Back in 2000, Common had seemingly hit his stride as an artist. After spending most of the 1990s as a critical darling who was all but ignored by the mainstream, the Chicago emcee had finally broken through with his fourth album Like Water For Chocolate. That project yielded the crossover hit (and it's Erykah Badu-featuring music video) "The Light," which gave the rapper once known as Common Sense a whole new audience. It was his relationship with famed singer-songwriter Badu that made him easy tabloid and gossip fodder; and it was that relationship that seemed to predestine where Common would go on his follow-up to ...Chocolate.

When Electric Circus arrived, with Common suddenly sporting knitted caps and sandals, everyone looked at his relationship with Badu as the cause for the rapper's shift in image. And the sound of the album was an eclectic hodgepodge, pulling from jazz, funk and rock, as Common and producers Questlove and No I.D. pushed into psychedelic territory. Further complicating matters was a lack of promo for the album; as MCA, Common's home label, was now being absorbed into Geffen. Aside for a music video for the moderate hit "Come Close" with Mary J. Blige, the album received little promotion.

But as Common's career was in a state of flux, another star had emerged from his hometown. Kanye West was now the hottest producer in Hip-Hop, and on the heels of his hit debut album The College Dropout, West seemed to be a guiding light for an emerging Chicago rap aesthetic. Common had known West since the latter was a teenager studying at the feet of Common's longtime producer No I.D.; and it made sense for Common to now align with West. His new album would be co-released via Kanye's new G.O.O.D. Music imprint.

"First of all, I believe that Kanye is from the same womb of music that I am," he explained to MVRemix back in 2005. "He loves the Tribe Called Quests, and the Pete Rocks, the DJ Premier and Gang Starr stuff, that's probably his home too. But he's been blessed to do other sounding music also. So when we started working, I think he was at home with it and I did challenge him to grow from that route - that way. 'Cause I wasn't goin' any other way. I did challenge him to grow as a producer, he challenged me to grow as an artist; as an emcee."

His new album seemed to be born of the reaction to ...Circus, but it's just as much a product of his collaborating with West. The pairing clearly inspired Common to craft some of his most grounded, accessible material; and the album's first single would be a street anthem featuring The Last Poets.

"The way it came about in the album was everything was natural and everything creative came out in a natural way," Common explained to AllHipHop at the time. "I mean, I really didn't want to try to innovate or try to do what I did last album, because with every album I'm like, 'I gotta try to do something different, I gotta come better than the last album.”

"But with this album, I just breathed. A lot of people want me to go back to Resurrection, but I can't go back I can only go forward. What we did try to do was capture the spirit and the essence of [Resurrection] while also showing my growth and that's what we did for [BE]."

Kanye's penchant for soul samples became something of a trademark for the young producer early in his career, and his soulful touch was the perfect backdrop for Common's thoughtful, introspective rhymes. Over the John Mayer-assisted "GO!," the lush keys of "Old Smokey" by Linda Lewis carry Common's musings on a love from yesteryear. West speeds up "Faithful To The End" by D.J. Rogers for "Faithful," where Common ponders what it means to be committed to one love or even one city, with Bilal and John Legend providing musical complements.

Kanye's participation made BE arguably Common's most anticipated and discussed album. West was now a superstar, and Common, despite being Ye's elder in age and career experience, was often described as simply the fortunate beneficiary of West's genius.

A New York Times piece positioned Common as the pupil to Kanye's hitmaking svengali—even as it was correcting a different editorial error in the piece. "MUSIC Correction: August 21, 2005, Sunday," read the addendum. "An article on July 24 about the hip-hop performer and producer Kanye West misidentified the record label that released 'Be,' an album by the rapper Common, a protégé of his. It was Geffen, not Sony."

But if the media's preoccupation with Kanye annoyed him, Common never let it show. Their musical collaboration yielded some of Common's best music in years, and it allowed the maturing emcee to embrace an accessibility that had previously eluded him. On "Love Is..." he deftly breaks down the trials and tribulations of love, over a sample of Marvin Gaye's "God Is Love."

The rollicking "Chi City" is the most 90s-evoking track here, echoing Resurrection-era Common as he raps about his hometown and reminds people that "it ain't 94, we can't go back," even as he undoubtedly knows his older fans are probably having nostalgic flashbacks via this track. "I wonder if these wack niggas realize they wack/And realize they the reason why my people say they tired of rap."

The album closes with the piano-driven "It's Your World," and the second part of the track is an extended soliloquy by Common's father, Lonnie Lynn. "Pops," as he was affectionately known, had initially made his first appearance on a Common album on 1994s Resurrection, speaking on "Pop's Rap," a tradition he'd continued on "Pops Rap, Part 2: Fatherhood" from 1997s One Day It'll All Make Sense and ...Chocolate's "Pop's Rap III... All My Children." His approach for BE felt different for the elder Lynn.

"But this time, me and my son's walking toward the recording room and he stopped,' Lynn explained to NPR in 2005. "We put our heads together and he put his arms around me and he led the prayer. I cannot tell you the transition that occurred during that prayer. I mean, I believe I can do anything my son believe I can do."

BE would be an undeniable high point for Common. The album would be nominated for four Grammy awards in 2006: Best Rap Album, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, and Best Rap Solo Performance.

RapReviews raved:

"It’s on 'They Say' that Common says it best: 'They say dude think he righteous; I write just to free minds from Stony to Rikers.' When Common works with the right producer – and let’s be clear that Kanye West is a much better match for him than Questlove was – and keeps his self-aggrandizing nature in check (he compares himself to Jesus Christ at one point, and it’s a bit much) Com is indeed the dope rapper he claims to BE."

Sometimes when an artist stretches out creatively and the results are less-than-successful, there's snickering when that artist seems to return to the safe confines of what audiences want. But on BE, Common isn't an artist retreating or pandering to the listener; he sounds more inspired than he had in years, he simply had to push himself out of his comfort zone to reassert who he is as an emcee and an artist. BE is the sound of an artist who now knows who he is and how to do what he does best.

"It's in the top two," Common said of BE in 2005. "The top two I would say. Everybody's got they favorites: certain things touch them at certain times. But I think it's my best work as far as a complete album and not having no songs where the people just feel like 'Argh... I'm gonna keep fast forwarding all this.' You might want to go to one of your favorite songs on the album and fast-forward over stuff, but, this has been the first album I've got that has gotten a classic rating. So, at least from the beginning, it's being noted as that—which is a beautiful thing..."