This what he feels about mixing. Do you agree or degree?



Touch caught up with rapper Common to hear his take on race and relationships

TOUCH: This is a lyric from the track ‘Heat’ on your ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ album: "State senators, life twirls, most sell out – like a dread with a white girl." Explain please.
COMMON: Rastafarianism is a black culture. When you see dreadlocked dudes with white girls that’s like they going against what the dreadlock’s purpose was. The dreadlock was a symbol of black love and the black people gettin’ to a certain level. In America we’ve got a lot of dreadlocked dudes and all you see them with is white girls. I don’t think there’s anything the matter with somebody loving somebody from another race but it’s almost like a stereotype that if you’ve got dreadlocks you go out with a white girl. I just feel like, as black men, we do have to be aware that, yo, every time we step out with some woman it’s setting an example for our daughters and it’s also representing something for our mothers. If you can’t really love your own, how can you really love others?

TOUCH: So you don’t agree with mixed race relationships?
COMMON: I don’t disagree with them. It’s just I’ve been around black girls who say, "I only date white men". I’ve been around black dudes who I see only be with white girls. Is that a lack of self-love? To say "I only deal with these type of people" has gotta be a problem.

TOUCH: Have you ever dated outside your race?
COMMON: Nah, not dated [giggles].

TOUCH: Have you slept with anybody outside your race?
COMMON: Yeah, I definitely have.

TOUCH: So sleeping with someone outside your race is OK but dating isn’t?
COMMON: People got their choice. I’m not telling them how to live their lives. I just tell them what I think about and what I feel about certain situations. Dealing with having sex with a white girl is something I have encountered and I’m not acting like white girls and other races are not people. We all people: children of God. But our race has been damaged. Sometimes to get back up to the level of respect and love, you’ve gotta stick with your own for a minute and build a certain amount of strength and community within yours so that other people can respect and honour your traditions.

TOUCH: How do you feel about a black person dating a mixed race person of black and white parentage?
COMMON: Ah man, if you’ve got one black parent and one white parent, then the majority of the time you considered black. People don’t look at Tiger Woods and see he’s mixed. They say he’s a black golfer, even if he say he’s something else. Look, I ain’t here to judge people’s relationships. I’m more about, "Hey black people, I see you out there talking about how you a Rastafarian, but you only wanna date white women". Is that what Rastafarianism is based on?

TOUCH: Rastafarianism has different houses with different views. Though Rastafarianism is about celebrating who you are and where you’re from, isn’t it also about loving people regardless of creed or colour?
COMMON: I don’t know all the bases of Rastafarianism, but I know that it stems from Africa and Ethiopia and really came into fruition in Jamaica during the time that the blacks were being oppressed. It was about black people paying homage to their culture, embracing their culture. So when you embrace your culture and then say, "OK, but I’m only gonna date the opposite race", to me that’s a little opposite to what you’re projecting out through your hair and the way you looking. I know you don’t agree, but I’m glad that you bringing these things up. How do you feel, as a white lady?

TOUCH: I absolutely loved your album ‘Like Water For Chocolate’ but that lyric pissed me off. I live in a very multicultural environment, maybe if I lived in America I would feel differently.
COMMON: Yeah, it definitely has something to do too with the way I was raised. I mean, not even from my parents, but from being in Chicago, a very segregated city. There is very much an enforcement of black culture where I grew up.

Common boards his plane. We agree to disagree. I tell him I respect that he speaks his mind in music. Days later our conversation continues.

TOUCH: Last time we talked about mixed race relationships…
COMMON: It was good that we talked about that. I talked about it even more after I hung up. I was talking to my team about it and they had their own views. My whole thing is that black women have been so put down – whether it’s due to the oppression of a white government or we [black men] putting our own women down. When dudes say they only gonna focus on white girls, to me, it’s like a slap in a black girl’s face. What’s ironic is when you hear this song on my new album called ‘Real People’. It deals with something almost of the same nature. I say: "Black men walking with white girls on they arms. I be mad at ’em as if I know they mums. Told to go beyond the surface, a person’s a person. When we lessen our women our conditions seem to worsen". I’m glad we got to discuss this though. Ya know, I still feel like because I’m an artist and I say certain things, I have a responsibility to let people know what I mean. I can’t claim to be perfect. I’m working too to be a better guy."




Alot of mix people did not like his words.



