Common’s second album established him in the hip-hop scene in the mid-’90s, and now he’s reflecting on what inspired him to raise his game at the time.
While chatting with Miss Info at EEEEEEATSCON on Saturday (July 13), the Chicago native recalled how the veteran media figure played a role in his rise.
“I’m almost done,” he said of 1994’s Resurrection. [from Miss Info]. I went back to the lab—I saw the level we needed to operate at, and it was amazing.
Regarding his new joint album with Pete Rock, the 52-year-old added: “Pete Rock, who produced ‘The World Is Yours’, is at our live show right now. We played ‘The World Is Yours’ and I A rhyme from “Resurrection” rhymes over this beat, so it’s a full circle.
Common and Miss Info revealed that after Miss Info reviewed Nas’ “Illmatic” in The Source (which she gave 5 mics to), she gave Common an early press copy of the album, which inspired Com to get back in the studio and perform New and improved version of Resurrection
History 🤯 pic.twitter.com/BqMIRo3Rfs
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Last year, Men’s Health published an interview with Common in which he reflected on hip-hop’s travails and the role Nas played in bringing it to where it is today.
“I remember I was at a show and I walked out of the show and this guy came up to me and he said, ‘Common, I really like your music. I want to tell you about your song ‘Retrospect For Life.’ Let me decide to have my baby,” he began, illustrating the importance of writing songs that people can relate to.
“I wrote this song because I went through that experience, and there was a moment on my way to the abortion clinic where the mother of my child decided, ‘We can’t do this anymore,’ because this was after having already had one abortion. . Let’s figure out what we have to do. This situation shows that when you come from a real place, it just resonates in a different way.
He then went back to the man who opened doors for artists like him, saying, “That’s why when Nas talks about what he talks about on Ilmatic, it resonates with us. He’s been through it all, he talks about it The way it all works is very beautiful. In “One Love,” he talks to his son in prison, which is one of the greatest songs ever written.
Before that, he thought the Queensbridge MC had changed his views.
“His mentality was on a completely different level, so it made me start thinking on a different level,” he said during an appearance on the Bridge Podcast. “Illmatic was one of them. It was like, okay – I was like 20, 21 – it was like a life change for me.
The two rap veterans have collaborated twice in their careers. In 2004, Common and Nas appeared on a remix of Jadakiss’ “Why?” With Stypes P and Anthony Hamilton. A few years later, in 2011, Common dropped The Dreamer/The Believer, which featured Nas on the single “Ghetto Dreams.”
The pair are even in talks to produce a joint album, Nas Dot Com, which Common spoke to NME about in 2019.
“We actually discussed making an album together,” he told the outlet. “We were originally going to call it Nas Dot Com, but we never got serious about it. We never really sat down and started working on it. To be honest, a lot of my time and energy was spent on finishing the movie.
