Merry X-mas! And to all you heathens, like myself, happy day off from work/school! For my first post, I wanted to share this rare treat that I'd been scouring the internet for for a good while now. I remember listening to an advance of Common's "BE" in Nick & Sean Blaze's room freshman year (I can't believe it's been that long), and the intro/title track really caught my ear. Each prior Common album had a unique sound, and I had no idea what to expect. The syncopated bassline, the synth melody, and then the strings...Amazing. Anyway, the linked track is the one sampled for the strings— Albert Jones' "Mother Nature" —off of the rare rare "Facts of Life." I don't know if the other elements in the Common track are played live or sampled (It seems James Poyser played the synth line), but, regardless, it shows great composition by J Dilla (R.I.P.) and Kanye. Buttery!
