- 7 hours ago
"It being conceptually similar to slavery was an opener for many people," the rapper says of the Netflix documentary directed by Ava DuVernay.
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00:00Hi, this is Mariah Gullow from The Hollywood Reporter, and this is Meet Your Emmy nominee,
00:04and I'm here with Common.
00:06How are you?
00:07Hi, I'm good.
00:07How are you doing?
00:08I'm excellent.
00:09Thank you so much for coming by today.
00:10Yeah, thank you for having me.
00:12Your nomination, Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for Letters to the Free.
00:17Yeah, Letters to the Free.
00:18For 13th.
00:19Yeah, it's a supreme honor to be nominated for an Emmy for Letters to the Free and to
00:27be a part of the film 13th because I watched that film have impact throughout Hollywood
00:34but also throughout schools and in people's homes.
00:41People responded to the film, and it was an eye-opener to part of American history and
00:47what we're dealing with right now.
00:50So many times we think, oh, we're past that stage, we're past that, but mass incarceration
00:57and just it being conceptually, like, similar to slavery was an eye-opener for many people.
01:04Yeah, it was.
01:06It was to me, personally.
01:07Like, just the way that it kind of was knitted all together in the first five minutes of the
01:12film.
01:13You know, for me, Ava DuVernay did an incredible job at just making you, allowing you to understand,
01:24and not forcing it on you, but also having you take some responsibility and what do you
01:31want to do next.
01:32And that's what it did for me.
01:33Like, her work does that, but my story to get to 13th is something because it started
01:41with John Legend when us winning an Academy Award, and he said something in his speech
01:46about how there are more black men in prisons right now than there were enslaved in 1850.
01:54And I was like, wow.
01:56I didn't know that fact.
01:57And then from there I started, I read this book called The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
02:03I was actually working on a documentary piece dealing with mass incarceration and just started
02:09getting more information.
02:10So when I found out Ava was doing a film about it, I was like, Ava, can I please write
02:15something
02:15for this film?
02:17And she was like, well, submit something.
02:19Like, we'll see.
02:20And I caught her at the White House.
02:24The president was having a birthday party about a year ago.
02:27And I had enough wine that I was like, look, I'm about to say some of it because I started
02:33writing it as soon as she said, look, just submit something.
02:36Right.
02:36So I had enough wine to just wrap some of it in her ear.
02:39And she was like, yeah, I like that.
02:40That's pretty good.
02:41And then she went over and started talking to the president.
02:44So I couldn't usurp the president, but the song made it to the film.
02:49And I'm very grateful.
02:50That letter to the free made it to 13.
02:52That's wonderful.
02:53It's a true testament to the song that she was able to kind of ignore the president for
02:58a second.
02:59Yeah, good.
02:5920 seconds.
03:02You know, and once we created the song, you know, all the pieces from the trumpet,
03:09Roy Hargrove and flute to us just doing the claps.
03:13I felt like it captured the spirit of what 13th is and what that struggle is that we're
03:20dealing with in America.
03:22So when I sent it to Ava and I got that text that said, give me a call back when
03:27you can.
03:28You know, your heart is beating like, does she like the song or does she not like it?
03:32And I got that.
03:34She said, yo, this song is great.
03:36Like this song is really, captures the energy.
03:40It actually made her change the ending of the film because she said it was, the film made,
03:47I mean the song, Let It To The Free made her feel like hopeful.
03:51And more like the fight we've been through, but it's, we can win this fight and it's hopeful.
03:57So she decided at the end of 13th, because of Let It To The Free, to use all these family
04:05photos,
04:05just depicting the humanity of black people.
04:10Yeah.
04:11Yeah.
04:12That's wonderful.
04:12The song does remind me of, you know, it's kind of a driving, the song is driving, you
04:19know, like a heartbeat or like a machine.
04:21And that's the way Ava also kind of directs it as like the suspense is mounting.
04:27As time goes on, you see like the unstoppable machine that incarceration has become in the country.
04:33It is a machine, obviously mass incarceration is a machine and a big business.
04:40And the one thing that I really love about getting to create like The Let It To The Free was,
04:47I started to learn more.
04:49Yeah, I've read and I've seen 13th, but this was like almost researching a role for me
04:55because I wanted to study more before I wrote the song and also make the song still have that charge
05:03and have the energy because you don't want it to be, music and film still has to be like appealing
05:10to the palette.
05:11It still has to be like something that we want to watch compelling.
05:15So once we put all those elements, that charge you're talking about was just us stomping on the
05:21ground and clapping our hands.
05:22And we had like one of the producers, Kareem Riggins, his son, his like eight-year-old son
05:28was in there clapping with us.
05:29It just felt like, man, we are, we're depicting history and hopefully we're being a part of
05:35history by creating The Let It To The Free and being a part of 13th.
