Common

Lonnie Rashid Lynn (born March 13, 1972), known professionally as Common (formerly known as Common Sense), is an American rapper, actor and activist. The recipient of three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award, he signed with the independent label Relativity Records at the age of 20. The label released his first three studio albums: Can I Borrow a Dollar? (1992), 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. 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. He guest performed on fellow Soulquarian, Erykah Badu's 2003 single, "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop)", which became his highest entry — at number nine — on the Billboard Hot 100 and won Best R&B Song at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards. He signed with fellow Chicago rapper Kanye West's record label GOOD Music, in a joint venture with Geffen Records to release his sixth and seventh albums Be (2005) and Finding Forever (2007); both were nominated for Best Rap Album Grammys, while the latter became his first to debut atop the Billboard 200 and contained the song "Southside" (featuring Kanye West), the recipient of Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. His eighth album, Universal Mind Control (2008), was met with a critical decline and served as his final release with GOOD. Common's label imprint, Think Common Entertainment, was founded in 2011 and entered a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records to release his ninth album, The Dreamer/The Believer (2011), and later No I.D.'s ARTium Recordings, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings to release his tenth album, Nobody's Smiling (2014). Both received 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. Signing a contract with Loma Vista, he later released his twelfth album Let Love (2019), thirteenth album A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 1 (2020), and fourteenth album A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2 (2021), to positive reviews. For collaborative effort, he worked with Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper on the album August Greene (2018) under the supergroup of the same name, and with Pete Rock on the album The Auditorium Vol. 1 (2024). 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), Now You See Me (2013), Run All Night (2015), John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), Smallfoot (2018), Alice (2022), and Fool's Paradise (2023). In television, he starred as Elam Ferguson in AMC western series Hell on Wheels from 2011 to 2014, and has played a supporting role in the Apple TV+ science fiction series Silo since 2023. 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.