S. Samuel
Rapper/Actor Common has announced plans to begin work on an television pilot that focuses on the lives of wrongly accused convicts.
The Chicago-based emcee is also clocking in studio time for his next album.
I’m very very excited for ya’ll to check out the new Just Wright trailer,” Common wrote in his blog on Wednesday (March 10). “I really dig it and can’t wait for it to come out May 14. (It’s my first lead ya’ll!) Check out my hoopin skills and let me know what you think. I’m writing now and working with No I.D. and I’m also working on a pilot for a tv show that deals with wrongly accused convicts. It’s really a concept that shows the way their life is after jail. Keep me posted on what ya’ll think of the movie.” (Think Common)
Last December, Common gave an update on his forthcoming solo project.
“I’m actually working with No I.D. and Twilite Tone and Kanye West. Man, we’re looking forward to making some powerful music,” Common explained in an interview. “I feel really excited, man. [Me and No I.D.] did some preliminary pre-production type stuff, and it just felt so good to be working with him. It felt like, ‘Man, life is really, really good.’ It’s full circle. You meet up with the person who’s partially responsible for beginning your career, and you’re like, ‘Man, this is really cool — that we meet at this place in our lives and our creative journeys and we really are enthused to work with each other.’ [Me and Kanye] know that we want to do some raw hip-hop. That’s exactly the direction and feel we want, so that’s the basis of it. ‘Ye and I definitely know we want to do some pure hip-hop. I’m looking for an early summer release.” (Entertainment Weekly)
He also promised its release would provide fans a return to raw hip-hop.
“For Believer, it was creating raw music, raw hip-hop,” he said in an interview. “I just wanted to create good hip-hop music. When I create albums, they develop as I go along, ’cause I have different thoughts and visions. And then as you create the music, it takes its own personality and spirit to it. But the beginning of it is raw hip-hop, it’s just soulful…Twilite Tone and No I.D., they produced my first three albums and they were the first producers I worked with. And Kanye is an extension of them. Kanye always says No I.D. is his mentor. That’s how I met Kanye, through No I.D. So for me to have these three working on my album is going home again. But I’m always gonna offer something new and fresh.” (MTV)
The album will mark his reunion with West, the producer responsible for 2005’s Be and 2007’s Finding Forever.
Be, a much tighter album that was produced primarily by Kanye West, followed in May 2005, netting four Grammy nominations. West remained on board for both Finding Forever (2007) and the lighter Universal Mind Control (2008), though The Neptunes dominated the latter. (All Music)
A confirmed release date for The Believer has not yet been revealed.
Check out Common’s Just Wright movie trailer down below:
