Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn[6][7][8] (born March 13, 1972), known by his stage name Common (formerly known as Common Sense), is an American rapper and actor from Chicago, Illinois. He is the recipient of three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award. He first signed with the independent label Relativity Records to release his debut studio album Can I Borrow a Dollar? (1992), and gained further critical acclaim with its follow-ups, Resurrection (1994) and One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997). He maintained an underground following into the late 1990s, and achieved mainstream success through his work with the Black music collective, Soulquarians.[9]
Common
- Common Sense
- L. Liston
- Willie Stargell[1]
- Rapper
- songwriter
- actor
1991–present[2]
Erykah Badu (2000–2002)
Taraji P. Henson (2005–2007)
Serena Williams (2007–2010)
Angela Rye (2017–2018)
Tiffany Haddish (2020–2021)
Jennifer Hudson (2021–present)
1
- Lonnie Lynn (father)
- Mahila Ann Hines (mother)
Vocals
- Loma Vista[5]
- Concord
- Think Common
- ARTium
- Def Jam
- Virgin EMI
- Warner Bros.
- Geffen
- GOOD
- MCA
- Warlock
- Rawkus
- Relativity
After attaining a major label record deal, he released his fourth and fifth albums, Like Water for Chocolate (2000) and Electric Circus (2002) to continued acclaim and modest commercial response.[10] In 2003, he won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for his guest performance on fellow Soulquarian Erykah Badu's single "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)".[11] He signed with fellow Chicago rapper Kanye West's record label GOOD Music, in a joint venture with Geffen Records to release his sixth album Be (2005), which was met with both critical and commercial success and yielded a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album. His seventh album, Finding Forever (2007) saw further success and became his first to debut atop the Billboard 200, while a song from the album, "Southside" (featuring Kanye West) won Lynn's second Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. He released his eighth album, Universal Mind Control (2008) to mixed critical reception before departing GOOD and launching his own label imprint, Think Common Entertainment in 2011. Entering a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records, he released The Dreamer/The Believer (2011); and through No I.D.'s ARTium Recordings, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings, he released Nobody's Smiling (2014). Both albums were met with critical praise and further discussed social issues in Black America; his eleventh album, Black America Again (2016) saw widespread critical acclaim and served as his final release on a major label.[12][13]
Lynn won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for his song "Glory" (with John Legend), which he released for the film Selma (2014), wherein he co-starred as civil rights leader James Bevel. His other film roles include Smokin' Aces (2006), Street Kings (2008), American Gangster (2007), Wanted (2008), Date Night (2010), Just Wright (2010), Happy Feet Two (2011), Run All Night (2015), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), and Smallfoot (2018). In television, he starred as Elam Ferguson in AMC western series Hell on Wheels from 2011 to 2014. His song "Letter to the Free" was released for the Ava DuVernay-directed Netflix documentary 13th (2017), for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. He made his Broadway acting debut on the play Between Riverside and Crazy (2023), which won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[14]
Early life[edit]
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.[15] He was raised in the Calumet Heights neighborhood.[16][17][18][19] 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.[20]
Music career[edit]
1987–1996: Career beginnings[edit]
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.[21] 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".
Other work[edit]
Acting[edit]
In 2003, Common appeared on the 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. He also made an appearance on the ABC show Scrubs. In 2007, Common appeared with Ryan Reynolds, Jeremy Piven, and Alicia Keys in the crime film Smokin' Aces, making his big screen debut as villainous Mob enforcer Sir Ivy. He appeared alongside Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, The RZA and T.I. in the 2007 crime thriller American Gangster. On January 20, 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.
In 2007, Common played the role of Smokin' Aces co-star Alicia Keys's boyfriend in the music video "Like You'll Never See Me Again".
In 2008, he had a supporting role in the film adaptation of the comic book Wanted alongside Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie. Common also appeared in the movie Street Kings with Keanu Reeves, Hugh Laurie, The Game, and Forest Whitaker. Common also starred in the 2010 movie Just Wright as a basketball player who falls in love with his physical therapist Queen Latifah.[45] He appeared in the 2009 film Terminator Salvation as John Connor's lieutenant Barnes.[46]
In 2009, Common was cast as John Stewart/Green Lantern in the unproduced film Justice League: Mortal.
Common starred as a corrupt cop in the 2010 comedy Date Night with Steve Carell and Tina Fey. He was also featured in the role of deployed soldier Chino in 2011's New Year's Eve, the husband of Halle Berry's character, Nurse Aimee.
