Common, who was back in town for the opening night of the Canon PIXMA PRO City Senses photo exhibit at Ignite Glass Studio, sat down with DNAInfo to speak on a slew of topics including rap beef, Chicago’s new generation, and the highly-scrutinized Drill scene.
Common, who is no stranger to verbal confrontations on wax, urges the new crop of Chicago rappers to watch what they do and say on records and tweet — as it can come back to haunt them in the future. He later discussed how Minister Louis Farrakhan brought him and Ice Cube together in 1997 to squash their feud before it escalated to violence:
“At the time Biggie Smalls and Tupac had just lost their lives, so we realized this could get out of hand,” said Common, who has also traded verbal barbs with rapper Drake. “What I learned was that hip-hop is always about the battle — but don’t take it past the records.”
Later in the piece he talks about the drill scene, and other notable figures in the current marketplace:
“There’s some good drill music and there’s some drill music that’s not good,” Common said, with a chuckle. “I can appreciate the good drill music and I respect the fact that it’s a movement.”
The rapper emphasized that there’s no “Chicago sound,” but rather a diverse mix of musical perspectives on Chicago, from the violent street tales of Chief Keef to the thoughtful, fun-loving raps of Chance the Rapper.
“Whether its King Louie, Chief Keef, Lil Reese … all these guys represent a certain aspect of Chicago, and then you have Chance the Rapper who represents another aspect of Chicago. I like that those guys are doing their thing,” he said. “I like that there’s a Chicago movement — and a variety of music. That’s one thing I always appreciated about Chicago, that you had myself, you had Kanye, Lupe and you also had Twista and each of us raps different.”
You can read the full interview here.