Common-Led Supergroup Touch on Family, Power on New Song ‘Black Kennedy’
August Greene, a new supergroup featuring Common, pianist Robert Glasper and drummer Karriem Riggins, released a meditative new song, “Black Kennedy.”
“Black Kennedy” finds Glasper playing starry piano progressions over a Riggins drumbeat that seems to lurch and skip without ever slipping. Common unravels a pair of intricate verses that touch on family, power and promise, spitting, “The streets where we from/ Beats, heavy drums/ Wish I could put Jordans on the feet of everyone/ Black Kennedy, royalty with black identity/ Leader of the freestyle, I go to penitentiaries/ And write with the fight of Reverend Wright from Trinity.”
“Black Kennedy” follows August Greene’s debut track, a cover of Sounds of Blackness’ “Optimistic,” featuring vocals from Brandy. The group will release their self-titled debut album March 9th as an Amazon Original.
Before forming August Greene, Common, Glasper and Riggins collaborated on “Letter to the Free.” The track appeared on Common’s 2016 album, Black America Again, and also earned the rapper an Emmy for its appearance in Ava DuVernay’s documentary about mass incarceration, 13th.