Common Speaks On New Video, Working With Just Blaze

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Two days after winning the Grammy Award for “Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group” with producer/label-mate Kanye West for the song “Southside,” Common posted a video journal [click here] on his MySpace blogt to update fans on his “new things, new ideas, [and] new creations.” Common reveals that his eighth studio album—and third with Kanye West—will be entitled The Believer.

“I haven’t started, but I started mentally,” Common writes. “…It’s up to y’all to decide if it’s better than this album or that album, but I’m going say it’s going to be one of my best albums ever.” Common writes that along with previous collaborators like West and Neptunes, that he also wants to work with Just Blaze for the LP. The two are currently working on a remake of Common’s trademark song “The Light” for a project being released by Cornerstone Promotions. While scarce on details, Common also writes that he’s got several movie projects coming up. “You don’t want to talk about stuff till it’s etched in stone and everything is there,” he says, “because you be sayin stuff and then it don’t happen, or you just keep the energy close till it’s time.”

He did, however, namedrop two other films he’s working on, Wanted and The Night Watch Man. According to IMDB, Wanted co-stars Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie. The site lists the new title for the latter film as Street Kings, and has Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker as headliners. DX initially confirmed that Common was set to play superhero Green Lantern in Justice League of America, though MTV also reported that the film is on indefinite hold due to the Writer’s Guild strike in Hollywood.

Common also said that he’s working on more children’s books, and namedropped the Common Ground Foundation. Common has two children’s books under his belt so far, Mirror and Me and I Like You But I Love Me; the second was nominated for an NAACP Image Award last year. His website has another, M.E. Mixed Emotions, with impending release. The Common Ground Foundation, “is dedicated to the empowerment and development of urban youth in the United States through the arts and education.”

Common Speaks On New Video, Working With Just Blaze | Hip Hop News > HipHopDX.com