05:39Yeah, you're showing the unstoppable power of a movement that can counteract the unstoppable
05:44power of the machine.
05:46Yes.
05:46And I have to say the, you know, the more and more I started creating music that is conscious,
05:55I've been creating music that has social relevance for a while.
05:58Yeah.
05:59It was right during the Selma, the time we were part of Selma, the film and Glory that I really
06:08was like, oh, I have to take it to the next level and be part of the activism.
06:12You know, I had already, I was doing things like I have my foundation, Common Ground Foundation
06:17in Chicago and I participated with support and education for youth and helping them reach
06:23their dreams.
06:24But I was like, if I'm going to write a song, if I'm going to write a song about mass
06:28incarceration,
06:28then I need to see what I can do to change it.
06:33And we lately have recently been a part of a Hope and Redemption tour.
06:38So I visited some California state prisons and just listened to a lot of individuals that
06:45were incarcerated just to get in touch with them and see how we can improve their situations
06:50and make sure that we do our best to make this correctional system, the prison system service,
06:59true purpose to what it's supposed to service, to rehabilitate and improve people's lives.
07:04And it hasn't been doing that.
07:06And so we, you know, being a part of these things has catapulted me to doing the work more
07:15and like looking at policy change, like we're doing a performance in Sacramento on August 21st
07:21to help support certain bills that are dealing with no more life without parole for juveniles
07:27and for young adults.
07:29We're the only country in the world that has life without parole.
07:33And scientists have studied brains and development and said we're not fully developed
07:40until we're like between the ages of 23 and 25.
07:43So if a teenager commits an act, even a violent act, they should be given some type of chance
07:50to redeem themselves.
07:51And that's what I was able to find out by going to these prisons.
07:57I met a lot of people who were in a state of redemption, like were in a state of forgiveness
08:03or a state of like looking for redemption in a way that like, look, I've changed, I've grown.
08:11I have a light within me that I didn't have.
08:14And it really touched me because a lot of the individuals I met, I remember one specifically said,
08:20comment, imagine if you committed an act and you were trapped in that act for the rest of your life.
08:26And I thought about all the moments I was hanging with my friends in high school.
08:31And it could be a fight that eventually can send somebody to prison and they could become part of a
08:39system
08:39that really is not benefiting America.
08:42It's benefiting a portion of people who are invested in prisons and it's a business for them.
08:49But when you think about how it's destroying so many families and people of color, you know,
08:54our country will never see the happiness and the freedom that we want if we don't like treat everybody with
09:03some equality
09:04or try to redeem those who have been through situations that we may not have been through.
09:11Or, and we don't look at others and be like, oh, they done.
09:15We just write them off.
09:17Yeah.
09:17Yeah.
09:18Yeah.
09:18One of the problems with incarcerated juveniles is the amount of time that they spend in solitary confinement,
09:25which is defined as torture now because of what it does to their brain.
09:30And that's the reason why, one of the reasons why Rikers Island is going to close.
09:35It's close, close.
09:35Yeah.
09:37I was part of something at the White House dealing with prison reform and Valerie Jarrett.
09:44This was during the White House when President Obama was in.
09:48And I tried on some of those virtual reality, you know, whatever you call them, virtual reality lenses, whatever.
09:59And it was like a simulated prison cell.
10:03And I have to say, it was like, I was like, man, this is hard for any human being.
10:12And then eventually, two months, three months later, I walked into these prison cells when I went to the California
10:18State Prisons
10:19and was like, man, it's hard for a human being to exist like this.
10:24Like, especially when you know, like, they're not getting treated as human beings.
10:30Yeah.
10:30It's like, so, yeah, I think that solitary confinement and those things, like, we've got to work on that.
10:37That bail reform is something that we're also in support of because some people go to jail just because they
10:47don't have money.
11:06Mm-hmm.
11:07And just don't have money.
11:10So, I think, you know, us people who are participating in Hollywood and these people are Americans.
11:19Like, when we look at things we can do to improve our country, we've got to look at the people
11:24that are being overlooked,
11:26the people that are being looked down upon.
11:28We've got to look at the people that people consider the lowest of the society and treat them humane
11:38because then it just goes from the bottom up.
11:41Like, when they come back into society or even have an opportunity to, you know, they bring better things to
11:48this world.
11:49Like, and I've witnessed it firsthand just talking to the individuals I saw in prison.
11:54I was like, I left every day feeling like I was more awake than I ever, I was more awakened
12:01than I had ever been, like, in these conversations.
12:04Hmm.
12:05That shows real authenticity when you can treat everybody the same no matter what you want from them or what
12:12you think they want from you.
12:14Yeah.
12:14Treating everyone the same is authenticity.
