>even was rockin' the bootleg for a while before the CD came
>out. Between that and Kanye's LAST REGISTRATION (which was a
>much better album), I was cool that summer.

I thought Be was slightly better but that's only because Common is the far better MC. Production-wise it's Late Reg tho, but only slightly.


>I don't go back to it often (I tend to do this with albums I
>played the shit out of on release),

Same here.

>but I liked it better than
>EC as far as a complete album is concerned. The music fit
>Common better as a whole and even his "softer" side songs
>sounded more suited to his style than something like "I Got A
>Right Ta" or what have you. I will say, however, Common had
>started to lean on "Common" cliches in his rhymes (the token
>"shock verse" i.e. "black men, with white girls on their
>arms... I be mad at them, as if I know they moms") for the
>first time.

Really? I wouldn't say this is the first time. "...in a circle of FAGGOTS, your name is mentioned"
"you still rockin hickeys, don't let me find out he did it"
etc. He'd been doing taht type of shit for years. And to be honest I don't think it was "shock" verses as much as it was just a guy we were always so used to being conscious and socially aware saying some shit that you wouldn't otherwise expect him to say/believe.


>Not quite "Gap" Common, but you can see the building blocks
>were being stacked.

Agreed here.


>and Kanye did a fine job on production as far as I'm
>concerned. I like a good 85% of what he put out here more than
>the stuff on College Dropout.

Same.