Common is a constant presence; he’s always doing something. Releasing an album here, writing poetry with Michelle Obama there, producing and acting in film and TV somewhere in between. Last week, the Chicago-born man, a man markedly uncommon, released an amazingly relevant and vital album. Black America Again is his eleventh album, and it is everything it promised to be.
Common’s lazy flow and pinpoint metrics have been his gift to us since day one, dating back to his days with the Soulquarians, where he plied a trade rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mos Def, Q-Tip, J Dilla and Talib Kweli to name a few. It was with the Soulquarians that he really learned to wind his words around the rhythm and infuse beats with melodies. This month’s release embodies all of Common’s past and blows the top off with its powerful content. He answered the call of another member of the neo-soul supergroup, Questlove, who cried out for more protest music in response to the ongoing oppression of minorities in the US. We’ve since seen Kendrick, D’Angelo, Knowles’ Beyoncé and Solange, all asking big questions and telling big truths. Black America Again is Common’s contribution to this proud, creative environment within the Black Lives Matter movement.
Album opener Joy and Peace featuring Bilal is uplifting, positive and poignant. The rhythmic, plucky bassline is constant and takes nothing away from the lyrics or Bilal’s homely soul-searching. The song fades out to “turn your light on, turn your light on,” setting up the record perfectly.
Title track Black America Again is unbridled, undisguised protest. The keys that dabble over the top of the boom-bap build an epic, euphoric feel that captures the importance and power of Common’s message. A James Brown excerpt is chopped up for the bridge: “You know, you know, you know, one way of solving a lot of problems that we’ve got is to let a person feel like somebody. And a man can’t get himself together until he knows who he is, and be proud of what and who he is and where he come from, and where he come from.”
Later, Stevie Wonder is heard in the outro, repeating “We are rewriting the black American story” no less than 12 times. It’s almost symbolic of the fact that no matter how many times it’s brought up, the people who matter and can create change don’t seem to get the message.
The song’s video is an ambient 21-minute procession of raw passion which shows intermittent clips of Common dropping his verses over a stripped back beatbox and drum.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMNyCNdgayE&w=560&h=315]
Syd of Odd Future/The Internet and vocalist Elena Pinderhughes both feature on Red Wine, a tune layered with high note synths and stabby perks; it is melodic to the moon and back. Each artist has their own verse, while Common uses the opportunity to make amends, having left Oprah Winfrey hanging after winning an Academy Award. “On a plane drinking wine with Oprah/when I missed the dap I ain’t mean to insult her.”
Syd and Bilal both feature again on A Bigger Picture Called Free, about the struggle and melancholy in enlightenment. Common paints a picture of growing older in an environment where perception is seemingly everything, and Syd and Bilal are harrowingly beautiful.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9miZhXiLYBY&w=560&h=315]
Sometimes protest albums can go from good to great due to relevance to world events. It really strikes a timely nerve and capture the emotion of a moment. Common’s album has come at that moment. A beautiful, strong, electrifying protest, Black America Again is fighting the cause with love. It’s Common’s best album in a long while, one that will undoubtedly remain bright in the minds (and ears) of many.
Rapper Common found Solange‘s single Cranes In The Sky so inspiring that he has added his own verse in an unofficial remix of the track.
Dropped the same week it was announced, a good four years after her last EP, Solange’s album is an unassuming, touching, masterful and altogether powerful album. A beautiful, bold expression of frustration and self-love and pride, the album pulls influences from all the genres Solange has shown incredible flair for throughout her career – from soul to funk to electronica.
An awe-inspiring collection of 21 songs, it has amassed acclaim from both critics and Solange’s peers alike and placed her in good stead to feature on many Best Of lists at the end of the year. The album has also earned Solange her first number one on the Billboard charts, the break out single Cranes in the Sky already receiving the remix treatment from producer Kaytranada.
Much in the way that A Seat At The Table is an expression of self-empowerment and love, social justice and the experiences of Solange as a black woman in the United States, rapper Common’s upcoming album Black America Again and single of the same title express the rapper’s frustrations with racially motivated violence and the inequality and injustices faced by black people in America.
Adding an entire verse to the beginning of the song, Common raps with a similar quiet aggression as is thematic throughout Solange’s album. “Can’t work it away, can’t drink it away, can’t laugh it away. Kept my love locked down like it was all dreaded/ wishing for wings again so I can spread it.”
