Common: Be (2LP) [GEFFEN / GOOD MUSIC]

Why you'll love it

Be debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, went platinum, earned a perfect rating from XXL and lands on Rolling Stone's and Billboard's lists of the greatest hip hop albums ever made.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Produced by Kanye West and J Dilla
• Geffen / GOOD Music pressing

About the album

Common was coming off the wildly experimental Electric Circus when old Chicago friend Kanye West signed him to GOOD Music and offered to produce the follow-up. The result is lean, warm and focused: eleven tracks, all killer, with Kanye's soul-sample mastery on most of it and J Dilla's dusty, swinging touch on "Love Is..."

"The Corner" (with the Last Poets) is a gritty, gorgeous portrait of the South Side, "Go!" and "Testify" are pure storytelling, and "The Food" was cut live on Chappelle's Show. Twenty years on, plenty of hip hop heads call it his finest hour.

Also at Kops: more Common on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Geffen / GOOD Music, a reissue of the 2005 album.