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Tavis: I am pleased, honored, in fact, to welcome Common to this program. The Grammy-winning hip-hop artist is up for five, count them, one, two, three, four, five Grammys this Wednesday night. His most recent CD is called 'Be.' I love it. And it features collaborations with folk like Kanye West and John Legend. From 'Be,' here is some of the video for 'Testify.'

Tavis: Common, I'm blessed to have you on this program.

Common: Yeah, thank you for having me here. I'm grateful to see you again, and be here.

Tavis: It is my pleasure to have you here. When I say this, I mean this with all sincerity. There is nobody in the music game whose success I am more happy for than yours.

Common: Thanks.

Tavis: Well, I say that because you have been around for a minute now. You've been around for a minute, and your gift is so profound. And this whole debate about rap and about gangsta rap versus conscious rap, which I wanna talk to you about in just a second. But I just really am proud of what you've accomplished, and these Grammy nominations notwithstanding. I'm just glad to see your music get the play that it deserves. Now, that's how I feel about it. How does Common feel about it?

Common: Well, I'm like, first of all, thank you for that, man. It's an honor coming from a brother like you, who means so much to the people. And I obviously wanna try to do something that's helping people, and making music that means something. And that can affect lives. And at the same time can be entertaining and can be fun.

But I know music deserves a message. That's some of the most powerful music that lasts forever, is music that means something. And this time period in my career is definitely a time where I'm very grateful. I look back and see the years that I've come through this music game, and I'm like man, God is just speaking, and just doing the work through me.

And I'm like man, I'm grateful. Man, it's a lot of years. And like, I seen you speaking to (soundslike) L one time, and talking about how rappers come and go. And it's the truth. It's like so many people come and go, but (soundslike) the most hot does keep you in the game, and just faith.

Tavis: How did you stay committed to your music? I love your phraseology, your formulation, that music deserves a message. I heard that, music deserves a message. How difficult to stay committed to that framework, to that notion, when it ain't getting the kind of respect, the kind of airplay, that you hoped it would?

Common: Man, like, being from Chicago, man, and just, like, the way I was raised, I was just taught to be myself. And I knew every day, regardless of whatever music I make, I gotta go home. I gotta go to where I was home. I mean my home. I'm talking about Chicago. I'm talking about to church. I gotta go home. So, I gotta answer to myself and to God, and the things - I know I'm sent here to do certain things.

So it's like, I just believed in what I was doing, and was like okay, whether the masses get it or not, I gotta deliver this. I gotta say what needs to be said, and I gotta look myself in the mirror after I do it. So it's like that helped me to just stay on that path. And I always believed, man, I was, like, no matter when, my album might sell 250,000 copies.

People will say, man, you ain't getting what you deserve. But I always felt like I would, sooner or later. And more than anything, if one person getting affected by the music, and then they go say something to somebody else, then I'm doing the work.

Tavis: What is your sense, then, if all your stuff is good, and I believe that it is, and all of it has a message in the music, what is it do you think about this project that for whatever reason or reasons, made it connect with the masses of people?

Common: Well, I think it was a lot of factors. First of all, I was coming off a project where people were, like, kind of iffy about what I had done with Electric Circus. And then also, the people had heard me on other projects really sounding hungry as an artist and as an emcee. And then it helped also that Kanye West was a part of it.

And putting his soul in it, and his heart was really into the project. So, he would go out and speak about my album before it came out. And more than anything, I think it was just a time in the universe where people want truth. It's a time when people are looking for the truth, and looking for authentic art. And man, I believe that this music is authentic. It's sincere.

Tavis: I hear that word sincere. Tell me more about what you mean when you say people are looking for authentic art. And I ask that 'cause I was just speaking to a group of young folk the other day, and I was saying to them, in my own way, that I think what people are craving, what the world is craving now, is authenticity. The world is craving. We say keep it real, but that's just a phrase. People are really craving authenticity.

Common: Yeah. Well, I think people have seen enough of the repetition, the redundancy of the created images, of the falseness in music and in art. So I think after enough, people have been, like, okay, I want something real. I ain't really feel - I'll rock to this in a club, but I'm not playing this at home. I'm not riding to my car in this.

Tavis: I ain't paying for this.

Common: I ain't paying for it. So with that happening, it's like when something comes out that is something that's from the heart and that people are feeling, it's gotta be good, too. 'Cause I gotta say you could be conscious, you could be spiritual, but if it ain't, like, pleasing to the ear, then it ain't getting to the people that we need to hear it too.