Speaking to theFADER, he described the track as being timeless: “Every once and a few years, there are certain songs that come out and have the sound of forever. Cranes in the Sky is that song for me… Every time I listened to it, I keep wanting to hear it again and again,” he said. “I started mumbling some words to it and then decided I want to write a verse.”
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Read more: Feature: A spotlight on Solange
Image: Billboard
Following his 2014 release Nobody’s Smiling, Chicago’s Common has now unveiled the details to his next project. Set for release in under a month, Black America Again features the previously released single Love Star, alongside the title track, which features the legendary Stevie Wonder. If you fancy a further sneak peak into the album, he also performed three album cuts at the White House alongside collaborators Robert Glasper and Bilal for NPR‘s Tiny Desk Concert series.
Already, we can hear a definitive shift back to his neo-soul and jazz based roots, and with the tracklist now released, this is made clear by his choice of features. Straying away from clear cut hip-hop and more towards soul and blues, he’s selected some of the most slick and sultry singers to grace the mic in recent years. The Internet’s Syd, the aforementioned Bilal and Stevie Wonder, BJ the Chicago Kid, and past collaborator John Legend just to name a few; it’s soul singing A-Team if ever there was one.
Black America Again is released Friday, November 4th, but in the meantime, check out the single, track list and album artwork below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=c8EOlLb_4ho
Black America Again Tracklist:
1. Joy and Peace feat. Bilal
2. Home feat. Bilal
3. Word From Moe Luv Interlude
4. Black American Again feat. Stevie Wonder
5. Love Star feat. Marsha Ambrosius & PJ
6. On a Whim Interlude
7. Red Wine feat. Syd & Elena
8. Pyramids
9. A Moment In the Sun Interlude
10. Unfamiliar feat. PJ
11. A Bigger Picture Called Free feat. Syd & Bilal
12. The Day Women Took Over feat. BJ the Chicago Kid
13. Rain feat. John Legend
14. Little Chicago Boy feat. Tasha Cobbs
15. Letter To the Free feat. Bilal
Image: The Source
While Prince is no longer with us, his musical legacy not only remains, but continues to unfold and grow. And while his own catalogue is overwhelmingly huge, what some may fail to grasp is the true scale of the elusive artist’s truly prolific output. There’s no doubt more music that will never see the light of day, but here’s seven times the purple one’s musical genius has almost slipped under the radar.
Why Should I Love You – Kate Bush
While collaboration between the Chicago-born Prince Rogers Nelson and Kent-born Kate Bush seems unlikely, there’s a certain creative eccentricity which no doubt struck a chord between the two. Prince laid down guitar and keys on this track from Bush’s seventh album The Red Shoes in 1994. Bush would later return the favour by featuring on equally oddball track My Computer in 1996.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3j4pgqdwNA
Star 69 (PS With Love) – Common
Alongside Bilal, Prince teamed up with fellow Chicago native Common to cut a track for 2000 LP Electric Circus. The album’s experimental hip hop may have been a bit hit-and-miss with critics and fans, but the track’s explorative studio oddity seems right up Prince’s alley. If Star 69‘s musical pedigree wasn’t already interesting enough, it was also produced by ?uestlove, Poyser and J Dilla.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoIA6hWXh2w
Waiting Room – No Doubt
After just missing out on the cut for No Doubt’s Return To Saturn, Waiting Room found a home on 2001 follow-up Rock Steady. While the track might initially struggle to find the mark, the moment Gwen Stefani’s vocals meet Prince’s it becomes obvious why this song needed to see the light of day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_K6uGfZjGQ
Though Shalt Not Kill feat. Snoop Dogg and Tray Dee – Mobb Deep
It’s taken nearly a decade for the information to emerge, but band member Havoc has now revealed details of Prince’s contribution on this 2007 track. After a casual request to give the group some feedback on a beat, Prince laid down a keyboard riff and left without so much as saying goodbye. Snoop and Moss Deep opted to keep the Prince’s contribution, the rest is history.
