andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Rapper Common’s cousin, Ajile Turner, died Friday night following a motorcycle accident in Brooklyn, reports TMZ.

Turner, founder and C.E.O. of the Echelon Group, an independent concert production company in New York, was reportedly driving his motorcycle when he collided with a man riding a bicycle at the corner of Greene Avenue and Washington Avenue. Both men were brought to the hospital and pronounced dead upon arrival.

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They say if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. I don’t know who “they” are but I’m going to assume they were talking about Lady GaGa. After all, it seems the entire musical universe is clamouring for a piece of her instant stardom.

It started with Kanye, Common and Kid Cudi, or at least that’s where I first caught on. They roughed up her acoustic version of “Poker Face” to the point of making it tolerable, even enjoyable. (I’m not even going to touch the fact that she has gone acoustic, except to say that watching the video is possibly more painful than the hangover of the drugs she has to be on.)

Despite the very obvious gibes at GaGa’s not-so-double entendres, “I Poke Her Face” is actually an incredible step up from anything the songstress has released on her own.

“Just Dance” was nearly my demise last summer as it somehow circulated more frequently than Sarah McLachlan on the soft rock radio station I listened to at my 9-5 desk job. So I made it my mission to publicly rally against her budding career for the rest of 2008, hoping she would have drifted off the airwaves come December. But now it’s June, and she has three more singles revving up for a summer of heavy rotation.

I could feel my protest deteriorating as 2009 wore on. I found myself joylessly bashing the ridiculous rhyming in “Disco Stick” while flinging my hair around to its beat at the club.  Just the other day, someone asked me if I’d heard “Paparazzi”.

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Nas, Common, Damian Marley, the Roots and K’naan are among the acts featured in this summer’s Rock the Bells hip-hop festival, which will visit 10 North American cities including Toronto and Vancouver.

Each of the tour stops, which are scheduled to take place on consecutive weekends from June 27 to Aug. 9, will feature 25 artists on two stages, according to Billboard.

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I met this boy when I was 12 years old. What I loved most is he had so much soul. He was old school. And I was just a shorty. Never knew throughout my life he would be there for me.

These lines are pretty iconic. I’ve changed a few words for my personal purposes, to explain my inexplicable adoration for the rapper formerly known as Common Sense.

I was 12 when I first heard a Common song and I’ve been hooked ever since.

But now, quoting my very favourite song by the Chi City rapper, I must say this:

I USED to love him.

Past tense. Sadly, Common and I have ended our torrid 9-year love affair.

Am I being too dramatic? Just wait.

If you love music as much as I do or if you, like me, get emotionally intertwined with the artists who make the music you love; you’ll understand the agony and sheer jealousy I felt while watching my Common, my first love, pull my BEST FRIEND on stage at his concert at Kool Haus on Monday night. Then, I think just to spite me, Common proceeded to sing Come Close to Me (my 2nd favourite song) to her. Looking into her eyes. Singing into her ear.

Hey, I know what you’re thinking: this girl is crazy.

I’m not. Well, not entirely. My symbolic breakup with Common is not solely because he looked into the audience and pointed to my friend standing DIRECTLY beside me and chose to bring her on stage INSTEAD of me. Nope. It’s not that.

It’s that I have this sneaking suspicion that Common is about to sell out. I have this suspicion that he’s about to let the mainstream success of his last two albums go to his head. And here are some reasons why I feel this way:

1. He’s on tour with N.E.R.D. A group who, while I am a HUGE fan, are pretty damn mainstream and lacking of substance.
2. He recently declared he wants to make a dance record. A DANCE RECORD. Enough said.
3. He’s dating Serena Williams. He was so much more legit when he was with Erykah Badu.
4. He’s decided to take his acting career more serious. Can you say LL Cool J? Two syllables: SELL OUT.
5. I still can’t get over those GAP ads from a few years back.

Yes, his concert was still hype as hell. He still killed all of his old songs (Testify, The Light, Corners) but I couldn’t shake this feeling.

It was the same feeling I had when I first heard Black Eyed Peas’ Elephunk. They hadn’t fully graduated to stripping Fergie down and making her shake around to “My Humps” to sell records but they were on the verge. Will-I-Am was in final negotiations, taking bids for his soul.

Common may not be there yet.

His soul is still his. He can still freestyle like a Def Poet. He can still banter about politics and social change. But that shit doesn’t sell. Common wants a number one record. I think he’s sick of being in the background of hip-hop and rightly so. But as soon as he does a duet with T-Pain, it will be too late. It’s coming. And out of respect to my conscious-hip hop-loving 12 year-old self, I thought I’d get out with my dignity intact.

Goodbye Common. I used to love you.

Rapper COMMON will perform at America’s Duke University in April, despite last year attacking three members of its lacrosse team accused of raping a stripper.

Common slammed the sportsmen during a gig at Emory University in Georgia when he rapped, “You know I never get lost, yo f**k them damn n**gers from Duke lacrosse.”

The episode left officials at Duke fuming, but they had already booked Common a year in advance – and claim they couldn’t back out of the contract.

