in 2000, Common was the rapper to watch. His Like Water For Chocolate was rap as art giving the Rakims and RZAs a run for their money. From a fela Kunti tribute (long before Jay-Z was producing Broadway musicals about him) to funk samples, hard raps about black pride, it was a world without n words, gangstas or hos. He was the real deal.
Made him a star if not rich.
So Common went mainstream. Dated famous tennis stars, friended up the hip hop elite. Became a movie star, even a matinee idol. And finally a White House visitor and known to African American poet laureatte Maya Angelou.
You can see what Angelou saw in Common, but she wasn't paying attention. Common had joined the mainstream and long after his masterpiece he is a second tier rapper. Not a banger by any means, but more than willing to brag his way through a song. Anyway, Maya read her poem "The Dreamer" for Common's upcoming album and, very strupidly Common used the track to rap about how great he is around it. He also used the word "nigga" often.
Maya was not amused. "“I had no idea that Common was using the piece we had done together on [a track] in which he also used the ‘N’ word numerous times,” Angelou told the New York Post. “I’m surprised and disappointed. I don’t know why he chose to do that. I had never heard him use that [word] before. I admired him so because he wasn’t singing the line of least resistance."
Of course, he was singing the line of least resistance and Angelou hadn't done her homework. Given the circumstance, she can blame herself if she finds it offensice. As for Commin, what a plank. He should have know better, it is as simple as that.