Line #64 Music/Common


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2642.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: ''”I got a rhyme. You got a rhyme. But my rhyme is better than yours!”'']]
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4	Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn Jr., better known by his stage name "Common"[[note]]”Common Sense” until 1995, thanks to a legal dispute requiring him to change his name[[/note]] (born March 13, 1972), is an American rapper and actor. Common is known for being one of the more prominent rappers in the ConsciousHipHop genre, and he made it a point to eschew the gangsta/glam-type leanings of popular Hip-Hop, in favor of more positive and socially conscious lyrics addressing issues like racism, unrequited love, etc.
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6	Though ''Can I Borrow A Dollar?'' was seen as a promising debut, it was 1994's ''Resurrection'' that really put Common on the map, showcasing both his penchant for clever wordplay and his excellent storytelling (often centered around life in Chicago). Unfortunately, while the album was critically lauded, it [[AcclaimedFlop failed to gain much commercial success]], debuting on the Billboard 200 at only #178 and then dropping off the chart the following week. Three years later, he released his third album ''One Day It'll All Make Sense'' to similar critical acclaim but only slightly more commercial success. It was with 2000's ''Like Water For Chocolate'' that Common finally found both critical and commercial success, debuting at #16 on the Billboard 200 and reaching Gold certification, thanks to its hit single "The Light." After 2002's somewhat divisive ''[[NewSoundAlbum Electric Circus]]'', 2005's ''Be'' became Common's most critically and commercially successful album to date, thanks in no small part to heavy involvement from [[Music/KanyeWest a certain other Chicago-based rapper]]. Common has had a pretty consistent musical career ever since, with his latest album being 2021's EP ''A Beautiful Revolution (Pt. 2)''.
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8	As an actor, he's known for his film roles, such as in ''Film/SmokinAces'' and ''Film/{{Wanted}}''. Besides acting, Common also took up film production under his own film production company, Freedom Road Productions. He served as executive producer for the direct-to-video feature ''[[Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection An American Girl Story – Melody 1963: Love Has to Win]]''.
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11	!!Discography
12	* ''Can I Borrow a Dollar?'' (1992)
13	* ''Resurrection'' (1994)
14	* ''One Day It'll All Make Sense'' (1997)[[note]]his first album as “Common” rather than “Common Sense”[[/note]]
15	* ''Like Water for Chocolate'' (2000)
16	* ''Electric Circus'' (2002)
17	* ''Be'' (2005)
18	* ''Finding Forever'' (2007)
19	* ''Universal Mind Control'' (2008)
20	* ''The Dreamer/The Believer'' (2011)
21	* ''Nobody's Smiling'' (2014)
22	* ''Black America Again'' (2016)
23	* ''August Greene'' (with Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins) (2018)
24	* ''Let Love'' (2019)
25	* ''A Beautiful Revolution'' (Pt. 1) (2020)
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27	!!Filmography
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29	[[AC: Film]]
30	* ''Film/SmokinAces'' (2006) - Sir Ivy
31	* ''Film/AmericanGangster'' (2007) - Turner Lucas
32	* ''Film/StreetKings'' (2008) - Coates
33	* ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' (2008) - The Gunsmith
34	* ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' (2009) - Barnes
35	* ''Film/DateNight'' (2010) - Detective Collins
36	* ''Film/JustWright'' (2010) - Scott [=McKnight=]
37	* ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeetTwo'' (2011) - Seymour
38	* ''LUV'' (2012) - Uncle Vincent
39	* ''Film/TheOddLifeOfTimothyGreen'' (2012) - Coach Cal
40	* ''Film/Movie43'' (2013) - Bob Mone Segment: "The Pitch"
41	* ''Film/NowYouSeeMe'' (2013) - Agent Evans
42	* ''Film/{{Pawn\|2013}}'' (2013) - Officer Jeff Porter
43	* ''Film/{{XY}}'' (2014) - Jason
44	* ''Film/EverySingleThing'' (2014) - Devlin Hatch
45	* ''Film/{{Selma}}'' (2014) - James Bevel
46	* ''Film/RunAllNight'' (2015) - Mr. Price
47	* ''Film/BeingCharlie'' (2015) - Travis
48	* ''Film/{{Barbershop}}: The Next Cut'' (2016) - Rashad
49	* ''Film/{{Suicide Squad\|2016}}'' (2016) - Monster T
50	* ''Film/JohnWickChapter2'' (2017) - Cassian
51	* ''Film/AHappeningOfMonumentalProportions'' (2017) - Daniel Crawford
52	* ''Film/LoveBeatsRhymes'' (2017) - Coltrane
53	* ''Film/MeganLeavey'' (2017) - Gunny Martin
54	* ''Film/GirlsTrip'' (2017) - Himself
55	* ''Film/TheTale'' (2018) - Martin
56	* ''Film/HereAndNow'' (2018) - Ben
57	* ''Film/AllAboutNina'' (2018) - Rafe
58	* ''Film/TheHateUGive'' (2018) - Carlos Carter
59	* ''Film/SaintJudy'' (2018) - Benjamin Adebayo
60	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Smallfoot}}'' (2018) - Stonekeeper (voice)
61	* ''Film/HunterKiller'' (2018) - Rear Admiral John Fisk
62	* ''Film/TheKitchen'' (2019) - Gary Silvers
63	* ''The Informer'' (2019) - Grens
64	* ''Film/{{Ava}}'' (2020)- Michael
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66	[[AC: Television]]
67	* ''Series/HellOnWheels'' (2011–2014) - Elam Ferguson, main cast; 32 episodes
68	* ''Theatre/TheWiz Live!'' (2015) - The Bouncer, telefilm/television special
69	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionGuard'' (2017–present) - Kiburi (voice), 9 episodes
70	* ''Series/TheChi'' (2018) - Rafiq, 3 episodes; also executive producer
71	* ''Series/HomeMovieThePrincessBride'' (2020) - Westley, 1 episode
72	* ''WesternAnimation/StoryBotsAnswerTime'' - Mr. Wonderful, 1 episode
73	* ''Series/NeverHaveIEver'' (2021) - Dr. Chris Jackson
74	* ''Series/{{Silo}}'' (2023)- Robert Sims
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76	!!"Now black tropes is black tropes, and it's all good; I wasn't salty that she was tropin' ''Film/BoyzNTheHood''..."
77	* AlternativeHipHop: Not initially, but settled firmly into this after ''Resurrection''.
78	* BattleRapping: Generally not known a battler, but he's had some pretty infamous rows with Music/IceCube and Music/{{Drake}} in the past:
79	** With Ice Cube, it started over a misheard lyric taken out of context on "I Used to Love H.E.R.".[[note]]"I wasn’t salty she was with the boys in the hood" was misheard as "I was insulted she was with the boys in the hood."[[/note]] Feeling slighted, and with tensions rising during the infamous East-West Coast Feud, Ice Cube and his crew Westside Connection released "Westside Slaughterhouse", and attacked Common and several other east coast emcees, despite Common hailing from the Midwest. Common then proceeded to ether Cube with "The Bitch In Yoo", which ridiculed Ice Cube for taking his song out of context, hypocrisy, and pointing out that Cube heavily relied on east coast rappers like Das EFX and Music/PublicEnemy to get his solo career off the ground. After the death of Music/TupacShakur, the emcees squashed the beef with the help of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farhakan.
80	** With Drake, much of their animus stemmed from the fact that they were [[CockFight both romantically involved]] with tennis star Serena Williams around the same time (2011-2012). Common first took subliminal shots with the track "Sweet", particularly in reference to comments Drake had made about him during a show. In turn, Drake responded with his verse on Music/RickRoss' track "Stay Schemin'", making fun of Common's age (he was almost 40 at the time), and implied Serena had told him some ''very ''nasty stuff about him during pillow talk. Common quickly came back with his own remix of "Stay Schemin'", accusing Drake of biting styles (an accusation that's plagued Drizzy to this day), trying to create a hardcore persona, despite being the total opposite and not being able to respond without hiding behind his associates' songs. Again, the beef would eventually be squashed between the two rappers.
