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Common opens up about some of his favorite songs of all-time and how listening to music can inspire or empower him, as well as the meaning and inspiration behind his track "Vision" with 9th Wonder featuring PJ and Bilal for the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary 'Boo-Yah: A Portrait of Stuart Scott,' in this episode of The Playlist.
Transcript
00:00Peace, Hollywood Reporter.
00:02I'm Common, and I'm sharing my playlist.
00:11This is a song I discovered that within the past few years, and I play it, I love the
00:17energy of it.
00:18It has this reggae type vibe to it.
00:22Chronix has this amazing voice and the soul of it.
00:27The music that I love, it has to have a feel to it, it has to make me feel something.
00:33Anytime I hear this song, I feel good, I feel uplifted, I feel like even the title itself,
00:39Eternal Light, it's a reminder of purpose in a way, a reminder of what I have to give.
00:47Sometimes I use that music before I'm about to go out to perform, before I'm gonna go meet
00:53with someone.
00:54I use music that inspires me.
00:56And Eternal Light by the Free Nationals is like, it got that oomph on me, so I love
01:02this song and Chronix, he's bad, he's a bad brother.
01:06I'm someone who loves music to lift me up, but I do use it for different moods that I
01:15need to get to.
01:16Sometimes going into meetings, I need to feel confidence.
01:21I need to feel like I can conquer the world.
01:24The world is mine, so I'll play different types of music for that, for that direction.
01:30But a lot of the music, especially starting at the beginning of my day, is music that will
01:37lift me and make me feel like everything is gonna be alright.
01:41The immortal words of Bob Marley.
01:45It's like, I love that type of music that just gives me that brightness.
01:51And that's why the theme, Light, I think a lot of this music I'm talking about, it's got
01:56light to it.
01:57Eternal Light.
01:57So yeah, I love, I love feeling good with the music.
02:01I don't wanna write this down, I don't wanna tell you how I feel right now.
02:06Umi Says, my Umi Says, shine your light on the world.
02:09As I said, light is kind of a theme for some of the songs I've been choosing.
02:14Umi Says is a song created by the incomparable Most Deaf, also known as Yassin Bey.
02:22When I heard this song, like this is one of my comrades, this is one of my friends and
02:29fellow musicians, we have come up together in music, that's my brother, but when I heard
02:35this song, I was like, this song was like no other song I'd heard before.
02:41Just because you knew, you thought of Most as his rapper, and I knew he could sing some,
02:47but just his style of singing was very unique, it gave me, it's like no other, like nobody
02:54else's.
02:55And it's coming from that place of feeling and heart and soul, and what he is doing in
03:00that song is celebrating his mother.
03:03When he says, Umi, that stands for mother.
03:06My Umi Says, shine your light on the world.
03:09I relate to that so much from my mother being like, you can do things, and telling me and
03:18giving me the foundation and guidance and love to let me know that I can shine my light.
03:25So, this song, not only is the feel of it, like this vibe, this is like, okay, this is a
03:32culmination
03:33of all types of sounds.
03:35Just the feel of that song, what it does, it takes me to a place of like, of gratitude,
03:44and like thinking about all the things that I can do.
03:48And, you know, him chanting, I want my people to be free, to be free, to be free.
03:56I want my people to be free.
03:58It's like, it just, you know, it just tops off the song.
04:03Like, this is what I'm going to take my light and do.
04:06I'm going to take my light and free my people through the music I make and through the person I
04:12am.
04:12And that's what I get from that song.
04:16And, yeah, it just makes me feel good.
04:18And it's another one of those songs that brings light to my heart and soul when I hear it.
04:25When you feel deep inside.
04:30Golden time of day.
04:31That's the golden time of day.
04:33Frankie, Beverly, and Mays.
04:35I'm a kid that grew up on the south side of Chicago.
04:39Little black kid that loves music, loves art.
04:44Man, we have some wonderful times in our neighborhood.
04:49Black club, parties, barbecues.
04:54Great, like, parties at the park.
04:58Frankie, Beverly, and Mays is a theme throughout all these events of celebration.
05:06And who we are and joy.
05:09Golden time of day is a song about that beautiful time of day where, you know, the sun is about
05:15to set.
05:16And it's like, it's like no other.
05:18We all have seen that, that sun and seen that, like, looked and said, wow, this is, look at that.
05:26That's amazing.
05:27Look at the color of the sky.
05:29Frankie, Beverly, and Mays describe that in the music.
05:32He sang about it.
05:35The music feels like that.
05:37It definitely is feel good.
05:39And it definitely has something to do with the light and the sun.
05:44And even if you can't see that sunset, it'll bring that to your mind, maybe, or to your imagination.
05:57This song is not a song of light, so I'm kind of breaking up my theme a little bit.
06:03Shook Ones, Mobb Deep.
