I guess “Sweet” wasn’t enough.
Common, an artist who should be way beyond petty shit like this, recently released a remix of Rick Ross’s Drake-featured “Stay Schemin'”, apparently in response to Drake’s verse, which apparently contains several subliminal disses of Common. That itself was a response to Common’s “Sweet,” a track that features the 40 year old star of “Just Wright” attempting to come off as a hardrock by going after the former star of “DeGrassi: The Next Generation”.
Is this bullshit what we’ve come to as the hip-hop community? As black people? As men?
I don’t really know or care how this “beef” started. All I know is that it seems to be a manufactured and desperate ploy by Common to garner some attention and hopefully sell some records. How’s that working? Well, Common’s latest album, The Dreamer-The Believer, has sold 88,000 copies in it’s first two weeks out. Meanwhile, Drake’s Take Care has sold 1.25 million records since it was released at the end of October. In barely 10 weeks, Take Care has outsold every single album in Common’s catalog. Obviously, talent is not equal to record sales (and Common, to be fair, is a significantly more proficient emcee than Drake is) but still. If I was Drake, I wouldn’t even bother?
Secondly, as an artist who’s tried hard to present himself as an Afrocentric, pro-woman, positive hip-hop artist (particularly in the last decade or so,) Common seems to be taking some seriously retrogressive steps. First off, dude, you’re 40. In the real world, a 40-year old going after a 25-year old is gonna look all kinds of stupid. Secondly, all the Maya Angelou features in the world can’t make up for not only the tasteless crack about Drake’s mixed racial heritage (and considering how high yellow you are, I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t some non-African in you somewhere) but an amount of “bitch” and “hoe” references on a level with your average Too $hort record. Something tells me your sistas aren’t gonna be too happy with that one.
Shit like this is just stupid, and shows how manufactured some elements of hip-hop (even the “conscious” strain of it) are. Again, real world talk: if you have a beef with someone, for whatever reason, you take it up with them in person-either you have a conversation or you throw joints. Making a record about it? That’s the REAL bitch move. I’m not sure who Common is trying to impress with his recent attacks on Drake, but I can tell you that his recent desperate attempts at relevance are putting a sour taste in the mouth of this longtime fan.