Common (rapper)

Common

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. (born March 13, 1972), better known as Common, is an American hip hop artist. Common debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow A Dollar?, and maintained a significant underground following into the late 90s, after which he gained notable mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians. His first major label album, Like Water for Chocolate, received widespread critical acclaim and moderate commercial success. Its popularity was matched by 2005's Be, which was nominated in the 2006 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album. Common has also started a burgeoning film career, starting with a role in the action thriller, Smokin' Aces, followed by a part in American Gangster.

Biography

Early life

Common was born in Chicago, Illinois to former ABA basketball player turned youth counselor Lonnie Lynn and Ann Hines. Common's parents divorced when he was six years old, resulting in his father moving to Denver, Colorado. This left Common to be raised by his mother, but his father remained active in his life and even landed Common a job with the Chicago Bulls during his teen years. While in high school, Common also formed C.D.R., a rap trio that opened for acts such as N.W.A. and Big Daddy Kane. Common later left this group when he attended Florida A&M University to study business administration.

Early career

Common dropped out of Florida A&M University (as quoted in the song "Its Your World pt.1") and was featured in the Unsigned Hype column of The Source magazine after a friend sent in a tape of Common rapping. Under the stage name Common Sense, he debuted in 1992 with the single "Take It EZ" followed by the album, Can I Borrow a Dollar?. Although mainstream success proved short in coming, he established a solid fanbase within Chicago's underground rap scene, and gained some attention for his witty lyrics and unique style.

With the 1994 release of Resurrection, Common achieved a much larger degree of critical acclaim, which extended beyond Chicago natives. The album sold relatively well and received a strong positive reaction among alternative and underground hip-hop fans at the time. Resurrection was Common's last album produced almost entirely by his long-time production partner, No I.D., who was also the then-mentor of a young Kanye West.

Feud with Ice Cube

The song "I Used to Love H.E.R." from Resurrection ignited a feud with West Coast rapper Ice Cube. The lyrics of the song criticized the path hip-hop music was taking and was interpreted by some as directing blame towards the popularity of West Coast Gangsta rap. Ice Cube, along with his group Westside Connection, recorded tracks venting their issues with rival East Coast rappers (see East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry). The first of these songs, "Westside Slaughterhouse" mentioned Common by name, prompting the rapper to respond with the scathing Pete Rock-produced "The Bitch in Yoo". Common and Ice Cube continued to insult each other back and forth before finally meeting with Louis Farrakhan and setting aside their dispute. Following the popularity of Resurrection, Common Sense was sued by a Los Angeles-based reggae band with the same name, and was forced to shorten his moniker to simply "Common".

One Day It'll All Make Sense

Initially scheduled for an October 1996 release, Common finally released his third album, One Day It'll All Make Sense, in September 1997. The album took a total of two years to complete and included collaborations with artists such as Lauryn Hill, Q-Tip, Canibus, Black Thought, Chantay Savage, and ?uestlove - a future fellow member of the Soulquarians outfit. The album, which made a point of eschewing any gangsterism (in response to questions about his musical integrity), was critically acclaimed and led to a major label contract with MCA Records. In addition to releasing One Day, Common's first child, daughter Omoye Assata Lynn, was born shortly after the release of the album.

As documented by Hip hop journalist, Raquel Cepeda, in the liner notes for the album, this event had a profound spiritual and mental effect on Common and enabled him to grow musically while becoming more responsible as an artist. She writes:

Rashid found out that he was going to become a daddy in about 8 months. Stunned and confused, Rashid had life altering decisions to make with his girlfriend, Kim Jones. The situation led to the composition of his favourite cut on One Day... that offers a male slant on abortion. "Retrospect for Life", produced by James Poyser, and No I.D. featuring Lauryn Hill (who was due on the same day as Rashid's girlfriend), is the song that is the driving force behind the project. Rashid listens to "Retrospect for Life", today at the mastering session geeked, as if it were for the first time. He tells me as we listen to L-Boogie wail the chorus, "when I listen to the song now, I think about how precious her (Omoye's) life is".

