‘Between Me, You and Liberation:’ How Rapper Common Made A Righteous Departure From Homophobia 20 Years Ago
Common “Electric Circus” Album Cover (Universal Music Group)
In 2023, hip-hop turns 50, and in 2022 it’s time to give Common his flowers. It was 20 years ago that the Chicago native and conscious MC bravely denounced his previous homophobia on “Between Me, You & Liberation,” a track from his 2002 album “Electric Circus.” It was the first time I’d ever heard a rapper address the topic in an unharmful way.
In 2002, the Billboard charts included several rappers that trafficked in homophobia. Ja Rule, Eminem, and Cam’Ron all had big hits that year. I had come out as gay just five years earlier, and like a leopard, I didn’t expect hip-hop to be able to change its spots as a genre. I was evolving, but lyrically, rappers were devolving.
Common scored a commercial hit with his 2000 album “Like Water For Chocolate.” Recorded with the Soulquarians production team, Common’s not-so-secret weapon was his working relationship with virtuoso producer James Yancey (a.k.a. J. Dilla), whom he’d met in 1995 just as the subgenre sound known as “Neo-Soul” was beginning to be infused into hip-hop music.
“I had come out as gay just five years earlier, and like a leopard, I didn’t expect hip-hop to be able to change its spots as a genre. I was evolving, but lyrically, rappers were devolving.”
Dilla’s production style was revered by Black musicians of the era. He was so highly sought after that Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis incorporated his production aesthetic into Janet Jackson’s 1997 hit “Got ‘Til It’s Gone.”
Of their connection, Dan Charnas wrote in Dilla Time, “When [Dilla] finally auditioned the beat for him, Common wasn’t in the basement anymore. He was inside of his future. He was the artist he had hoped to become.”
Common entered the studio, for his follow-up album, emboldened to do something new. A major departure from his previous album made with the Soulquarians, 2002s “Electric Circus” was a more psychedelic, Rock-oriented affair. Received well by critics, but poorly by listeners, “Electric Circus” didn’t perform well on the charts.
“Upfront, Common is to be commended for always pushing beyond the boundaries of industry expectation and the general artistic complacency within hip-hop,” said Mark Anthony Neal in a review for Popmatters.
The Soulquarians (Top L to R: Talib Kweli, Yasiin Bey, James Poyser, Erykah Badu, Questlove, D’Angelo, Q-Tip, Bilal / Bottom L to R: Common, J. Dilla)
“Between Me, You and Liberation” is track 10 on “Electric Circus,” and features vocals by Cee-Lo Green. Verse one is a story about a woman who, after an intimate encounter, recounts being molested as a child. Verse two is about an aunt dying from a terminal disease. It’s on verse three that I remember being taken aback. In an about face that I didn’t expect, Common addresses homosexuality lovingly.
“Never knew it would turn out like this
For so long he tried to fight this
Now it was no way for him to ignore it
His parents found out and hated him for it
How could I judge him?
Had to accept him if I truly loved him
No longer he said had he hated himself
Through sexuality he liberated himself”
- Common “Between Me, You & Liberation”
“‘Between Me, You and Liberation’ is one of those rare occasions when a male hip-hop artist owns up to his investment in some of the genres more unsavory sexual politics.”
I’d gotten used to homophobia in hip-hop. It has been present since the earliest days of rap emerging as a hit-making genre of music. Big Bank Hank can be heard saying on the genres earliest hit song, “Rapper’s Delight:”
“And you could be my boyfriend, you surely can
Just let me quit my boyfriend called Superman"
I said, ‘He's a fairy, I do suppose
Flyin' through the air in pantyhose
He may be very sexy or even cute
But he looks like a sucker in a blue and red suit’”
- Sugar Hill Gang “Rapper’s Delight”
As a teenager, I’d heard the F-word uttered without a care. Before “Electric Circus,” Common had also used The F-Word on 2000s “Dooinit,” which contains the hurtful slur. His sideways line about Greg Louganis from De La Soul’s “The Bizness” has been censored in later years, but it’s clear what he said. While not the F-word, his reference to Louganis as “his gay ass” has always rubbed me wrong.
