The Corner by Common and Kanye West

When I listen to music, I break into four categories:

Sucks on first listen, sucks everytime after.
Great on first listen, sucks thereafter.
Sucks on first listen, great thereafter.
Great every listen.

95% of music for me is in the first two categories.
4% in the third.
1% in the last.

"The Corner" by Common, produced by Kanye West falls into that last category. The song is about street corners, the neighborhood microcasm of struggles of the the urban environment. First, the lyrics are incredible. Most rappers are content to just report the struggle. But Common editorializes it in the world of the corner.

"The Corner.. where struggle and greed fight."
"We rap about wrong cause we can't see right."
"We look to the sky hopin it bleed light."

Not only that, his flow is impeccable. He's doesn't miss a beat and wraps within the beat rather than on top of it - something most rappers can't master like Common does in this song.

What makes the song though, is Kanye West's production. He's easily one of the best producers out there today and shows it in this song. The sped up vocals are there as is his signature melliflous mixture of samples that seem to bring out a sense of R&B type warmth from what can be a cold hip-hop beat.

I'm hooked on this song. So much so, I bought it from iTunes cause the album's not out yet. That means something.