Legendary Chicago MC Common is a man of many talents. Over the last few years, he has been busy acting, being an activist, a philanthropist, commercials, and he even managed to nab an honorary degree from FAMU (Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University), where he attended before leaving to follow his dreams.
With all that the “Glory,” MC has going on, Common hasn’t recorded an album since 2016’s Black America Again. But the wait is finally over. Common announced that along with his memoir, he plans to drop a new album titled Let Love Have The Last Word.
“This album is called ‘Let Love Have The Last Word,’” an enthusiastic Common told the excited audience that gathered to see him at New York City’s SoHo House. “It’s inspired by the book I just released. I started this album because my team was like, ‘With the release of the book, maybe you should do some music’ and it kinda really sparked me in a way. This book was something really personal and I was going to places that I never went to in my life. So I was thinking as an artist [I could] do the same thing.”
Common’s new memoir, also titled Let Love Have The Last Word is a revealing look into his life as he details his struggles with the emotional difficulties of being molested as a young boy by a family member. An attempt to heal and to help other victims, Common is opening himself up about the pain of his past for the first time.
Recalling his experience, it was a being on the set of the film with Laura Dern that brought the memories he taught were gone, back to mind. He said, “One day, while talking through the script with Laura, old memories surprisingly flashed in my mind,” he writes. “I caught my breath and just kept looping the memories over and over, like rewinding an old VHS tape…I said ‘Laura, I think I was abused.”
In an interview with The Breakfast Club (May 9), Common talked about how played a song for his daughter that dealt with the abuse he suffered. The track is called “Memories of Home.”
Check out the entire interview here.