https://youtu.be/aJO0-4c375c
A Love Bizarre – Shiela E
Cut from the second LP by Sheila’s E Romance 1600, the track features guitar, songwriting contribution and backing vocals from the man himself. Given that Prince’s commercial ascendancy in the mid-1980s, it’s little surprise that Sheila’s flamboyant track became an instant hit. Given Sheila’s longstanding association with Prince, it’s hard to tell where Prince stops and pop diva starts. Whether or not the Sheila was simply a well disguised Prince side-project remains a matter of contention, but it’s difficult to deny that this was almost a Prince track in and of itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56gpwl6cohc
Manic Mondays – The Bangles
One of the biggest hits of the ’80s was secretly written by Prince. But here’s where it gets strange, Prince approached the band under the false name ‘Chrisopher’, allegedly out of affection for the group’s rhythm guitarist. Regardless of the song’s origins, its offhanded pop genius is a true testament to Prince’s distinctive songcraft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAZgLcK5LzI
8, Madhouse
The debut album by jazz-fusion act Madhouse was Recorded in 5 days in the fall of 1986. Prince went to great pains to hide his involvement nominating woodwind player Eric Leeds as a fictitious frontman. Yet sans Leeds’ sax and flute overdubs this album is pure Prince. The jazz-funk fusion of opener One shows Prince was more than adept at taking his music outside of the pop formula.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ-2mUH2iRA
Like A Prayer – Madonna
Prince’s production fingerprints run all across the Madonna’s Like A Prayer, but it seems Prince was reluctant to take too much credit from his friend and ‘80s contemporary, seeking only direct credit for duet Love Song. Most notably Prince provided the guitar riffs for Keep It Together, Act of Contrition and the iconic title track Like a Prayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA983t3Rdzs
Image Source: USA Magazine
Following his recent Australian tour with Talib Kweli, Chicago rapper Common dropped a compelling freestyle on Sway in the Morning this week about the past and ongoing issues faced by black people in America. After a brief pause to think, he spat two epic verses for the upcoming American Black Film Festival saying “We gonna do it right.”
The multi-talented rapper, poet, actor and producer is known for using his music and platform to share his opinions about societal issues in America and he does so with eloquence and honesty. This freestyle is no different. He touches on the stealing of land from native Americans, PTSD from living in the projects and the shooting of black teenager Treyvon Martin in 2012. He has previously discussed similar themes in his 2014 EP Nobody’s Smiling and this freestyle hints that his upcoming project may feature more of the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlwlOkBidys
It’s pretty incredible to see someone do that off the cuff and for the delivery to be so smooth and flawless. Just when you think he’s already killed it it, he launches into a second verse that leaves the Sway in the morning crew losing their shit.
Read our review of Common and Talib Kweli live in Melbourne here.
Image: The AU Review
In a year where many musicians are sadly passing away all too young, it’s understandable that many are feeling the nostalgia and doubting that the musicians of today will be able to hold candles to the giants they stand on. Earlier this week however, Talib Kweli came out against a Twitter user who was doing exactly that, who claimed that A Tribe Called Quest and Rakim can’t be compared to the sounds of today.
https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/732672904933068800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Over a number of tweets, Talib named Run The Jewels, Joey Bada$$, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Rapsody, Anderson .Paak and Chance The Rapper as artists “all great, on [their] way to legend.” All of these artists are absolutely killing it at the moment – constantly releasing well-received music and each with their own distinct sound – but kind words from the one and only Talib Kweli can’t do anything but help their reputation and their self-confidence. In the same post Kweli also addressed the ease of finding good and original music in the age we live in.
“You are pretending that finding good music is harder than it used to be. That is false. It’s way easier… People forget the primary subject of real hiphop from 20-30 years ago was the ubiquitous ‘wacl MC’. Cuz there was a lot of wack shit out.”
https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/732686737693085697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Indeed, when we interviewed Kweli last year he told us, ” [To Pimp A Butterfly] is an experimentation in hip-hop, it’s funk and jazz, and he’s talking about the black experience as a kid from Compton. Kendrick is the number one most popular rapper right now, with the exception of maybe Drake. So to me, that signals a really healthy market for real music… People know the names of the artists that play club music, but people have nothing invested in these artists. People have something invested in Kendrick, and Run The Jewels, and J Cole and A$AP Rocky.”
Some wise words from one of the biggest names in biz. It’s an exciting time for music that we live in, and living in the past is getting no one anywhere interesting. Let’s wait and see if Talib’s predictions are true, and these acts all become legends – we’re pretty confident they will.
