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“Culture, Clearly Seen.” Black Cultural Intelligence

14 flagships · 25 briefs staged (weekly from Oct 13) · 9 dossiers · 25 guides · 2,957 entities — record updated October 12, 2026
The DuSable Black History Museum’s Harold Washington Wing, Chicago — CultureTechLens
Research Brief

Photo: TonyTheTiger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Research Briefs

Common — Be (2005)

CTL Thin Brief · CTL-TB-000114 · Published 2026-10-09

Thin Brief — a short evidence sketch, not a full research brief.

What makes Be a landmark?

Be, released in 2005, reunited Chicago rapper Common with producer Kanye West for a lean, soul-sample-driven record. It became one of the most acclaimed hip-hop albums of the decade, drawing deeply on Chicago’s streets and soul traditions. PROVISIONAL

Key facts

  • Common (born Lonnie Lynn) is a Chicago-born rapper, actor, and Academy Award-winning songwriter. SUPPORTED
  • Be was released in 2005 on Geffen Records with GOOD Music. SUPPORTED
  • Kanye West produced the album, bringing a spare, soul-sample-driven sound. SUPPORTED
  • Notable tracks include “The Corner,” “Testify,” and “Go!.” SUPPORTED
  • The album is widely cited as a landmark of 2000s hip-hop and a high point of the Common–West partnership. PROVISIONAL

Sources

  • AllMusic: Be album page
  • Geffen Records catalog
  • The Recording Academy (GRAMMY.com) — Common artist page

Evidence grades: VERIFIED — strong primary or multiple corroborating sources. SUPPORTED — credible, partly corroborated. PROVISIONAL — single source or general knowledge, uncorroborated.

Cite as: CultureTechLens, "Common — Be (2005) (CTL-TB-000114)," 2026-10-09.

Source: CultureTechLens

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Spalding's base ball guide, and official league book for ... - a complete hand book of the national game of base ball .. (IA spaldingsbasebal04chic) — CultureTechLens
Spalding's base ball guide, and official league book for ... - a complete hand book of the national game of base ball .. (IA spaldingsbasebal04chic) — CultureTechLensPhoto: John H. White, U.S. EPA DOCUMERICA, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Re-dedication ceremony at the Victory Monument, 35th Street and King Drive, Chicago — CultureTechLens
Re-dedication ceremony at the Victory Monument, 35th Street and King Drive, Chicago — CultureTechLensPhoto: Lt. Col. Bradford Leighton, Illinois National Guard (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, Bronzeville, Chicago — CultureTechLens
Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, Bronzeville, Chicago — CultureTechLensPhoto: Legimet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.