Ok bro, everyone has a reason for diggin common. i dig him to the max. first of all, word play...blah blah...rhymes....blah blah...content....blah bah<BR>Ok but LOTS of MC's have that (although not quite likr my man). It's the other things:<P>Common's life is manifested in his music. His first album, he was like just a kid, having fun and doing whatever he felt like, being all spontaneus and comedic: A weebee weebee wobble, gobble gobble like a turky, lord have mercy, mercy ,ercy me.... (a quote from the classic BREAKER 1/9) and in the time when other rappers were fronting hard for each other, he was singing songs like TAKE IT EASY. But in his second album, he hit that stage where he was was finding a path in his life and hence in his rhyme, and the name resurrection reflects that idea (his rebirth). THAT ALBUM IS THE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME, i say better than Illmatic, tho some disagree. He put his heart and soul into everyone of those songs. Studying that album is like reading his autobiography. PLEASE LISTEN TO IT AGAIN (and again and again....) And when his third record hit, it was like an old wise man revisiting his people to drop knowledge with songs like RETROSPECT FOR LIFE, HUNGRY and my favorite INVOCATION. Com is fresh because rhymes like: Envisioning the hereafter. Listening to STEVE WONDER, On a QUEST for LOVE like the PROCEED DRUMMER (Questlove is the drummer for roots, who did the classic song Proceed) I strike like lightning and don't need thunder, INHALE IMAGINATION AND BREATHE WONDER....look man listen to any Common you can get your hands on. It's like EVERYONE can relate to what he says. He is a man, a man pouriing out his heart through and artform that makes people bob their head, but also evokes emotions in them (you don't know how many people have cried when after RETROSPECT FOR LIFE) or say "damn right" when he said "I had no ID, they wouldn't let me in, now those same gumps are asking me to let them in, you don't know me, fool...<P>I could dissect EVERY song he put out, and if you do want to discuss him or his songs hit me up at sohrab@ucla.edu and I won't even start on I used to love HER<P><BR>not for the money, I could have sampled Diana Ross a long time ago <BR> - Common Sense<P>