81	* BoastfulRap: All over ''Resurrection'', with the title track, "Orange Pineapple Juice" and "Thisisme" being particularly notable examples.
82	* BrokenRecord: A particularly odd example of this happens on ''One Day It'll All Make Sense''. "Stolen Moments, Pt. 1" ends with Common repeating "It's a frantic... situation" a number of times. The song is then CutShort, and "Stolen Moments, Pt. 2" opens with [[Music/TheRoots Black Thought]] ''repeating the exact same line a number of times.''
83	** In "Nuthin To Do", the line "I'm Petey Wheatstraw from the Southside of Chicago" ([[CallBack sampled from a verse from the song "Heidi Hoe" on Common's debut album ''Can I Borrow A Dollar?'']]) is repeated a number of times, with turntable scratches thrown in for good measure.
84	* FakeOutFadeOut: Two songs from ''Resurrection'' do this ("Resurrection" and "Check The Method").
85	* JazzRap: His main sound from ''Resurrection'' to ''Finding Forever''.
86	* LighterAndSofter: Common was never a "dark" or "edgy" rapper to begin with, but ''Be'' turns up the dial even further on positive lyrical messages and uplifting beats. This can no doubt be attributed in part to [[Music/KanyeWest Kanye West's]] heavy involvement with its production.
87	* NeverMessWithGranny: The thugs in "Payback Is A Grandmother" learn this lesson the hard way.
88	* ParodyCommercial: Not really a "parody," per say, but "W.M.O.E" off of ''Resurrection'' is a fake radio bumper that serves as an intro to "Thisisme."
89	* RecordProducer: No I.D. and Music/JDilla are his most consistent ones, though Music/WillIAm, Kareem Riggins and Music/KanyeWest have lent a hand on more than a few occasions. Also, [[Music/TheRoots Questlove]] was the main producer of ''Like Water For Chocolate''.
90	* {{Supergroup}}: Common is a latter-day member of the [[Music/ATribeCalledQuest Native]] [[Music/DeLaSoul Tongues]], and a member of the Soulquarians collective, which included Music/DAngelo, Music/ErykahBadu, and Music/JDilla, among many others.
91	* SelfDeprecation / HypocriticalHumor: Common engages in both with the skit ending "The 6th Sense." In it, a female fan approaches him and praises him for his female-empowering lyrics. He's flattered by this... only for Com to reveal himself as an abusive pimp, much to the female fan's shock and disgust.
92	* SequelSong: "Stolen Moments, Pts. 2" and "3" off of ''One Day It'll All Make Sense''.
93	* WhamLine: "I Used to Love H.E.R." has one of the most famous ones in hip-hop. The track is set up as a tale about a girl he loved, but gew apart from, and who was constantly degraded by others over the years, with Common unable to do much, but watch. But at the end of the final verse, everything gets flipped on its head:
94	--> ''"...But so many niggas hit it\
95	That she's just not the same, lettin' all these groupies do her,\
96	I see niggas slammin' her, and takin' her to the sewer,\
97	But I'ma take her back, hopin' that the shit stop,\
98	‘Cause who I'm talkin' about, y'all, is hip-hop."''
99	* WordSaladLyrics: The appropriately titled "Sum Shit I Wrote" is just Common playfully showcasing his talent for wordplay and rhyming. At face value, its lyrics don't really mean anything.
100	* WorldOfPun: "Communism" riffs on Common's stage name by listing off a ton of words beginning with "Com."
101	* WritingAroundTrademarks: ''One Day It'll All Make Sense'', by Common's own admission, was titled as such to get around the lawsuit that forced him to drop the "Sense" from his stage name.

Context Music / Common