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Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. (born . Common has also started a burgeoning film career, starting with a role in the action thriller, '' Smokin' Aces '', which will be followed by a part in '' American Gangster ''. BIOGRAPHY Early life Common was born in during his teen years.1 While in high school, Common also formed C.D.R., a rap Trio that opened for acts such as N.W.A. and Big Daddy Kane .2 Common later left this group when he attended Florida A&M University to study Business Administration .3 Early career Common dropped out of Southern University (as quoted in the song "Its Your World pt.1") and was featured in the Unsigned Hype column of '' The Source '' magazine after a friend sent in a tape of Common rapping. Under the stage name Common Sense, he debuted in 1992 with the single " Take It EZ " followed by the album, '' Can I Borrow A Dollar? ''. Although mainstream success proved short in coming, he established a solid fanbase within Chicago's underground rap scene, and gained some attention for his witty lyrics and unique style. With the 1994 release of '' Resurrection '', Common achieved a much larger degree of critical acclaim, which extended beyond Chicago natives. The album sold relatively well and received a strong positive reaction among Alternative and Underground Hip-hop fans at the time. ''Resurrection'' was Common's last album Produced almost entirely by his long-time production partner, No I.D. , who was also the then-mentor of a young Kanye West . Beef with Ice Cube The song ". ''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 , Q-Tip , Canibus , Black Thought , Chantay Savage , and ?uestlove - 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 favourite 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 , which summarizes the path to manhood: :When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 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 ?uestlove ) 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 ?uestlove and featuring significant contributions by J Dilla , (who helmed all but one track - 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. 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 . Around this time, Common began dating fellow Soulquarian Erykah Badu . The rapper's next album, '' Electric Circus '', featured more experimental work with the Soulquarians, as well as contributions from The Neptunes . The album was something of a departure from Common's previous releases (and indeed from Hip hop music in general), and featured Common Rapping over electric Rock Music , and Electronica -influenced tracks. It received polarizing reviews, with many critics praising it as a musical tour de force and a visionary expansion of the Hip hop template, while others criticized it for veering too far from accessibility and viewing Common's role as secondary to the musicianship of the Soulquarians (it should be noted that Common has himself stated that it was his intention at the time to make an atypical Hip hop record). Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the album did not sell as well as ''Like Water For Chocolate'', with many longtime fans being turned off by its eclectic sound, and the album suffering from a lack of promotion due to MCA's absorption under Geffen Records . In 2003, Common won his first Grammy for his appearance on Erykah Badu 's "Love of My life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)", a song he performed with Badu for the soundtrack to the movie '' Brown Sugar ''. His romantic relationship with Badu, however, ended that same year. G.O.O.D. Music Era Aside from touring, Common was quiet for much of 2003. Many critics believed his career to be winding down due to his association with the neo-soul sub-genre, which had begun to lose its commercial steam. However, later that year, he hit the headlines when prominent mainstream rap artist Jay-Z paid him a compliment during the second verse of the song "Moment Of Clarity", from his supposed swan song album '' The Black Album ''. Prefacing the confession with: :I dumbed down for my audience and doubled my dollars :They criticize me for it yet they all yell "Holla" Jay-Z went on to say :Truthfully, I wanna rhyme like Common Sense (But I Did Five Mil ) :I ain't been rhymin' like Common since 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's 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 J Dilla - also a favorite of West's. 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. Hip-hop magazines hailed ''Be'' as one of the best albums to come out in a long time. '' 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 5 stars. The album was also nominated for four Grammy Awards in 2006, including:
Common's seventh, and most recent, LP is titled ''. 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. The Standard In a recent interview with XXL, rapper Q-Tip of the group A Tribe Called Quest stated that he and Common were forming a group called The Standard . He says the group will head into the studio in a few weeks to record an album. Q-Tip himself will handle the majority of the production on the album but it will also feature some productions by Kanye West . {Link without Title} PERSONAL LIFE Common is father to 10 year old Omoye Assata Lynn (after exiled Political Prisoner and former Black Panther Party member, Assata Shakur - a woman whose life story also inspired Common to write the song "A Song For Assata" from his album ''Like Water for Chocolate''). He dated (though not explicitly) Erykah Badu from 2000 to around 2003. Aside from Badu, Common has also been romantically linked with actress Taraji P. Henson (his co-star from the film '' Smokin' Aces ''). 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 for treatment, and asked Common to make the move with him as a roommate.4 Dilla would lose his battle with the rare disease, but his asking of Common to move in with him during his darkest hour is testament of a friendship between the two that transcended rap music, or the Music Industry . As a result, Common is a friend of the Yancey Family, particularly with J Dilla's mother, Maureen Yancey. OTHER MEDIA Advertising 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. Activism Common is a supporter of . Controversy Following the release of ''Be'' in 2005, several mixed-race artists from the UK hip-hop scene took exception to Common's controversial comments about interracial relationships on the song "Real People", and in an interview. The situation started out with an article from UK's Touch magazine, in which he stated "When you see dreadlocked dudes with white girls that’s like they going against what the dreadlock’s purpose was."Small, Elle J (. Common was accused of making bigoted statements during a concert at Emory University in 2006, when he rapped about his certainty that "damn niggers from Duke lacrosse" had raped a "black princess," a reference to Crystal Gail Mangum , who had Accused three white Duke University lacrosse players of rape.http://myhot105.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104655&article=2037339 The charges were dismissed before the case went to trial. Despite his comments about the Duke Lacrosse Case, Duke University invited him to play at their last day of classes on 25 April 2007 . Acting career In 2003, Common appeared on the popular 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. In 2007, Common appeared alongside Ben Affleck , Jeremy Piven , and Alicia Keys in the crime film '' Smokin' Aces ''. He made his big screen debut as villainous Mob Enforcer Sir Ivy. He is set to appear alongside Denzel Washington , Russell Crowe , The RZA and T.I. in the 2007 crime thriller '' American Gangster ''. On 20 January 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. DISCOGRAPHY See Also: Common discography
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