Common addresses family ethics several times on One Day..., and the album sleeve is decorated with old family photos, illustrating the rapper's childhood, as well a quote from Corinthians 12:12, which summarizes the path to manhood:

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Soulquarians era

Following One Day..., Common signed a major label record deal with MCA Records and relocated from Chicago to New York City in 1999. He began recording almost exclusively with a loose collective of musicians and artists (dubbed the "Soulquarians" by central figure ?uestlove) throughout 1999, and made a few sporadic guest appearances on The Roots' Things Fall Apart, and the Rawkus Records compilation, Soundbombing 2.

In 2000, his fourth album, Like Water for Chocolate, was released to mass critical acclaim. Executive produced by ?uestlove and featuring significant contributions by J Dilla, (who helmed all but one track - the DJ Premier-produced track "The 6th Sense"), Like Water for Chocolate transpired to be a considerable commercial breakthrough for Common, earning the rapper his first gold record, and greatly expanding his fanbase among critics and listeners alike.

This album saw Common exploring themes (musically and lyrically), which were uncommon for a Hip hop record, as he does on the song "Time Travelin' (A Tribute To Fela)"; a homage to Nigerian music legend, and political activist Fela Kuti. The most popular single from the album, "The Light", was nominated for a Grammy Award. Around this time, Common began dating fellow Soulquarian Erykah Badu.

The rapper's next album, Electric Circus, featured more experimental work with the Soulquarians, as well as contributions from The Neptunes. The album was something of a departure from Common's previous releases (and indeed from Hip hop music in general), and featured Common rapping over electric rock music, and electronica-influenced tracks. It received polarizing reviews, with many critics praising it as a musical tour de force and a visionary expansion of the Hip hop template, while others criticized it for veering too far from accessibility and viewing Common's role as secondary to the musicianship of the Soulquarians (it should be noted that Common has himself stated that it was his intention at the time to make an atypical Hip hop record).

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the album did not sell as well as Like Water For Chocolate, with many longtime fans being turned off by its eclectic sound, and the album suffering from a lack of promotion due to MCA's absorption under Geffen Records. In 2003, Common won his first Grammy for his appearance on Erykah Badu's "Love of My life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)", a song he performed with Badu for the soundtrack to the movie Brown Sugar. His romantic relationship with Badu, however, ended that same year.

G.O.O.D. Music Era

Template:Sound sample box align rightTemplate:Sample box end Aside from touring, Common was quiet for much of 2003. Many critics believed his career to be winding down due to his association with the neo-soul sub-genre, which had begun to lose its commercial steam. However, later that year, he hit the headlines when prominent mainstream rap artist Jay-Z paid him a compliment during the second verse of the song "Moment of Clarity", from his supposed swan song album The Black Album. Prefacing the confession with:

I dumbed down for my audience and doubled my dollars

They criticize me for it yet they all yell "Holla"

Jay-Z went on to say

Truthfully, I wanna rhyme like Common Sense (But i did five Mil)

I ain't been rhymin' like Common since

In early 2004, Common made an appearance on fellow Chicagoan Kanye West's multi-platinum debut album, The College Dropout (on the song "Get Em High"), and announced his signing to West's then-newfound label GOOD Music. West had been a longtime fan of Common's and the two even participated in a friendly on-air MC battle, where West took jabs at his lyrical idol for "going soft" and wearing crochet pants (as he does for his appearance in the video for the Mary J. Blige song "Dance for Me"). The pair worked together on Common's next album, Be, almost entirely produced by Kanye West, with some help from Common's longtime collaborator the late James Yancey (J Dilla) - also a favorite of West's. The album was released in May 2005, and performed very well, boosted by Kanye's involvement and the singles "The Corner", and "Go". Be earned Common the second gold record of his career, with sales topping out at around 800,000.