12:17I always, yeah, that's all, like, I always look at, when I'm working with directors, I look at how they
12:22treat the whole crew.
12:23Yeah.
12:24When I'm out on a date with a girl, I'm seeing how she treat the waiter.
12:28Yeah.
12:29All that, it's like, come on, like, anybody can treat a star good or a rich person, you know.
12:36Yeah.
12:36But how you gonna treat the homeless guy or, you know, the, like I said, the waiter, the bail woman
12:43or bail man, you know.
12:45And people you work with that honestly just might get on your nerves sometimes.
12:49Yeah, that's true.
12:50You know, you gotta, like, work on that too.
12:52I mean, it's all, we all working on it, but I think it's important what you say.
12:56Authenticity is truly in how you treat from the person that's considered the lowest to the highest.
13:02Mm-hmm.
13:04For the documentary 13th, it opens with President Obama speaking and it closes with your song.
13:10Yeah.
13:10And it seems very representational of a cultural shift that happened in the past decade.
13:16Yeah.
13:17But because of the election, there's been another cultural shift.
13:23Do you, do you feel that?
13:24Do you think that, are you seeing, are we seeing a cultural shift?
13:29Are we seeing a backlash?
13:30Are we seeing just a regular presidential turnover?
13:35No, I don't think that it's really regular, to be honest.
13:39Mm-hmm.
13:40What we see going on with the White House now is, I think some of it is, is the backlash
13:47of people just being upset at having a black president is part of it, just blatantly, having
13:55a black president.
13:56But then some was, some people probably felt that more should have been done, you know,
14:02by the Democrats, and it's just, you know, and I can't act like I came with this concept,
14:09but it's just a, it's a concept that I was reading about just recently that made a lot
14:16of sense.
14:16It was talking about white resentment, and it's a resentment in certain, certain parts
14:22and from certain people towards people of color, you know, just in fear of like, yo,
14:30you know, if we let the Latino brothers and sisters in, and this is, we're not going to
14:35have this.
14:36Or if black people get to this level, then we're not going to have this.
14:39Or, you know, if Muslims, like it's just a fear.
14:42And I think, you know, that fear has been fed by the government that's in now.
14:49And so a lot of the individuals that are in support of that, some of them are just naturally
14:55just feeding into the fear.
14:58Some of them just don't know and haven't been exposed.
15:00And then some are bigots and, you know, have a racist thought process.
15:09But I don't think, I mean, I believe what President Obama did is not, is not being like reversed
15:18in a way that, I know some of the policies and things that they're doing is trying to
15:21reverse, but I also think President Obama brought in a mentality of oneness.
15:28And I don't think everybody that supported that is still thinking that.
15:31And now we're figuring out ways to up that.
15:36How can we do it?
15:37Especially in the face of all this opposition, in the face of somebody trying to separate us.
15:43We just saw what it's like, what the goodness is.
15:47We saw someone who really kind of cared for all people.
15:51And, like, it felt inclusive.
15:54We all felt part of America.
15:55So I don't think the people that were, that have become woke by that, or awakened by that,
16:04have, we, I don't think we've went backwards.
16:07And I think that the people that have risen up to say, man, we don't, we want the old America,
16:15they've been there.
16:16And they just came to the surface like, you know, like some type of, I don't know, a virus
16:23or some disease or something.
16:25And, you know, you got to deal with that.
16:27You got to like, you got to heal it.
16:29You know, and I don't think the healing is always, like the fight is not always in like,
16:35saying, oh, you ain't nothing.
16:37Like, just the ignorant fight has got to be the fight of what we're doing.
16:42Like saying, okay, you keep acting ignorant.
16:45We're about to correct this.
16:46We're about to correct the prison system on our own by teaching people what, what is going
16:52on with our prison system.
16:53Or we're going to go educate people.
16:55Or we're about to, the Muslims and Jews are going to pray together.
16:59Now, you can't stop that.
17:01What you going to do about that?
17:02Like, you got to, some things the government can't stop.
17:07And that's the people's mentality.
17:09So I feel like that's where we, that's where we went.
17:12And then we got to work on, that's why I'm sitting up here saying, you know, doing Letters
17:17to the Free got me going like, okay, what am I, what can I do to change policies?
17:21Because it's my, the only way I can combat some of that, some of the ignorance that's
17:27going on in the White House, in the government, is to start doing something.
17:32So now we do it on the state and local level and be prepared with federal things and, and
17:38do it on the community grassroots level.
17:40Mm-hmm.
17:41Yeah.
17:41I know you were inspired to be, become, you know, extraordinarily active politically in
17:50your last recent with Selma and 13th.
17:54But was that always kind of a career goal you had?
17:56I know that you've always been politically active, but you've also had this tremendous
18:00music career, television career, but was it always your goal?
