“They say the crocheted pants and the sweater was wack, they seen ‘The Corner’ and said that ni**a is back.” Have truer words been spoken? While each One Day It Will All Make Sense, Like Water For Chocolate, and even Electric Circus were championed by this critic during the nine-year existence of this website, each barely missed the mark of a classic album. One Day was the album that lent credibility to the rapper who was at the time just making a name for himself (in a post De La “Bizness” NYC), however was scatterbrained with several different sounds and producers. Like Water For Chocolate saw Com link up with the Soulquarians for production, delivering his most uniform project (prior to this one), but just barely missed the mark of a classic. Electric Circus was his most experimental record – and while it pushed Com’s musical boundaries, it was bashed by fans and critics alike (except for one, ahem). People of course assumed that Common was “turned out by Erykah” – and while yes, his relationship with Ms. Badu did lead to some sappy collaborations (slowly put down the Brown Sugar soundtrack, and back out of the room), as an overall album, Electric Circus still showed growth from the man on virtually all fronts. But perhaps the real reason people didn’t like that record, had a big part to do with the overall image it carried with it. Com’s wardrobe helped drive the point home that the hardcore boom-bap of Resurrection or virtually any of his previous projects was gone, even if this was a good record underneath the salvation army threads. But then, something magnificent happened…..  

     Call it a reality check, the result of a bad break-up, or simply an artist coming back to square one, but with Common’s new album, Be, like the song says, he’s back. Produced almost entirely by fellow Chi-Town prodigy, Kanye West (with the exception of two Dilla tracks), Be is a tightly knit, classic package; one that could have serious ramifications on how hip-hop music is created, sold, marketed, and presented in the next few years. From the moment the first 16 bars of “The Corner” hit the listener’s ears, there is simply no argument that the song in itself is a classic single, leading off a classic record. Com takes it back to basics – with a flow that is anything but – painting gorgeous, photo-realistic pictures of Chicago, while Kanye’s infectious loop and hook sew it together. Later, on “Testify”, we instead find Common penning an equally lush, fictional narrative about a scandalous female, as the Kanye’s samples the woman in question and plays her vocals like an instrument, unlike he has ever done before. Kanye further experiments with his production on “Real People”, where he takes an MF Doom-esque approach to sampling, by simply letting the sample ride, rather than speeding or chopping it up. Here Com’s inspirational narrative speaks directly to the people – his people – or anyone that may be listening. 

     The breezy sounds of “Go” and “Love Is” might give you that old feeling that was so prevalent in hip-hop ten years ago, but the ridiculous “Faithful” seals the deal. In perhaps one of Kanye’s best tracks ever, the producer almost reaches in and pulls at your heartstrings until you feel the beat, with beautifully melodic pianos and another vocal-sample-used-as-an-instrument. The doubly crooned hook from Bilal and John Legend adds to the overall emotion of the song, while Com pours his own heart out with words that seriously will make fools take a second look at how they live their lives. This is life changing music, folks.

      As Com takes the Illmatic approach for this record (short album, little room for error), he succeeds in creating a classic record, where every song speaks directly to the listener, complete with the best production in the game as of now. The only place Com can really be faulted on this record was by including the Dave Chappelle show “live” version of “The Food”, especially considering that there is a studio version on 12-inch vinyl. However this minor inconsistency doesn’t taint the legacy of Be, which will stand as an undeniable hip-hop classic.