Common Paints a Dreamy Utopia on "Imagine" Featuring PJ
Brought to life in an Emmanuel Afolabi-directed music video.
Following the release of his 2020 album A Beautiful Revolution Pt 1, Common has returned with an inspiring new record, titled “Imagine,” featuring LA-based vocalist PJ.
On the track, the Academy Award, Grammy and Emmy-winning artist dares listeners to envision a dream-like paradise with lyrics describing a world rid of injustice. “Imagine if you a God and she a goddess/ My people get free locked up from weed charges,” he raps in his first verse. “We no longer targets or bodies on the market/ Clean water coming out of Flint’s faucets it’s awesome.”
Empowered by PJ’s smooth vocals, Common’s imagined utopia breathes life in an Emmanuel Afolabi-directed music video, where the duo manifests a better reality with joyous grins plastered across their faces.
On the inspiration behind the single, Common discloses that he wrote the song as a form of inspiration while the world was enduring a harsher time.
“I wrote ‘Imagine’ at a time when we were all going through a lot,” Common said in a release. “But something kept telling me to focus on the good and the things I wanted to see in the world. For me, music is one of the things that gives me hope and happiness throughout these times, whether I am creating it or listening to it.”
“So I wanted ‘Imagine’ to create that feeling of how you can play a song and feel inspired,” he added. “How a song can make you move and also move your spirit. Essentially, I want us all to feel like days are getting better and that great times are ours for the taking. And the first step in feeling that way is imagining it.”
Watch the music video for Common’s “Imagine,” featuring PJ, above.
In another music release, Nas has resurrected a 1993 freestyle for “Life Is Like a Dice Game,” featuring Cordae and Freddie Gibbs.
