Common, Award Winning Artist, Actor & Producer
Common talks about how he turned his passion for rap into a career as a hip-hop artist, family, equality and activating change.
Common
Common, Award Winning Artist, Actor & Producer
Common talks about how he turned his passion for rap into a career as a hip-hop artist, family, equality and activating change.
There’s something about Common. Many know him as the Grammy and Academy Award-winning hip hop artist, poet, actor, and film producer. He’s all of those things, but, largely thanks to the love and support of his mother, who he considers his “home and foundation” (awww!), he’s so much more.
Common also shouts out the poetry of Dr. Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni for inspiring him in his formative years while growing up in Chicago, resulting in him writing his first rap at just twelve-years-old. Kick ass, boundary-breaking women like the aforementioned have uplifted and influenced Common’s art from the get-go -- so much so that he says his art will “always honor and uplift women.” There’s nothing more attractive than a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, is there? (He was also once photographed wearing his heart on the chest of a t-shirt which read “This is what a feminist looks like.”)
And the rest is history! With a career spanning 25 years, which has found him collaborating with Dr. Angelou, the household name is also a loud and proud activist for equality. He’s even played a Civil Right’s Movement leader in 2014’s lauded film, Selma, which was directed by another extraordinary woman, Ava Marie DuVernay, the first black female director to have a film (Selma) nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. (Meanwhile, “Glory,” the song Common co-wrote and performed alongside John Legend, took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song). Common clearly takes the whole “You’re the company you keep” thing seriously. Talk about #squadgoals!
“Man, if we had women taking over the world, the world would get better,” Common told us in the latest edition of MAKERS MEN, premiering here today. (We have a feeling “Who Run The World” is his favorite Queen Bey song. Same.) Check it out, and witness why Common is our type of guy.
- I think when we lift each other up to a equal place, like it's a harmony there. Let everybody feel loved and feel valued, and feel wanted. I was born in Chicago, Illinois. My home and my foundation has been my mother. She really taught me how to love by example, and in some ways could be very disciplinarian, like it made me look at women and know that hey, I see a boss right here. My first entry into writing and music was because of my love for poets like Dr. Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni. And I wrote my first rap when I was 12 years old. And really, that dream just sat in my heart from that moment on, and I wanna be a hip hop artist. Knowing that my mother worked hard for me to be able to get into college, she really barely knew I even rapped. It was a tough back and forth, but my mother saw that I truly was sincere and passionate. She just embraced it, and then we came to an agreement like if things didn't pop off in two years, then I'd go back to school. But I guess she put her prayers in, 'cause I'm still working at it. I wrote this story, a love story, about a woman, but it's really about hip hop evolving to some of the gangster west coast to becoming corporate and losing some of the integrity. And when I'm rapping it in the studio, my boy was listening and frowning the whole time. It was like, sounded like a sappy love song to him and it wasn't supposedly cool to do that, right? I wanted to show that to my friends and in hip hop and especially as black men and we should be able to express love and still be able to be yourself and be respected. Selma was a life changing experience for me. I really started to say, okay, I have to identify things that I wanna see change and start walking towards those things. Seeing Ava Duvernay being our leader and reminding me of my mother, but then to learn about the people of the civil rights movement, the women who would sacrifice their lives so that we could live better lives. Okay, I'm a conscious artist, but what am I doing that's activating a change? And whatever I was doing, I knew I could do more. ♪ When it go down we woman and man up ♪ ♪ They say stay down and we stand up ♪ ♪ Shots, we on the ground, the camera panned up ♪ ♪ King pointed to the mountain top and we ran up ♪ ♪ Somewhere in the dream we had an epiphany ♪ ♪ Now we right the wrongs in history ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ I decided to put my creativity and energy towards activism. I just took the idea, how this world is missing the equality that women deserve, so I wrote this for saying, man, if we had women taking over the world, the world would get better. I do wanna put hope and optimism and love out there. What I do in my art is always to honor women and to uplift them, and we as men should be courageous enough to do it. I wanna do that with my music and empower women because I just believe that's the best thing, that's the right thing.
- Hip-Hop is like it kind of starts with the people. It starts with the artist. It's just people are rapping in their basement. Rapping in the parks. There's something real raw and unapologetic as they say uncut about Hip-Hop artists and their voices. So the music and the rhymes, it always is reflective of the people because Hip-Hop artists too a lot of them just come from amongst the people. No matter how many films I get or I sit down and get to get the blessing of going to meet President Barack Obama, I still know what's going on on the Southside of Chicago. I still know what's going on in Baltimore. I have people that I can connect with whether it's in Atlanta or Brooklyn. As long as we're in tune with the people with as artists then we will be a true reflection of the people.
- I've had songs where I just pour my heart out about love or being in love with a woman and it wasn't accepted by to be able to talk about love like that and it was I look back on it and be like, man, what were we doing? For me to be 19 years old and not being able to talk about love in a way that I wanted to. Those were the days where you're expressing your love to a woman and your friends are like, "oh man you're a cake daddy." But you grow into being like, "yo, this is who I am." And you have a certain bravery, and a certain strength within yourself. And I think some of that courage funny enough came from being around the people I was around because we were courageous about other things so why not be courageous about love? That's how I felt.
