From The New York Post…
Rapper N-bombs poet pal
Maya lyrical lashing
By Larry Getlen
It might be the most uncommon hip-hop beef ever.
Legendary poet Maya Angelou told The Post she’s horrified that one of her biggest fans, the rapper Common, put her on a song peppered with the “N” word — which she abhors.
The song “The Dreamer,” off the album “The Dreamer, The Believer,” features a poem that Angelou penned and recited at the rapper’s request. It urges people to follow their dreams, with such lines as “From Africa they lay in the bilge of slave ships / And stood half naked on auction blocks /… and still they dreamed.”
Common’s lyrics, however, include such lines as “Told my n---a [Kanye West] I’m ’bout to win the Grammys now” and the boast “N---as with no heart, I’m the pacemaker.”
The Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet was petrified when she heard the lyrics.
“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 said.
Angelou said she never knew Common used the “N” bomb at all, calling it “vulgar and dangerous” to the black community.
“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.”
Common tried to squash the squabble, insisting that he’s spoken with Angelou about his use of the “N” word — and claiming they have agreed to disagree.
“She knows I do use the word,” he told The Post. “She knows that’s part of me.”
But he admitted he never bothered to tell her he’d be using the word on the track she worked on.
“I told her what ‘The Dreamer’ was about and what I wanted to get across to people,” he says. “I wanted young people to hear this and feel like they could really accomplish their dreams.”
Common’s dreams in the song include living in Miami with “exquisite thick bitches.”
Angelou and Common met several years ago when they recited poetry at the same benefit. Since then, the two have grown tight. He has rapped at her birthday bash, and she once said he could be her son.
Common said the best lesson he has learned from Angelou is to “continue to be true to your voice.”
This is the second time this year that the rapper’s lyrics have gotten him in trouble. The White House was slammed in May for inviting him to a poetry event there because of anti-police lyrics, including “Tell the law my Uzi weighs a ton” and a line about President Bush: “Burn a Bush, ‘cause for peace he no push no button.”
