Common (entertainer)

Lonnie Rashid Lynn (born March 13, 1972), known by his stage name Common (formerly known as Common Sense), is an American rapper and actor. He debuted in 1992 with the album '' Can I Borrow a Dollar?,'' and gained critical acclaim with his 1994 album ''Resurrection.'' He maintained an underground following into the late 1990s. He achieved mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians.

His first major-label album, '' Like Water for Chocolate'' (2000), received commercial success. In 2003, he won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for the Erykah Badu single " Love of My Life". His 2005 album '' Be'' was also successful and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards. He received his second Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Southside" (featuring Kanye West), from his 2007 album '' Finding Forever''. His best-of album, '' Thisisme Then: The Best of Common'', was released in late 2007. In 2011, he launched Think Common Entertainment, his own record label imprint, having previously released music under various other labels including Relativity, Geffen and GOOD Music.

Common won the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for " Glory", which he co-wrote and performed with John Legend, from the 2014 film '' Selma'', in which he also co-starred as civil rights movement leader James Bevel. Common has also acted in films including ''Smokin' Aces'', ''Street Kings'', '' American Gangster'', '' Wanted'', ''Terminator Salvation'', '' Date Night'', '' Just Wright'', ''Happy Feet Two'', ''New Year's Eve'', '' Run All Night'', '' John Wick: Chapter 2'', '' Smallfoot'' and '' Hunter Killer''. He starred as Elam Ferguson from 2011 to 2014 on the AMC western TV series '' Hell on Wheels''.

Early life

Common was born on March 13 1972 at the Chicago Osteopathic Hospital in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. He is the son of educator and former principal of John Hope College Preparatory High School, Mahalia Ann Hines, and former ABA basketball player turned youth counselor Lonnie Lynn. He was raised in the Calumet Heights neighborhood. Lynn's parents divorced when he was six years old, resulting in his father moving to Denver, Colorado. This left Lynn to be raised by his mother; however, his father remained active in his life, and was able to get him a job with the Chicago Bulls as a teenager. Lynn attended Florida A&M University for two years under a scholarship and majored in business administration.

Music career

1987–1996: Career beginnings

Lynn began rapping in the late 1980s, while a student at Luther High School South in Chicago, when he, along with two of his friends, formed C.D.R., a rap trio that opened for acts such as N.W.A and Big Daddy Kane. When C.D.R dissolved by 1991, Lynn began a solo career under the stage name of Common Sense. After being featured in the Unsigned Hype column of ''The Source'' magazine, he debuted as a solo artist in 1992 with the single " Take It EZ", followed by the album '' Can I Borrow a Dollar?''.

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

In 1996, Common Sense appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, America Is Dying Slowly (A.I.D.S.), alongside Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Fat Joe, among many other prominent hip hop artists. The CD, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African American men, was heralded as "a masterpiece" by The Source magazine. He would later also contribute to the Red Hot Organization's Fela Kuti tribute album, Red Hot and Riot in 2002. He collaborated with Djelimady Tounkara on a remake of Kuti's track, "Years of Tears and Sorrow".

The song " I Used to Love H.E.R." from ''Resurrection'' ignited a feud with West Coast rap group Westside Connection. The lyrics of the song criticized the path hip hop music was taking, utilizing a metaphor of a woman to convey hip hop and were interpreted by some as directing blame towards the popularity of West Coast gangsta rap. Westside Connection first responded with the 1995 song "Westside Slaughterhouse," with the lyrics "Used to love H.E.R., mad cause I f*cked her". "Westside Slaughterhouse" also mentioned Common Sense by name, prompting the rapper to respond with the scathing Pete Rock-produced attack song "The Bitch in Yoo". Common Sense and Westside Connection 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 an Orange County-based reggae band with the same name, and was forced to shorten his moniker to simply Common.

1996–1999: ''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, De La Soul, Q-Tip, Canibus, Black Thought, Chantay Savage, and Questlove – 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 favorite 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 1 Corinthians 13:11, which summarizes the path to manhood:

1999–2003: 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 Questlove) 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 Questlove and featuring significant contributions by J Dilla, (who helmed many tracks except – "Cold Blooded", "Geto Heaven Part II", "A Song For Assata", "Pop's Rap Part 3...All My Children" & 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.

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, and asked Common to make the move with him as a roommate (Dilla would later lose his battle with the rare disease).

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.

In 2002, Common released his fifth album, ''Electric Circus''. The album was highly anticipated and praised by many critics for its ambitious vision. However, it was not as commercially successful as his previous album, ''Like Water for Chocolate'', selling under 300,000 copies. An eclectic album, ''Electric Circus'' featured fusions of several genres such as hip hop, pop, rock, electronic, and neo-soul. The album's style tended to divide critics; some praised its ambitious vision while others criticized it for the same reason. Most of the criticism tended to revolve around the album's experimental nature; some felt Common had strayed too far from his previous sound. This was Common's second and last album for MCA, and the label's final release prior to its absorption into Geffen Records.

Around this time, Common appeared as a guest performer on singer and fellow Soulquarian Bilal's '' Love for Sale'' album, recording a remake of the 1977 Fela Kuti song " Sorrow, Tears & Blood". Bilal also featured on ''Electric Circus'', the first of many future collaborations with Common.

2004–2011: GOOD Music era

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 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 James Yancey (J Dilla) – also a favorite of West. 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 copies. ''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 4 stars. The album was also nominated for four Grammy Awards in 2006.

Following the release of '' Be'' in 2005, several mixed-race artists from the UK hip-hop scene took exception to Common's comments about interracial relationships on the song "Real People." Yungun, Doc Brown 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's seventh LP titled '' Finding Forever'' was released on July 31, 2007. For this album, he continued his work with Kanye West, as well as other producers such as will.i.am, Devo Springsteen, Derrick Hodge, 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 Lily Allen. The first single from the album was "The People" b/w "The Game". West predicted that ''Finding Forever'' would win the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The album was nominated for Best Rap Album, but did not win, losing to West's ''Graduation''; however, Common did win his second Grammy for "Southside," which won the 2008 Grammy for Best Rap Performance by Duo or Group.
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.

In an August 2007 interview with ''XXL'', rapper Q-Tip of the group A Tribe Called Quest

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