- I did a song about abortion. It was a song called Retrospect For Life, and I talked to the unborn child, and I talked to the mother of the unborn child and really gave affectionate spilling of my heart to them. People started to think like hey, this dude, he a conscious artist. I really was just talking about personal experiences and my view of the world, but I was grateful to talk about that on the microphone 'cause it something that KRS-One always said that still resonates with me. So you think I'm gonna get on the mic and waste my people's time? For a while I was like, I didn't like hearing that title, he a conscious rapper because it did put you in that box. Now, I embrace the title because I look at artists like Nina Simone, and Bob Marley, and Stevie Wonder. Those are conscious artists, so if I can be anywhere at the end of a sentence with them, then I'm grateful.
- I wanna start before music saying that Dr. Maya Angelou was definitely an influence for me, because her writing, writing is what inspires me a lot. And then, I have to go to the soul era of music and say Minnie Riperton and Chaka Khan were inspirations and influences. And then, we get into hip hop with the female artists. I would say Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, then we get to Lauren Hill who was an incredible writer, and MC, and voice. So, those were some of the big influences if I would really think about female artists who have influenced me in the music that I do.
- I'm a kick some of my first rap, it said ♪ Well let me tell 'bout a trip ♪ ♪ A time ago ♪ ♪ I was going there to run a cold-blooded show ♪ ♪ When I was there I saw some people jammin' too ♪ ♪ They called themselves The Bond Hill Crew ♪ ♪ Dr. Ice, Romeo and Master E ♪ ♪ All of The Bond Hill Crew rappin' to a tee ♪ ♪ I asked them could they rock with me ♪ And when I said it, it got a lot of love. So I really loved the way that made me feel and the way the raps made the people feel. So I eventually started writing, obviously listening to Run DMC and to LL Cool J and to Eric B. and Rakim. By sophomore year I was writing in a group and I would freestyle, at lunch and in gym. So it was all part of the joy, the entertainment, the love and passion that I have for Hip Hop. I always looked for that thing I wanted to give to the world, but I didn't think Hip Hop would be one of those things. I just knew it was something I loved to do.
- By lifting each other up, we get the world in balance. I don't think we were created to be pushing each other down. I think when we lift each other up to an equal place, it's a harmony there. Let everybody feel loved, and feel valued, and feel wanted. We all don't have to think the same, but we can respect, value, love, and listen to each other. Just keep that harmony. I like peace, I like harmony in my life, and I want that for other people too.
- The group that I was in CDR, we opened up for Eazy-E and NWA, Too Short and Big Daddy Kane. So for us, that was like we thought we had made it. Chicago kids are getting to open up for Eazy-E and NWA. Our whole neighborhood was there. Everybody was there. All our friends. We had dancers. The dancers were the thing then. It was cool. It was real It was one of the most fun moments I had in my life. But I actually talked to Ice Cube about that like because that was his first time going to the Midwest. And it was amazing how it came full circle because that was the first show we got to open up for anybody professional. And it became Ice Cube who I had a battle with. And then I eventually did a movie with years later. So that concert was incredible.
- I was in fifth grade and I got suspended for pulling down my pants. Somebody bet me that I wouldn't pull down my pants, and my mother, as soon as I got home she was like yeah, pull down your pants now. And then I got a real whipping, so she gave me that discipline, but at the same token it was like I also learned to love from a loving a woman, just her being a teacher and caring about the students that she had, and watching her interact with people who may have had less than her. Also, just being a strong woman, but also a really caring and compassionate woman who is a leader. And I love that, I love that. It made me look at women and know hey, I see a boss right here. This is a leader, I grew up around a leader.
- I think the responsibility of our voices, my voice, your voice, is to find out what that voice is saying, wants to say, and say it as strong and loud as possible. Let that voice be the voice you use in the mirror, when your family's sitting down eating, you use it when you at the grocery store talking to people, you use it in your work place. The integrity, the values, and the things that you want to see changed and you want everybody to have, I think that's one of the greatest ways we can use our voices.
- Going into fatherhood, I was nervous, but it transformed into strength. I can't say that I'm the guy that was like, once my daughter was born, I just became conscious about women. I feel like I was conscious about women from when I was born. The love I felt for my mother and my grandmother, and my aunts just, so when she was born it just was more or less like let me give that love to Omoye, and let me just try to be the best father I can be and provide her, protect her, and learn too because I didn't know what it would take to be a father. But you understand that's a journey too. Parenting is, being a father.
- When I released my first album, even the first song, my view and perspective was like I'm gonna release this song and I'm about to be a star. And it came out and it was like man, what is this? I'm putting in the work and I believe that this music is great, it's good, so why is it not connecting? I started to work on my skills, work on my craft, and learn more about music and challenge myself, and be in circles where people were better than me. And I released something, the second album Resurrection, and I even called it that because I felt like I was coming from the dead, like people didn't know who I was. I started to get some awareness, like with the song, I Used To Love Her. That was my first wake up call to this is gonna be a journey.
