Editor's note: This is a review of the single-disc edition of "Be." Some early copies of the album came with an extra DVD that included more than 40 minutes of bonus material.

CD: "Be" by Common; Geffen Records.

Released: May 24, 2005.

Style: Hip-hop.

My take: Hip-hop MC Common, formerly known as Common Sense, returns with "Be," his first album since 2002's "Electric Circus," which all but abandoned hip-hop praxis in favor of a more experimental, eclectic sound. Whether you hated it or thought it a stroke of genius, it was undeniably different.

On "Be," Common returns to the hip-hop doctrine he's done well with in the past. The beats are infectious and easy to start nodding your head to. And while the music and production are nothing to bite your thumb at (that's for all the Shakespeare fans I have), the real bread-and-butter of the album is in the lyrics.

The first highlight of the album is its lead single, "The Corner," featuring spoken-word poetry performed by The Last Poets, about the past ups and downs of the title street corner: "Streetlights & deepnights cats trying to eat right/Riding no seat bikes with work to feed hypes/So they can keep sweet Nikes they head & they feet right/Desires of streetlife cars & weed types/It's hard to breathe nights when days are thief like."

Other highlights include "The Food," packaged here as a live performance by Common and Kanye West on "Chappelle's Show," a tale of a man observing life on his neighborhood's streets; "Go!," which details the good and bad times of a relationship gone sour; and the closing eight-minute track "It's Your World, Pts. 1&2." The first half gives vivid descriptions of the lives of two people who, despite taking some wrong turns in life, still hold close their dream of seeing California. The second half is a recording of a bunch of children stating what they want to be when they grow up — everything from an architect to a ballerina — before trailing into a piano instrumental and a closing speech by a reverend-like speaker called Pops.

In a time when the rap and hip-hop genres are so lacking in substance that artists unknowingly parody their own genre, it's refreshing to listen to an album as intriguing as this one. The talented Common packs more content into one verse than some rappers do in an entire CD.

And although "Be" won't break new ground or bring in a new movement in music, it will treat listeners to intelligent hip-hop that challenges the mind as well as the ear.

Jeremy Castillo is a student at Windward Community College.