Track Listing

1. Be (Intro)
2. The Corner
3. Go!
4. Faithful
5. Testify
6. Love Is...
7. Chi-City
8. The Food
9. Real People
10. They Say
11. It's Your World

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11974 in Music
• Released on: 2005-05-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com
Though heralded as an instant hip-hop classic by some, Common's Be doesn't quite live up to the hype, though it is still has several strengths going for it. Compared to the esoteric themes and production of his last album, Electric Circus, Be is far more grounded in street-level beats and rhymes, especially on songs like "The Corner" and "Real People"--Common's odes to personality and places 'round the way. At only 11 songs, this is a very compact album, both a blessing and curse by keeping the pacing brisk but it also amplifies weaknesses like the syrupy crossover attempt, "Go," or overly sentimental "Love Is." Production by Kanye West and Jay Dee is uniformly strong and it lends a consistency that is essential for such a relatively short album. It is worth noting that Common and Kanye's chemistry is especially well matched. -- Oliver Wang

Customer Reviews

Common definitely shows what a hip hop classic should "Be".
Common Sense has been around for awhile. He has always been known for having good rap lyrics and for having pretty good CDs. I was first introduced to Common on a track entitled "Take It EZ". This track was pretty good and although I had heard the CD, I never purchased "Can I Borrow A Dollar?" Common's next CD, "Resurrection", was also pretty good. "I Used To Love H.E.R." gave Common new found respect and he also bumped heads with the infamous Ice Cube. The title track was also a good track as well. From there, Common would release, "One Day It Will All Make Sense" and once I heard the track with him and Lauryn Hill, "Retrospect For Life", I then decided that it was time to purchase a Common CD. The CD was pretty good and I liked Common's versatility with his lyrics as well as a track with him and Erykah Badu entitled "All Night Long". His next CD, "Like Water For Chocolate" spawned "The 6th Sense" produced by the great DJ Premier and his best commercial song to date, "The Light" featuring Bilal.

At this time, Common was dating neo soul singer Erykah Badu and this would influence him on his next CD, "Electric Circus". This CD was unlike any other CD that Comon had released to date. The vibe seemed to be real mellow and you could tell that Common was "in love". However, I also thought that Common just wanted to try something different. Rappers seem to be afraid to step outside of their box for some reason. Although, Common had a hit with Mary J. Blige entitled "Come Close", many Common fans thought that he had lost his "fire" when it came to his lyrics and his overall style.

I have to admit that I had doubts but I knew that Common was just one moment away of proving me wrong and all of the nonbelievers wrong as well. That moment would come on Kanye West's "College Dropout" CD. Ladies and gentleman, if you have not heard this verse please go buy Kanye's CD IMMEDIATELY!

Common spits nothing but flames on a song with him, Talib Kweli and Kanye entitled "Get 'Em High". My nonbelieving ended at that moment. Then at the end of a Dave Chappelle episode on Season 2, Common and Kanye performed a song that I would later find out was called "The Food" and Common ripped that track as well. I knew after those 2 moments was that the Common that I had known all of this time was still here. Once I found out that Common had signed to Kanye West's label, GOOD Music, (Getting Out Our Dreams), I knew that Common was here to stay and that his best music was yet to come.

Now some people can argue that "Resurrection" is better but in my opinion "Be" is the best CD that Common has released to date. The buzz was started early on this CD with the first single, "The Corner". Kanye is featured on the chorus with The Last Poets and Common tells you about the streets of Chitown and the streets in general over 3 quality verses. On the next single, "GO!", Common, Kanye West and John Mayer, YES John Mayer, collaborated on this track after they had seen the movie Ray. The final product has Common going through a slew of what we will just call "Fantasies". Common is very clever with his lyrics and wordplay and "GO!" ends up being a brilliant choice as a second single. On "Faithful", common goes back to his "Electric Circus" side but he is breaking down plenty of points of views at the same time as he wonders if he would treat women differently if God was to be known as a woman instead of a man. After hearing this song a couple of times, you may even change your train of thought about women in general. "Faithful" also contains John Legend and Bilal on the voclas as well. "Testify" is definitely one of the best songs on this CD as Common takes you through a brilliant tale of deception about a case. This woman that is distraught over her man being charged with serious crime deceives everyone about her actions and as Common ends the track youeventually find out that she is the one that actually committed the crime, AKA the Queenpin as Common calls her. "Love Is" will remind alot of people of "Come Close" without Mary J Blige actually being on the song. The track is still brilliant as Common still isn't afraid to express his sensitive side eventhough Ms. Badu is now out of the picture. "Chi City" demonstrates how Common is still one of the best lyricists in the game as he rips the Kanye beat to shreds. DJ A- Trak and DJ Dummy deserve an A+ for the scratches on the track as well. "They Say" features Kanye and John Legend on the track as the three collaborate well together. This song seems as if this will be the next single if there is a 3rd single on "Be". "Real People" and "It's Your World" have Common tackling alot of issuses and he has you thinking about what he is saying at the same time.

