Chicago hip-hop vet Common recently spoke to MTV about his new album, Nobody’s Smiling and shared why he had to push forward without Kanye West‘s production or his G.O.O.D. Music label. According to the hip-hop star, West didn’t seem to be too invested in getting the album made; possibly because of his own personal life.
“Kanye didn’t produce on the album,” Common says in the interview. “I think he probably just gettin’ to hear the album ’cause I sent it to him just the other day.”
Common explained that he released this particular project via his longtime producer No. I.D.’s imprint through Def Jam.
“I’m on Artium,” Common said.
“G.O.O.D. Music, that’s still my family, ‘Ye is my brother. Point blank,” Common explained. “Business-wise, it wasn’t like … ‘Ye wasn’t really like ‘Okay, let’s go do this. Let’s go do this album.’ It was like, ‘I’m ’bout to go do this album, ‘Ye. We friends, but if you ain’t really trying to … but if we ain’t gonna create together, it’s all good. We still brothers.'”
Over the past twelve months, Kanye has become a father and married his longtime girlfriend, reality star Kim Kardashian. Common doesn’t begrudge his friend his personal happiness.
“I think his focus was somewhere else–marriage, life, good places,” Common added. “I cherish our friendship more than music. I’m grateful for the music we did ’cause Be and Finding Forever was … them joints took me to another level. We grew. We got a relationship that’s stronger than that. So, if we never make music together again, as long as we bros, I’m good.”
