Grammy Award winning rapper Common has teamed up with ICRF to hold a benefit for cancer patients in Montreal, Canada tonight at 9 p.m..
The benefit which has been dubbed Suri’s Soirée, is a tribute to Sarah “Suri” Gonshor, who died 10 years ago, at the age of 24, from hepatocellular carcinoma, a form of liver cancer.
“I’m glad to be a part of this,” Common said in a statement. “Anything we can do to help find a cure (for cancer), for health, to fight disease, to better our health education, I’m totally with – not just there in Canada but everywhere, on a universal level.”
Organized by ICRF’s New Leadership Division, the event is expected to raise over $180,000, which will fund an Israeli scientist for three years of research in Montreal.
In addition to lending a hand, Common also promises fans that he is returning to the studio to deliver another album and returning to his classic sound.
In an interview with Montreal’s The Gazzette, he said,
“This (album) didn’t shock people as much,” he said. “They had seen something different from me before. That doesn’t mean some fans weren’t like, ‘We want to hear Common over boom-bap beats, rhyming about spirituality and love.”
He’ll answer those fans with his next album, The Believer, on which he has begun work with two fellow Chicago natives, West and his (Common’s) old producer No I.D., who worked on his first two albums, 1992’s Can I Borrow a Dollar and the 1994 classic Resurrection.
“There’s a sense of going home,” he said, of the new work. “I really want to create some good hip-hop that people, no matter what age, can feel and relate to.”
In addition to benefits, Common is excited about his upcoming film, Just Wright, his first starring role, opposite Queen Latifah.
“I play an NBA basketball player whose career is in jeopardy,” Common also told The Gazzette. “Latifah plays the physical therapist who nurses me back to health. It’s kind of a love triangle, romantic comedy.”
Just Wright is scheduled to be released on May 14.
For more information regarding the Suri’s Soirée, log onto www.commongroundfoundation.org or http://www.icrfonline.org.
