Common wants to give inspiration, hope, comfort
Hip-hop star, actor strives to enlighten as well as entertain
One of the most personally meaningful awards Common has received is also the least known. But that doesn’t bother this dedicated hip-hop star, actor and social activist, who is the first rap artist to ever win an Oscar, a Grammy and an Emmy.
On June 15, he received the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the Tribeca Festival in New York. It was a heady honor for Common, whose most recent albums, 2020’s “Beautiful Revolution Pt. 1” and last year’s “Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2,” were made (in his words) to “uplift, heal and inspire listeners dealing with racial injustices as well as other social injustices.”
“Harry is one of my greatest guiding lights and inspirations,” said Common, 50, who is only the second recipient of the Belafonte award. The first, presented in May, was given to voting rights champion Stacey Abrams.
The award was also partly in recognition of Common’s multiple movie and TV credits. His film work culminated in the Oscar he and John Legend won in 2015 for “Glory,” the rousing song they co-wrote and performed for the civil rights drama “Selma,” in which Common co-starred. His 2016 album, “Black American Thought,” serves as a powerful musical throughline from the civil rights era of the 1950s and ’60s to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement over the past decade.
Presented by Robert De Niro, the Tribeca Festival’s co-founder, the Belafonte Award “recognizes individuals who have used storytelling and the arts to enact
change in their communities.”
That the honor is named for a pioneering American artist who is a longtime champion of social justice makes it even more significant for Common.
“Harry Belafonte is about truth and caring about people, and he’s about sacrificing and never giving up,” said Common.
Common was specifically honored at the Tribeca Festival for the time he has dedicated to social justice and advocacy work focused on mass incarceration, mental health and voting.
He was also celebrated for his efforts to empower high school students in underserved communities to become future leaders. He has pursued these goals in part through his nonprofit organizations,
Imagine Justice and the Common Ground Foundation. Both build on the legacy Belafonte created decades earlier as a pioneering artist for whom entertainment and activism go hand-in-hand.
“I feel like Harry is that mentor I can go to and ask: ‘OK, where should I be? What should I be doing?’ ” Common said.
“Having a conversation with him and hearing him talk is a reminder of what I’m supposed to do and aspire to, how I’m supposed to live, and what I’m supposed to sacrifice. Harry’s heart and mind, his voice, spirit and actions are the things I aspire to. And, obviously, he made music and was an actor. But, truly, he was an activist, and I feel like I fall into all those categories.”
Belafonte, 95, is a
Kennedy Center Honors recipient. He is also a Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award winner whose album sales in 1957 topped those of both Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. Belafonte’s 1956 album, “Calypso,” was the first by any artist in any genre to sell a million copies in the United States.
Common’s desire to use music as a vehicle for positive change was less pronounced but already taking root on his 1992 debut album, “Can I Borrow a Dollar?” Like his second album in 1994, he released it using the stage name Common Sense.
It was with his third and fourth albums — 1997’s “One Day It’ll All Make Sense” and 2000’s landmark “Like Water for Chocolate” — that his musical vision, lyrical dexterity and heartfelt worldview blossomed.
As a result, Common was hailed as one of the exemplars of what was dubbed “conscious rap.”
This tag was also used to describe the work of Mos Def, The Roots, Erykah Badu and other hip-hop innovators, whose music and thematic subjects were designed to enlighten as well as entertain.
Common’s love for jazz, classic R&B and other genres was readily apparent from the start of his career. But it was on his fifth album, 2002’s “Electric Circus,” that his expansive approach fully bore fruit.
Rather than just use samples from records by some of his favorite artists for his own songs, Common collaborated with them. Guests on “Electric Circus” included Prince, Jill Scott,
Mary J. Blige, Zap Mama’s Marie Daulne, Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier, Bilal and CeeLo Green. Moreover, Common used landmark albums by Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell and Pink Floyd as musical signposts on “Electric Circus.”
Common opened his 2017 and 2018 Hope & Redemption Tour at Corcoran State Prison in California. After performing at another prison in the state, he posted a message on Instagram: “I’m blessed to have the opportunity to connect with my brothers inside Folsom State Prison and perform for them to inspire them and spread a message of hope, redemption, justice, love and compassion.”
Common documented his tour and the stories of some of the inmates he met in his “The Hope & Redemption Tour” series on YouTube.
Yet, while he continues to do outreach work with incarcerated people, his goal is to reach as many listeners in as many places as possible.
“I want to provide inspiration, hope and comfort to people,” said Common, whose two memoirs — 2011’s “One Day It’ll All Make Sense” and 2019’s “Let Love Have the Last Word” — were both bestsellers.
“I want to be one of the guides to a better life. I really want to be a (guiding) light, whose music makes people feel like life is better and that there is hope for what they want be. I want people to feel that they are powerful, the same way they do if they hear a certain speech by Malcolm X, or read something by James Baldwin or Dr. Maya Angelou, or hear President (Barack) Obama speak.
“I want my music to create that energy and for people to leave my live performances feeling like: ‘Man, I want to go and do something good!’ ”