Hip-hop magazines hailed Be as one of the best albums to come out in a long time. The Source magazine gave it a near perfect 4.5 mic rating, XXL magazine gave it their highest rating of "XXL", and AllHipHop gave the album 5 stars. The album was also nominated for four Grammy Awards in 2006, including:

• Best Rap Album, Be
• Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, "The Corner" (featuring The Last Poets)
• Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, "They Say" (featuring Kanye West & John Legend)
• Best Rap Song, "Testify"

Common's seventh, and most recent, LP is titled Finding Forever. For this album, he continued his work with Kanye West, as well as other producers such as will.i.am, Devo Springsteen and Karriem Riggins, as well as the only J. Dilla-produced track, "So Far To Go". The album features guest spots from artists such as Dwele, Bilal, D'Angelo, and UK pop starlet Lilly Allen. The album was released on July 31st. The first single from the album was "The People" b/w "The Game". West has already predicted that Finding Forever will win the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. On July 31, 2007, Common performed a free concert in Santa Monica, California on the 3rd Street Promenade to promote the release of Finding Forever. Common explained to the audience that the title "Finding Forever" represented his quest to find an eternal place in hip-hop and also his wishes to be an artist for the rest of his life. The album debuted at #1 on the national Billboard 200 charts.

The Standard

In a recent interview (circa August 30th, 2007) with XXL, rapper Q-Tip of the group A Tribe Called Quest stated that he and Common were forming a group called The Standard. He says the group will head into the studio in a few weeks to record an album. Q-Tip himself will handle the majority of the production on the album but it will also feature some productions by Kanye West. [1]

Personal life

Common is father to 10 year old Omoye Assata Lynn (named after exiled political prisoner and former Black Panther Party member, Assata Shakur - a woman whose life story also inspired Common to write the song "A Song For Assata" from his album Like Water for Chocolate). He dated Erykah Badu from 2000 to around 2003. Aside from Badu, Common has also been romantically linked with actress Taraji P. Henson (his co-star from the film Smokin' Aces).

With both artists hailing from the Great Lakes region of the United States (Chicago and Detroit, respectively), Common and J Dilla established their chemistry early on. Both became members of the Soulquarians collective, and collaborated on numerous projects together, even placing one song, "Thelonius", on both the Slum Village album Fantastic, Vol. 2, and Common's Like Water for Chocolate. As Dilla's health began to decline from the effects of Lupus Nephritis, he relocated to Los Angeles for treatment, and asked Common to make the move with him as a roommate. Dilla would lose his battle with the rare disease, but his asking of Common to move in with him during his darkest hour is testament of a friendship between the two that transcended rap music, or the music industry. As a result, Common is a friend of the Yancey Family, particularly with J Dilla's mother, Maureen Yancey.

Other Media

Advertising

In 2006, Common was a model for photos of The Gap's fall season collection, appearing on posters in stores. Later that year, he performed in The Gap's "Holiday In Your Hood" themed Peace Love Gap. In February 2007, Common signed a deal with New Era to promote their new line of Layers fitted caps.

Activism

Common is a supporter of animal rights and PETA. He recently appeared in a print advertisement for PETA titled "Think Before You Eat". Common is also part of the "Knowing Is Beautiful" movement which supports HIV/AIDS awareness.

Controversy

Following the release of Be in 2005, several mixed-race artists from the UK hip-hop scene took exception to Common's racist comments about interracial relationships on the song "Real People", and in an interview. The situation started out with an article from UK's Touch magazine, in which he stated "When you see dreadlocked dudes with white girls that’s like they going against what the dreadlock’s purpose was." Seeing a personal insult in the remarks, Yungun, Doc Brown (rapper) and Rising Son recorded a track over an instrumental version of "The Corner" named "Dear Common (The Corner Dub)". Common states that he has heard of the track but never actually taken the time to listen to it, and has not retaliated in song. Common was accused of making bigoted statements during a concert at Emory University in 2006, when he rapped about his certainty that "damn niggers from Duke lacrosse" had raped a "black princess," a reference to Crystal Gail Mangum, who had accused three white Duke University lacrosse players of rape. The charges were dismissed before the case went to trial. Despite his comments about the Duke Lacrosse Case, Duke University invited him to play at their last day of classes on 25 April 2007.

