Common is currently promoting his new film LUV and, in his recent interview with The Urban Daily, the rapper/actor talked about the need to break the cycle of broken Black men raising the next generation. In the movie, Common plays Vincent, an ex-con who's trying to do good, but faces difficulties as he spends a day with his nephew Woody (played by Michael Rainey Jr.).
"The way I see it in this film is like something you see an individual who wants to give his nephew love, but some of it is just misguided love. You believe you're teaching him to be a man because you do care about him and love him, so he's like, 'I'm gonna teach you how to be a man and these are some of the things you need to know.' But some of those things aren’t healthy for a young man to get in order for him to become a good person in society," he said.
Common, who believes that love is the "closest thing we can do to be close to God," hopes the movie helps put a stop to the habit of having Black men who've been deprived of love while growing up then go on to raise young men under those same principles.
"For me, I would like to see viewers start a dialogue. I would like for this film to start a conversation about why this cycle is going on. Well, not even why the cycle continues because the movie shows you why. You see negativity being passed onto kids who don't have parents when they look for a father in somebody else or the neighborhood. I would like for people to say, 'That cycle is going on and we have to stop it.' People should start thinking about ways we can break that cycle of little Woody who had the potential to become something great, but wound up going to prison because they went looking for love in the wrong places."
LUV hits theaters on January 18 and the worldwide television premiere on BET in 2013.
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(Photo: LUV Films 5)