Common is a Chicago rapper active since 1991 and one of conscious hip hop's defining voices. Be (2005, produced by Kanye West) and Like Water for Chocolate (2000) are the essentials, and his song Glory with John Legend took home an Academy Award. Dig into Common vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Lonnie Rashid Lynn was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 13, 1972. He began recording as Common Sense in 1991, shortening his stage name to Common in 1995 following a trademark dispute. His career spans more than three decades across multiple labels, with Like Water for Chocolate (2000, produced largely by Soulquarian collaborators including J Dilla, Questlove, and James Poyser) and Be (2005, produced by Kanye West) as defining critical and commercial peaks. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Glory (with John Legend) from Selma in 2015, and won three Grammy Awards across his career. He has also built a parallel acting career.
Common's sound combines hip hop, conscious hip hop, jazz rap, neo-soul, and Chicago hip hop with literate, often spiritually engaged lyrical content. His work has been a defining contribution to conscious hip hop and has consistently bridged underground and mainstream audiences across multiple eras of hip hop history.
Original Relativity and MCA pressings of Resurrection and Like Water for Chocolate are widely collected. Multiple anniversary reissues, including 25th anniversary editions of Be, have been released.
Listeners new to Common typically start with Be (2005) or Like Water for Chocolate (2000).
