NEW YORK — Common may have once told his love interest to "Come Close," but in his new clip for "I Want You," the Chicago MC is asking an old fling to back up, please.

"Alicia Keys plays my girlfriend and Kerry plays my ex," Common explained last week from the Harlem premiere of "American Gangster." "We definitely did it like a short film. You know, I'm into the whole film world, and Kerry is like my ex who is breaking into my crib while I'm having a dinner party. My dinner party is live, too — I got Serena Williams there, Derek Luke, Kanye's there, and [Washington] decides to break into my dinner party. So I have to find out what's going on. My ex is acting psycho. That's the story line. It gets kind of crazy, but it's good."

Although Common chose a dramatic plot for the track, which features and was produced by Will.I.Am, he said the video concept stems entirely from his own imagination. He didn't draw on real-life experience in past relationships for the video. Or did he?

"I done had some exes do some stuff to the car, try to come knock down doors at the crib, you know," he said, laughing. "But I don't be having it. It's like ain't nobody been too crazy."