Common

Released: July 10, 2005

Songwriter: Common

Producer: Karriem Riggins My Guy Mars DJ Dummy

Yes, feel good, y'all
How you feelin' out there?
I said how y'all feelin' out there?
I'd like to welcome the North Sea Jazz Festival to the Basement Experience
So what we gon' do this afternoon
We gon' treat this, this room right here like this is our basement
Like this is our cellar
Now, you know in the cellar you gotta feel free
This how we do it in the basement
This soul music, hip-hop music, jazz music, it's music
And we here to share that with y'all in our Basement Experience
We choose to call it BE, 'cause you free to be you, and I'm free to be me
So if you feel like you in the basement right now, I want you to close your eyes real quick
And just imagine what we do in the basement, come on now, close them eyes
A'ight, open 'em up y'all, we here now
And y'all know how in the basement sometimes, you be under that red light chillin'
Listenin' to some good ass music, and you be like...
Just feelin' the vibrations, right?
And then sometimes, you might be under the blue light in the basement
Just ready to get open, get open 'cause it's beautiful ladies in the basement
And you see you wanna party like that, so you ready to get open in the basement
That's how we gon' do in the basement tonight, y'all, yeah
My name is Common, I'm your host for tonight's basement party
Coming to you from Philadelphia, PA, on the keys, Mister Omar Edwards
In the lab, on percussion, MPC and all, Mister Karriem Riggins
Your DJ for tonight, from the planet of Brooklyn, DJ Dummy...
So I want y'all to feel free, man, just for being where you are
This the beauty of music, Common Sense is at the North Sea Jazz Festival
To share the music, that's just how beautiful hip-hop could be, yeah
So I want you to free and just—you could get high off the music
You can get high off some of that stuff they got out here in Holland
Or you might just wanna go get a drink at the bar
But whatever you do, I want you to be who you are
I said you could get high off the music
You could get high off some of that bubble gum they got out here
Or you might wanna go get a drink at the bar
But whatever you do, I want you to listen to this guitar

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. (born March 13, 1972), better known by his stage name Common (previously Common Sense), is a Grammy and Oscar-winning rapper and actor from Chicago, Illinois. Common’s inspired mix of poetic flow and hip-hop soul has helped him earn his status as one of the most respected rappers in the game.

After being a ball boy for his hometown Chicago Bulls as a teen and attending Florida A&M University for business administration, Common Sense kicked in and he left school to become a rapper. He gained national attention after being featured in the Unsigned Hype column of The Source magazine in 1991. He released his debut album Can I Borrow a Dollar? through Relativity Records in 1992, followed by his breakthrough second album Resurrection in 1994, which features his hip-hop classic single “I Used To Love H.E.R.”

As his career began to take off, he was sued by the music group Common Sense over the name, leading Common to drop the “Sense” and allude to the change in the title of his third album, One Day It’ll All Make Sense (1997). He has released several critically acclaimed albums, including Like Water For Chocolate (2000), which features his J Dilla-produced hit single “The Light”, and Be (2005), which was released under fellow Chicago musician Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint. He also joined musicians Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper to form the group August Greene, and the trio released their self-titled album in 2018.

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