Several rappers in the UK are not happy with Common following his comments regarding interracial relationships made during a magazine interview. In response, Rising Son, Yungun and Doc Brown have recorded “Dear Common (The Corner Dub),� which calls the Chicago rapper, among other things, a “racist b*tch.�

In the interview with Touch magazine to promote his new album “Be,� Common voiced his disapproval of mixed race relationships and frowned upon blacks with dreadlocks dating white women, stating that those men would be "going against what the dreadlock's purpose was." The three UK MCs, all of mixed race, took much offense.

“There was all this sh*t he was talking in there about mixed race couples and how it’s wrong and I was just like, ‘Nah man, he can’t really say that.’ There’s mixed race people out there, that’s wrong,� Rising Son told the web site The Situation. “So I called up Doc Brown and Yungun and said, ‘My man’s slating our race!’ So they went away and wrote their verses and I was like, ‘I’m gonna deal with him on his own track.’�

Snatching Common’s beat from his recent single “The Corner,� Rising says on the first verse: “Rastafarianism doesn’t promote separatism/ I know white women who have converted to the religion/ They recognize African history as the truth so be it/ My father used to take me twelve tribes meetings, I used to see it.�

Rising also refers to Common as a "racist bitch" and spits, "I predict the future is mixed/Marking the end of all this racism sh*t."

Yungun says on his verse: "Black and white used to drink from different taps/ And you should know 'cause your album had a picture of that/ So when you say that you're showing how a hypocrite acts/ Now I ain't dissing this cat, I'm only spitting the facts."

“He needs to be careful because no matter what his opinions are, he’s still got a lot of white fans,� said Rising. “He comes over here and does gigs here; most of his fan base here is white. I mean, who was that ‘Electric Circus’ album aimed at? That wasn’t aimed at no one in no ghetto, that wasn’t aimed at no black people, that wasn’t a black album. If he keeps wanting to use the term sell out, what was that album all about?�

Those dickheads are just looking for a quick way to get famous. They wouldn't have said shit if he was dissingblack women. As if Common oranyone else isreally gonna give a f**k about those arseholes. Common said he didn't disgree with mixed relationships and he wasn't promoting "separatism". What he said about Rastafarianism wason point and these b**ches wouldn't know shit aboutit.

Those urbanites can shove their bullshit idiosyncrasies up their arse.

It wasn't an attack on mix people at all. Whenever concious brothas talk about our preservation as a race, f*cking losers like these start wailing at the top of their lungs like babies. They just want to make a name for themselves, that's all.

I swear I couldnt have put it anybetter than common! Respect!!

Commons got a point about the rastafarian thing.

But I was readin another interview after this in regards to this interview. I will jus say common is a very confused man. Alotta mixed race people are also.. no offence

My point iz common is mixed race. NOT BLACK!... the western world might tag him as black but hes mixed race. Hes mum is white. SO hes a product of interacial relationship..

Lol this is the foolish part of it all. when asked what he thinks of brothers dating mixed race. he said wll if they got a black parent then they are black.lol lol. Nah mate. The idiot needs to realise that hes a mixed race person. He is a product of an interacial relationship which he desapproves. So therefore hes just contradictin himself.

I agree with his comment about preservin the black racev but hes the wrong person to be adressin the issue. Same with Ms dynamite. Ths bitch needs to realise that she aint black.

mmm I dunno bout that one.

I saw a recent pic of him with his mum and kanyes mum. and hes mum was far paler than that she looked more white to me. its either is grandma or is ma I saw in the pic. but he does have white heritage.

Common was calling out FAKE Afro-Centrics! Which he should have............

I get so tired of hearing people speak how much they LOVE their people yet can't and WON'T marry them!

Also, I have heard no such facts of Common's mother being White! If she had have been white, this article would have SURELY mentioned it. Therefore I don't believe it!

Either way, he has the right to his opinion just like all the Multicultralist have theirs!

Sorry but I'm not as forgiving as some of you, to me Common was a total idiot....an idiot that obviously doesn't read or apparently learn from history.. Because if he had, he would remember Shabba Ranks and what happened to him.. That should have been a lesson to him..

The fact is I really want to know when some people will get it, you just cannot talk race or race pride to Europeans..in private or public because they will twist it and mek it something else.. even better if you're on a mission to achieve something, some people really must learn to have DISCIPLINE and keep certain tings until you ready.. for me some of us love chat too much thinking we are being clever like that idiot David Beckham thought we he admitted to deliberately getting sent of to wipe his slate clean..thats what i call the stupid smart...

You can see how the interviewer is allowing him to hang himself with his own words.. you see a politician reply to a question.. they say as little as possible..the only time you know their true intent is when they execute it over yu head..like Stockwell!!!