Common

Released: July 10, 2005

Songwriter: Common

Producer: Karriem Riggins My Guy Mars DJ Dummy

Hip-hop started on the streets of New York with the Black and Latino community
And it's gone on to spread across the world, bringing together Blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians
People from England, people from Amsterdam, people from Germany
People from Ireland, people from Japan, from Africa, from Cuba
From where else? Suriname, yes, Suriname, yeah
From the Caribbean all over, right? South America
Bringing together all people, y'all, all under what we call hip-hop...
Now, in the basement, we love hip-hop and we wanna take it forward
But in order to move forward, you gotta understand where you come from, you dig?
Now, at the North Sea Jazz Festival, we should know
We all know that hip-hop got these different elements
It's not just rappin', it's different elements
You got MCin', you got graffiti, you got breakdancing, B-boying and B-girlin'
But the foundation of hip-hop, where it all started is with the DJ

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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Foundations of Hip-Hop & The DJ (Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival, 2005)Common

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Live at the Jazz Room