Album: Common, This Is Me Then: the Best of Common (Sony BMG)

If anyone deserves credit for rescuing hip-hop from degeneracy, it has to be Common, who finally received his due when Finding Forever entered the US album chart at No 1 last year.

It's been a long, slow climb, but one marked by a consistent integrity and intelligence, as demonstrated by this outstanding compilation drawn from the first three of his seven albums.

Only the juvenile sexist disparagement of "Heidi Ho" soils the collection, which tracks Common's progress from youthful delight in verbal invention to a more sophisticated, politically-conscious worldview.

The great change came with his second album Resurrection, in the mature reflections of "Book of Life", the dazzling freestyle assertion of individuality "This Is Me", and the impressive "I Used to Love HER" – an allegory of hip-hop's decline from street celebration to degraded soundtrack of venality.

Common restored a sense of nobility to the genre, extended with the ruminations on religion, parenthood and politics on later albums. An album to shame most rappers.

Watch the video for Common's track 'I Used To Love HER'

Download this: 'This Is Me', 'I Used to Love HER', 'Retrospect For Life', 'GOD (Gaining One's Definition)', 'Book of Life'