...If your MAIN focus is on the emcee's voice, Common doesn't have the most overpowering voice in hip hop, but thats fine because he's usually not trying to overpower you... his voice works well with his subject matter..<P>MOST IMPORTANTLY, it WILL take you months to appreciate one of his albums.. When I bought One Day.. originally, I got it because it had songs w/ Lauryn Hill, Canibus, Cee-Lo, and Erykah Badu.. At first I thought it was ok but nothing that great. After a few months of really deciphering all the lyrics, Common was one of my favorite emcees.<P>So I bought Resurrection.. I Used to Love H.E.R. (which I had never heard) was astounding to me the first time I heard it... rest of the album was alright - the songs were pretty cool, beats were nice on a few songs, but overall just average...<P>fast forward about ten months... one day I decided to go back and listen to the rest of Resurrection, because I only really got to know about 4 or 5 songs.. it is SOOOOOO good. It is my personal favorite album of all-time, and Com is my favorite emcee HANDS DOWN. Listen to tracks like thisisme, My Life, Sum Shit, Chapter 13... he is unbelievable at wordplay, he is extremely personal on his records, and when he wants to, he can describe something just as well as Nas. Check a track like Nuthin to Do off of Resurrection.<P>G.O.D. f/ Cee-Lo from One Day.. is probably my favorite song of all-time... "Curiousity killed the catechism..." do you understand how ill that pun is?? And his wordplay never detracts from the message he is trying to get across. Illmatic was great... but after 6 years now of disappointing material from Nas, I am starting to think it was luck, or at least not the true Nas. Common, meanwhile, has grown with every album, and is consistently the BEST emcee out there... shit, with a little more of a following and some sales, I think he'd be recognized up alongside Rakim as the BEST OF ALL-TIME.<P>www.angelfire.com/ca2/mystic <--check the site for reviews, audio, discussion board, freestyle board, etc.<P>Peace, WhizDumb (Mystic)