Comon's new album BE

[Jin]

XXL Magazine Calls Common's New Album, 'BE' A "CLASSIC"

Common got an XXL rating in... XXL. The XXL rating is rarely used,

XXL raves "Common has created a flawless album," and, "he's birthed the total package." They also say things like:

"birthed '05's top LP"

"For those who requested the raw from an MC accused of having gone soft, BE provides enough dope to OD on."

"Common has raised the bar."

The date for the album release will be early June, unless they move it up. 'Go' will be the next single dropping after 'The Corner' ft. The Last Poets & Kanye West. The 'Go' video will be out before the album drops.

BE TRACKLISTING

All tracks produced by Kanye West unless indicated:

1. BE

2. The Corner ft The Last Poets & Kanye West

3. Go

4. Faithful ft Bilal & John Legend

5. Testify

6. Love Is (produced by Jay Dee)

7. Chi City

8. The Food

9. Real People

10. They Say ft Kanye West & John Legend

11. It's Your World/Pop's Reprise ft Bilal (produced by Jay Dee)

[JumpinJack AJ]

Yeah, i've seen the new video. It's great. I'm so happy he went back 2 his regular sound (Electric Circus is very Born To Reignish...ha ha). I definitly planned on picking up this album shortly after it drops.

I hope all those trax don't sound like Kanye West's stuff...that would play itself out a bit. I'll take Jay Dee over Kanye West anyday. I'll let the music speak 4 itself tho.'

[bigted]

I don't expect it to top "Lost and Found" but I expect it to a hip-hop album worth buying and listening to, I had "Like Water For Chocolate" for about 5 years now and I still love it, Common is a dope mc, I definately look forward to gettin' it this summer, I think it'd be awesome if FP and Common collabed one day too. :kool:

[Jin]

I will buy the album, think that it will be next to Lost & Found and maybe the new fugees and dr. dre LP one of the best Hip Hop albums this year! :poke:

[bigted]

I'd love to hear a new Fugees album too, I don't know about Dr. Dre though, anyways I'm also hoping Public Enemy and KRS-ONE release albums this year as well, KRS is on tour right now and is probably making some new material for his 14th LP, and Public Enemy's going on the Charlie Mack tour this summer, maybe JJFP are gonna go with them too, this could be the best year in hip-hop in a long time, I think "Lost and Found" along makes this a great year already, I'm gonna try to get me a ticket if they hit up 'Jersey. :dancingcool:

Edited March 30, 2005 by bigted

[Vipa]

Yea, I can't wait for this..even more so after hearing Kanye produced 90% of it.

[mfuqua23]

I saw the video for "The Corner" and it's really good. I like the song. It catches U instantly. I might check out more of his songs and get the album.

[bigted]

Hey fuq, I just read Chuck D's latest terrordome he just posted at the PE site and he talks about hangin' out with ya boy Nas and Common recently, check this out everyone:

"A Hip Hop Conversation With Two Great Rap Cats.

March 30, 2005

My most recent trip to London resulted in a sixty-four hour period where I had two advice ridden, man to man conversations with two of hip hop's greatest emcees, NAS and Common. That's right formerly Nasty Nas and Common Sense- it really gets no better than that.

At this stage embarking on an eighteen year professional career and twenty-five years as a behind the scenes cat, I appreciate my old sage status and when I'm asked advice by cats like those, it really solidifies my responsibility to what this rap thing is all about.

In the ten plus years since these young men sprung amazing lyrics upon us from their humble beginning bases in Queens NY and Chicago respectively, we'd seen the 20-30 transition done as smooth as it gets.

These men understand communication to the streets is paramount but at the same time, as accountable adults trying to pull cats up from the trenches as opposed to jumping down in them with a shovel and digging a deeper social hole with the rhymes.

I was across the water hosting an event with a technology company that was unbowing a product that takes pictures and plays 20 GBS of music and video. It's funny, music heads have said the music business is dying so they've lost jobs, while at the same time technology hardware companies are booming.

With hip hop/ rap/ urban music exploded across the planet these same companies run by 25-45 year old heads haven't any reservation about collaborating with the artists to move their product.

Thus Common was a perfect cat to do his thing, a one hour blistering performance.

Before going on, backstage Common had asked some basic questions about how I was able to be calm in any storm. I told him what I usually tell cats and that is - time itself is God and the older we get we must make the effort in managing it since no one can master it. Time is a quality issue as much as a quantified one.

Once managed in a personal zone, it then must be carefully contemplated on who, what, when, and how you share that time, because time is different depending on the individual.

With that said, I gave him the fan-time advice example of how five seconds of quality time with a fan could be a lifetime for that person.The fact that I could see a room, arena, move in slow motion and handle as many as one hundred people's conversations and demands in five to seven minutes is management of the perception of time.

Enough of that, when asked what should he do, my answer was to keep doing what he was doing. His new record is an incredible testament to the quality of a great career.

In a conversation little more than ten hours later I had with Nas who I'd seen in the lobby of the hotel we were both at; I'd again reiterated my time philosophy. It can be percieved as some deep s*** but it's the foundation of artist development and public relations.

