Common

Common was born Lonnie Rashid Lynn on March 13, 1972, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up on the city’s South Side and attended Luther High School South, where he played basketball. His mother, educator Dr. Ann Dudley, later appeared on several of his records; his father, former ABA player Lonnie “Pops” Lynn, was the subject of the song “Pop’s Rap.” Common first recorded as Common Sense and released the album Can I Borrow a Dollar? in 1992. Its Chicago-centered rhymes established him within the era’s independent rap scene. He adopted the shorter name Common after a legal dispute with a California-based ska group called Common Sense. His 1994 album Resurrection brought wider attention through “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” a metaphorical account of hip-hop’s changing culture. Common’s career developed through collaborations with producers including No I.D., J Dilla, and Kanye West. Like Water for Chocolate, released in 2000, debuted at number sixteen on the Billboard 200 chart and included “The Light,” which received a Grammy nomination. Electric Circus followed in 2002, while Be arrived in 2005. Finding Forever, produced by Kanye West, entered the Billboard 200 chart at number one in 2007. Its single “The People” sampled a 1972 song by the Staple Singers. Common won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group with Kanye West and John Legend for “Southside” in 2008. In 2011, he released The Dreamer/The Believer, reuniting extensively with No I.D. Beyond music, Common built a substantial screen career. He played Detective Joe Miller in the AMC television series Hell on Wheels from 2011 to 2014, and appeared in films including Smokin’ Aces, American Gangster, Selma, John Wick: Chapter 2, and The Hate U Give. He portrayed civil-rights leader James Bevel in Ava DuVernay’s Selma. In 2015, Common and John Legend won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Glory,” written for Selma. The song also won the Golden Globe and Grammy awards. Common used the Oscar acceptance speech to connect the film’s history of voting-rights activism with contemporary struggles. His later albums include Black America Again (2016), which featured guests such as Stevie Wonder and Bilal, and A Beautiful Revolution Pt 1, released in 2020. In publishing, he co-wrote the memoir One Day It’ll All Make Sense with Adam Bradley, and wrote Let Love Have the Last Word, a book mixing personal reflections with advice. He supports his Common Ground Foundation.