Common - Be
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Free Music Notes for Be
Free Music Review: Its a good album, not a classic!
Hit: 4 Stars
I like this album, but I just wished that it had a few more tracks! I'm not a big fan of Kayne West, but he didn't get on my nerves like he usually does with he is involed on a track or album with another artist. I liked every song on the album excepted for the the intro. I feel that it was one of the best albums that Common has done in awhile. I wouldn't call it a classic, Common is not done yet!Free Music Review: Good Album. Poor replay value
Hit: 3 Stars
Common is probably the most painfully underrated lyricists in Hip Hop, past and present. Yet, while most of the tracks on BE are good, they don't certify BE as being a great album. 'The Corner', 'Go!', 'Faithful', 'The Food', 'Real People' and 'They Say' all stand out to be the best tracks on the album.
However, 'BE (intro)' is boring, 'Testify' is so predictable that the so called "surprise ending" is short of being dumb, 'Love is'... IS a good track with a great message but fell flat at keeping my attention long enough to care, 'Chi-City' -- an ode to Common's hometown is good but not interesting for a fan born and rasied in NYC, and 'It's Your World' is another great message but is a somewhat bland and mediocre attempt at being philosophical. BE's biggest drawback is it's lack of replay value. Although BE is a nicely produced album, unlike 'Resurrection' and 'Like Water For Chocolate', musically its not much fun to listen to.
Nevertheless, i'm happy to hear that Common has move past the artsy-fartsy pretentious bohemian phase ie: 'electric circus', and made a small effort at returning to the rawness of his talent which initially certified him as one of the greatest Hip Hop artists in history.
Free Music Review: Modern Urban Griot
Hit: 5 Stars
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.
Free Music Review: Instant Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
By far the best hip hop album of 2005; although it was probably common's most sold album it was still slept on by many. The only flaw about the album was that it was too short; i wanted to hear somemore of that hip hop knowledge common spits
Top 5
Your world
The Food
The Corner
Be Intro.
Love Is
Free Music Review: "A CLASSIC"
Hit: 5 Stars
Common comes back with a vengence in '05 with his best album to date..."BE" turns out to be one of the best albums of 2005 in any genre and gave Common Sense his first platinum album of his career...
Track 1 INTRO - A beautiful opener with a superb Kanye production and a 32 bar introspective verse laid by Common 5/5 stars
Track 2 The Corner - Bringing Common back to the streets...A bit on the hard side but a good song to bang your head to 4/5 stars
Track 3 GO - A nice song but a bit overly "popish" 4/5 stars
Track 4 Faithful - A nice song with John Legend on the hook 4/5 stars
Track 5 Testify - A very different song about a court case...He creates a movie in your mind with a catcy hook 4/5 stars
Track 6 Love Is - Another melodic gem 4/5 stars
Track 7 Chi City - A true hip hop song and beat bringing it back to the begining 4/5 stars
Track 8 The Food - Another song ft. Kanye on the hook 4/5 stars
Track 9 Real People - One of the best on the album...Kanye lays down his best production with a jazz instrumental that gives you chills through your whole body...LOVE IT!! 5/5 stars
Track 10 They Say - Another great track with John Legend on the hook and a vibrant produced song 5/5 stars
Track 11 Your World - The fisisher equiped with one of the best beats ive heard from the late Jay Dee...My second favorite on the album...A perfect closing song 5/5 stars
My top 5
1. Real People
2. Your World
3. They Say
4. BE
5. Faithful
Common coming back strong in '06 with his 7th LP "Finding Forever," I CANT WAIT!!!!