Common American rapper and actor. He debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar? and obtained indispensable acclaim with his 1994 album Resurrection. He maintained an underground following into the late 1990s. He carried out mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians.
His first major-label album, Like Water for Chocolate (2000), acquired industrial success. In 2003, he received the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for the Erykah Badu single “Love of My Life.” His 2005 album Be was once as soon as moreover worthwhile and was once as quickly nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards. He bought his 2nd Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance through Duo or Group for “Southside” (featuring Kanye West) from his 2007 album Finding Forever. His best-of album, This is me Then: The Best of Common used to be launched in late 2007. In 2011, he launched Think Common Entertainment, his personal document label imprint, having in the previously established tune under a range of special labels, including Relativity, Geffen, and GOOD Music.
Common acquired the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Glory,” which he co-wrote and carried out with John Legend, from the 2014 film Selma, in which he co-starred as Civil Rights Movement chief James Bevel. Common has moreover acted in the movie Smokin’ Aces, Street Kings, American Gangster, Wanted, Terminator Salvation, Date Night, Just Wright, Happy Feet Two, New Year’s Eve, Run All Night, Being Charlie, Rex, John Wick: Chapter 2, Smallfoot, Hunter Killer and All About Nina. He narrated the documentary Bouncing Cats, about one man’s efforts to beautify the lives of young adults in Uganda via hip-hop/b-boy culture. He starred as Elam Ferguson on the AMC western television series Hell on Wheels.
Common commenced rapping in the late 1980s, at the same time as a student at Luther High School South in Chicago, when he, alongside two of his friends, fashioned C.D.R., a rap trio that opened for acts such as N.W.A and Big Daddy Kane. When C.D.R. dissolved in 1991, Common started as a solo profession under the stage pick out 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,” accompanied with the aid of capability of the album Can I Borrow a Dollar?
With the 1994 launch of Resurrection, Common Sense performed a giant diploma of quintessential acclaim, which extended previous the Chicago track scene. The album offered specific rights and received a strong response amongst preference and underground hip-hop followers. Resurrection used to be Common Sense’s final album, produced almost absolutely by means of his long-time manufacturing partner, No I.D., who would later emerge as a mentor to a youthful Kanye West.
In 1996, Common Sense was viewed 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, amongst many unique terrific hip-hop artists. The CD, supposed to expand the interest in the AIDS epidemic amongst African American men, used to be heralded as “a masterpiece” with the aid of The Source magazine. He would later 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 “Years of Tears and Sorrow” track.
The song “I Used to Love H.E.R.” from Resurrection ignited a feud with West Coast rap crew Westside Connection. The song’s lyrics criticized the route hip hop tune was once as soon as taking, making use of a metaphor of a female carrying hip hop, and have been interpreted by some as directing blame nearer to the popularity of West Coast gangsta rap. Westside Connection first answered with the 1995 tune “Westside Slaughterhouse,” with the lyrics “Used to love H.E.R., mad cause I f*cked her.” “Westside Slaughterhouse” referred to Common Sense by using the name, prompting the rapper to reply with the scathing Pete Rock-produced assault tune “The Bitch in Yoo”. Common Sense and Westside Connection persevered to insult each exceptional again and forth, formerly than in the cease meeting with Louis Farrakhan and setting aside their dispute. Following the awareness of Resurrection, Common Sense was once again sued via the usage of an Orange County-based reggae band with the same name and used to be forced to shorten his moniker to truly Common.
Initially scheduled for an October 1996 release, Common in the cease launched his 1/3 album, One Day It’ll All Make Sense, in September 1997. The album took 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 aspect of eschewing any gangsterism (in response to questions about his musical integrity), used to be as soon as severely acclaimed and led to a principal label contract with MCA Records. In addition to releasing One Day, Common’s first child, daughter Omoye Assata Common, used to be born unexpectedly after the album’s launch.
As documented with the useful resource of hip-hop journalist Raquel Cepeda in the liner notes for the album, this match had a profound nonsecular and mental effect on Common. It enabled him to improve musically while turning into larger guilty as an artist. She writes:
Rashid located out that he used to be going to grow to be a daddy in about eight months. Stunned and confused, Rashid had life-altering alternatives to make with his girlfriend, Kim Jones. The situation led to the composition of his preferred minimize on One Day… which offers a male slant on abortion. “Retrospect for Life,” produced using James Poyser and No I.D. supplying Lauryn Hill (who used to be due on the same day as Rashid’s girlfriend), is the tune that is the usage of stress in the again of the project. Rashid listened to “Retrospect for Life” at the studying session, geeking as if it had been for the first time. He tells me as we pay interest to L-Boogie wail the chorus, “when I hear to the tune now, I anticipate how precious her (Omoye’s) life is.”Common addresses family ethics in a wide variety of situations on One Day… The album sleeve is embellished with old family photos, illustrating the rapper’s childhood, as suitable a quote from 1 Corinthians 13:11, which summarizes the path to manhood: When I was a child, I talked like a child, thought like a child, and reasoned like a child. When I grew to be a man, I put childish strategies in my return of me.
Following One Day…, Common signed an essential label file deal with MCA Records and relocated from Chicago to New York City in 1999. He commenced recording almost fully with a free collective of musicians and artists (dubbed the “Soulquarians” via central mother or father Questlove) at some point in 1999. He made a few sporadic vacationer appearances on The Roots’ Things Fall Apart and the Rawkus Records compilation, Soundbombing 2.
In 2000, his fourth album, Like Water for Chocolate, was once as soon as launched to essential mass acclaim. Executive produced thru Questlove and providing substantial contributions via the skill of J Dilla (who helmed many tracks barring – “Cold Blooded,” “Geto Heaven Part II,” “A Song For Assata,” “Pop’s Rap Part 3…All My Children” & the DJ Premier-produced tune “The Sixth Sense”), Like Water for Chocolate transpired to be a huge commercial enterprise soar ahead for Common, incomes the rapper his first gold record, and noticeably growing his fanbase amongst critics and listeners alike.
With every artist hailing from the Great Lakes location of the United States (Chicago and Detroit, respectively), Common and J Dilla hooked up their chemistry early on. Both grew to be members of the Soulquarians collective and collaborated on several duties together, even putting one song, “Thelonius,” on every Slum Village album Fantastic, Vol. 2, and Commons Like Water for Chocolate. As Dilla’s health began to decline from the penalties of Lupus Nephritis, he relocated to Los Angeles. He requested Common to make a move with him as a roommate (Dilla would later lose his combat with the distinct disease).
This album saw Common exploring problems (musically and lyrically), which have been distinguished for a hip-hop record, as he does on the track “Time Travelin’ (A Tribute To Fela),”; a homage to Nigerian tune legend and political activist Fela Kuti. The most well-known single from the album “The Light” used to be as soon as nominated for a Grammy Award.