He was part of the ensemble cast of AMC's Hell on Wheels, as one of the lead characters, Elam Ferguson, a recently freed slave trying to find his place in the world.[47]
In 2013, Common played the role of Agent Evans, an FBI agent in Now You See Me along with Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco. In the 2014 film Selma, for which he also co-wrote the Oscar-winning song "Glory", Common co-starred as 1960s civil rights movement leader James Bevel. In 2015, he played a hitman in Run All Night.
Common appeared as a gangster in the 2016 film Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer and part of the DC Extended Universe.[48]
In December 2015, Common appeared in the NBC TV special The Wiz Live!, as the Bouncer guarding the Emerald City.
In 2016, he co-starred in the film Barbershop: The Next Cut, alongside former rival Ice Cube.
In February 2017, he appeared alongside Keanu Reeves again, this time as professional hitman/bodyguard Cassian in John Wick: Chapter 2.
In August 2017, Common began voicing Kiburi the crocodile in Disney Junior's The Lion Guard.[49]
Common played opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Eva Vives's debut feature, All About Nina, which had its world premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. It was a major, breakout role for which he has received much critical acclaim (Variety's Peter Debruge calling his performance "easily the strongest of the half-dozen supporting roles he's had this year"[50]). That same year, he appeared as Rear Admiral John Fisk in the action thriller film Hunter Killer.[51]
In 2018, Common starred in the film adaptation of The Hate U Give, playing Starr's uncle Carlos, a black police officer that is forced to defend his colleague that is involved in the shooting of a black teen.[52]
In September 2022, it was announced that Common would make his Broadway debut in Second Stage Theater’s Between Riverside and Crazy in the winter of 2022.[53]
Film production[edit]
On October 27, 2015, Common inked a two-year deal with HBO that allowed to start his own film production company, Freedom Road Productions.[54][55] He stated in an interview in February 2012 that one of his big career goals was to start his own film production company.[56]
In 2016 Common also worked with Amazon Studios and American Girl, serving as an executive producer for the direct-to-video feature An American Girl Story – Melody 1963: Love Has to Win.[57]
Modeling and clothing[edit]
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. Common also stars in a television commercial for the 2008 Lincoln Navigator. He appears in NBA 2K8 in NBA Blacktop mode. In the fall of 2008, Common appeared in an ad for Microsoft's Zune, comparing his new song, "Universal Mind Control", to "Planet Rock", a song from hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa. Also, he featured in the Diesel campaign for a new fragrance called "Only The Brave". His song "Be (intro)" is featured in a commercial for BlackBerry as of January 2011.
In December 2008, Common launched a new clothing line in partnership with Microsoft titled "Softwear", based on 1980s computing.
Writing[edit]
Common was invited by First Lady Michelle Obama to appear at a poetry reading on May 11, 2011, at the White House.[58] His poetry was found to be greatly influenced by Maya Angelou's works. This invitation caused furor with the New Jersey State Police and their union,[59] who cited some of Common's previous lyrical content, most notably the song "A Song For Assata" about Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Liberation Army (and step-aunt of deceased rapper Tupac Shakur)[60] who was convicted in 1977 of the first-degree murder of New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster. At another poetry reading, Common had stated, "flyers say 'free Mumia' on my freezer", a reference to Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was controversially convicted of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.
Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary at the time, stated that President Obama opposed these particular lyrics, but supported what Common stood for more broadly.[61] Common responded by saying: "I guess Sarah Palin and Fox News doesn't like me."[61] On Facebook, he also stated, "The one thing that shouldn't be questioned is my support for the police officers and troops that protect us every day." Common later discussed the matter with Jon Stewart during a September 14, 2011, appearance on Comedy Central's The Daily Show.[62]
Personal life[edit]
Common is a vegan.[83] He is a lifelong fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Bears.[84][85] He is a Christian, attending Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.[86] On May 4, 2019, Common served as spring commencement speaker at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) and after his address, was awarded an honorary DFA degree.[87] While at FAMU, he studied in the School of Business and Industry.[88]
Common fathered a daughter named Omoye Assata Lynn (b. 1997), conceived from a previous relationship with his ex-fiancé Kim Jones. Omoye graduated from Howard Law School in 2022.[89]
Common was in a relationship with comedian and actress Tiffany Haddish from mid-2020 to November 2021.[90]
In 2022, while working together on their film Breathe (2024 film), Common began dating fellow Chicago native, singer and actress, Jennifer Hudson. The pair confirmed their relationship with an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show in January 2024. When discussing their romance, Common stated "I'm in a relationship that is with one of the most beautiful people I've met in life," he admitted. "She's smart, she loves God, she has something real down to earth about her. She's talented."[91]
