With his eleventh studio album Black America Again, Common joins the vast collection of powerful black voices rising in protest for black lives. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, D’Angelo’s Black Messiah, Beyoncé’s Lemonade and, most recently, Solange’s A Seat At The Table have all been timely bodies of work that capture the nuanced, emotional state of black America. But while the Chicago-bred rapper-turned-Hollywood star and activist also paints a vivid picture of past and present ills plaguing the black community (“Southern leaves, southern trees we hung from”), he mostly emboldens black America’s power to rewrite its own narrative.

Click here for more about Common’s new album and the message it brings.