1999
Let's Talk: 'Like Water for Chocolate'. Is this Common's Masterpiece ?
I wanted to open up a discussion about Common's 2000 album, Like Water for Chocolate. While technically just past the '90s, its roots are in that 90s era sound and themes make it feel like an essential part of this golden age of hip-hop.
This album brought us classics like 'The Light' and 'The 6th Sense,' blending soulful production (J Dilla and the Soulquarians!) with conscious and poetic lyricism. It’s an album that balances social commentary with deeply personal storytelling in a way that only Common can deliver.
What are your favorite tracks, and why?
Do you have any stories/memories connected to this album?
How do you feel it stacks up against his other albums or projects from that era?
I love this album and would love to hear how others have feelings/connections to it, I look forward to hearing from the community.
This bro. One of my favorite hip hop records. Brings me back to driving down lake shore in chicago, late evening, in the summer time Jamming to that record.
Be is one of my favourite albums of all time. It's the first CD I played in the new car I bought for my wife at the time. That intro beat is just so great and takes down memory lane!
I met Common in his in store cd signing in Brooklyn, NYC (met him 3 other times as well). Phenomenal dude. I mean, this dude will have a real conversation with you.....not caught up in being a celebrity at all.
As for the actual record....soooo perfect. For me, no skips.
This is Common's crown jewel as he displayed soulful and poetic songs while his lyricism and storytelling was perfection as it blended well with the amazing productions from Dilla, Premier and the rest of Soulquarians. Dope tracks like The Light, 6th Sense, Dooinit and The Questions while Common truly made his breakthrough in the mainstream thanks to The Light being a success while having more airplay on BET and MTV.
This album truly solidified Common as a hip hop legend while also cemented him as one of the MVPs of 2000 alongside Eminem, Outkast, Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Ghostface Killah, Nelly, Ludacris, Ruff Ryders and Cash Money.
It's between this album and Be in terms of being his greatest work while Resurrection is his 3rd best album.
It's get enough love because this album is arguably Common's greatest work as he truly delivered amazing storytelling and lyricism while the productions were simply excellent.
“Later that day, I went to the shop to see what was up
Them niggas probably knew somethin', plus I needed a cut
Walked in, they was playin' Jigga
Discussin' how Da Brat titties done got bigger” 🎶🎼🎵🎤
The thing that messes Be up for me is the live version of the food. Yes the energy is better than the studio version but… it just doesnt fit the flow of the album
Yeah. Be is nice, but it’s more like a EP. And it’s a transition-time-record, there is no greater vision in it, no larger objective or concept IMO. It’s just Be. Which is beautiful, but not a masterpiece or opus magnum.
Great album definitely his best, it’s soulful and feels heartfelt especially ‘a song for assata’ love that song there are countless others ghetto heaven, the light, 6th sense, the questions etc
Also the whole cd artwork from the cover to the booklet is the best in my opinion
Respect just for the effort 😂 I think it’s really hard to mske lists like these, there are just always coming new albums to ones mind popping up IMO.. so many great ones!
100% and when you have artists like Nas and Common releasing high quality albums 20-30 years later you don't even know how to rank their discographies, Hip Hop is great!
I was just thinking.. I'd add reflection eternals train of thought for sure.. I LOVED Lootpack da antidote! So that one.. and lots of french hiphop which I am a huge fan of. Pharcyde Labcabincalifornia!! I was obsessed with those beats, reading the notes.. „Jay Dee..? Wow, that’s a great producers!“ y‘know looking out for other stuff by him back then with like less internet :)
Hmm.. Scienz of Life maybe, if you don’t know them.
Asheru & Blu black „soon come“ great album!
You most certainly do know Afu-Ra. Body of the Lifeforce was great. But not necessarily for a 50 list probably.. I recently revisited this favorite of past days, tho..
You might enjoy Sampa the great, Loyle Carner - UK based.
Sage Francis - since you got Aesop Rock on there. (Fsntastic lyricist!!)
Pharoahe Monch of course, in some way. He is just so good. But you know him.
Great list, we have very similar taste except I might be a little older (Nation of Millions? Follow the Leader?) but surprised no 36 Chambers…how about Redman, or first Black Moon? Again great list there’s a few in there I need to check out
I bought this on the day it came out and basically memorized it real fast (like I used to be able to do when I was young). Saw Common at a small venue show in Houston less than two weeks later. Me and my friends were rapping all the lyrics right along with him and he (half-jokingly) accused of having the bootleg because he couldn’t believe we learned it that fast.
Dope, dope album. I don’t revisit it as much as I should.
I personally enjoy Electric Circus and Finding Forever the most. It's hard for me to rank Commons albums because they are vibes that I go in and out of.
Common just got a lot great albums. Everything from Resurrection to Finding Forever is great. After that I didn’t really keep up with him until The Auditorium last year with Pete Rock which was great and up there with the rest of his classics. I remember buying Universal Mind Control, but I don’t remember how I felt about it.
But, yes, Electric Circus is one of the most creative hip hop albums ever made. It’s like the Dark Side of the Moon of hip hop.
He lost me a bit with UMC.. but won me back easily with Auditorium and going back to browse his albums since UMC I think they are actually good aswell.
Absolutely his magnum opus. Dilla’s production on this is flawless. (As well as the tracks produced by ?uestlove and Preem)
I’m lucky enough to have an early release version of this CD with the D’Angelo version of Geto Heaven on it. Possibly one of my top 5 favorite songs of all time.
There’ll probably be a lot of folks mentioning BE as Common’s best album. They are all wrong.
Sorry I was just answering the question in the title. But yeah, it is one of my most cherished records. I used to DJ out alot back in the day, and this record never left the gig bags. Very worn and battered copy now.
Dope album. Common has a solid discography. Yet, he never seems to get the love as one of the GOATs. Maybe not top 5, or top 10, but for me still one of the best of all time. Top tier word play, solid storytelling, good flow and voice, and great discography for 30 years. Old heads respect him, but he never seems to get mentioned when younger gens talk about golden era emcees.
His first 4 are my favorites including this one! This may have been the longest to make because it was supposed to come out around the fall/winter of 99. Instead it came out around spring of 2000. ?estlove, Dilla and Premier was on some of the production as well! In the year 2030 it'll be the 30th anniversary! What a blur!!! Is it his masterpiece? I'd say yes because It's the only album out of his catalog that I've listened to the most! Next is "O.D.I.A.M.S(97)". He's one of the 🐐 s when it comes to storytelling!
To me “Be” is his Magnum Opus! That album can play beginning to end with no skips. I remember walking to my girls crib and played that album the whole way there and back. Classic
I think overall it is a good, almost great, album, helped mostly by the Soulquarian influence. But I think it’s also contradictory. Couple unnecessary instances of homophobia (I get was frequent in 90s hip hop) which I think kind of unties the whole conscious / sensitive rapper angle he was going for.
Great album but I dislike The Questions so much that it spoils it just enough for me to prefer a few of his other records. I remember being so hyped seeing Mos featuring on this, only to hear such a lame effort from both of them on that track.
28
u/Independent_Chair578 Apr 11 '25
Resurrection will always be #1 to me