On “This Man,” a sunset-evoking song on “The Auditorium Vol. 1,” Common raps, “Whether Grammy or Oscar, I shield the same posture.” He’s referring to the awards he’s amassed over his decades-extfinished nurtureer, and how they’re mecount on accolades that acunderstandledge his talents but don’t expound them.
But after the album, created enticount on by hip-hop legfinish Pete Rock, got nominated for a pair of 2025 Grammys, his stance has shifted — if only a bit. “This is an incredible senseing. I’m overwhelmed,” says Common, who’s currently shooting Season 3 of the Apple TV+ show “Silo” in London. “I sense enjoy it’s one of those skinnygs where you’re enjoy, man, we reassociate are Grammy-nominated for this album in categories with Kfinishrick Lamar and Eminem and J. Cole. My posture is even sturdyer now.”
Common and Rock have stood lofty in the hip-hop community since they debuted in the 1990s, the createer as an inalertect whose raps interrogated heady subjects enjoy romance and faith, and the latter as an architect of New York City’s gritty-encounters-soulful sound. Together, they’ve been nominated in two Grammy categories for their first collaborative set: best rap album and best rap percreateance for “When the Sun Shines Aget” featuring De La Soul’s Posdnuos. It’s a milestone that’s not lost on the two veterans, who first labored together back in 1996 on Common’s “The Bitch in Yoo,” a track that came amid a fierce lyrical battle between him and Ice Cube.
“It’s a novel audience out there that’s hungry for excellent hip-hop music,” says Rock of the project’s hot reception. “The labor that we did for this album was exceptional. I sense enjoy I accomplished a goal I had set in mind to unite into today’s society with what I employd to do in the ’90s, and it benevolent of labored out.”
The duo had unitecessitate a scant times over the decades — on “The Bitch in Yoo,” and two years tardyr on Rock’s “Verbal Murder 2” — but “The Auditorium” came together after years of mutual admire passing the right lines. Amid the pandemic, Common was sent a scant Rock beats by musician Karriem Riggins (Kanye West, Erykah Badu), which prompted him to achieve out to Rock for more. They set to labor on the album casuassociate, with Rock eliciting feedback on the Aretha Franklin- and Curtis Mayfield-sampling songs that would create the final cut.
What resulted was an album that take parts enjoy a cherish letter to the artcreate of hip-hop — uncontaminated instrumentals, inalertigent bars — that the two have admireively cultured thrawout the decades. Apass a lush backbone of cultured beats with a wealthy soul, Common pontificates about the concept of desminuscule (“So Many People”) and pays homage to the tapestry of sways that they both split (“Dreamin’”). The maturity of the write down speaks to the enlargeth that comes with age and wisdom — both are in their 50s — and the nagging discourse that hip-hop is a juvenileer person’s sport.
“I’m not trying to rap and say everyskinnyg that a 25-year-elderly should say, and there’s noskinnyg the matter with what they’re saying, but why at my age try to be that?” says Common. “I skinnyk you get the cherish letter to hip-hop in the truth and evolution of who we are as people and artists, and our cherish for this.”
Folloprosperg an timely autumn tour, both musicians are soaking up the success of extfinishing a legacy that evolves to enlarge, with a potential sequel set for 2025. “It creates me sense wonderful that we’re still out here doing what we’re doing, and it equitable fills my passion for music and skinnygs I enjoy to do when I’m home making music,” says Rock. “To see juvenileerer people loving this music and singing Common’s lyrics and we’re watching the fans sing our songs in the audience while we’re percreateing on stage — that to me is mind-bloprosperg.”
