I hate it when hype alters my expectations and then those expectations are not met.
Don't get me wrong. I've been a fan of Common since before he dropped the Sense. I've always respected his words if not always agreeing with what he had so say. And in the current state of hip hop, his is a much needed voice. Either I'm getting too old, or there really is too much hip hop about nothing. I want to hear a song, not a bunch of words thrown together that rhyme. Don't tell me about your big house and how many cars you have or how the ice on your wrist cost more than I'll ever make. If you can tell me that again in 10 years then I'll shut up. Right now, I'm much more interested in hearing some good music.
Be by Common (and Kanye West) has been heralded an instant classic. So of course this has raised my expectations to a point this album could not reach. It's a good album, but I don't know if will go on my Classic playlist anytime soon. Common is on point once again. I am drawn in by the lyrics and it's so refreshing because I usually am not. Being the technical person that I am, I have a tendency to overanalyze the music, breaking it down to its individual elements and pondering why it works or doesn't work for me. This analysis goes even deeper with loop-based music such as hip hop. What is that drum sound? Is that bass-line real or sampled? What song is this sampled from? Where have I heard this sample before? Couldn't they have differentiated the beat a little more throughout the song? Stuff like sometimes ruins the fun for me. And unfortunately it ruins the fun for me here.
Be starts off wonderfully. I can only say that I was uplifted by the title track. It's like a sunrise. I love it. It's followed up by The Corner which is a poignant song with a good beat. Then I start to have trouble.
Go would be a much better song without Kanye constantly repeating "Go, go go... and on the count of 3" throughout the track. I'm not sure why this bugs me, but the more I listen to it the more it does. Unfortunately there are little elements like this that bother me throughout the rest of the album. I can't keep from thinking "I'd like this song so much more if that vocal wasn't looping in the background." Just a bit too much Kanye here and there.
So I've been rocking this album for the past few weeks. I like it, it's good. It could have been really good, but the little things add up. I'll definitely have to revisit this in about year to see how I feel about it.