May 24, 2005 @ 5:10 am

Online Exclusive: Common Says You Gotta BeÂ…

Laylah A. Barrayn

Days before the release of Common’s highly anticipated sixth album, and after a kinetic performance in the pouring rain at NYC's Columbia University, the wordsmith sat down with Vibe.com to discuss his new album --- Be. His last album, Electric Circus was almost called The Isness. Apparently Common is working on a theme. Laylah Amatullah Barrayn asked Common, “Was there a relationship between those titles --- The Isness and Be?” Common answer

Days before the release of Common's highly anticipated sixth album, and after a kinetic performance in the pouring rain at NYC's Columbia University, the wordsmith sat down with Vibe.com to discuss his new album --- Be. His last album, Electric Circus was almost called The Isness. Apparently Common is working on a theme. Laylah Amatullah Barrayn asked Common, "Was there a relationship between those titles --- The Isness and Be?" Common answersÂ… Common: Both of those titles do symbolize certain things. The Isness was saying that 'It is what it is.' And I was honestly coming from a place, like at the time of [Electric Circus], this is what it is. This is hip hop, you don't have to really judge it or try to figure it out. BE came from another place, where it was like 'I had been through this struggle and I had been through the lack of response to [Electric Circus], I been through the break up with me and [Erykah Badu].' What do I want to do? I want to be, I want to exist. And exist from the core of who I am. That is what BE means, to be who you are, the simplicity of being. Not trying too hard, to be who you are, no matter where you are. You can walk in a room and be amongst gangsters and still be humble and be a nice guy. You can walk amongst the bourgeois. It's about honoring self. Is going back home a part of being? Your video for "The Corner" was shot in Chicago. When you be, you gotta deal with where you began. Along with the root of yourself, you have to look at where you have evolved. Going home was very symbolic. It represented going home, physically and spiritually. Chicago is the foundation for me. Going home doesn't mean you're trying to live in the past. One thing I was really adamant about was that you have to be in the present, you can't dwell in the past. You can't worry about the future. Even in certain situations that aren't going your way, you still gotta be. Another thing that BE meant to me was being human. You can be angry at a certain point, you could be happy, you could be sexual, you could be holy. You could be laughing and crying. What is it about Chicago that made you express yourself through hip hop as opposed to expressing yourself any other way? Chicago is such an authentic city to me. It's really not an industry driven place. You don't have record companies and movie houses. It's really a blue-collar city and a real soulful city. It's authentic in that if you are something, then you better be it or you will get called out. Where in some places you might put on a character and people might accept it. So, Chicago set that tone for me to be authentic. So, are there any specific aspects of Chicago that drew you to hip hop? Oh, yeah. See, Chicago is a black city. It's very segregated, too. Hip hop is such a real art form and it's true to who we are. We didn't put up no masks. When we started break dancing and cats was getting on the mic talking about each other, dissin' each other, talking about what's going on in their neighborhood, using their imagination, creating stories. That real aspect of hip hop is what I connected to. Which is what Chicago is about, the realness. So, hip hop was very revolutionary. Chicago just got an underlining tone, a revolutionary tone too. It's a lot of ordinary people, there's still a movement. Before we had the Black Panthers, now we have Fred [Hampton] Jr. and Aaron Patterson and people trying to make moves. A lot of folks don't know that you knew Kanye from back-in-the-day. Can you tell us about your earlier encounters? I remember, about 1996, going in the studio of my producer No I.D. [in the] basement and Kanye playing beats rapping and just being hungry and confident. He was just there to learn. I loved the excitement. You had to get used to him talking shit the way he did. Now, I understand it more, and love him more. It's childlike in a way. I almost wish more people were like that in a way. He's very honest. Yeah, he's very honest. He's BeingÂ… Yeah, he's being. You can tell he's not trying. He's himself. Yeah, he'd come to my basement and try to battle me. He wanted to outdo me because I was the biggest dude from Chicago at the time. We was cool. We reconnected on the EC tour. He was out with Kweli. Right after that we would just talk to him about certain things regarding music. He was there during that tough time in my life, although he didn't know my struggles at the time, but he was there as a musician. There is a lot of focus on the discussion about women in hip hop. There is Essence magazine's initiative and there was a huge Feminism and Hip Hop conference in Chicago recently. What do you think about this discourse coming mainstream? I understand why it's necessary to talk about it on that kind of scale, because we have to treat our women with love. I think Elijah Muhammad said that a nation will rise no higher