Songfacts®:

• In this song, Common relates hip-hop music to a woman. In the early '90s, gangsta rap went mainstream as artists like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg became very popular, and Common used this song to express his dissatisfaction with the genre. The song created some tension between the East Coast and West Coast rappers.
• This samples "The Changing World" by George Benson. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Donovan Berry - El Dorado, AR, for above 2
• "H.E.R." is an acronym for "Hearing Every Rhyme." Common laments mainstream rap's sacrifice of meaningful lyrics for superficiality, particularly the praise of the blinged-out and violent gangsta lifestyle.
• No I.D. produced this track using a SP1200 sampler to generate the bass line that he blended with the George Benson sample. "Common came with this incredible story, which at the time we had no idea would be so revered," he told Complex. "Once he had the rap in his head, it was just a matter of making it come across the best."
• Kanye West borrowed the opening lyrics of this song for the beginning of his 2008 track "Homecoming."
• Chris Halliburton directed the music video. Set in Southside Chicago, it follows a woman's transformation into a gangsta, paralleling Common's view of hip-hop's decline into gangsta rap. According to No I.D., they made two failed attempts and blew a lot of money before getting it right on the third try.
• This was featured in the 2002 romantic comedy/drama Brown Sugar, starring Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan and Queen Latifah.