Be (album)
| Be | ||||
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| Common studio album | ||||
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Publication |
2005 |
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| Label (s) | GOOD Music / Geffen Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
42:43 |
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Kanye West and J Dilla |
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Be is the sixth album by the American rapper Common . It was released on May 24, 2005 in the United States and on May 30, 2005 in Germany. Be was released through GOOD Music / Geffen Records and reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. The phonogram was produced by Kanye West and J Dilla.
Emergence
In 2002 Commons album Electric Circus was released . On this the rapper combines numerous musical influences. Electric Circus was a commercial failure for Common. So it sold worse than Like Water for Chocolate , the fourth album by the Chicago rapper. Be was conceived as the return of the Commons to hip-hop. By working with Kanye West, Be's release received more media attention, which boosted sales of the album.
Track list
- Be - 2:24
- The Corner (feat. The Last Poets) - 3:45
- Go! (feat. Kanye West & John Mayer) - 3:44
- Faithful (feat.John Legend & Bilal) - 3:33
- Testify - 2:36
- Love is ... - 4:10
- Chi-City - 3:27
- The Food (feat.Kanye West) - 3:36
- Real People - 2:48
- They Say (feat.Kanye West & John Legend) - 3:57
- It's your world (feat. Bilal, "The Kids" and Lonnie "Pops" Lynn) - 8:34
production
The production of the beats was taken over by the hip-hop musicians Kanye West and J Dilla , who died in 2006 . Nine of the eleven tracks were produced by Kanye West. J Dilla is responsible for the songs Love is ... and It's your world . James Poyser and Karriem Riggins are also co-producers of It's your world . In an interview, rapper Common said about working with Kanye West.
“We know each other through No ID , who was the producer of my first three albums. [...] Ye often stopped by the basement to play beats for us. Sometimes he would visit me to fight a bit with me. I was Chicago's number one, the only one with a name in the world. [...] However, in the end it took until Electric Circus to work together for the first time. Then we went on tour together with Kweli , during which time we became real friends. "
Other songs were sampled for numerous beats on the album . For example, Sweet Children by Caesar Frazier and Mother Nature by Albert Jones were used for Be . The Corner contains parts of the song You Make the Sun Shine by The Temprees and Go! Excerpts from Old Smokey by Linda Lewis. Faithful to the End by DJ Rogers was used to produce the beat for Faithful .
Honey Cone piece Innocent Til Proven Guilty was for the piece Testify and God Is Love by Marvin Gaye for the song Love is ... used. Chi-City contains samples from Since I Found My Baby by Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose and The Food Samples from I Never Had It So Good and Felt So Bad by The Chi-Lites and Nothing Can Change This Love by Sam Cooke . On Real People is Sweet Children sampled by Caesar Frazier. In addition, the song Ghetto Child by Ahmad Jamal and the piece Papa Wings by Stanley Turrentine were used for They say and Share What You Got by The Modulation was used to produce the beat for It's Your World .
reception
success
Be was nominated for four Grammy Awards in 2006. Common received nominations in the categories of Best Rap Album , Best Collaboration - Rap / Vocals for the song They Say , Best Performance by a Duo or Group - Rap for The Corner, and Best Solo Performance - Rap for the song Testify .
Commons sixth studio album debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart. It was able to occupy positions in the charts for sixteen weeks. 800,000 copies of Be have been sold in the United States .
In Germany, Be rose to position 93 in the German album charts in the 24th calendar week of 2005. In Canada, the record reached number 10.
Be also achieved chart successes in Europe. In the United Kingdom, for example, the record rose to number 38. In Switzerland the album reached position 26 and in Sweden position 39 in the corresponding charts. In addition, increased loading in Ireland at No. 61 and in the Netherlands number 73 a. In Norway, Common's sixth studio album reached position 8 of the Norway Albums Top 40 .
criticism
Be received a very positive response from the critics. The e-zine Laut.de gave the album the highest possible rating. The responsible editor Alexander Engelen describes Be as "nothing less than a classic". The guest musicians represented on the album are "perfectly selected" and the productions are also highlighted positively. According to Engelen, the "entire album [...] is permeated by Kanye's soul, his awe of his musical forefathers and his talent for taking hip hop to a new level".
“A number of musical facets can be found in 42 minutes, without losing the fixed point of rap. With the help of Kanye West, Common has conjured up a work that is unique in the rap year 2005 with its lyrical depth, musical conciseness and spiritual devotion. "
Rolling Stone magazine gave Be four out of a possible five evaluation points. In the review, Be is named Commons best album. Like the editorial team at Laut.de, Rolling Stone also sees the musical quality as one of the reasons for the work of Kanye West.
The hip-hop magazine Juice awarded 5.5 of a possible 6 “crowns” to Be . At the same time, the sound carrier was named album of the month . From the editors' point of view, “Common [...] has found its way back to its form”. The album has “cohesion and conciseness”, which the editors attribute to the decision to use only two producers in the creation of the album.
“Even an egomaniac like Mr. West is pleasantly cautious about working with such a heavyweight and restricts himself to his job, which is to write first-class songs. Yes, that's right, beats are not laced or rhymes spitted here, pieces of music are created here with a beauty and magic whose charm does not wear off after the third round. "
Reviews of other artists
The German rapper, singer and producer Max Herre praised Be in an interview in 2011 and named it as a model for the future projects of his producer team KAHEDI: “ I mean, what was so great about Common's 'Be'? It came out in 2005, but gave you everything that a rap record from 1994 gave you in terms of emotion and soul. This is something we want to do next. "
credentials
- ↑ Resurrection: Common Walks (English)
- ↑ June issue of Juice (2005) - page 63
- ↑ 48th Grammy Awards - 2006 (English)
- ↑ Jerry Lewis: http://www.freshhiphopnews.com/common-kanye-new-album-finding-forever/. freshhiphopnews.com, March 15, 2006, archived from the original on June 28, 2006 ; accessed on July 4, 2016 .
- ↑ Musicline.de chart tracking by Be ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Charts in the All Music Guide
- ↑ chart successes of Be
- ↑ Laut.de: Evaluation of the album Be
- ↑ Rolling Stone: Review of Be
- ↑ June issue of Juice (2005) - page 98
- ↑ July / August issue of Juice (2011) - page 86
