In honor of performing his 2005 release Be in its entirety at Rock the Bells 2011, Common recently spoke to Reebok as part of its Reebok Classics series about the creation of the album. During the interview, Com explained that a chance recording session with Kanye West led to the first song for the LP, “The Food.”
“When we recorded Be, a lot of the recording sessions started first with me just saying, ‘Ye, let’s go in the studio.’ I started spending my own money at first, just saying, ‘Man, let’s go in until we get the budget cleared.’ The first actual beat I got from Kanye, I walked into the studio and he was producing for someone else, but I felt like it was divine that he had this beat up that he was playing. He was like, man, ‘That beat is cold.’ He just gave it to me. He was like, ‘Take it home, hurry up, get out of here before the artist come!’ And that was ‘The Food.’ That was the first song we recorded together. As soon as we recorded the song, it was like our team formed.”
Watch the full interview below.
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Common is that dude, always stayed in his own lane and didnt conform or compromise his art.Be is a str8 classic finding 4eva was good and the one after that so so, cant wait 4 the next album.
His Last album was trash, He Can Only go up with his new shit, Gonna Be Dope.
WTF….He’s looking like Isaac Hayes(rip) here.. Let’s see if Common comes out with another good album in the near future though….
No names should be mentioned with mine unless you talkin Big Pun in his prime
Maybe ’96 Jay before Dame was throwin money around
Or 2pac without Humpty around
Or 50 before Em, Nas talkin like a gun in his song
Camron during ‘Children Of The Corn’
Beans before the cops came through and try to grill em
I’m talkin ’95, Big L before they killed em
Em before 8 Mile, Shyne before the jail shit
Canibus, no album out before the L shit
Talkin bout Kiss, DMX when he was fuckin wit coke
Or ‘Cuban Linx’, Raekwon and Ghost
I do it all, who blendin so well in the game?
Talkin Fab, back when he was still spellin his name
On my Diddy shit, Memphis, Grizzlie shit
Like back in the day when Clue swiped all of Biggies shit
Rappers dont need trouble with I
Unless its Rass Kass before the D.W.I.
Or Talib with Mos, Common before ‘Be’
If they any less common, don’t put em before me
Nobody believes you, Joey. Budden up, your career is dead cold.
Dude above me probly said to himself, “hmm those are some dope lyrics, let me type this line in on google and see who it is…Oh, Joe Budden? Fuck that nigga yo, these lyrics are wack…time to go reply to this comment and hate on joe budden, I’m not even gonna look up the song and listen to it.”
Joey is in the best group in rap, and he’s on shady records my friend. He’s gonna be laying down verses with Eminem. Far from a dead career
sounds like the Game, name dropping all the time
@BlazDatishup
The reason he’s rocking that beard is because he is shooting a new TV show for AMC.
If that’s true then coo!… Just had me wondering what was with the beard and all… If someone does do a bio flick of Isaac Hayes they may want to think about casting him though… It’ll help him sharpen his acting skills even more…….
Only reason Common has that beard is because he’s part of television series being recorded
shits classic
one of the true classics of the new millenium, only album that had made me listen harder is Boy Meets World
Fashawn is overlooked in the classic sense but that and Blu’s Below the Heavens are underappreciated gems
Both BE and Resurrection are in my top 10 rap albums Ever, Can’t Wait for his new album.
IMO Common’s top 5
1) Like Water For Chocolate
2) Be
3) Resurrection
4) One Day It’ll All Make Sense
5) Electric Circus
I’m feeling your list but he lost me w/”Universal Mind Control”. I hope that some experiemental album I noticed he really doesn’t talk much about it. I REALLY hope he brings it back on this upcoming joint.
Yo, just saw Rock the Bells in San Francisco and i gotta say Comm Sense was one of my favorite performer, which was not my expectation going in. I know he has always been dope, but the lineup was stacked with talent, making standing out against such great MC’s as Nas, GZA, Buckshot, etc. a real job! His voice was so clear on the mic(Buckshot too!) you could understand everything and he killed a dope freestyle, played Resurrection classics, and of course the material from this record as well.
My bad correcting my typo, I meant to say, “I hope that was some experiemental album he did”…..(lol)