NCS caught up with Common on the set of his music video for “Blue Sky”, the first single from his ninth album The Dreamer, The Believer set for release November 22nd. The video was shot at the Barclay Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Built in 1896, it is one of the oldest hotels in Los Angeles and is now a residential hotel housing primarily low-income elderly residents. The spirit of the hotel serves as a great backdrop for the video, as the audience sees characters in the hotel laboring to achieve their dreams: a ballerina practicing her moves, a writer furiously typing out a manuscript, a young kid practicing basketball. All of these characters are working hard to achieve their goals and we get to see their struggle and subsequent payoff. As the stylist remarked, the video’s simplicity lent itself to wanting to keep Common’s look unencumbered with colorful t-shirts to match his distinguished yet funky style. During the shoot, Common seemed to be happy, laughing with folks on the set. During breaks he would talk to them about topics including being a Pisces and his upcoming trip to Haiti. I sat down with Common to discuss the video shoot, his dreams and upcoming projects.
Merc80: You seem to be happy. I take it the shoot is going well?
Common: It’s going good. I try not to put too much pressure on myself and try to enjoy it. I mean, we’re getting a chance to shoot videos! I love what I do. Even if there’s some mishaps, little things that happen, you still want to enjoy the aspect of getting to shoot a video.
I’m grateful I’m getting to shoot a video like, 15, 16 years later. My first video was 16 years ago. I’m just grateful to be shooting. I want to have fun doing it. It’s a good time, so let’s enjoy it.
What do you do to keep your sanity during a long shoot?
I try to travel with good people so I have somebody to talk to sometimes. Most of the time is filled up with something. But, sometimes when you’re doing a movie or something you’re really waiting around, so you have to figure out how to occupy your space without driving yourself crazy. I like watching movies a lot. I like playing basketball. When I’m waiting around I’m usually just chatting with people, chiling out. I’ll read when I’m on the plane or something.
Coming from Chicago, what were your first ideas about L.A. before you moved here?
The first time I started thinking about L.A. was hearing NWA, so you know… I’m thinking L.A. like, “Compton-style” (laughs). I’m thinking of L.A. being wild. And yeah it has it’s parts like that, but I saw L.A. also has a lot of beauty to it. The sunshine and great days. Because I had visited L.A. early on, I always thought L.A. was one of the best places ever to be. We had shows here, where the people were just so free and cool. We used to do this show called UNITY, this cat Bigga B used to throw…God bless his soul. Man, the crowd was just so open. That’s how I got to know cities at first, going to the city and feeling out how the people are when they were at shows. Maybe a couple of restaurants.
I always loved L.A. and thought it was incredible. My vision before was just Compton and NWA, then it became something bigger.
When you’re in L.A., what are your top spots to hit?
I actually love riding up the Pacific Coast Highway. That’s one of my favorite places. Going around that area, driving through that Malibu area. Now I realize they got a Cafe Habana out here, which is a place I love out in New York. That’s a real cool spot. I like the M Cafe too. I like food places more than anything.
After this shoot, I hear you’re going to Haiti. What’s going on out there?
We’re doing a documentary for CNN on child slavery which exists in Haiti and it’s like…I haven’t seen it, but the person behind the documentary told me, “Once you get there, you’ll feel what’s going on.” We really just want to raise awareness to it. It’s slavery, for real. To know it still exists right now…I mean on the real tip there’s other mental slavery going on, but to have actual physical slavery going on with children…we can’t just sit around and act like it doesn’t exist. So the special is going to be on CNN and include a performance I’m going to do.
Your album is called The Dreamer, The Believer. What’s the difference between the two?
I think they’re really connect in a way. Just like I could say I’m a father and a son, I could say I’m a dreamer and a believer. I dream, and I also believe in what I dream about. Like, I dream about being an emcee, and I believe I can be an emcee. I think it’s really connected and just two ways of describing who I am, and I think what many people who want to accomplish things are.
In a lot of your previous songs you talked about dreams you had. You’ve done music, written a book, and been in films. It seems you’ve done it all. Do you feel like you still have more dreams to accomplish?
Oh yeah, definitely a lot to accomplish. Even specifically for the work I’m doing now. I’ve got a lot of ways to grow as an actor. A lot of ways to grow as an emcee. There’s so much. The reason why I even started acting was because I felt like I hit a ceiling with music. And I creatively wanted to do something else. I felt like man, all this this creative energy I still have, I gotta offer it someway. Acting was what I felt very passionate about, and I found to be something that I loved to do and something I could grow and become great at. My goal is to definitely grow as an actor and musician, to become a leading man in more films. Producing film and television. Also doing more work helping improve the world. Regular goals in life too, whether it be having a family, which is something I would love to do at some point in my life. And just traveling, because when we travel a lot of times it’s for one day, and you can’t really absorb the place. I still want to do some of that traveling.
I always want to keep achieving.
Here’s a sneak peek of the “Blue Sky” video shoot.
Photos by Jill Augusto
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