Intimate yet expansive in its depiction of his Windy City, Be is Common’s return to his street-poet roots after the quirky Electric Circus. There’s a starkly real yet ultimately positive worldview throughout, because Common brings as much thoughtfulness to a track about gangbanging (“The Corner”) as he does the gorgeous self-love anthem “It’s Your World.” It’s the equivalent of listening to riveting stories from your pops . . . but over a soulful, scratchy beat.
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- A Tribe Called Quest
- Talib Kweli
- Lupe Fiasco
- Dilated Peoples
- Outkast
- J Dilla
- A Tribe Called Quest