Be

Common’s career has been one long struggle for respect. His reviews have been good, his sales mediocre, but the cross he’s always had to bear was that the streets, as they say, weren’t really feeling him. For a while that seemed to bother him some, but on his latest, he clearly doesn’t give a fuck. Produced largely by his workaholic Chicago cohort Kanye West, Be sets Common’s heady rhymes to a full-bodied, '70s-obsessed soundtrack. On “Chi City,” Common pens a love-hate letter to his hometown over Curtis Mayfield–style funk. The soaring “Faithful” connects the spiritual to the sexual in a way that only the best soul music knows how. But Common’s real gift is as a storyteller: He spins courtroom drama on the intoxicating “Testify,” and details some down-and-dirty fantasies on “Go.” The vibe throughout Be is definitely retro, but it fits Common’s wizened rhymes like a glove.