Features

All Categories

Common Goes to the Streets of Haiti for 'Sweet' Video -- Watch

Posted Nov 16th 2011 10:00AM by Kenneth Partridge
Comments

Getty Images

Plenty of rappers have shot videos in tropical locales, but 'Sweet,' the clip Common debuted last night (Nov. 14), is not your typical fun-and-sun escapist romp.

It was filmed on location in Haiti, a country decimated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake less than two years ago, and when the visuals premiered, fans wanting to watch the clip had to donate $1 to the J/P Haitian Relief Organization.

That paywall is no longer in place, but the video still carries an air of immense seriousness. For three minutes, the Chicago rapper and actor stomps and grimaces his way through the city and countryside, lashing out at those who have accused him of going soft.

"You know they be asking about Common, 'Where he at? What that man doing now?'" the Windy City MC says at the outset. "I'm doing what I do: hip-hop. That's what I do."

Lest there be any doubt, he spits rapid-fire rhymes for the remainder of the song, mocking today's lightweight singing rappers -- "You ain't no motherf---ing Frank Sinatra" -- and declaring himself "to hip-hop what Obama is to politics."

'Sweet' will appear on the rapper's forthcoming ninth album, 'The Dreamer, The Believer,' due out Dec. 20.

Watch Common's 'Sweet'