Record company greed treating rap like a hustle instead of an artform has resulted in more money, but at the cost of the existence of its integrity and longevity. I told Nas that it's disrespectful of any company, journalist, magazine, TV or radio station to judge him merely based on sales.

I told him that his company has predominantly older white cats guarding Miles Davis' some one hundred plus masters of albums and music as if their lives depended on it.

Miles would smack a cat across the face with his trumpet if they dared to disrespect his art form with some pop chart. I told Nas his work was the Miles of this time. And it is. Again, as with Common, besides my advice and analogy I told Nas to keep doing what he was doing. I told them both that there's one hundred years of black musicians, vocalists, men and women to learn from and draw parallels.

Hell, many are still living to ask questions of, so as to apply answers to their already stellar careers.

I told Nas it was an honor having that conversation as well as witnessing firsthand the VH -1 Hip Hop honors performance with he and his dad OLU DARA.

In closing, I told each of them respectively and respectfully that cats that short-term this art form into a 'get it and get out' hustle have no sense of time and less sense to do with themselves or the money they may make.

It's a blessing to do this thing, to travel the world, touch people's minds and souls as well as move their bodies across the world and yet still build and rebuild your people around the way.

But only a man (or woman) can do that. And sometimes and most especially in the increasingly souless record biz, young brothers need the encouragement from older experienced heads to keep it movin'.

The sports world works hard at this principle, and society can stop this decay of young cats with the art of encouraging inspiration and communication from older heads.

After all it's as inspiring for myself to give some.

As I said Nas and Common, in the same twenty-four hours- it gets no better than that."

[trexican]

anyone got a link to hear any of it?-trex

[Hero1]

sounds like a lot of kanye west hype.. if jazzy jeff had produced the album they'd give it 2 stars..but cause its kanye its greatest hip hop album ever! i'll still check for it though

[Vipa]

No, It' has potential because of Common...yea Kanye has something to do with it, but lets not give him all the credit for sky-rocketing this...

[bigted]

I don't believe ratings either, look at how low they ranked "Lost and Found" and look how great it turned out but if Kanye West produced it, it'd got a high rating, but a lot of hip-hop fans give it a high rating, Kanye's overrated, I bet Will could be a better producer if he wanted to do it. Anyway like Chuck D mentioned in the terrordome Common has been out more than a decade now, I personally think "Like Water For Chocolate" shoulda beat out "Marshall Mathers LP" for best rap album in 2000 and won a Grammy 'cause that album was the real classic, Common deserves more due than Kanye does 'cause if it wasn't for him Kanye wouldn't have blown up, I hope Kanye ain't on all the hooks though on this "BE" or I'll be annoyed. :poke:

[bigted]

Wow I just went to the okayplayer forum where they're having this huge debate where they're saying that Common's one of the top 5 mcs all time, damn these kids don't know their history, I was the only one to mention that FP, LL Cool J, Rakim, Chuck D, and Queen Latifah are better than Common, and a lot of others were sayin' that Common's a better mc than Slick Rick and Common spit better verses than De La Soul when they collab, ignorant motherf****s, I mean how stupid can people be, Common's dope but not that dope, I don't think he'd even say he's a better mc than Slick Rick, De La Soul, LL, KRS, or FP, damn these kiddies are on the Kanye West bandwagon! :nono:

Edited April 4, 2005 by bigted

[bigted]

It's hard to compare mcs from different eras but it seems the best ones keep up with the times and/or their music is timeless for any era(that's why KRS, Chuck D, LL, FP, Run-Dmc, Rakim, and 2Pac are above everyone else), it remains to be seen if Common could be as powerful when he's 40 as he is now as an mc, but I think Nas will always be ranked above him as the best mc that came out in the mid-90s unless Nas starts puttin' out wack albums and Common continues puttin' out solid releases(I think it's a stretch to put Nas in the top 5 even though I'm a big fan of his, but he deserves top 10, which is still a realistic stretch 'cause I don't think he'd deserved to be ranked above Slick Rick or Big Daddy Kane who were his childhood idols, and I wouldn't deserved to be put ahead of him 'cause I look up to him, Common probably top 30, well Kool Moe Dee says that Melle Mel is #1 'cause Melle inspired him, the debate is endless), but of course they'll still be ranked below the mcs I mentioned, unless those I mentioned above start slipping lyrically and creatively, then at that point they'd just retire, but would have 30 years of consistancy that new mcs would have to spend a long time trying to top, and like FP said "Damn it, I expanded this platform", these kiddies need to realise who the real legends are, I have no problem with anyone sayin' Common's one the 5 best mcs at this moment, he does deserves Eminem's and Jay-Z' platinum status more than Eminem and Jay-Z do with their inconsistancy and being overrated, but KRS deserves the platinum status more than any of them but he doesn't care, he just stays consistant on a low but he'll be recognized for being on top eventually, and if they're ever dumb enough to address him, their careers will be cut short and lose all cred like Nelly did(if he ever had any).

Edited April 4, 2005 by bigted

[MaxFly]

Lol, bigted is speaking out. Right on