Common Blocks Out the World and Meditates With These Songs
Welcome to our new monthly column, "Common Knowledge," where rapper Common shares his wisdom on mental health, food and nutrition, pop culture, and more. Read the first installment below.
LAST YEAR, I lost a friend of mine who was close to me. I was going to speak at his memorial, and I needed to get into the space of what I would say. I needed something to calm me, something to give me inspiration. I went to Kamasi Washington. I went to John Coltrane. I even went to some A Tribe Called Quest. This music helped me get into
the mindset where I could say something sincere and thoughtful and find peace in what I was saying.
That’s a kind of meditation to me.
Meditation is a form of centering myself, quieting my mind, listening to the truest parts of me, and removing anything I don’t need at that moment to be centered. If thoughts come up, I just move them out of the way and let them pass by. Eventually, I get into a centered space where I’m feeling my truest self and feel I’ve calmed my mind. I can hear what I’m thinking and what I’m feeling—and I listen.
It’s hard for me not to take in the pain of the world. Of course, I feel it. I’m compassionate. I care. My way of dealing with the tension of daily life and all the problems in this world starts with me and music. The songs I put on allow me to remove whatever’s going on in the world, and I can be at peace with that music. I can be in tune with that music, and it allows my thoughts to come up for me to experience and feel. Some of my creativity comes from when I’m in a meditative space. That’s a centering and a meditation in itself. There’s a lot of music for you to meditate to.
I think André 3000’s album New Blue Sun is brilliant and it’s peaceful. It’s in my catalog of music that I could go to if I need to feel that calm. Kamasi has a song called “Askim” that makes me remember my higher self and calms me. John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme affects me in a certain way, where I feel like everything is going to be okay. I could be driving,
still safe, but D’Angelo’s “Africa” can put me in a meditative place. If a lot is going on, I need that music.
Meditation has a divine nature to it. It’s like you are connecting with your higher self, and your higher self is connected with the Most High. Music is divine. It’s the Most High speaking through us in so many ways. When they say music can put you in a trance, that’s meditative. Gospel music can put me in that space as well. Artists like Tasha Cobbs Leonard, William Murphy, Jonathan McReynolds, and Travis Green put me there. It’s all about discovering for yourself what you need to be at your best.
Over the years, I have also come to understand that everything meditative doesn’t have to be calm. Meditation doesn’t have to be only the flutes and wind chimes. I’ve had times where I feel like Nas’s “N. Y. State of Mind” is a song I can meditate to before I go into a meeting, and it gets me to where I need to be. Meditation also has a focus. When I’m playing Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones Pt. II,” I’m about to bring it! Any kind of music can be meditative, depending on what you need.
If you want to change your habits to make music more meditative, it helps to go back to some of the music you used to listen to. If you’re in a new place in your life compared to when you first listened, it might give you a different perspective. There’s music I’ve been listening to for 30 years that I’m still hearing new things in. I was listening to George Benson lately. No I.D. sampled his “The Changing World” for my song “I Used to Love H.E.R.” But to hear him now, in the context of this point in my life, was enlightening. Now I’m at a point in my life when I actually relate to it, and I hear it in a different way. It’s beautiful how music lives and breathes like that.
When I create music, I want people to feel something. So many people have told me, “I never used to check out your music like that. But now I’m at this point in my life where I relate to it, and I hear it differently.” I’ve had people come up to me and say, “Hey, I put on your music while cleaning up around my house, and it put me in such a meditative place.” I’ve had people say, “Your music would help me while I was studying. I would be listening to it in my college dorm, and it gave me peace.” I’ve even had someone tell me they heard one of my songs in a yoga class! It was “Come Close” they were playing.
Meditation sets me up to create my own happiness from the inside. There may be a day when it’s raining and storming, and I might wish it was a sunny, warm, beautiful day, but I don’t control that. What I do control is my ability to realize that a rainy day is also a beautiful day. You can’t determine what the weather will be, but you can work on your awareness, your acceptance, and your ability to receive and transform. Even a rainy day is a great day when you’re in that space of openness and acceptance.
Change is always coming. Doing my meditation is a constant. The things
I meditate on what might change. The goals change, the visions change, and the dreams change. My taking time to myself at the beginning of the day to commune with myself remains consistent. Music is meditation.
Common's Go-To Playlists
His favorite songs for finding inner peace, flexing his brain, and getting a good workout. Visit MH’s Spotify page to add them to your life
Get Calm
"Acknowledgement" by John Coltrane
"Askim" by Kamasi Washington
"Africa" by D'Angelo
"Grateful" by Hezekiah Walker
"Electric Relaxation" by A Tribe Called Quest
Get Creative
"The World Is Yours (Tip Remix)" by Nas ft/ Q-Tip
"Figaro" by Madvillain
"I Am I Be" by De La Soul
"In The Ghetto" by Eric B & Rakim
"Shook Ones Pt. II" by Mobb Deep
"UMI Says" by Mos Def
Get Strong
"Microphone Fiend" by Eric B. & Rakim
"The Choice Is Yours (Revisited) by Black Sheep
"Brooklyn Zoo" by Ol' Dirty Bastard
"Slow Down" by Brand Nubian
"93 'til Infinity" by Souls of Mischief
"Passin' Me By" by The Pharcyde
A version of this article originally appears in the May/June 2024 issue of Men's Health.
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