Common and DJ Premier are two of the most respected names in Hip Hop, yet they haven’t joined forces in almost a decade — until now.
The Chicago rap veteran and legendary producer released a new track together called “In Moe (Speculation)” on Friday (November 17). Its origin dates back only a month, to a post on Instagram.
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In mid-October, Premier took to IG to promote his new releaseBeats That Collected Dust, Vol. 3, an anthology of instrumentals that have, in the producer’s words, “reached the stage of collecting dust.”
In a video posted to his page, he spun a few seconds of one of the tracks, called “Moe.”
Rappers including Action Bronson, Armani Caesar, Your Old Droog, Cormega and more hopped into the comments section to say how much they loved it. So did Common.
Preem shared what happened next in a statement: “Common delivered a dope verse that same week. On the night of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame event, Chaka Khan went on her IG Live during her induction and brought Common onstage during her performance to do the Melle Mel verse of ‘I Feel For You.’
“I called him the next morning to see if we could do a video at my studio while he was still in NY. We only had a short window, due to me going to 45 King’s funeral, and then to another wake later that night for my co-manager’s father-in-law. The energy was very positive that day, and we accomplished the mission.”
“In Moe (Speculation)” begins with a lyrical nod to a different Premier-produced classic, JAY-Z‘s 1997 song “A Million and One Questions.” Common also pays tribute to his own past, with a mention of one of his best-known songs:
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“A lot of speculation about the things that I’ve said/ Is he coming off the head?/ Is he that high-level, that his third eye is red?/ I know he used to love H.E.R., is it true he really cared?/ Did he become a great actor when Hip Hop was dead?”
Common and DJ Premier first joined forces over 20 years ago on “The Sixth Sense,” the lead single from the rapper’s 2000 album Like Water For Chocolate. While collaborations have been few and far between since then, they most recently teamed up on “Wishin'” from Premo and Royce Da 5’9″‘s 2014 LP PRhyme.
You can see the video for “In Moe (Speculation)” below.
