Common stopped by The Breakfast Club this morning to talk about his forthcoming album Black America Again, which he described as a "call to action."
"I called it 'Black America Again' because all the injustices, the inequality, the marginalizing of black people," he explained. "We've been seeing that over and over again since we've been in this country. That's how America treated us. But I'm also saying 'again' because we're writing a new story. And it's up to us as black people, and all people, to support that story which is like showing who we are as black people and showing the joy, the love, the creativity, which we always do. But it's just time for us to highlight that and put that out there."
"The new story is about God first, activating that light within us," he continued, "letting us know that that light is in us, each and every one of us got it. And then also looking at each other with love, like man, no matter where we coming from, we got to love each other. And it's about what we express as artists and as people. We as black people, we do jazz, we do blues, we do soul, we do hip hop, we do rock. We architects. We're talented visual artists and directors. So for me, it's about the black expression, too."
He said that he wants black Americans to "activate that black privilege and that black magnificence. We blessed to be black. And that go for my brown people to. People of color, we got to celebrate who we are."
Common also discussed how Kendrick Lamar, Solange, and Chance the Rapper have influenced culture for the better, his illustrious career, and a humorous story involving his trip to see Obama at the White House with Rick Ross.