A fellow Chicagoan and longtime friend whom Kanye had met while still in high school, Common was now the beneficiary of the younger rapper's budding genius: The Kanye-produced album Be, released in ...

On the album's 20th anniversary, it's much easier to recognize Be as a crucial intersection record — not simply for Common, on his way to becoming rap's hokey, well-intentioned uncle ...

A fellow Chicagoan and longtime friend whom Kanye had met while still in high school, Common was now the beneficiary of the younger rapper's budding genius: The Kanye-produced album Be ...

"Be the resident of that 12th house," he says. "Be ... eternal." It is here that Common's positivity gospel spirals into the future. Here's what they say about Kanye and Common now: that the former is ...