-Our next guest
is an Oscar-, Emmy-, and Grammy-winning artist
who has a new album called
"A Beautiful Revolution: Part 2."
This comes out September 10th.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is Common.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-♪ There's Brother Common ♪
♪ Any fool can see ♪
♪ He's in his finest ♪
♪ It's 'cause of Tiffany ♪
♪ His brand-new album ♪
♪ Beautiful and wise ♪
♪ His revolution, it will be televised ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
-Thank you for being here.
-Man, so great to be here. -You're a stud, buddy.
Thanks for always -- Every time you come,
we always ask you to do something crazy,
and you're like, "I'm up. Let's try it."
-To me, it's just like, I love having fun,
and I don't take myself as serious as people think.
So you gotta have fun, man. -Yeah, yeah.
-You gotta kick it. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah. They love you. That's why they love you.
-Yeah. -I want to talk about
the new record, by the way, the new album.
Who did the art on this?
-It's an artist by the name Derrick Boateng.
He's from Ghana. And he takes pictures
all around his environment,
and he takes these beautiful pictures
of Black people in Ghana, and he gives the proceeds
to the communities that he takes it from.
-Oh, I love it. -Thank you.
-It's a great -- It's a great cover.
"A Beautiful Revolution: Part 2."
-Yeah.
-I can't believe that you get a little nervous.
I mean, you just performed for President Obama's at his 60th.
-Yeah, I was more nervous to do the rap remix
than to do President Obama's -- [ Laughter ]
-Do you get nervous, though, before, if you're performing
in front of -- I mean, there's some big names there.
-I mean, I get a little nervous, but it's those good nerves.
And then, you know -- I was performing with my family,
with The Roots and Erykah Badu, so it was just like --
it was home for us. -Yeah.
-You know, I wanted -- I wanted the President
to enjoy his birthday and just give the music
and do the things we love, so it was more fun.
I like being a little nervous, though.
-Do you get -- Did you get him a gift?
-You know -- I didn't -- I didn't get him a gift, man.
It was like -- [ Laughter ]
I was -- You know, the Secret Service
check everything anyway. [ Laughter ]
And then, too, I was like, man, you know, my gift --
my gift was -- -What do you get him?
-I just brought my talent to the table.
-Yeah, exactly. That's exactly --
See, that's exactly right. You know what?
That is a gift. -No, no, but seriously.
I thought about it later, like,
"Damn, I didn't get him anything."
But what do you get the president?
-Oh, I have no clue. But isn't it true that --
Didn't he -- Doesn't he owe you a birthday gift?
-Yeah. You know what? My mother, actually, is really
great friends with someone that works for the President.
And for one of my birthdays, she got me the gift that I was
supposed to play President Obama in a one-on-one in basketball.
It was years ago, and I never got to fulfill that prophecy.
-But you love basketball. I mean, yeah, you're a player.
-I love basketball. I was ready to play him,
and I was ready to beat him, no matter what.
[ Laughter ] And, like, it wasn't --
I wasn't gonna back down because he was the president.
-No. -Or Secret Service is around
doing their thing. -Yeah, some people do that.
Yeah, yeah. They go like, "Oh, he just --
Yeah, he scored, you know, 89 points."
[ Laughter ] "Wow, he's really getting you."
No, you would play -- -No, I was gonna go hard.
I know it. I got love for Michelle,
I got love for the family,
but I wanted to beat Barack Obama.
You know what? [ Laughter ]
-And you never -- Well, you can still do it now.
You can do it now. -Yeah, I don't know
if he's playing, like, straight up games.
He probably would want to play golf, but I could play horse.
You know, horse. -How is our pal?
How is Tiffany Haddish? How's Tiffany doing?
-Aw, she's super good, man.
Tiffany's out changing the world, man.
She like -- You know, she's always doing something really,
like, creative or trying to do something for the community
or buying land. She loves those things.
[ Laughter ] -Oh, really?
-Yes. -She's so interesting.
