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, but for hip-hop ...

There are moments in every writer’s life when he or she commits the fatal flaw of buying into his or her own words, hook, line, and sinker. For these brief aberrations, which last (if luck holds) no ...