Will Common’s new CD save hip-hop?

AP: After all these years, how do you keep on reinventing yourself and not get bored like most artists?

Common: I try to find new challenges, new things that excite me. On my last album it was about breaking boundaries and convention in hip-hop. Part of the challenge this time was that people where kind of doubting me, so that got me hungry.

AP: One of the things you tried that was, well, atrocious on your last album was attempting to sing! Are you subjecting us to that again on “Be”?

Common: (Laughs.) Yeah, I sing on the chorus on this album. Yo, why you playing! One time this magazine had an official opera singer who didn’t know who we were listen to me, Andre 3000, Pharrell Williams and 50 Cent I think. He only gave my singing some love.

AP: I thought you sounded like Scooby-Doo on “Jimi Was a Rock Star.”

Common: (Laughs.) Someone else told me that too. Sooner or later people will appreciate my sound. I think that “Electric Circus” is going to be one of those albums that people go back to and say, “That record was aiight.”

AP: Would you ever consider having another public relationship like you did with Erykah Badu?

Common: I don’t think I would. I wouldn’t hide behind a relationship either but one thing I do think is that sometimes you open up so much that you allow other energies to come in. And if it’s vulnerable at that time, then, you know, it can get messed up.

AP: Is that what happened between you and Erykah?

Common: No, it wasn’t a specific situation that (led to the breakup). It was just a gradual thing where we both felt like it was time to move on. We were so engulfed in each other we stopped taking care of ourselves as individuals. Like, for example, if something was going wrong with my business, I would just go down to Dallas and chill with the family. You can’t run from things, you have to also be focused on your work. But that relationship was meant to be for that time period. It has something to do with me evolving, for better and for worse.

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