06:05Shook Ones, Part 2.
06:07It's one of my favorite songs of all time.
06:12Hip-hop songs, it's one of my favorite songs.
06:15As I said, I listen to music to get me in different modes, too.
06:20I think the mode that Shook Ones, Part 2, gives to me is like, it reminds me of coming from
06:27the streets of Chicago and just going out and having to, you know, you gotta kick ass sometimes.
06:34You gotta go conquer things.
06:37And you gotta have the mentality, can't nothing stop you.
06:42So, I play Shook Ones like, not only am I playing it when I'm just feeling like that vibe, like
06:47y'all, just wanna feel that part of me, that side of me, that warrior side, the streets, everything that
06:53that gives.
06:55But also, like I said, sometimes going into different settings and meetings, it's like, it's one of those things that
07:02grounds me into who I am.
07:04Cause you might be going in a meeting with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, and you just gotta
07:10remember who you are.
07:11Like, and not put on for them, for that person.
07:16So, Shook Ones is one of the ones that like, yo, this is where I come from, and I am
07:22not gonna change that up to be a part of anything.
07:26I'm not gonna compromise myself.
07:29And Shook Ones, man, shout out to, and rest in peace to Prodigy and Havoc for creating one of the
07:37greatest hip-hop songs ever.
07:39I say one of the greatest songs.
07:46I love jazz, and John Coltrane is one of the greatest musicians, artists to ever live.
07:54And I play his music to get my mind off of stress, to get my mind off of heavy things.
08:04I play his music to let my imagination run free and fly.
08:09I play his music to drift off and feel like, ah, the world is better.
08:15I know there's a lot going on, but the world could be better.
08:19And I usually would have chose a love supreme, but my favorite things, hearing that, when I put that on,
08:28I feel nothing but joy and light and inspiration.
08:34And I'm gonna have to be honest, like, I hadn't really listened to the original version of my favorite things.
08:42Like, I hadn't listened to it a lot.
08:44Like, eventually when I saw the sound of music, I was like, oh, this is dope, this is dope.
08:49But hearing a jazz musician interpret it, and someone of his caliber, his quality, it's amazing to take on my
09:01favorite things.
09:02It's one of those songs I put on, you know, when I'm getting ready.
09:07And I'm like, ah, getting ready to, you know, getting dressed and stuff.
09:11And I'm like, ah, the day is about to be wonderful.
09:13And, you know, we need that reinforcement sometimes and encouragement.
09:18And that's what that song does for me.
09:20Stopping philosophy, I am the pottery of greater hands.
09:24For the children of the lesser, I'm a greater man.
09:26On stage I stand.
09:28Vision, which is a song that 9th Wonder and I created for the 30 for 30, based on Stuart Scott's
09:35life.
09:35Stuart Scott, who was one of the greatest broadcaster, sports journalists, individuals to ever do it.
09:46I always wanted to do a film about him.
09:49I still believe it should be a scripted film about Stuart Scott because he was that innovative and that groundbreaking.
09:57He brought a lot of culture to broadcasting at a time where it wasn't really accepted.
10:08And he bridged the gap in many ways because he was so great at what he does and professional.
10:14But at the same token, he was referencing Jay-Z or Nas or Jill Scott or Run-DMC or, you
10:23know, Dougie Fresh.
10:25Like, he was letting the black culture know, like, hey, I'm here for you, too.
10:30And we are represented.
10:32And you will be seen because I'm going to express who we are.
10:38And I am a bridge.
10:41I'm not shutting off anybody.
10:42This is about everybody enjoying it.
10:44But you are acknowledged and you mean something.
10:48And vision was, like, it was intentional and it was really an example of who he is.
10:56Like, I was talking about his vision to be coming from where he came from to become what he had
11:02become.
11:03And to break down those walls, he had to have a vision for himself and a vision of what he
11:08could be.
11:09And that had to be unshakable.
11:11And he expressed that and he did that.
11:14But also I used vision because he was dealing, came with the title vision and that concept because he was
11:20also dealing with eye issues where he was, like, partially blind in one of his eyes.
11:25So I was, like, really thinking about even not being able to physically see he still had to have a
11:32vision to continue his journey and his climb to what he became.
11:38Like I said, one of the most legendary sports broadcasters of all time.
11:44I would name his playlist, The Light Will Last Forever.
11:49Hopefully it would give them that feeling of what I talked about with music, where you might feel good.
11:54But I don't actually want to tell you what my song will make you feel.
11:57I think, you know, I would love for you to hear it and then see what it does make you
12:01feel.
12:01But I would suggest The Light for your playlist.
12:14So, see if we're like morepeople in the video, where we could get the space, like, right?
12:16And I don't start feeling like I naturally used to be theõ elements.
12:27It's going to be
12:27Ulition to tell you thełada.
12:29You
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