Common made Sense at the New Yorker Festival
Last Saturday night, my lovely colleagues asked me to cover a few events for their annual New York Festival. Not exactly considered work for number 1 fan over here. I ended up seeing singer Common perform at Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker street. I’ve always been a fan of Common; through his soul-filled releases and poetic raps, but hearing him speaking (so intelligently!) and lay down his love for ‘the game’ was the perfect preface to a top 10 performance.
Ben Greenman, an editor for the magazine and may I add a dryly hysterical individual, engaged the rapper in an intimate Q&A on his childhood, inspiration (the great Muhammad Ali), and the future of hip-hop. Not surprisingly, Common credited Drake as the new face of the genre, breaking new ground with his talent. In response to Ben’s question on the evolution of hip-hop and what it is today (under the connotation that it has went south since the ’90′s), he answered that he has accepted the changing game and come to appreciate it’s many faces and what talent has done with it. Interesting. I wonder what Notorious B.I.G. would say?
Common followed the conversation with an audience-engaging performance. He laid down a 10-minute freestyle because he was inspired by the crowd on the word “revolution” (as proclaimed from someone in the audience on Common’s prompt). It was wonderfully poetic on the evolution of music and life and finding the motivation to change within yourself, ending with a line on society needing change and electing Obama. Along with about five songs, Common finished with a sort of ode to hip-hop rapping artists like Snoop Dogg, Notorious BIG, and more. The interlude was a “hip-hop” that the audience was shouting in unison by the end.
I’ve reinstated my fandom. I can’t lie that it was one of the best live performances in the CC-catalogue. When’s the next album, Mr. Sense? xxoCC
