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Rapper Common stopped by the What’s Trending studios to talk about the latest news surrounding his life. From his new book “One Day It Will All Make Sense” to his reaction to all the bad press around his White House invite, the #Influencer candidly spoke to What’s Trending about his spin on things — and even dropped a few freestyle lines for our audience.
“I’m not perfect, but I’m definitely putting out positive music, positive energy,” Common said.
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The rapper, actor and now writer said there’s no limit to what he can do. “I want to live out my dreams. I love being an artist. When certain ideas come to me, I just go for it,” Common explained. After realizing that it would be best to write about the experiences he had while it was still freshest in his mind, he decided to write “One Day It Will All Make Sense.” “Regardless, I wanted to tell these stories so someone could get motivated and inspired,” he said.
The book consists of letters that Common writes to various people including Erykah Badu and Kanye West. He said the hardest letters to write were to his cousin that recently passed away from a motorcycle accident and his unborn child. Common had previously talked about the experience of going through an abortion in one of his songs.
Common also talked about the backlash caused when he was invited to the White House to perform poetry. In a video titled, “Def Poetry – Common – A Letter To The Law,” Common says, “Tell the law, my Uzi weighs a ton” as well as “Burn a Bush cos’ for peace he no push no button.” His comments lead to an outcry about the invite from Fox News, Sarah Palin and other conservative pundits. “I laughed at first but then it consistently kept going that it was kind of ridiculous that they could portray me as that kind of person,” Common said. “They just picked one little piece of something and said that’s what he’s about. To me, that’s just misinformation. “
He admitted that he too was misinformed when it came to homosexuals, and that is why he made a decision to rap anti-homosexual lyrics. Common grew up where homosexuality was unaccepted, but after gay fans told him how their lyrics affected him, he stopped. “That eventually affected me to the point where I was like man I’m not going to say anything derogatory against them because I respect them as human beings so why am I saying this about them, and it changed me.”
“The point is you got to bring that stuff to the table, you got to bring it out, you can’t act like the elephant ain’t in the room,” he added.
