Common has added to the growing list of artists paying homage to the late Bobby Caldwell, who passed away in his sleep at the age of 71 on Tuesday (March 14).
Caldwell’s music was sampled extensively across the Hip Hop landscape, with his 1978 hit “What You Won’t Do For Love” famously being flipped for 2Pac hits “Do For Love” and “Heaven Ain’t Hard 2 Find.”
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Common sampled Caldwell’s “Open Your Eyes” on his 2000 Grammy-nominated hit “The Light,” which is arguably one of the most famous songs to sample one of Caldwell’s records.
Taken from the Chicago MC’s acclaimed fourth album, Like Water For Chocolate, the J Dilla-produced track was written as a love letter to his then girlfriend, Erykah Badu.
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Taking to Instagram on Wednesday (March 15), Common thanked the late singer seemingly for his contributions to music and his own career, and sent his well wishes.
“I can’t thank you enough!” he captioned an image of Caldwell’s Cat in the Hat album cover, with “Open Your Eyes” playing in the background. “May God bless the soul of Bobby Caldwell!”
Just one month prior, Common had revisited the making of “The Light” and the song’s video in the ongoing VEVO Footnotes series, calling it “one of the greatest” things he’s ever been a part of.
“Sonically, I give all the respect, honor and credit to J Dilla because he produced the music,” the Footnotes read. “It was a sample from a beautiful Bobby Caldwell song called ‘Open Your Eyes.’ Dilla played me the beat he made for it, and I was like ‘Yo, this is incredible.’”
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As Common’s notes continue to flash along the screen, he reveals the origins of the song’s famous final line, which many a fan have wondered about over the years.
“I hadn’t finished the song yet, and I was laying the vocals,” he writes, “and that’s why I ended up saying ‘Digga-da, digga-da, digga-da, digga-digga-da-da, Yo’ I tell you the rest when I see you.’ Later I came up with a line for that part, but I tried to re-record it at least 20 times and it was never better than that take.”
“I hope that ‘The Light’ helped inspire more love and continues to encourage Hip Hop in a way that we can always be authentic to who we are,” he recounts elsewhere. “I think that’s a beautiful thing about Hip Hop. This was just one of those songs that allowed us as males to feel like we could express love in a pure way — say what we’re feeling and not be afraid. It took me a long time to understand that.”
In Questlove’s tribute to Caldwell, he revealed that “The Light” almost never happened.
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“I’ve told the story many a time that I told @Common that maybe we should lose the beat to ‘The Light’ cause it wasn’t ‘Dilla enough’——but Rash saw something in it man——he was like ‘naw man imma write to this’ (later found he he wrote it already) —-I wasn’t mad at it but at that time as a sophomore at ‘Dilla U’ I thought I had Dilla all figured out and NONE of his trademark characteristics were rhythmically there…where are the drunken drums?” the Roots drummer wrote.
He continued: “The odd patches….I mean he did a normal G Funk jawn cause Quik was one of his fav producers but iuuno this just sounds ‘normal’ (I’m not even gonna get into the ‘whose on first’ battle between Ohio Players & Detroit Emeralds thing that almost caused a minor rift in our brotherhood) but man I’m so glad I was wrong about this.
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“And now you’re gone and I never got a chance to kick it with you & hear your story. Caldwell was the closing chapter in a generation in which record exes wanted to hide faces on album covers so perhaps maybe their artist could have a chance (listen to De La Soul’s MASTERFUL ‘Patti Duke’ on Balloone).
“Commonplace for black artists (see Smokey/Miracles ‘Mickeys Monkey’ or the Isleys ‘This Old Heart Of Mine’ covers….on on the other side NONE of us knew Gino Vanelli, Teena Marie, the literal named Average White Band——and yeah Bobby were NOT black) Man such a missed opportunity to meet a legend. Thank you for your voice and gift.”
HipHopDX sends its condolences to Bobby Caldwell’s family and friends.