All of my favorite rappers in the early 1990s had a dis record that included the F-word. I remember first becoming aware of it while listening to Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline.”
“Half-pint bitch, fuckin' your homeboys
You little maggot, Eazy-E turned faggot
With your manager, fella
Fuckin' MC Ren, Dr. Dre, and Yella
But if they were smart as me
Eazy-E would be hangin' from a tree
With no Vaseline, just a match and a little bit of gasoline”
- Ice Cube “No Vaseline”
I had to learn how to compartmentalize it all. I could love hip-hop, love Black men, understand the nuances of how they were raised, and know that some wouldn’t fully accept me because of my sexual orientation. It was a constant push and pull. One that I was committed to because of my greater love for the culture.
Common at the Grammy Nominations Concert Live, Nokia Theater, Los Angeles, CA 11-30-11 (Credit: s_buckley | Shutterstock.com)
Only Light Can Drive Out Darkness
Common didn’t shy away from conversations about the song. In 2019, during an interview with Clay Cane on SiriusXM Urban View, he said, “I don’t care what these cats in hip-hop are saying, this is where I am with it. I’m not homophobic. I embrace people who are gay, who are a Christian, Muslim, Jewish — I’m open to human beings and life.”
What influenced Common to change? He had a chance encounter with gay fans about his use of the word. “Two guys who were gay came to me after a show,” he told Cane in 2019. Common recalls them saying, “‘We love your music. Your music touches us. But the fact that you using the word fag is like, man, that hurts us.’”
In my interview with @common he talked how he evolved on homophobia in his music. I love this because we all need space to grow. We aren’t born ‘woke.’ Listen to the full show on @SXMUrbanView on demand. #letlove #claycaneshow pic.twitter.com/EJuEixLLAg
— Clay 'Critical Thinking Theory' Cane (@claycane) August 22, 2019
Common wasn’t the only rapper to confront homophobia in the early 2000s. Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) also strongly came out against homophobia in a 2005 interview with Sway. For Ye, his change of heart involved learning that a cousin, who he loved, was gay.
“And at that point it was kind of like a turning point when I was like, Yo, this my cousin, I love him, like, and I been discriminating against gays,” Ye told the host. Reflectively, he asks, “It’s like, do I discriminate against my cousin?”
It’s likely not a coincidence that during this period, Common and Ye were creative partners like Common and Dilla had been previously.
“I don’t care what these cats in hip-hop are saying, this is where I am with it. I’m not homophobic. I embrace people who are gay, who are a Christian, Muslim, Jewish — I’m open to human beings and life.”
As the years passed, we have seen more rappers express anti-homophobic sentiments. Rappers like A$AP Rocky, Fat Joe, and The Game have railed against homophobia in interviews. Even with more acceptance, hip-hop is still considered a cisgender, straight man’s genre. The emergence of Lil Nas X and Saucy Santana as mainstream draws still hasn’t opened the door for other artists to break into the mainstream. Cakes Da Killa, Angel Haze, and Dapper Dan Midas have been in the game for years, but haven’t broken through to a greater commercial appeal.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Auntie Diaries” is one of the more recent examples of a cisgender, straight man addressing an LGBTQ topic on record. While receiving a mixed response, the song is on a very short list of songs where cishet rappers lovingly address the LGBTQ community.
Common was at a high point in his career when “Between Me, You & Liberation” was released. He had “pushed [Dilla] and the rest of The Soulquarians for such an unconventional album in ‘Electric Circus,’” Charnas wrote. The gamble didn’t pay off with that album, but Common’s career hit an even bigger high three years later with the release of 2005’s, mostly Ye-helmed, Be.
“Between Me, You & Liberation” is the kind of song I hope all rappers will make one day. LGBTQ fans have been the backbone of the culture since the beginning. We, like Common, should be given our flowers too.
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Johnnie Ray Kornegay III (aka Jay Ray) serves as Deputy Director of Strategy and Impact for The Counter Narrative Project (CNP), an organization committed to countering narratives and speaking truth to power. In addition, he is co-host and producer of the podcast Queue Points, a visual podcast where he and his co-host, DJ Sir Daniel, inform and celebrate Black Music creatives through meaningful dialogue.
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