Common

Chicago

Lonnie Rashid Lynn was born in Chicago on 13 March 1972 and raised in the Calumet Heights neighborhood. He began rapping in the late 1980s at Luther High School South, in a trio called C.D.R. that opened for N.W.A and Big Daddy Kane. When the group dissolved by 1991 he went solo as Common Sense, was featured in The Source's Unsigned Hype column, and signed to Relativity Records at 20. His debut album, Can I Borrow a Dollar?, followed in 1992. Tal Rosenberg of Pitchfork later wrote that the sessions were rushed and that the record sold poorly.

Resurrection (1994) changed that. Common said he gave it the title because in many ways he had felt dead to some people. No I.D. produced thirteen of its fifteen tracks, and Common freestyled the lyrics while driving on Lake Shore Drive and memorized them rather than writing them down. I Used to Love H.E.R. turned hip-hop itself into the woman of a love story. It also set off a feud with Westside Connection, settled after Louis Farrakhan stepped in. A California reggae band with the same name sued, and by 1997 he had dropped the Sense. One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997), with Lauryn Hill, De La Soul and Q-Tip among its guests, led to a contract with MCA.

The Soulquarians

In 1999 Common moved to New York and began recording with the loose circle of musicians that Questlove had dubbed the Soulquarians, much of it at Electric Lady Studios. The circle included D'Angelo, J Dilla, James Poyser, Erykah Badu and Bilal, and the same sessions produced The Roots' Things Fall Apart and Badu's Mama's Gun. Like Water for Chocolate (2000), with Questlove as executive producer and J Dilla behind most of the tracks, was certified gold. Its single The Light reached 44 on the Hot 100, and The 6th Sense came from DJ Premier. Pitchfork's David Drake wrote that it was not Common's most classic record but his most fully realized.

Electric Circus (2002) went further out, mixing hip-hop with pop, rock and electronic music and bringing in Mary J. Blige, the Neptunes and Erykah Badu. It debuted at 47 on the Billboard 200 and sold under 300,000 copies. Hanif Abdurraqib of Pitchfork called it a flawed but classic album in 2017.

Be

After MCA was absorbed into Geffen, Common signed to Kanye West's GOOD Music. Be (2005), with West as executive producer and two tracks by J Dilla, debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and drew four Grammy nominations. Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork said it ranked comfortably with Resurrection and Like Water for Chocolate as Common's best work to date, and Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian called it a lean and vibrant masterclass in hip-hop fundamentals. The Corner, with the Last Poets, and Go!, with John Mayer in the background vocals, were its best-known singles.

Finding Forever (2007) went to number one on the Billboard 200, the only Common project to do so, and its single Southside won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

Since

The Dreamer/The Believer (2011), Nobody's Smiling (2014), Black America Again (2016) and Let Love (2019) followed. Common said the concept for Nobody's Smiling came from the violence in Chicago. He also became an actor, appearing in Smokin' Aces and playing Elam Ferguson in the AMC series Hell on Wheels from 2011 to 2014, and in Selma (2014) he played James Bevel. Glory, written with John Legend and Rhymefest for that film, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. His song Letter to the Free, written for the documentary 13th, won a Primetime Emmy. In 2018 he released an album as August Greene with Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper, and in 2024 he released The Auditorium Vol. 1 with Pete Rock. He founded the Common Ground Foundation, a non-profit for young people.