Alright, forget about what he's doing now on some modern day Ice Cube stuff (their careers have mirrored each other at this point now in soooooo many ways). And forget about him doing that Just Wright movie with Queen Latifah.
Did this guy mess with his own legacy just for Hollywood money like Cube? He has classic albums, classic songs, and he was spitting some straight up real sh!t in his songs for real. Just like Cube.
How do you go from this?
Ice Cube diss response...to feelings caught from "I used to love H.E.R."
to this?
I actually like that last one...but I wouldn't lie and say that wasn't some soft adult contemporary R&B soft stuff compare to his previous work.
Do people know that this man was one of the best rappers out at a certain point in time anymore? It's almost like he went from being underrated to...I don't even know. And that's what gets to me.
Naw, he hasn't messed up his legacy. Common has just been blessed and fortunate enough to find new avenues to make some money and double his dollars. He's had a great run of albums from 94' to 00' with Resurrection, One Day It'll All Make Sense and Like Water For Chocolate.
To answer you're question about his transition from 94' to 00' Common to the Common of today, times changed. Almost every artist has a wack album here or there, even the great ones. Sometimes an artist is playing catch up and just trying to cash in and other times it could just an artist trying to experiment and do something different. There many different reasons for a "wack" album. I'm sure he's changed as a person and the times have changed as well. He's got a family to feed and Hip Hop is not the be all and end all of making money. The record executives and CEOS make all the money. Common is a Hip Hop head to the fullest but the man's got to eat which I'm sure is why he's gotten more and more into acting.
People who are Hip Hop fans know his how great he was in his prime. Although it was a good return in some sense after Electric Circus, B.E. and Kanye helped him out in a major way gain some notoriety that he might not have ever gotten had he not sought out Kayne's assistance in the making of B.E. and wanting to make an album closer to Hip Hop again after Electric Circus.
I think Common is a top twenty emcee. He was great in his prime; great lyricist with a great delivery, tight flow, good storytelling, distinct vocals etc. He put out more than enough work (albums, songs, guest features) in that 94' to 00' run to be in the top twenty in my opinion.
Be was the album that made me a fan. And it's what made me go through his entire discography, starting from the beginning. 
