Common: Maya Angelou Angry Over Use of Racial Epithet

Common's ninth studio album, 'The Dreamer, The Believer,' drops Tues. (Dec. 20), however, the rapper's project is being cast in a negative light as word comes that poet Maya Angelou is angry with him over a featured collaboration.

The Chi-town MC tapped the lauded poet to appear on the track, 'The Dreamer,' which showcases Angelou reading a poem that she penned, encouraging people to follow their dreams. According to the NY Post, she was not aware of some of the racial epithets used in the final song, which serves up lines like, "Told my n---- [Kanye West] I'm 'bout to win the Grammys now" and "N----s with no heart, I'm the pacemaker."

"I had no idea that Common was using the piece we had done together on [a track] in which he also used the 'N' word numerous times," Angelou stated. "I'm surprised and disappointed. I don't know why he chose to do that. I had never heard him use that [word] before. I admired him so because he wasn't singing the line of least resistance."

The rhymer, who stars in the AMC series 'Hell on Wheels,' claims the Pulitzer Prize nominee did know he used the language as part of his lifestyle.

"She knows I do use the word," he told The Post. "She knows that's part of me."

The Phil the God-directed video for 'Celebrate,' a track featured on 'The Dreamer, The Believer,' which debuts tomorrow, has been released in support of the forthcoming LP.