Be: How Common And Kanye Made A Classic

Common made his name on being a “conscious” rapper, with complex rhymes and positive messages. But here on Be, he toned it all down to the simplest, most cliche thing in the world: Be yourself. Live your values. Live with honesty. Love yourself. Thanks to a partnership with the at-the-time young, upstart Kanye West, he reached deep inside and created his most moving and inspirational album.

The instrumentals are soulful, lush, sample-driven, and moving. The flows are skillful but not overly complex or difficult to follow. And lyrically, the album is consistently inhabitedby characters who find themselves facing moments of adversity, but in the end, nearly everyone in it digs deep inside and decides to do the right thing, or move towards achieving their dreams.

As Common said, one of the hardest things to do is truly be yourself. And that same statement could be echoed for what the album itself achieves: It takes something so simple, and flexes it out into something profound and full of meaning.


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0:00 - 0:30: Intro
0:31 - 1:44: First time hearing Be
1:45 - 2:52: The Universe of Be
2:53 - 4:22: The Message of the Album
4:23 - 6:13 : Faithful
6:14 - 6:51 : They Say
6:52 - 7:54 : Go
7:55 - 9:09 : Love Is...
9:10 - 10:16 : Being Yourself
10:17 - 11:58 : Be and Kanye's Discography
11:59 - 12:46 : Vintage Kanye-Sway Interview
12:47 - 13:38 : A Legendary Group of Collaborators
13:39 - End : A Beautiful Message