I think she's fascinating. -She is very interesting.
-Not only is she gorgeous, but she's funny and smart.
I just love having her as a guest.
Please give her our best. -I will.
I will definitely send love. [ Applause ]
-You were friends before you started dating.
-Yeah. -Who asked who out?
-Well, really wasn't, like, an official ask, meaning like --
You know, we weren't like... -Yeah.
-...in elementary school like I handed her a note, like,
"Will you go with me?" -Circle yes.
-"Circle yes" -- I didn't do that.
[ Laughter ] But after being friends
and hanging out, it was just one good night,
cool night where we had a couple drinks and...
[ Laughter ] ...and a little twinkle
in the eye, and I was just like, "Oh, actually,
I think she might like me." 'Cause I had been trying,
and she would put me in the friend boat for a second.
And I was cool with the friend boat.
I was like, "We friends." -Okay.
-Yeah, but you know, like you was saying,
you've been in that experience. -Yeah, my wife, yeah.
She's still -- yeah. That's how we --
[ Laughter ]
-You're not in the friend boat no more.
-No, not in the friend boat anymore.
But, yeah. But we started
in the friend boat 'cause we were just hanging out,
and I would, like, have these parties
in my hotel room with the crew and everybody, and I'd D.J.
And by the end of the night, she would be the only one left
because I'm not a great D.J. [ Laughter ]
But I go, "She likes me."
And so, we just hung out and were just friends,
and that was it. And then, we were --
She produced this movie, and we're selling the movie,
and I saw her, and I go, "I miss you."
She goes, "I miss you, too." -Ah, man.
-"We should hang out."
And then, we've been married 16 years.
-16 years. That's love, man.
[ Cheers and applause ] I love that.
-But that's the best way to do it.
-That's the best way. -Just go,
"Let's just being friends, having a good time."
-Just be friends, right. -I love it.
I want to talk about this now. September 10th, this comes out.
"A Beautiful Revolution: Part 2."
What's the inspiration? Did you always know
there was gonna to be number two when you did the first one?
-The first one? Yeah.
I kind of -- when I was in the studio, I was like,
"Man, it would be nice to continue this energy
of what we were creating."
And "Part 1" was a little more, like, intense
and had the revolution there, because it was
the political climate that was going on in the fall.
-Yeah. -But this one is more about,
like, bringing inspiration and joy in a different way
and, like, hope and optimism. So, I wanted the music to, like,
be uplifting, and you feel good,
but also get some good food for your soul.
So that's what this album is,
and we took it a lot of different places.
But I feel like the music is, like, about rejoicing.
-Wait till you guys hear this
and see this performance tonight.
"When We Move" is the song. -Yeah.
-And it is so good. And you were saying --
Well, I mean, you know Black Thought for how long now?
The Roots? -Let me tell you,
I wouldn't be sitting on this couch right here
if it weren't for The Roots, to be honest.
Like, that's my family. [ Cheers and applause ]
And... I first -- I love The Roots.
I love their music. But when I first saw them,
Ahmir remember this story. They were performing
at this place in Chicago called The Double Door,
and I was, like, talking to this girl,
kind of really loving the show
but trying to ignore her and trying to be cool.
I was just being an asswipe. I don't know why.
[ Laughter ]
But then, I got to talk to them,
and I was like, "Man, these dudes are cool.
I love they music."
And then, man, from that point, we started working together.
I went to Philly. Tariq let me stay at his crib.
He introduced me to Fela Kuti. He was cooking good fish.
I heard y'all had cook-offs, too.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Cooking good fish.
Yo, when I saw them win a Grammy, I was like,
"Damn, I could win a Grammy."
Like, 'cause it's just my family doing this.
-Right. -So, this is --
This is family, man. When I see them --
We've known each other over 20 years, so...
-Yeah. Well, I love it when you come on the show.
And we obviously love it when you come on the show.
Hopefully, this feels like home to you.
-This is home, man. -I love you, buddy.
Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]