You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
Common is a Grammy and Oscar-winning rapper, actor, and activist from Chicago.
He's been making records since 1992,
and in October he released his 13th album, A Beautiful Revolution.
In this episode, he breaks down how he made the song A Riot In My Mind,
along with a handful of collaborators,
including Lenny Kravitz and a cameo from Chuck D. I see greater till the fire next time It's burning down,
there's a riot in my mind It's a war outside When it's quiet,
it's a riot in my mind My name is Common.
So at the end of the summer, I was in L.A. I wasn't planning on making an album,
but what led me to making an album was the song I was working on for a children's show.
It was a show called Bookmarks, where different people, authors, actors, read children's books.
And these books were, you know, really uplifting and saying, hey, we all are one.
It's called Don't Forget Who You Are, and it's featuring PJ.
When we made this song, first of all,
I just organically felt like, oh man, I love making music, man.
This just feels so good to make some music and to be creating with these co-creators that I love.
But then, It was the reaction to that song, which I wrote for children.