Common: New album is about 'humanizing black people'

Fresh off big-screen turns in Suicide Squad and Barbershop: The Next Cut, actor/rapper Common is back with his first album in two years.

Black America Again, out now, is an incisive political statement about police brutality, mass incarceration and racism, but also a star-studded celebration of the black experience. Common, 44, talks with Paste BN about the new music, election and how he's "rewriting the black American story."

Q: How did your collaboration with Stevie Wonder on the title track come about? 

A: We had this James Brown vocal sample on the chorus, but I was like, "Man, it would be amazing if we could get Stevie Wonder to do something." He and I had talked about doing some music together before. He called me and was playing me some music, and I was like, "I want you to hear this song I'd like you to sing on called Black America Again." He invited me to his studio one night, I played him the song and he was really into it.

He was like, "What really are you saying?" I told him this is about us writing a new narrative. This is about black people not just being depicted as criminals or some of the (other) prejudices. I was like, "We want to speak up on the injustices and inequality, but we're writing a new story about it." He came up with that phrase in the melody: "We are rewriting the black American story." I felt so blessed.

Q: You open the song's video with footage of Alton Sterling's shooting death. Why did you decide to include that? 

A: I had never watched the Alton Sterling killing. I didn't want to see it, but I knew I needed to do something and speak about it. When we were doing this visual, my director started with the clip of Alton Sterling and it really put me in an emotional place. So I thought, "OK, I think it's necessary to have this, because it'll put the viewer in a place where you have to respect life: black life and all lives." It naturally creates a compassion for the life that's being lost, so we chose to do it. I didn't speak to the family (for permission), but I hope they don't feel any wrong intention, because the intention was just to remind people that these things are happening and these are human beings losing their lives. This whole project is about humanizing black people.

Q: Was it a conscious decision to release the album the weekend before the election? 

A: Yes. I created Black America Again, the actual song, in March, and the album was done in May. But I have a short film by director Bradford Young called Black America Again, and he also directed a short film for Letter to the Free, which is a song written for Ava DuVernay's documentary, 13th. So it was part me wanting to get (those) things in order, but we also knew, yes, it was election time — come out with this music at that time. When I started creating this music, I was like, "I want this to be in the spirit of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Bob Marley's Legend." Their music was speaking to the times, but it was also timeless. It provides people with some inspiration and motivation as we work toward the change that we want to see.

Q: Lil Wayne told Nightline this week that he doesn't feel connected to Black Lives Matter because it has "nothing" to do with him. Do you think black artists have an obligation to talk about and support the movement? 

A: Yes. I do feel (artists) are the gatekeepers of truth. We have a chance to say it in our music, in interviews. We have a lot of eyes and ears that pay attention, and open minds that listen and are influenced by us. It is our duty to utilize whatever resources or information we have to bring up social issues that some people can't speak up for; to use our platform and notoriety to better society. If (other artists are) not there in their hearts, I have to understand that's not where they are right now. But I believe it's our duty to be the voice of people who are being overlooked and marginalized.