So anyway, I think that the people just got tired of the same old stuff, and was like, yo, now we getting some food that's good for our soul. 'Cause our spirits want it. It's time. It's war going on. It's a lot of natural disasters going on. Our spirits are in search of truth. And I'm one of the ones that's seeking truth, so I know I don't listen to all that stuff, man. I listen to whatever's good for me to feel good.

Tavis: To that point, when you say you're one of the ones seeking truth and searching for truth, I was in church the other day; my pastor is Bishop Noel Jones, out at the City of Refuge. And because I know him so well, every now and again, I can see him preaching a sermon. And I know he's preaching to himself, 'cause I know him.

And I know that that particular Sunday, that ain't just for us. He's talking to Noel as well. So I raise that, because when you say that you're one of the ones searching, do you oftentimes find that in the writing of your music, or in a particular performance, that you are talking, performing to yourself, as much as you are to the audience?

Common: Man, so much. I find, like, that my writings are like an expression of me not only talking to myself, but just releasing some of the pain, releasing some of the lessons. I can go back now and listen to certain songs, and I'll be, like, dag, I said that? 'Cause some of those lessons I'm still, like, dealing with. And some of those situations come about, and I still think like that.

But then it's, like, good to even hear myself say it at that time period in my life. So yeah, I do feel like I'm speaking to myself, and dealing with my own difficult situations.

Tavis: I've had a thousand and one conversations, it seems, Common, about this notion of gangsta rap versus conscious rap, and I kid you not, in every conversation I've ever had in television or radio about conscious rap, your name comes somewhere into the matrix of that conversation. But I've never had that conversation with you. So. (laugh)

Common: Right, right. (laugh) Yeah.

Tavis: You keep popping, you keep making these cameos in these conversations.

Common: Yeah, yeah, that's good. (laugh)

Tavis: But now you actually have made a cameo appearance on this show, and I can ask you. So what's your take on what people label conscious rap, and the fact that you are always one of the first names mentioned in that category?

Common: Well, I gotta say, Tavis, that I'm very honored to be labeled as conscious, even though I never wanted a label. But just to be called conscious, initially, I was like oh, they trying to box me in. They kind of separating me from the everyday street people. But then, after a while, it was like you know what?

I am a conscious artist, 'cause consciousness is about awareness, and just being aware. And also when I look at conscious artists throughout history, you could think about Bob Marley, you think about Marvin Gaye, you could think about Stevie Wonder, KRS1. People that spoke consciousness in the music.

And if I can go down anywhere close to them brothers as being a conscious artist, then I'll be very grateful. So I'm happy being a conscious dude, you dig?

Tavis: Yeah. You referenced Chicago, your hometown, earlier. How special was it for you and that other boy from Chicago, Kanye West, to team up on this project? Nine tracks, he was involved in?

Common: Yeah, he did.

Tavis: (unintelligible)

Common: Right, so yeah, he did a whole bunch.

Tavis: He did a whole bunch of work, yeah.

Common: And it didn't even start off like he was going to produce that many. Our first piece of music together was, like, he was working on somebody else's project, and I walked in the studio, and he had a beat playing. And he was looking at me, like, do you want this beat? And I'm like, yeah, I want it. So he ended up letting me have it, and it became a song called 'The Fool,' which was on the album.

And we put it on their live, straight from Dave Chappelle's performance. But it was special for us to be able to rock together, 'cause I had known Kanye for a minute, but I watched him grow. And then once we met each other, years later in New York, it was like he had grown. He had been through his struggles, and he had more to say.

'Cause when I met him, he would come to my basement and be rapping and just talking a lot of game, but he still is a good dude. He was him, but he didn't have a lot of substance to what he was saying. So, once I met him at the age that he's at now, he had enough things to say, a lot of good things to say. So it was real heartfelt for us to create together.

Tavis: I heard Mike Dyson give a lecture the other day, and I ain't trying to hate on Snoop, I love Snoop, talked to him many times, but Dyson said, to your point, Snoop would be dangerous if he was saying something. (laugh) But I'll leave that alone. I'm glad that Kanye has grown, I'm glad that Snoop is growing, I'm glad that Common, growing, of course, but has been growing for quite some time.

But ya'll just figured it out. The latest CD from Common is called 'Be.' Up for five Grammy awards on Wednesday night. Four for this project, and one with Floetry. (sp?) All the best to you, Common.

Common: Thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: Glad to have you on the program.

Common: Yes, sir.

Tavis: The pleasure's mine.

Common: Love.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International, check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from LA. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.