Common says that this year will be a special year for him. “I gotta say 2014 is going to be one of my greatest times in music,” the Chicago rapper says during an interview with revolttv. “I feel excited about the project that I’m working on. It’s called Nobody Smiling.”

During an interview with HipHopDX in October, Common said he was working on an EP with producer No I.D. In the revolttv interview, the rapper-actor says his new project was originally going to be an EP, but that he and No I.D. decided to make it into an album because they were recording a multitude of tracks. 

The bald-headed rapper calls the album a “call to action.” “We came up with this concept,” Common says. “Nobody Smiling was really a thought that came about because of all the violence that was going on in Chicago, or that is going on. I like to say was because we’re going to bring it into fruition that it’s going to stop. All the violence that’s going on, it happens in Chicago, but it’s happenin’ around the world in many ways.”

Common’s revolttv interview is as follows:

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