Vince Staples appears as a convenience store clerk held at gunpoint in the coinciding music video for ‘Hercules’.
After joining forces with neo-soul pianist Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins in 2018 to craft a poignant and politically striking collaborative album as August Greene, hip-hop luminary Common has returned to impart details of a forthcoming solo album.
Titled Let Love in reference to his 2019 book of the same name, the album marks Common’s debut project for Loma Vista Recordings and features appearances from Leon Bridges, Daniel Caesar, BJ The Chicago Kid and Jill Scott amongst others.
Discussing the influences behind his new album, Common said
“This album is inspired by the book, Let Love Have The Last Word which gave me a path to write about things I had never written about before. It forced me to go deeper and because I opened up about so many things in the book, I was charged to go to raw, personal and spiritual places in the music.
Production-wise, I knew that the music had to have depth, soul and dimension to it. I wanted the musicianship and the spirit of what live music brings but it also had to have something raw and basement about it. When my team said, ‘You should do some music revolving around the book,’ I just took that energy and went running into my artistry without focusing on anything else.”
Preceding the album is the dexterous ‘Hercules’, which arrives with a coinciding visual that sees Vince Staples appear as a convenience store clerk held at gunpoint. Watch the scene unfold below.
Let Love releases on August 30th via Loma Vista Recordings.
Words by Sam Wilkinson.
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