Common recently made a stop in Paris as a part of the European leg of his tour. While there, Common spoke to Booska-P about fellow Chicago rapper, Chief Keef. The Nobody's Smiling rapper said he respects Keef for being raw and real in his music and discussed working with Kanye West.
The elder Chi-Town rhymer said he appreciates that Keef remains true to himself in his music.
"I respect any artist that's just doing what they do," Common explains. "I don't like everything. I don't like every song that comes out, but if an artist is being themselves. I think Chief Keef brought something that nobody else was doing and he brought it raw. He brought it real. With that, I have to respect that as an artist that he has come and brought that. I don't know all of his music. I know 'I Don't Like' and I know 'Love Sosa' and stuff but I don't know all his music."
Common also dished on a few of his frequent collaborators, including Kanye West, J Dilla and Pharrell.
"Well Kanye [West] is a producer who is going to create samples — he always uses samples now but when we worked a lot he would have some dope samples," Common says. "We'd find the sample. He might [then] have an idea about what the hook should go like and that hook could be dope and then we'd get into it. If I write a rap [and] he don't like the rap, he gon' [tell me] like, 'Look, you need to change that,' or, 'Keep that take.' He had really a strong input on it. It was like a creative collaboration."
The "Drivin' Me Wild" rapper referred to J Dilla as "one of the most genius producers" and said Pharrell has "really big ideas."
Read more of what he had to say at HipHopDX.
