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
12. So Cool

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8218 in Music
• Released on: 2005-05-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 48 minutes

Album Description
Chicago rapper Common returns with the album Be. Produced by Kanye West, highlights include "Go", "The Food", which is the first track West and Common, "The Corner" featuring the Last Poets and "Faithful" featuring Bilal and John Legend. There's also a guest appearance by singer/songwriter John Mayer.

CD Description
Sixth studio album from Chicago-based rapper Common. This is the follow-up to 2002's 'Electric Circus' and is once again produced by longtime friend J Dilla, aided on this occasion by Kanye West. Here Common returns to his roots of raw hip-hop, working closely with West an obvious influence on thisalbum. The single 'Go' is included.

Customer Reviews

Album with more soul than soul food
I really loved this CD, I've had it on my CD player since I got it. It's sexy, it's interesting, and it's intellectually stimulating. Being a female I think that this is one of the first male hip-hop albums I've listened to which really appreciates a woman's point of view on the world. And I don't care what all you other playa haters have said...Common is looking really good. The whole feel of the album is just so fresh and mature. The only big gripe I do have though is that the songs are a bit too short and the whole album is a bit too short as well. I would have liked 2 or 3 more tracks on it. Go out and get it if you haven't got it, and if you do have it keep pumping it so everyone else can go and get it. Good music should be heard by all, so that all that bad stuff that is out there can be diluted and done away with....

Common Is Back!!!!!!!!!
I was initialy sceptical about Commons latest release but those fears were laid to rest after listening to this amazing album. I have been a fan of common for a while but after hearing his last effort 'electric circus' I beacame slightly disalusioned. I'm not a massive fan of Kanye West but his talents are clear form the fantastic production efforts on this album. Commons lyrical flow and content are up to his usual excellent standard. After so much poor hip hop from the U.S.(50 cent, the Game, Lil John etc.) promoting thugism on a continual level it is refreshing to here such a stand alone voice amongst the masses. Picking one great track is impossible as they are all great with artists such as John Legend, Bilal and of course Kanye making a their own contrbution. This is the hip hop album of 2005.

Soulful hip hop heaven!
Common confused many purist hip hop heads with his previous lp Electric Circus, although it was excellent (in my view) it was clearly too experimental for most. "Be" sees Common returning to the Tribe Called Quest Tru School Hip Hop blueprint.

The production is perfect, courtesy of the ubiquitous Kanye West. The themes are "conscious" and this will most likely hold the album back from major commercial success. Nevertheless, this is a classic hip hop record, in the vein of Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest, Illmatic by Nas or Black On Both Sides by Mos Def. However, the way that Kanye infuses the album with gospel lends the album a spiritual feel that is contemporary and fresh rather than backward looking.