Lyrics A Bigger Picture Called Free - Commentary - Common

A bigger picture called free
Well, I actually look at this as like
A spoken word, style of song
I never done a song like this

The beat was really
Progressive and, and
And different sounding and
The syncopation in it and like
It just sounded like you like
Okay, like you really find it where the beat is
But it-it just
It made me think of this like

I started thinking about what f-
What freedom is
And I, and I wrote, uh
A verse
Like slash, poem, stanza
That was really

A piece that was really dealing with like
You can't bottle freedom
You can't, like box freedom
You can't, like say because somebody
Has a hair like this then they are this way
Or somebody is wearing this
This outfit then they are this way, it's like

And we all
Fall victim to it at some point or another but
I was just like, man, we breaking this laws down
So we're getting in to the freedom aspect

And then on the second verse, it was
Something because I was going through an experience of
Being a-a-a fake journalist
I thought I was a journalist, I was doing this documentary, uhm
Called America Divided and I was interviewing
Michael Alexander who wrote, the new Jim Crow in different
People in Chicago, dealing with mass incarceration
So, I went to the Cook County Jail

Which is one of the
The roughest jails in-in the country
And I went to the lock up and
And then I just
Started thinking about
I want to write something from that perspective like

Like how our
Criminal justice system is not forgiven, is not
Rehabilitating, is not like there to
If you can make a mistake and commit a crime
It hasn't been
Served the people who committed crime to better them

You know, it's abused and exploit it
And I just wanted to
I want to humanize in both verses
Like humanize who we are

No matter what caliber
Just what the
And definitely being black and brown people was just was like
Thinking about that too
And just say, man, we human beings so
That was what you get, uhm

In a bigger picture called free
Kinda freeing your mind from
From any restrictions or judgements you have on people
And see it blessed with the hook

And Bilal came and did something real
Forward made me think of Funkadelic and Parliament and
And there you have it, you got upright base, uhm

This is dope
This is dope
(Next song)