Common defends Drake after Yasiin Bey’s recent “pop” comments.
While on Ebro In The Morning, Common, chimed in on the topic expressing, “to me, I think Drake comes from Hip Hop,” he began. “When I first heard him rhyming, I was like, ‘Yo, this dude rhyming.’ And if he goes out and makes songs that are popular, then that’s what it is. He’s still an MC.
“The dude is an incredible songwriter, he’s an incredible artist. You can’t touch that many people, for as long a time as he’s been doing […] This man has touched different aspects of culture and been able to continue to do it. You gotta have some respect and know that this dude is a very talented artist.”
Common, however, doesn’t miss the opportunity to praise the artist formely known as Mos Def. “Yasiin is a genius, man” he said. “I’ve been around that dude and watched him as an actor, as an artist and listened to a lot of his raps and he is very high level when it comes to poetic rap — not even just poetic rap, but I’m saying he has poetry within his rap. He can style on anything. He can do a lot.”
Yasiin Bey previously expressed his opinion on Drake’s sound. “Drake is Pop … Drake is pop to me.”
He continued, “in the sense of if I was in Target in Houston and I heard a Drake song. So it feels like a lot of his music is compatible with ‘shopping’ – or, you know, it’s shopping with an edge.”