There is nothing negative that I can say about this CD at all. Common could have had more than 11 songs on this CD, that is true but if he would have had 15 tracks on this CD and 4 of them weren't good like many artists do today then it's just like having 11 quality tracks. Now Common could have included the slammin' "The Corner (Remix)" with Mos Def & Scarface but that's another story. Simply put this is Common at his best. If you do not have "Be" in your music collection, it will be hard for me to call you a real fan of rap and hip hop music in general. You can also catch Common on Kanye West's "Jesus Walks (Remix)" with Mase and on a nice track with Kanye and Malik Yusef entitled "Would You Like To Ride" which cleverly uses a nice A Tribe Called Quest sample.

James' Top 5
THIS IS A REAL HARD TOP 5 SONGS TO PICK BUT I WILL TRY:

1) The Corner
2) Testify
3) GO!
4) Chi City
5) The Food or Real People

Don't call it a comeback....
Wow, Common's "Be" is such a monumental comeback after "Electric Circus". For as much as "Electric Circus" sucked, that's how good "Be" is. This is truly a four or five star album.

This is Common back at what he does best. Dusty, authentic, scratchy, old 70's R&B/Jazz samples with straight-ahead rapping. Tremendous production from Kanye West gives us some of the best beats heard on a newer hip hop album.

This has a great atmosphere to it, a tight compact theme. This is taking hip hop back a few years, but that's fine because there hasn't been a whole lot of outstanding hip hop in the last few years. This one sounds like it'll age nicely. Highly recommended.

Modern Urban Griot
Common - Be

I've recently just crossed the last genre boundary in my musical universe. I've become an unabashed and passionate hip hop head. After years of ignoring or actively hating the music, I'm just clicking with hip hop in a way I never have before. Perhaps it's living in Brooklyn, one of the great hip hop centers in the country, or working with young people and staying "relevant" but a music that I couldn't take for a long time is now one of my favorites. I like it all...underground, gansta, and mainstream. And of all the mainstream MCs Chicago's Common may be my favorite.

Common is often considered a "socially conscious" MC. Basically this means he's deep in the tradition of black urban griots typified by the Last Poets and Gil Scott Heron. Common's material is taken from the streets of South Side Chicago, Stoney Island Ave and Cottage Grove especially. But his view of black city life is deeper than most gansta rappers. Though there is crime and violence in Common's lyrics, these are transcended by themes of love, self-determination and deep honesty. Be represents a return by the MC to form and perhaps even his strongest CD to date. Be features productions by Kanye West and the late great Jay Dilla. Kanye in particular give his particular lush production to the CD. Kanye may indeed be the Phil Spector of Hip Hop and your response to his work may be tempered by your feeling about Spector's wall of sound. Kanye reaches for something similar, which smooths out the edges of this work. Still, it's impressive work and fits Common's updated 70s imagery well.

This CD is short but packed with powerful songs, stories and images. Highlights include the opening track, with a marvelous instrumental by Kanye that mixes funky seventies jazz and funk with a lyric that mix social commentary and spirituality. The Corner actually features members of the Last Poets in a poetic picture of life in a Bronxville corner. Faithful is an arresting track, which posits what might happen if God were female. The track becomes a beautiful commentary on sexual and spiritual fidelity. The Food is a track which was performed on Dave Chappelle's show and features both Common and Kanye. It takes the gansta perspective and turns it on it's head, showing the gansta as a family man trying to make it.

My favorite track in the final track, It's Your World. Common tells stories from the hood. His characters are failing, crack heads, unwed mothers, people for whom the "dream" of seeing California is as unattainable as going into space is for most of us. The track then continues with the voices of children talking about their dreams and then finishes with Common's father given some of the most beautiful and poetic advice I've heard on record. It never fails to move me, often making me weep. The contrast in the track between the world as it is and the world as it could be is deeply poignant.

Be is not quite a perfect album. A few tracks I think fall a little short of Common's poetic abilities. Go for instance is a catchy track, but doesn't say anything new or interesting about sex that hasn't been done by so many other MCs. Also, the album is very short, clocking in at only a little over forty minutes. But these are small complaints. This CD is one of the best of 2005 and a triumphant return to form by one of mainstream rap's most talented and insightful poets. This is the album to get if you think hip hop is boring, intellectually simpleminded or drivel. It's smooth and good to the ears and yet full of deep images. Common is the Gil Scott Heron of our time...high praise indeed.