Students at the North Carolina university are reportedly split on whether Common should be allowed to perform.

BETH HIGGINS, the chairwoman of the Last Day of Class event – at which rapper will perform – tells AllHipHop.com, “We obviously do not condone or endorse anything he said at the time, but we did book him and sign a contract that is legally binding on the basis of his talent and student appeal.

“The agent said it would not be a problem with Common to play here. He made these statements two days after the lacrosse case went public…He’s still a really great artist and willing to play at Duke.”

(c) 2007 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All global rights reserved. No unauthorized copying or re-distributing permitted.

Rapper COMMON raised his game to a new level when recording a song for new movie FREEDOM WRITERS – because he was performing alongside the late MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

The hip-hop star teamed up with BLACK EYED PEA WILL.I.AM to record A DREAM for the HILARY SWANK film, about a teacher who inspires a class of at-risk students to not let their impoverished backgrounds hold them back.

But for Common, the reality of rapping alongside civil rights leader King was a revelation.

He tells MTV, “The movie was already inspiring, but to be on a song with Martin Luther King, I had to write to the best of my ability. Ain’t no playing when you have Martin Luther King on there.

“I remember when Dr King talked about white men and black men, Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Gentiles, just people coming together. I think that hip-hop is part of that Martin Luther King dream.

“Hip-hop is a bridge to bring people together. At my concerts it’s white kids, Latino kids, Asian kids sharing the same experience. I think hip-hop is bringing people together.”

(c) 2007 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK LTD. All global rights reserved. No unauthorized copying or re-distributing permitted.

The cast of Ridley Scott’s new film is getting a little help from the world of hip hop.

Variety reports that rappers Common, TI, and RZA will star alongside Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in the director’s crime drama “American Gangster.”

The film centres around Washington, who plays a Harlem crime leader who smuggled heroin into the U.S. via the coffins of soldiers killed in Vietnam.

Crowe plays the role of lead investigator into the incident.

The film’s script was penned by Steven Zaillian, know for his writing credits on movies like “Gangs of New York” and “Schindler’s List.”

The film, which has no set release date yet, will be co-produced by Scott and Brian Grazer.

Just hours before Common was to hit the stage at the University of Miami Convention Center in Florida last night for the first stop of Kanye West?s Touch The Sky tour, it was announced that the rapper had pulled out of the show and wasn?t hitting the road with West after all.

Common has just landed a film role, which will also star Taraji Henson (who appears in Common?s ?Testify? video), and film production will prevent the hip hop star from taking part in West?s two-month long tour.

West said yesterday that while he would have loved to have had Common out on the road with him as planned, he fully supports his friend’s decision. Common will not be replaced by another performer; instead West promises to perform more of his own material to make it up to fans. Concert-goers can also look forward to seeing Fantasia and Keyshia Cole, who are still on board as opening acts.

Alicia Keys has succeeded in making another one of her dreams come true. The nine-time Grammy winner just finished taping a special episode of MTV ?Unplugged? and will now join the likes of Nirvana, Elton John, and Alanis Morissette ? musicians who comprise an exclusive list of big-name artists to have graced the show?s stage.

“As a child, in my wildest dreams ? and I dreamed so big ? but you never think it’s going to happen,” Keys told MTV. “So to be here, on the set that we’re going to record ‘Unplugged’ on, it’s amazing and beautiful and everything I’ve ever dreamed of.?

The R&B sensation brought the show back from MTV retirement last week in New York, where she serenaded fans with new renditions of songs off her two studio albums (Songs in A Minor and The Diary of Alicia Keys), a few covers (including Brenda Holloway?s ?Every Little Bit Hurts?) and also two new originals.

The MTV Unplugged series first debuted in 1989 and showcased popular bands in intimate, stripped-down performances, sans electric guitars, keyboards, and special effects. The show was credited with bringing about an ?acoustic revolution? in mainstream music.

?’Unplugged’ is my thing, it’s really my style, it’s what I’m all about,” said Keys. ?To have strings, to have percussion, to have all these elements to put in the piano base that I have, this is so much fun, man.?

Joining in on the fun were some of Keys? famous friends, whom she brought on stage to sing with her. Maroon 5?s Adam Levine joined Keys for a cover of the Rolling Stones? ?Wild Horses? while rap stars Common and Mos Def are featured in ?Love It or Leave It Alone.? Keys also performed with Damian Marley (son of reggae legend Bob Marley) for a unique rendition of his single, ?Welcome to Jam Rock.?

Fans can also look forward to hearing two new tracks on the show: “Stolen Moments” and “Unbreakable.” Keys describes ?Stolen Moments,? which she co-wrote with soul icon Al Green, as being about a romance “that shouldn’t exist, but it’s so perfect in how they relate to each other.” Meanwhile, “Unbreakable” is about “how life and love can be unbreakable.?

“Once people see this ‘Unplugged,’ I just want them to feel the spontaneity, to feel passionate,” Keys said. “I want you to see another side of me, that’s free, and feel where my head is, where whatever happens, happens. I want you to feel inspired.”

“Alicia Keys: Unplugged” is tentatively scheduled to air on MTV September 9.