While many of his peers were drawing black and white pictures of thugs, gangsters, pimps and hoes Common was dipping into a thousand-color palette to paint a picture that would capture the experience of the average person and all of its nuances. The name of his masterpiece is BE, simple yet profound the album is a culmination of 13 years in the music biz and a lifetime of feeling, learning and growing. "I look at my career like a circle," says Common. "My last album, 2002's Electric Circus, was the furthest point away from the starting point and now I'm back at the root again."

While his last album, Electric Circus was critically acclaimed as an audacious endeavor that challenged and expanded the creative boundaries of hip-hop, many diehard fans who'd been tracking Common's career since the release of his street-smart debut CD, Can I Borrow A Dollar?, felt that he'd abandoned his hip-hop purist roots in favor of an eclectic fusion of sunnier sounds and textures. In the wake of Electric Circus's disappointing sales Common picked up his pen and pad and began writing the foundation for BE, a brilliant manifestation of raw, warm, soulful, pure, contemporary hip-hop that clocks in at just 11 songs. Common's return to his roots and to his music's unadulterated essence meant that the bulk of BE's production would be helmed by Kanye West, a fellow Chicagoan who came up under the tutelage of Common's first producer and good friend No I.D.