than its women. How our women are treated and loved is an indication of how our nation is doing morally and otherwise. The negative way we treat our women just causes a lot of confusion in the world. These discussions are important because it can awaken so many people, men and women, who might not know any better. Our words are affecting the way little girls are thinking about themselves or suggesting negative things about what they should do to get attention. The songs "It's Your World" and "Faithful" are two songs that speak to the issue of internal and external struggle. Can you talk about those songs? "It's Your World" is about people in certain situations who want a different life than what they currently have. I talk about a guy that is similar to me, but at the same token has a lot of qualities as my friends. He grew up in Chicago. Tried to go off to school, messed up and got into the situation hustling. He really don't want to hustle, he wants something bigger. He's in the same spot as his old man. He said, "My life, I didn't plan to be on this corner/I still wanna see California." Some people don't get the change to see other places, "It's Your World" is literary about dreaming about going to another place. And the second verse is about a prostitute and how she ended up in her world. It was a realistic situation. I actually sat down with a prostitute and she told me how she would dream about herself being in a casket. Some of the lyrics are: Knew this girl sellin' her body when she knew what it was worth/ Between God and trash, lookin' in every car that pass / Wit a walk that suggest head/ To milk @#%$ she was breast fed/ She know dairy so she say cheese to get bread / In the area where there's more weaves and less dreads / Kinda scary amongst thieves and base-heads / Said it was her toes but I could tell her soul hurt / She was cold turk growin' up she got to know hurt/ Very well in a world where self hate is overt / Her stepfather thought he was Ike so her mother he strikes / She got to like minded niggas who like crimes / And figures doin' white lines and liquor see hard times/ It kicked her / In the ass, it used to be thicker / Life is fast some choose to be quicker / I remember in high school she had a passion to sing / Now she sees herself in a casket in dreams A lot of this was this woman's story. And the other song, it's called "Faithful," is about being committed. If God was a woman, how would we react? Would you be committed, would you stay faithful? Can you talk about your involvement in the Know HIV/AIDS campaign? I always feel that if I have a platform to say something, I have to say something that's going to mean something. And, I felt like I needed to say something about HIV, which is killing us. It's killing us more than the things we think is killing us, like car crashes, and murder. HIV is killing us at a crazy rate and I just wanted to be part of that campaign. As much as I can rap about anything, hanging out, stuff like that, I need to be able to convey words and messages that the people, and more importantly the kids are going to be able to walk with and hold on to. I need to say things that's going to lend to becoming better people. Another reason is that my uncle died of AIDS. And, that's when I really felt it. It had a big affect on me. I'm sorry to hear about your uncle. Thank you. Do you incorporate HIV/AIDS awareness in Common Ground, the foundation that you began? Oh yeah, we have many seminars with the teens in Chicago, and we talk about everything related to heath and well being - to self esteem to images portrayed in hip hop. But really, we've have been using hip hop to educate the children and how to live their lives the best way. I know that's a broad thing. I've been writing these children's books too. Shortys need to receive messages about life as well as academia. When I was in school, it was like, you go to school, get your degree or you're not going to make it in life. We weren't encouraged to use our creative and artistic selves. It was more history and math, those types of subjects. You are an MC that seems so at home in an acoustic setting. Whether it's with jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove, remaking Fela Kuti tunes or rhyming with your band, A Black Girl Named Becky. Do you have more of an acoustic sensibility? I just love music. It's spiritual, I feel something in the instruments. The keys, the guitars and bass. When I got introduced to live music, that made me feel like 'Wow!" I always wanted to be like Michael Jackson or Stevie Wonder or one of the soul artists that would get up and sing with their band. I've always dreamed of doing that. Are you doing any jazz festivals this summer? Yeah, I'm doing the Montreux Jazz Festival this July. Do you remember a show you did in San Francisco, where you opened up for The Roots and you jumped into the crowd? Yeah, I remember that! I jumped into the crowd and someone stole my shoe. Man, I loved that pair of shoes. I just remember being mad and freestyling, 'Yo, give me my shoe!' I always loved jumping in the crowd. Sometimes they hold you up and sometimes they let you go, but this time they held me up and took my shoe. I had to go the whole night with only one shoe.

Article tags: Online, Exclusive, Common, Says, You, Gotta, BeÂ&#133 

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