Common

Released: July 10, 2005

Songwriter: Common No I.D.

Producer: No I.D.

Hold on, hold on, Rash
We tryna teach them how to rock with hip-hop
I understand this is the jazz festival, but come on, man
This is not hop-hop
Hold on, there's this part on this, it's gon' come, bruh
We gon' get 'em rockin' with this, check it out

Yeah, yo, take that bitch back, Dummy
Take it back like this, come on, we go...

Envisioning the hereafter, listening to Steve Wonder
On a quest for love like the Karriem drummer, uh
Ah, I strike like lightning and don't need thunder
Inhale imagination and breathe wonder
Your lady, used to run up in her and G weed from her
Dummy just summer, yo, yo
Going forward seems like retreat
I rewrite rhyme after rhyme and throw away beats
Growing into my britches, outgrowing the streets
A thin line between war and peace, whores and jeeps
Ignore MCs like beeps, scribbling freedom on pages
Third eye is like pink eye, seen and contagious
Redeeming the ancients with ageless rhyme jargon
Feel Mexican, hip-hop is my garden
Don't give a fuck where you charting, certain shit I can't honor
It ain't that you selling, it's your karma
Rappers I monitor like a chaperone, you large but haven't grown
Poetically perform live-bys, another rapper gone
The stage becomes a catacomb, I rap like a mummy
Not for money, coulda sampled Diana Ross a long time ago
My mind of flow is like motor key 20
Youngblood said he had dimes, I prayed that he see twenty
Hollering at the brothers, you gon' be a thug or a man?
Flip drugs and get land
I can see my man was tired as he described how the bucks hit him
And said slugs was still stuck in him, when it rained, it fucked with him
This bucket interrupt wisdom and asked when my album was coming
It's here, it's here, it's here, it's here...

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.

more tracks from the album

Live at the Jazz Room

From the album

Live at the Jazz Room (2017)

Common popular songs

Invocation (Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival, 2005)Common

Common

Live at the Jazz Room