Check out our review of Talib Kweli alongside Common in Melbourne here.
Image: oogeewoogee
If you’ve listened to a lot of Common’s music, you will know it is sometimes referred to as ‘conscious’ hip-hop, as Common is aware of the world around him; he is aware of his people, and he raps about his love for the people. You could take away the beats, change up the crowd and he could perform just as well as a poet. Indeed, he is a poet as well as a rapper, having recited some on Def Poetry Jam, and the man has always inspired more than just hip-hop lovers. This was made clear during his performance in Melbourne last night; taking a look at the crowd, you could not have guessed who was performing or even what genre the concert was for.
Last night, I caught Common, supported by the immensely talented Talib Kweli as well as DJ MzRizk featuring N’Fa Jones and Man Made Mountain at Melbourne’s Trak Lounge. Talk about a dope line-up. Common had promised special guests as well as Talib, and couldn’t have chosen finer Melbourne talent to get the vibe right.
Setting the mood for the night was MzRizk, who, as the person responsible for Rizk’s Block Parties and Hip-Hop High Teas, knew exactly how to get the party started. Joining her on stage was fellow House of Beige artist N’Fa of 1200 Techniques, who did the MC thing, asking how the crowd were feeling before launching into a lengthy freestyle, improvising from what people in the audience were wearing and doing. A proven lyricist time and time again, he performed as many freestyles as songs above MzRizk’s slick beats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF4SN0IU7Y8
After N’Fa, Man Made Mountain came out for a set. If you don’t know Man Made Mountain, they are a hip-hop duo comprised of ARIA Award-winning producer Billy Hoyle and MC Cazeaux O.S.L.O.. Man Made draw upon their spiritual connection with the sounds of Brazil to create incredibly uplifting and unique music. The Melbourne group brought a perfect chilled out vibe, the kind you might get from a J Dilla track, which segued perfectly to the music of Talib and Common.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c3icG56ei8
MzRizk and N’Fa came back out to spin and spit a bit of original music, before introducing a man who really needs no introduction – Talib Kweli.
Talib Kweli is an MC’s MC, and you will seldom find ‘good’ rappers who wouldn’t list him as having a major influence on their career. He is not your typical rapper: he’s not about ‘bitches’ and ‘hoes,’ or ‘cars’ and ‘clothes,’ which we discussed with him in depth in an interview last year. He spits from the heart and could teach a man a few things about being a man.
Talib was highly charged, jumping straight up on the speakers at the front of stage. The crowd went wild, they loved every second of him. He had us putting the ‘Ws’ in the air for The RZA-produced track Rocket Ships from Prisoner of Conscious, before taking us back to my favourite album of his, The Beautiful Struggle, and what is possibly my favourite song of his, Never Been In Love. Without slowing down the pace, he took a moment to remember Prince, and as his DJ spun I Wanna Be Your Lover, Talib danced around the stage and the crowd reciprocated the love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyqkw0z6Shs
That’s when Talib turned it up by shouting out to his man Mos Def and Blackstar. “1, 2, 3 Mos Def and Talib Kweli” – that’s right, he rapped Definition, and not only that, he even did K.O.S. The only thing that he hadn’t done on his near-perfect set was perform Get By – which, of course, he then smashed out as his last song. Talib can really handle the crowd, and he gave us everything we needed in the limited amount of time he had.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVtpXvzzXiA
And then the man of the night was up. As his five-piece band (drummer, DJ, keyboardist, producer, and vocals) slowly set up, I was expecting/praying that he would open with the intro to Be (I’ve documented by longstanding love for that album and that song in particular). He didn’t open up with that, but he did open up with The People, which was almost as good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7B2VgRShew
Scattered through his performance (and I don’t use ‘performance’ as a regular noun – he really performed) were little uplifting speeches that were perfect intros between tracks. He even slipped an anti-Trump speech in there towards the end. At one point he discussed his love for people – from the rich to the poor, to the people from the street and on The Corner, which led him nicely into that song. He then launched into The Food, also from the Be album.
