I'll say one thing: Comye needs to step his (errr, their) buzz game up.

Why you ask? Well, let's just say that when I first heard three tracks from Common's Finding Forever on Kanye West's Can't Tell Me Nothing mixtape, I was a little less than impressed. Of the three, lead single "The People" was the only one that was at all interesting, and that was more of a "I won't turn it off if it's on" thing. I mean, 'Ye's allegedly Dilla-aping beat was nice background music, but then so is smooth jazz. Harsh? Nah. Not to mention, me bein' a pretty conservative dude, a title like that hits me the wrong way. What's next Comm, "The People's Revolution?" Think we all know what that means.

Just kiddin'. Sorta. As for the other two tracks on the tape? Snooze. Basically, 'Ye trying to get all "gritty" behind the boards, and ending up with one really boring beat, and one semi-disaster. And one of 'em was picked as the album's follow-up single.

But I'll leave ya in fake-suspense about the not-so-lucky two for now. Turns out almost everything else on Finding Forever is substantially better than I would've thought just based on what 'Ye put on that mixtape. I'd go as far to say that the rest of the album, save one seriously questionable track in the second half, is better than "The People." Granted, choosing any single from this album is tough, cuz there really isn't anything here that's hit material -- but leavin' that aside, most of the album is a very solid listen.

Now, I guess you could say I'm still not really sold on Common as a stellar emcee. Granted, this might be cuz I've only heard this and 2005's Be, and none of his (supposedly) best albums from earlier in his career. But style's an integral part of bein' a top-tier emcee, and while Comm is a capable dude in terms of rhymes and flow, he doesn't have any moments where I really go "daaaaaamn" (no Jeezy) like I have with certain other rappers. If these last two albums are any indication, I have to think a lotta dude's acclaim comes from the lyrics he spits, rather than him spittin' 'em in a real mindblowing way.

So how 'bout the lyrics? Here, it really depends on which song you're talkin' about. You have very effective, emotional tracks like "U, Black Maybe," "So Far to Go," and "Misunderstood," as well as "I Want You," the best of the loverman Comm joints here. On all these songs, Comm's rappin' works better because he sounds very focused on a specific topic and interacts well with the beats. He falters when he slips into more generic-sounding lyricism, as with his assorted "I'm for the people"-isms (descriptive I know) on "The People," and his relatively uninteresting boasting on "Southside." On the whole, there's not really anything here Comm spits that you'll think is wack, but he definitely has his share of fairly dull moments.

What Finding Forever really has going for it, and the reason I give it the edge over Be, is its production. Parts of Be suffered from what I'll call an ATLiens problem -- the beats were a little on the overly subdued side of things. Now I'm not sayin' Comm's done a complete 180 and decided to scare away all his fans by serving up a plate of club bangers (although take it from me, I'd be standin' in line to see how it turned out if he went and tried it,) but the beats definitely have more juice this time around. That becomes clear immediately with the album opener "Start the Show," where Kanye laces a jerky, piano-spiked beat for Comm to spit some battle raps over. The arrangement here initially sounds like it may be a little disjointed, but once you wrap your head around it the different elements come together well, and everything's tied together by a great sample on the distorted 'Ye-sangin' chorus.

Most of the rest of the album is fairly low-key, but the beats definitely have a vibrant, warm feeling goin' that's very effective. will.i.am provides some up-front drums and bright synths that make "I Want You" a great mellow head-nodder, and the jazz-meets-sped-up-sample sound 'Ye uses for "U, Black Maybe" complements Comm's reminsiscin' nicely. Both of these songs are good examples of laid-back, serious material that doesn't fall into the "boring" trap, a big issue I've had with a handful of rap albums.

The closing stretch of Finding Forever in particular contains some of the album's best moments. Dilla's late-night, spacey (sorry, I know I use that word a lot, but it's really the only way to describe this I swear) groove on "So Far to Go" makes it another Trey-approved example of chillness done right, but it's the smooth vibes of both "Misunderstood" and "Forever Begins," the latter of which has probably 'Ye's most lushly-layered beat on the album, that really end things on a high note. Ya know, almost enough to make you forget about...

...the pretty easy-to-pick-out bombs here. Now I already went over how I think "The People's" not bad not great, but there's three songs here that really should've been reconsidered -- including the Secret Two (tm,) follow-up single "The Game" and "Southside." On the former, 'Ye tries to get his DJ Premier on, and the result is the absolute dullest beat here. It's not like I'm hatin' on old school-sounding beats here either, just that 'Ye could've taken notes from Premo's recent beat on that "Classic" Nike promo if he was tryin' to bring BoombapBack. "Southside," meanwhile, is just a mess. The rock-crunch sample 'Ye uses here is way too repetitive and noisy for its own good, to the point that it sounds like it's being slammed into your head. And while I'm a huge fan of biggin' up entertaining 'Ye verses against predictable "he can't rap!" whinin', neither him or Comm make much of an impression here.

While those two are easily the album's worst songs, Comm's final ladies-man song here doesn't have a lot going for it either. Although Kanye loops up a fitting vocal sample for "Break My Heart's" hook, during Comm's verses it sounds like he just shat on the record and called it a beat. Sorry to get all vulgar, but I'm bein' kinda literal here. Listen to it. Not to mention that Comm's more "playful" delivery here is borderline embarassing -- enough that I actually kinda cracked up when I initially heard the first verse. Maybe this's supposed to be funny, in a subtle, unintentional-sounding way? In that case Comm -- props!

But now I'm jez soundin' cynical. Take those tracks outta the equation, and what you have with Finding Forever is a cohesive, well-produced album that proves that despite the occasional misstep, Kanye's still one of the best producers doin' it today, and Comm's a skilled emcee this late into his career. I'm not going to proclaim it as the world-beating, real hip hop-reviving, one-hit wonder rapper-smashing album of 2007 -- cuz let's face it, it ain't, and deep down ya know you like most of those one-hit singles anyway. But FF's still a solid effort, and will probably end up as one of the 0-7's better rap albums in what's been a fairly dry year so far.

Though 'course, I'm still waitin' on what kinds of crazy sh*t 'Ye's gonna come up with for Graduation. You knew I had to mention that at some point.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening