Real People", is a more jazzy type of song, another one that grew a lot on me. "They Say" was probably my least favorite song, it just didn't really stand out to me at all. The album finishes up with a two-part track, "It's Your World". Great finishing track, really wraps up the album nicely.
Again, I wish there were a few more tracks on here, but it's a great listen, whether you have it on as smooth background music or turned way up. I was definitely impressed.
The verdict: 8/10
I never really listened to him though, so I was interested to check out this album. Well, it's another album I really liked. It's just... smooth. Mellow and upbeat, a pleasure to listen to. Kanye West is heavily featured. I wish there were more tracks.
This first track, "Be", is excellent... great flow, catchy beat, I wish it was longer. "The Corner" is good as well, it's the kind of song you subconsciously nod your head to while listening. The third track is "Go" (feat. John Mayer)... I didn't dig this song as much, but again it's smooth. I wasn't a huge fan of "Faithful" at first either, but it grew on me a bit, very souful song. "Testify" is another catchy song... it almost reminds me of a Fatboy Slim song somehow, with a rap track dubbed over it.
Track 6, "Love Is", is definitely one of my favorite tracks on the album. It reminds a lot me of "The Light" (if you're familiar at all with Common). "Chi City" is next, it has sort of a 70's funk-feel to it, another of my favorites. "The Food" (feat. Kanye), they chose to use the live version from the Chapelle Show... I don't think it takes anything away from it, the song is awesome.
Track 9, "Real People", is a more jazzy type of song, another one that grew a lot on me. "They Say" was probably my least favorite song, it just didn't really stand out to me at all. The album finishes up with a two-part track, "It's Your World". Great finishing track, really wraps up the album nicely.
Again, I wish there were a few more tracks on here, but it's a great listen, whether you have it on as smooth background music or turned way up. I was definitely impressed.
The verdict: 8/10