Later, Common was building up to a song that apparently meant a lot to him, until he noticed a few too many punters taking photos. He proceeded to tell them off and then told the band to instead play Black America. It didn’t really stop people from taking pictures, as up next was Blackstar’s Respiration. Yeah, that’s right, Common and Talib were on stage together and it was every bit as dope as it sounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeTnog5RRQo
There was one weird moment once Talib left. Common chose a young lady from the crowd and invited her up on stage; her name was Eden, which I remember as he serenaded her in freestyle, making lots of references to his being ‘Adam’ in ‘Eden’s garden.’ He even had her wipe away the sweat from his face with a towel – it was a little gross, but she seemed to enjoy it. It was a bit much at times, and almost felt scripted, as is, well, common for a Common show, but that’s expected from an entertainer at his level. Once the moment passed, Common came down into the crowd to sing his song, Go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCe1gC5VaW4
After a dramatic rendition of Testify, Common spent some time talking about producers he has worked with throughout his career, especially J. Dilla, and he gave the crowd a little vignette of their meeting, and how Dilla gave Common free beats before they were even mates.
His set ended on the Pharrell-produced Universal Mind Control, which bangs pretty hard live and was a solid choice to end on. But, of course, that was not actually the end. The band came back out for the encore playing Be (Intro) for a minute before Common reappeared, rapped Be, and made my life. That’s what I came to see, and once it was done, I could drop my metaphorical mic and walk out of the building.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJwAkpfcEj4
It was a truly remarkable night with great performances from everyone, and it was amazing to see two of my favourite MCs perform together. In the words of the legend that is Common, “I’ll tell you the rest when I see you, peace.”
Image: Ripitup
Taking time out from their super serious acting careers to divulge in their hobby of singing songs, Common and Ice Cube dropped by The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform Real People off the soundtrack for their new film Barbershop: The Next Cut (no seriously). It capped off an emotional and eventful week for Cube, with N.W.A’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame followed by a ludicrously enjoyable Twitter feud with Kiss’ Gene Simmons (because why not?)
House band The Roots joined in on the performance of the track which preaches togetherness, community and an end to violence, according to Rolling Stone, with the two artists definitively burying the hatchet of a decades long beef with the most likely U.N sanctioned hatchet burying process of shaking hands in solidarity.
Common discussed his history with N.W.A, including about when he opened up for the rap group in the 80’s and why he decided to join the cast for the new film: “First of all it’s a fun movie, it’s a comedy. It just has a message with heart about really the community and how communities need to take care of themselves. It’s based in Chicago and there’s been a lot of violence in Chicago but the movie is about hope and based on hope and inspiration; but it deals with the subject in a real way.”
In case you’re trying to come up with ideas for a Mother’s Day present, Barbershop: The Next Cut Official Soundtrack is out now via Atlantic Records.
And now, Common shows off his break dance moves
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4JqGA5xbi4?list=PLykzf464sU9_lo9m4bgm_JT_yF5vrvkpA]
Ice Cube and Common will team up for a special VH1 show of Behind The… which will see the two iconic rappers discuss a range of issues affecting the youth of America.
The VH1 special has announced the partnership as a “one-of-a- kind community town hall meeting in Chicago titled Behind The Movie: ‘Exploring Chicago with the Cast of ‘Barbershop: The Next Cut.’
The show, which will be at a local college and will be hosted by VH1’s Sway Calloway, will shine a spotlight on a variety of issues ranging from relationships to gun violence in the community.
“It is important to me that Barbershop does more than entertain. Along with comedy, the story touches on relationships and gang violence. This partnership with VH1 is the perfect way to expand this conversation,” Ice Cube said.
Ice Cube and Common will lead the discussion with students and organisers, while there will also be segments where the cast of the film visit local barbershops and talk about the problems faced by those who are disadvantaged in the area.
Fellow stars in the film, which is set for release in April, such as Vic Mensa and Nicki Minaj will also make an appearance on the show.
“Pop culture has the power to broaden conversations that are central to our audience. With Ice Cube and Common, two of the most important voices in hip hop and entertainment, this town hall will bring national attention to issues that affect communities across the country,” Amy Doyle, Executive Vice President/Deputy General Manager for VH1, said.
It will be the first episode in a new series which will aim to, “explore all facets of pop culture and its intersection with current cultural and political issues.”
Listen to Ice Cube and Common’s collaboration Real People below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Ihai6DG6A
Image: Genius