Common reportedly stated that he covered all publishing costs for the Bobby Caldwell song Open Your Eyes which was used on the former’s 2000 hit song The Light.
Although the Chicago rapper said the late artist deserved it, it was later discovered by his wife Mary Caldwell that the claim was reportedly untrue.
Mary, in an exclusively with VIBE, indicated: “I believe that during the Common interview, it was mentioned that Bobby wanted all of the publication rights for The Light. If you check BMI, you will see that Bobby has 12.5% of the song. Bobby never participated in share publishing. He avoided getting engaged in the music industry. Writing music and singing was all he did; it was what he knew and liked to do. All he was was an artiste, nothing more, and a beautiful husband and kind person.”
In addition, he was given a quarter of the song as lyricist and composer, according to the breakdown that Mary provided.
According to BMI, Caldwell’s wife is being truthful. Consequently, even after consolidation, the shares only made up 37.5%.
Related stories
The first assertion was made by Common during a recent episode of Juan Ep Is Life.
He said, “I want to say, God rest his soul and I’m sorry because he once wanted us to collaborate on a record, but we were unable to do so. For that, he did charge us 100% for publication. Even now, I’ve been told to remove that song from the record by Questlove, my attorney, and my manager and closest friend, Derek.
Common thought the song was too good to keep off his 2000 album, Like Water For Chocolate though he understood their viewpoint from an economic standpoint.
“‘Are y’all f**king crazy?'” he remembered saying. “Questlove claimed he was trying to reason with me to remove that song from the record and was trying to figure out how to do it. He would just remark, ‘Aww, it doesn’t seem like it fits with the other Dilla-vibe beats and stuff’.
It was a wise choice, as Common’s debut single to hit No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 was The Light.
