{"id":78184,"date":"2021-04-20T10:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T09:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/common-la-revolution-et-lamour-sont-comme-un-couple\/"},"modified":"2021-09-10T16:33:08","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T14:33:08","slug":"common-revolution-and-love-is-like-a-couple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/common-revolution-and-love-is-like-a-couple\/","title":{"rendered":"Common: “Revolution and love is like a couple”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Like Kanye West and Michelle Obama, Common grew up on Chicago\u2019s South Side. It is in these same neighborhoods south of 95th St. that the young Barak Obama made his name and launched his career. Where the winter winds are freezing and bullets fly. So it\u2019s not surprising that the Black President and his First Lady have remained close to the classy, impeccably dressed and aware rapper who knows so well how to put words to the rage people feel today, who sings a cool and composed version of the Black American Dream. Shortly before the end of Obama\u2019s second term, the rapper Lonnie Rashid Lynn aka Common, who is also an actor and a writer, was one of the last persons invited by the presidential couple to the White House, for a special session<\/a> with NPR in the library room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Common kind of blue<\/strong> <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Common has always maintained that the “political revolution” in America can come only from the Democratic Party\u2026 He even sang a duet with John Legend<\/a> at the 2020 Democratic National Convention in homage to the national hero of the anti-racist struggles, John Lewis, who passed away last year. During the last presidential race, Common\u2019s heart was clearly blue rather then red (the color of the Republican Party), but the singer soberly incited people to vote rather than telling them who to vote for. Nevertheless, his song “A Place In This World<\/a>“, on his new album<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Beautiful Revolution Pt 1, <\/em>was used by Michelle Obama for the “When We All Vote<\/em>” campaign. And which incited thousands of young people to register to vote, in Georgia in particular, a swing state that helped win the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after four years of upheaval riddled with racist crimes and social injustices due to an outrageous presidency, Common has now chosen to promote optimism and unity in this album which, despite nods to the Black Lives Matter movement and the injustices he denounces, prones a calm revolution based on soul, aware hip hop, and jazzy influences\u2026 As if the horizon is finally clearing after these recent years of turmoil and unrest. The album can be heard as the soundtrack of a renewal, of a refound hope for social and racial justice: the sounds coming after the unpunished crimes and the emotions aroused by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a policeman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Mark Leibowitz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Transforming pain into hopes<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The poetess Jessica Care Moore is heard at the beginning of the album with words that combine peripheral cries with clearer voices. “It is music to uplift, heal, and inspire listeners dealing with racial injustices as well as other social injustices. It’s affirmation. It’s recognition. It’s elevation. It’s music to go with a movement. Because the truth is, there is still so much work to do. Regardless of the outcome of the election, we need to make sure things do not return to the status quo. The intention of A Beautiful Revolution Pt. I is to channel all of our pain and outrage into something productive, inspirational, and good. It\u2019s to help lead a movement into our next phase of the work to be done.” \u2013 Common<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this new album, which can been seen like a first chapter, Common summarizes what will happen: “change is beautiful and it\u2019s painful<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since his first album Can I Borrow A Dollar?<\/em> in 1992, the rapper now, in his fifties, has remained angry, and continues to draw from the musical sources that have always inspired him: the flow of the Last Poets, the spacy and luminous soul of the Soulquarians years, and the heyday of the nu soul hip hop period spent in Jimi Hendrix\u2019s Electric Lady Studio in New York with the QuestLove, Erykah Badu and D\u2019Angelo crews at the end of the 1990\u2019s. And which peaked in the year 2000 with three key albums recorded at the same time, Voodoo<\/em> by D\u2019Angelo, Mama\u2019s Gun<\/em> by Erykah Badu and Like Water For Chocolate<\/em> by Common. In 2004, Common prophetically recorded “Impeach [Bush] and elect Obama\u201d in a remix<\/a> of “Why” by Judkaiss, four years before Obama\u2019s election. Years have gone by and racial tensions have not ceased\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Common now demands “the right to write our own history<\/em>” in capital letters, and with the help of guests who have made major contributions to American music: Black Thought (singer with the Roots), Chuck D (Public Enemy), Lenny Kratvitz and the legendary Stevie Wonder\u2026 With his mercilessly melodic voice, Stevie simply says: We are American history \u00bb<\/strong> like a peaceful echo of what Common develops in another evocative song: A Place In This World. <\/em>Common proclaims “I am from the Bob Marley party<\/em>“, one that wants everything to finally go well because, as he puts it, “I know there\u2019s light at the end of the struggle. Revolution and love is like a couple.<\/em>” This last statement is perhaps the key to Common\u2019s vision: an intimate and personal revolution where ultimately love nourishes the struggle and the victories in particular, much more than rage and hate ever can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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