Common

As usual, the conscientious Common is anything but, being as he is consistently invested in evolving race relations and inner restoration alike. It doesn't take more than a casual listen to the artist formerly known as Common Sense's new joint to hear that the truth-to-power poets of the past are as much a part of his new-millennium process as are lifestyle hoppers like Kanye West, who executive produced and helped write almost all of Be. The perennially under-recognized Last Poets drop by to help testify to the power of wordplay on "The Corner," while "Love is..." resurrects Marvin and Anna Gaye's "God is Love" as a sonic spine for Common's stripped-down paean to the energy that knits us all together -- and sometimes tears us apart.

As always, Common keeps the vibe political but personal, making Be a much more accessible effort for the quickly disappearing segment of society that still thinks the two are separate. Sure, things pick up on head-knockers like "Chi City," a shout-out to Common's rugged upbringing in Chicago's draconian South Side, and "The Food," a team-up with Kanye for Dave Chappelle's hilarious Comedy Central show. But overall, West's production on Be steps back and lets Common's postmodern musings on faith, crime and rhyme take center stage. His piety can be tiresome at times, especially when combined, incongruously, with samples of Malcolm X (the same guy who once argued that Allah, not Jesus, would end the "wicked white man's Western world of Christianity"). But there's a lot of food for thought here more nourishing than your average hip-hop joint. - Scott Thill, Morphizm.com

Electric Circus cost and won Common some fans. It was very exploratory, especially so for a rap album released in 2002, containing developments -- some of which soared, some of which sank -- that few longtime followers could have foreseen. Listeners either felt Common was picking up fresh, new inspirations, or that he was just being distracted by a whole lot of ill-fitting nonsense. With Be, it seems the MC has realized that not every album that's sprawling and eclectic is as good as Electric Ladyland or Songs in the Key of Life. More notably, he might've been struck with the fact that a high percentage of excellent albums are around 40 minutes in length and are built on a unified sound. Be is highly concentrated, containing 11 songs and involving two producers and a small number of guests. It's a 180 degree turn from Electric Circus, and in a bizarre way it's both a progression and a back-to-basics move. Kanye West and Dilla are key to the album's steadiness, rooting the sound in '70s soul and soul-jazz. That's no shakeup, but the two producers deserve some form of award for stringing together a consistent sequence of productions that is never monotonous, dull, or all that flashy. Even lead single "The Corner," heard well before Be's release, falls into the fabric of the album on first listen, as if that were where it belonged all along. Lyrically, Common comes back down to Earth -- the narratives are sharp as ever, the gripes are more like observations than screeds, and the eccentricities need to be teased out rather than swatted away. Be isn't likely to be referred to by anyone as groundbreaking, but it's one of Common's best, and it's also one of the most tightly constructed albums of any form within recent memory. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide