Common’s ’Be’ Getting 20th Anniversary Re-Release With 11 New Songs

May 16, 2025 1

Common’s beloved 2005 album Be is seeing a 20th anniversary re-release. Recently, Com used his Spotify page to post a pre-save for the upcoming 20th-anniversary edition, which will include 11 new bonus tracks. It’s an epic re-release for an epic album.

According to Billboard, Be debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 185,000 copies in its first week. It was Common’s second album to sell over 500,000 copies and became gold-certified by the RIAA.

With hit singles like “The Corner,” and “Testify,” Be is one of Common’s most commercially successful and critically acclaimed albums. It also arrived at a time when his personal life was in the media spotlight for the first time. He’d just had a long-term relationship with Erykah Badu come to an end, and fan speculation hung over his album. There was even a since-debunked rumor that he titled the project Be to stand for “Before Erykah,” an indication that he was returning to his artistic roots from prior to their relationship.

“Some of the hardest work I’ve done on myself has been after breakups,” he would explain to EBONY in 2019. “With Erykah Badu, that was my first love, where you’re just open and floating. When we split, I was 27 or 28. I was in a haze, just going through the motions. It was hard to eat. It wasn’t her fault, the relationship just didn’t go forward.”

At the time, his work with producers like Kanye West and J. Dilla was widely hailed following the lukewarm reception to 2002s Electric Circus (which also featured contributions from Dilla).

“I think Be might’ve been one of the highest points in my career as a hip-hop artist and as a musician,” he told XXL back in 2015. “I felt like, creatively, I hit that moment with Kanye where things were just flowing very naturally and the result came out really good. People enjoyed it and it was at the right time. You have those moments in your career where that can happen — and it happens more than one time in your career — but I’m just saying that was one of those moments for me and definitely one of the most important albums in my career. I’ve had 20-year-olds come up and say Be was one of their favorite albums and, you know, just people in general come up and say that was a classic album.”

The artist formerly known as Common Sense has been busy. He spent much of last year on the road during he and Pete Rock’s Auditorium Tour, a trek supporting their first-ever joint album, The Auditorium Vol. 1. Common was also featured in Bilal’s 2024 concert film, Live At Glasshaus.

The Be 20th anniversary edition drops May 23rd.