Approaching his fourth album, “Like Water For Chocolate”, Common talks about the industry, his new LP, and hints at mysterious guests that he’s working with. We’ve heard rumors of everyone from Ice Cube to Will Smith, but as much as we tried, we couldn’t get it out of Common, and we don’t really believe those rumors anyway. Peep.

What can we expect from the new album?

My album will be produced by, let me say first, Jay-Dee, because he did a lot of tracks on the album, and also The Roots, DJ Premier, and D’Angelo did some work on there. Guest appearances include Slum Village, Erykah Badu, Cee-Lo of Goodie Mob, and some other people that you wouldn’t expect me with, but they do got soul. They are outside of the progressive music, next movement circle that I usually work with. You know them, but that’s all I’m going to speak about right now. It’s going to be a beautiful piece of work, Allah willing, it’s going to be a beautiful piece of work.

When you first came out, did you always know that you would be a solo artist?

When I first came out, I was with a group called CDR. That was when I first started trying to become a part of the music industry. I’ve always had a hip-hop family with No I.D. and Y-Not, and my man O-Type Star, and we are always working together. At times I think like, “Damn, I wish I was in a group, it’s easier.” Now it’s like I am appreciative to be solo, but I can still form groups. Like Jazz artists, Thelonius Munk worked with Coltrane, Miles worked with Coltrane, you know. You could do records with anybody, their ain’t no limitations. People in hip-hop like “Aw man, you did that hardcore record, you can’t change on us.” Come on man, a nigga growin’. A nigga might have seen his homie get shot and be like “Fuck this”. Like KRS-One, he did “Criminal Minded”, then that nigga’s homie died, and then he was like “Stop The Violence”. Things change in your life, things make you change in your life. I don’t know why our generation can’t respect the change, or can’t respect the growth.

Now what about this super-group of you, Black Thought, Jeru, and Pharoahe Monch that has been rumored?

Everybody is working on their solo projects right now, Black Thought is working on a movie called “Brooklyn Babylon” by the same people who did “Slam”. This album will materialize, but it will take a while because we all got to get our own stuff out. I think it’s good that we are doing that, and I think that’s the way time wanted it to be. We can all build up our muscles, get the momentum, combine, do something fresh, and then go out an do other things.

How did the song on with Slick Rick on the “Whiteboys” soundtrack come about?

The producer of the soundtrack is a friend of mine, and we were talking and he was like “Yo, I was thinking about doing this track with you and Slick Rick” and I was like “Yeah, let’s do this. I was geeked just to meet Slick Rick. So one day we met at the studio, and we started messing around with beats, and we just started writing, going back and forth, and the energy was there. Then I was thinking like “Damn, ten years ago I was sitting in high school ready to graduate, pumping “The Great Adventures of Slick Rick” and now I’m working with this guy.” It shows you how strong your mind is, and if you pursue things you think about and dreams that you got… it might not come right away, but it’s gonna come if you do it.

What artists are you feeling right now?

I don’t know, there are different kinds of artists. Nowadays, you might hear something and jam at a party with it, but I’m talking about pumpin’ it in the car, pumping it in the crib. There are certain tapes I used to take with me everywhere I went, just because I wanted to hear it. I can’t think of no artists right now, that make me want to take his tape everywhere, like “Aw shit, I gotta hear this shit.” I mean, besides the groups that I’ve mentioned.

Are you satisfied with your audience of “coffee shop chicks and white dudes”, as quoted on your verse on “Act Too” on The Roots’ album?

Ha, ha, ha…. I don’t have anything against white people, nothing against Asians, I don’t have anything against no color, but basically, the point I was making within that statement was like, “Yo, where my Black people at that hip-hop started with? Why don’t ya’ll be at our shows no more?” Why don’t ya’ll be at our shows no more, also with the Asian cat that’s going to URC, or going to Columbia, or NYU? Why don’t you show up with them, too? Just because you live in Brooklyn or Watts or where ever. I mean, you could still show up at our show. But they don’t get exposed to it as as much. Where are my brothers and sisters that are a part of the ghetto? That listen to Jay-Z? What makes hip-hop so segregated that you can’t listen to Jigga and listen to Black Star. There isn’t too much of a union set that listen to both of those. That’s what I meant by that, and I wish I could see some more Black faces, along with the white faces, the Asian faces, and Hispanic brothers and sisters. That’s what this music is here for, to bring together all different races, different religions – Hip-Hop is diverse like that.

You talked about the division between the popular hip-hop and underground hip-hop, but how do you feel about the magazines that only portray the popular edge hip-hop, and then have a little blurb on page 169 for the underground artists?

Well you know…. I think they’re following along the lines of exploitation the same way every major media source and avenue for getting music are. Radio is doing the same thing – exploiting it, they don’t care about what really the artform is saying, or exposing people to something new, and like, getting them to look at themselves and think about music and how it can help us grow as a people. The magazines went from being pure to like “Yo, this about ads, this is about who is selling the most.” That’s who is getting the cover. That’s who’s getting the features, because he knows this guy, and he knows this other guy from this other label, and this label is going to give us such and such for the next cover”. I mean, come on man, the majority of this whole culture now is about money and getting paid off. Magazines, I can’t lie like I don’t buy them. I be on the airplane like “whatever,” but have I read an article that I was really impressed by? “Honey” is one of the only magazines that I really felt a lot of the articles, and I can really say that from the bottom of my heart. They were doing different things, they had an interview with Assata Shakur, one with Lisa Bonet, who I hadn’t heard about in a while. It wasn’t like, “such and such is coming out with his album, so let’s put him on the cover so people can read the same article that every other magazine just published.” It all becomes redundant, for that follower audience. When you mention the Black Star’s, The Roots’, the D’Angelo’s, the Eyrkah Badu’s or the Lauryn’s, you mentioning the leaders. You mentioning the people that didn’t get into the music just to sell. Of course we want to sell, we wouldn’t be making records but… These aren’t that cats who are like “Yo, I’m gonna rap because I gotta get off the streets, I gotta stop selling dope,” and I can’t knock the cats who do it, but you can feel the difference in the purpose of the music. You can feel that Black Thought wants to be the dopest emcee when he’s rhyming. You can feel that, you know?

Anything else when you want to get off your chest about the industry or any thing you want to add?

Aw man, God bless the industry. Hopefully this music keep growing and that people use the artform for what the purpose is. I wasn’t there with Bam, Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, or Hollywood when they created it, but I know it’s helped get people of the streets, so I can appreciate that fact. I hope the people from the streets realize that once they get off the streets, that you want to elevate, not talk about that same thing. Even the suburban cats who claim they represent the real hip-hop, it’s like man, be real and true to yourself. Don’t try to be somebody from Queensbridge Projects or 87th Street, or fuckin’ Compton, you not from there. Just represent where you from, and people will respect that. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with just being a loving person – being a man who acts with respect and a clever imagination.