♪ Time is illmatic, keep static like wool fabric ♪
♪ Pack a four-matic to crack your whole cabbage ♪
Peace what up, one two, what's up y'all?
This is Common.
And I'm here to play Song Association with Elle Magazine.
You know I come clean.
It's all a love supreme.
Watch me do my thing.
I'll be given a word and I have 10 seconds
to sing that word in a song, or rap that word in a song.
I'm a do the best y'all had.
(laughing)
But before we get into the game,
make sure you check out my new album, "Let Love".
And also the book, "Let Love Have the Last Word".
Aight.
We about to get into it now.
(flapping lips)
Sweet.
(timer ticking)
♪ You look so sweet ♪
Yeah.
That's one of my songs.
Two.
T-W-O.
♪ One, o-o-one, one two one two ♪
♪ A one two y'all, and you don't stop ♪
♪ Yes yes y'all, and you don't stop ♪
Yeah.
I went in two songs.
I went in, that was A Tribe Called Quest song
called "One Two (beep)" and then I went into
one of my songs, "Used to Love H.E.R.".
Love.
Yeah.
It starts with, one starts, "Good Morning Love".
I love doing that song, it's like
♪ Walking with the Lord I see footprints ♪
♪ My mama always told me use my good sense ♪
♪ Common always looking for the good sense ♪
♪ Since we all got good in our essence ♪
♪ In the hood sense, we all good anyway ♪
♪ That's why you always hear another dollar, 'nother day ♪
That was "Good Morning Love" but it didn't have
the word love in it, but still.
(buzzer ringing) (laughing)
The title does.
"Let Love", the album, the inspiration was really,
it was founded, and the incubus of it
was because I was writing a book
called "Let Love Have the Last Word."
If you in a situation and you constantly
focusing on the negative, you will never get to
the positive, you will never get to the resolution.
So I was like, "Man, let's focus on this
"positive things that we could do,
"and then take care of the negative by
"letting that light overcome that darkness."
So that's what "Let Love" is.
Kiss.
Um.
(timer ticking)
♪ Kiss me and I'll kiss you back ♪
Truth.
Oh, oh.
♪ To teach the truth to the young black youth. ♪
That's Wu-Tang, man, I love when he said that.
Inspectah Deck said that.
Me.
Um.
(timer ticking)
Just me and you.
♪ Just me and you ♪
♪ Ooh baby ♪
♪ Don't worry 'bout, worry 'bout, worry 'bout, worry 'bout ♪
♪ Worry 'bout a damn thing, just me and you ♪
That was off of "Menace II Society".
(buzzer ringing)
Or was it "Boyz N The Hood" soundtrack.
(bell dinging)
It was Tony! Toni! Tone!
Big.
(timer ticking)
♪ I love it when you call me big poppa ♪
♪ Show stoppa, the hook droppa ♪
Yeah.
Notorious B.I.G., of course.
Fantasy.
♪ It's just a fantasy ♪
(bell dinging)
Oh.
Okay, that was Guy.
I was taking you back to the late '80s, but.
♪ Everybody run back to your fantasy ♪
♪ Go, go, go, go, go, and on the count of three, go ♪
♪ Go, go, go, go, go ♪
(mumbling)
Close.
(timer ticking)
♪ Come close to me, baby ♪
♪ Come close, baby, come close, baby ♪
Yeah.
So "Come Close".
♪ Let your love hold you ♪
That was my man Pharrell and Mary J. singing that song.
It was my song, but they sang the chorus.
Sun.
"The Sun God".
I have a song called "The Sun God".
♪ And call my (beep) a sun 'cause he shine like one ♪
That's what Method Man said in, you know,
one of them Wu-Tang songs, he said
♪ Call my (beep) a sun 'cause he shine like one ♪
Out.
(timer ticking)
♪ I'm bound to wreck your body and say turn the party out ♪
That's Tribe Called Quest,
off the "Midnight Marauders" album.
Higher.
(timer ticking)
Well, Kanye got a song.
♪ If you get much higher ♪
♪ Oh oh, oh oh ♪
♪ If you get much higher ♪
Need.
♪ I need love ♪
(humming "I Need Love")
♪ When I'm alone in my room, sometimes I stare at the wall ♪
♪ And in the back of my mind, I hear my conscience call ♪
♪ Tellin' me I need a girl that's sweet as a dove ♪
♪ For the first time in my life, you see I need love ♪
That was LL Cool J.
Water.
"Like Water for Chocolate."
"Water Got No Enemy" by Fela.
♪ Water, he got no enemy ♪
♪ Water got no ♪
Oh man.
Fela Kuti.
Some of the original Afro-beat music was a big influence
on an album like "Water for Chocolate".
Glory.
(laughing) Glory, the song that me and John Legend did.
♪ Glory, oh oh ♪
♪ Glory ♪
♪ Now the war's not over ♪
♪ Victory isn't won ♪
♪ But we'll fight on to the finish ♪
♪ And when it's all done ♪
♪ We'll cry glory, glory ♪
Ha.
That's supposed to be my falsetto.
That's very false.
(laughing)
For us to be able to perform at the Oscars
was one of the greatest blessings and honors
I've ever had in my life.
I was honored to be at the Academy Awards, of course,
but to be on the stage representing
the women and men of the Civil Rights Movement,
to be there representing the movie "Selma",
and Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey
and all the people whose names we don't know
who actually had struggled and strategized
and marched and some had died for us
to be able to vote, to be able to, like,
go into restaurants that we needed to,
to be seen as human beings.
Who would've dreamed that when I was sitting down
writing my rhymes, you know, in the basement in Chicago,
that I would be able to be on this stage
and be a voice for people, too?
Make sure you check out the album "Let Love".
It's out now, all streaming services.
And the new book "Let Love Have the Last Word" is out.
I thank y'all for supporting me throughout the years
and make sure you get your subscription to Elle Magazine.
Thank Elle Magazine for having me.