18:04Well, I have to say that like, I can't say I was really political growing up.
18:11Mm-hmm.
18:12I was like socially conscious.
18:15Like I would look at situations and see if people were not being served right, meaning
18:22not having the right education.
18:24And it started with just specifically just me being, having friends who didn't have parents
18:29around, they, some parents were dealing with drugs, some parents, they had lost their
18:33parents.
18:34And I felt like, man, these people are not getting some of the proper things that a person
18:38should get at home.
18:39And these are my friends.
18:40So my desire to help people who didn't have just started from there.
18:46And, you know, as I became a musician, I saw how powerful the music could be.
18:53As far as, like I would have people coming up to me, like saying, Common, this song made
18:59me feel this way or it made me have a decision to not have an abortion and actually have my
19:05child.
19:05Or I had like, on another stage, it was like I had, you know, two like gay gentlemen come
19:13up to me and say, hey Common, when you use this word, it offends us and we love you.
19:18So, you know, so you grow from that and you realize how much power that you have with music
19:24and with art and filmmaking and television, just the arts itself.
19:28So, you know, you say, I got to do something with it.
19:31And my thing, I honestly didn't become, I never supported a politician until President Obama.
19:39Like really, to be honest.
19:41I mean, I was, you know, I voted before, you know, because I felt like that was my duty.
19:46But just actually supported.
19:49And that was honestly just because of me seeing him evolve, even, you know, being from Chicago,
19:55I saw some of his evolution and I had a chance to connect and I believed him.
20:00I use my own discernment.
20:01I look when I see politicians talking.
20:04But beyond the politics, I was always like my music, I want to put music out.
20:11And now I can be a part of film and television that really has an impact on people's lives in
20:18a positive way.
20:19So that's really what the biggest thing is, more than just political.
20:23I became more political when I saw, when I did become a part of Selma, it was like, okay, you're
20:30doing things on some grassroots levels
20:32and you have these foundations and you're speaking to the people through music.
20:36But what policy, because I feel like if people are going to announce me as an activist, then I got
20:41to be changing some policies.
20:43You know what I'm saying?
20:43Yeah.
20:44It's like when I look at the activists that I respect, they were changing things.
20:49Like they got direct things with their names attached to it, the laws that they help shift.
20:56Yeah.
20:57Yeah.
20:58So I have a few questions before I let you go.
21:02We have this kind of rapid fire questions, first, best, last, worst.
21:10So I will ask you, first cause that you were motivated to speak out for?
21:15To speak out for the first black mayor in Chicago, his name was Harold Washington.
21:20I was like 12 years old, so that was the first cause.
21:24To see him get in office was a big victory.
21:28Nice.
21:29Best common sense advice you have to give?
21:32Best common sense advice was the advice my mother used to tell me before I chose the name Common Sense,
21:39which was my original rap name, was use common sense.
21:42Cause I used to do like little crazy things and weird things.
21:47And she was like, use common sense.
21:50Nice.
21:51Yeah.
21:51Who was the last person you wrote a song for?
21:54The last person I wrote a song for was the people that I wrote Letter to Free for.
22:01It's like, Letter to Free is about all those people that are incarcerated and have dealt with mass incarceration,
22:09the families that have been affected by it.
22:11So I wrote that song for not just one person, but for a people and a nation.
22:17Wonderful.
22:17Uh, worst performance mishap on stage?
22:21Um, my worst performance mishap was probably just a slip.
22:26We were, we had these water guns on stage and you know, I was showing out and then somehow my
22:32feet fell from up under me or slipped from under me.
22:35I just took a hard fall back.
22:37That might've been the worst.
22:38I mean, I've had some instances where I've invited, I invite girls on stage and they've been really drunk.
22:45But that wasn't my fault.
22:47You know, I tried to keep that, you know, in order.
22:50But yeah, mine was just a fall.
22:54Uh, well, the last question I have before I let you go, I could talk to you all day.
22:58Oh, thank you.
22:59Um, are you going for your EGOT?
23:03Yes.
23:05Yes, yes, yes.
23:07And I would be grateful to, you know, I'm gonna strive for it and just keep trying to put, um,
23:12art out there that, that is meaningful.
23:14And that can touch people's lives.
23:16And if the EGOT comes on that path, thank God.
23:21Well, Common, thank you so much for being here.
23:23Um, the movie is 13th.
23:25Yeah.
23:25We will see you on Emmys night.
23:27Um, and you can see it's 13th on Netflix.
23:30Yeah.
23:30And the song is Letter to the Free.
23:31Letter to the Free.
23:32need a community.
23:33Bye.
23:36Bethany Alleriiيت
23:36Are you
23:37feeling some sort of happiness or really or something
23:37of the process of missing?
23:37You
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