Yesterday, Common Sense appeared on the popular New York based radio station’s The Breakfast Club to speak about his new album Nobody’s Smiling (and a few other interesting things), which also happened to be dropping yesterday.
After a hiatus from music following his 2011 release The Dreamer/The Believer Common revealed to the hosts, DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne, that he was motivated to make music again because he felt that as a Chicago native, it is is his responsibility to to speak out on the city’s notorious struggle with gun violence, which does not seem to be subsiding. ( see link: http://abcnews.go.com/US/chicagos-gun-violence-taking-terrible-toll-citys-youth/story?id=24646710 )
But don’t get it twisted, though it has a serious undertone and the title of the album reinforces this, it’s not your typical government funded social responsibility ABC music quickly and clumsily pieced together so that he could put it down as a tax write off. Common goes in lyrically on Nobody’s Smiling and enlists the likes of from Lil Herb, Big Sean, Jhené Aiko, Snoh Aalegra, Dreezy, Elijah Blake, Vince Staples and Cocaine 80s to do it. The album is primarily produced by long time friend and collaborator No I.D and is released under Def Jam.
Some other interesting things we learned from this interview:
1. Common’s industry relationship catalogue is impressive: Erykah Badu, Kerry Washington, Taraji P Henson & Serena Williams
2. Did it also just occur to you that Common is 42years old?
3. He played the Mavel character The Green Lantern in a version of the film that never saw the light of day.
Check out the whole interview here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmZJTOPVXkM