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Common Be Release Date: 05/24/05 Score: 8.8 out of 10.0 |
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Take one of slickest rappers and the industry's best producers of the now and you get this awesome, awesome record. Common has been in the rap business for quite sometime now and this could very well put him up with the ranks of Talib and Mos Def for his rising star hood, finally. The Chicago rapper with the aid of Kanye West has released one of the year's best records and definitely the best rap album of the year thus far.
If anything, this is a true testament to how great a producer Kanye West is. Sure sure, you can hate him for being a self-centered primadonna, but he knows it. But you cannot deny his creative spark for using the perfect samples and a beat that works wonders for the artist he's producing for. In his own work he used gospel samplings to wonders, and in the Common record its more of a jazz with gospel samples. It all sets the moods for Common's lyrical play which is smooth and his usual awkward flow that goes well with the music.
The opening "Be" intro is solid and leads into the debut single, "Corners" which is a nice gospel-like preach. One of the great things about the underground rap world is that, they actually have something to rap about. Common is easily part of that new generation of rappers along with Talib, Mos Def, Roots, Jill Scott, etc that have a message much like A Tribe Called Quest and Arrested Development before them. You can remain in the spotlight of mainstream and yet have something more to rap about then sex, violence, and hot rims on your cadillac.
"Testify" is one of the more unique songs on the record where Kanye's use of a woman's vocal sampling works wonders along with the song. The song focuses on spousal abuse and accusations. And as with many Kanye samples, its high pitched and sped up like no other.
In the end, Common's record will be a tough one to beat this year for the rap category. There's very few rap albums that have caught my attention so quickly and is as smooth and chill as this one is. A breakthrough hit for a very solid rapper.
-Anthony Nguyen
June 26, 2005