Acting career

In 2003, Common appeared on the popular American UPN sitcom Girlfriends. In the episode "Take This Poem and Call Me In The Morning", he appeared as Omar, a slam poet who competes with fellow poet Sivad (played by Saul Williams) for the affection of Lynn Searcy (played by Persia White). He also had a cameo appearance on an episode of UPN's One on One, where he played a drama class instructor named Darius. In 2007, Common appeared alongside Ben Affleck, Jeremy Piven, and Alicia Keys in the crime film Smokin' Aces. He made his big screen debut as villainous Mob enforcer Sir Ivy. He is set to appear alongside Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, The RZA and T.I. in the 2007 crime thriller American Gangster. On 20 January 2007, one week before the opening of Smokin Aces, he appeared in a Saturday Night Live sketch as himself. The show's host was Piven, his Aces co-star. It has been announced that in 2008, he will star in the film adaptation of the comic book Wanted (2008 English film), alongside Morgan Freeman, and Angelina Jolie, among others.

Discography

Main article: Common discography

• 1992: Can I Borrow a Dollar?
• 1994: Resurrection
• 1997: One Day It'll All Make Sense
• 2000: Like Water for Chocolate
• 2002: Electric Circus
• 2005: Be
• 2007: Finding Forever

Awards/Nominations

• BET Awards
  • 2006: Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, Nominated
  • 2003: Video of the Year ("Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Winner
  • 2003: Viewer's Choice ("Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Nominated
  • 2003: Best Collaboration ("Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Nominated

• BET Hip Hop Awards
  • 2006: Element Award- Lyricist of the Year, Winner
  • 2006: Hip-Hop Video of the Year ("Testify"), Nominated
  • 2007: Lyricist of the Year, Winner
  • 2007: CD of the Year: "Finding Forever" Winner

• Black Reel Awards
  • 2003: Best Film Song ("Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Winner

• Grammy Awards
  • 2006: Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group ("The Corner"), Nominated
  • 2006: Best Rap/Sung Collaboration ("They Say"), Nominated
  • 2006: Best Rap Album (Be), Nominated
  • 2006: Best Rap Solo Performance ("Testify"), Nominated
  • 2003: Best Song Written for a Motion Picture/Television Movie ("Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Nominated
  • 2003: Best R&B Song ("Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Winner
  • 2003: Best Urban/Alternative Performance ("Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Nominated
  • 2001: Best Rap Solo Performance ("The Light"), Nominated

• Image Awards
  • 2006: Outstanding Music Video ("Testify"), Nominated
  • 2006: Outstanding Male Artist, Nominated
  • 2003: Outstanding Duo or Group ("Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Nominated
  • 2003: Outstanding Song ("Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Nominated
  • 2003: Outstanding Music Video ("Love of My Life (Ode to Hip-Hop)"), Nominated

• MTV Video Music Awards
  • 2006: Best Hip-Hop Video ("Testify"), Nominated
  • 2005: Best Hip-Hop Video ("Go"), Nominated
  • 2003: MTV2 Award ("Come Close"), Nominated
  • 2001: Best Hip-Hop Video ("Geto Heaven Remix T.S.O.I. (The Sound of Illadelph)"), Nominated

• Soul Train Awards
  • 2006: Best R&B/Soul Single by a Duo or Group ("Supastar"), Nominated
  • 2006: Best Music Video ("Testify"), Nominated

• Vibe Awards
  • 2005: Reelest Video ("The Corner"), Nominated

Filmography

Year	Film	Role
2002	Brown Sugar	Himself
2006	Dave Chapelle's Block Party	Himself
2007	Smokin' Aces	Sir Ivy
	American Gangster	Brother of Frank Lucas
2008	The Fast and the Furious: California Sprint	Damon Camble
	The Night Watchman (film)	Coates

External links

• Common: Official Site
• Common’s “The People” revives the true essence of Hip-Hop
• Interview with Common - from Synthesis Magazine and Synthesis Network
• Common proves he can 'Be' with help of Kanye West
• Common Not A Plain Rapper
• Vibe.com interview with Common
• Interview with Common
• Common Ventures Into Hat Fashion
• Common at IMDb

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