Yayyy! Finally got to read Common’s autobiography that just came out recently, called One Day It’ll All Make Sense. It seems to me that there is a HUGE lack of rap / hip-hop fans among book bloggers and if any of ya’ll is interested in giving it a try, Common is my suggestion to you.
So, in this here book Lonnie Rashid Lynn (better known as Common) gives us the story of his life. Each chapter starts with a letter to someone in his life, which I thought was a cool idea. Common takes you on a journey from his childhood to his teenage years, to his struggle to become a more successful rapper and to dealing with fame, relationships, and controversy.
Obviously, you probably aren’t going to read this unless you’re already a Common fan and that’s okay. That’s usually how it is with memoirs. But there were a couple things in the book that I liked in particular that I just wanted to mention:
- He talks with so much fondness for his mama, and I love that. She actually writes in her thoughts in some of the chapters, and it was interesting to see how much she struggled to make him a good, honest person but still able to man up and take care of himself. (This actually reminds me of my honeyman and how he was raised. I give so much credit to women who are able to raise truly great men.)
- He delves into his relationship history a bit and it was interesting to see him reflect on past loves and how they affected him. We all do this – dissect what happened, how it happened, why it ended, and how we came out better for it.
- He speaks about the whole White House controversy – basically some conservative politicians trying to run a smear campaign against him when he was invited to the White House as part of a poetry night. It was a really weak effort on the conservatives part to make Obama look bad, and MAN I was infuriated when it happened. He handles this all very gracefully.
- I learned more about his older cd’s. Honestly, I didn’t start listening to Common until my boyfriend had me listen to him about 4 years ago. I didn’t know who he was before that, at least not knowingly – I probably heard him before and didn’t realize it. So I’ve only listened to his last three cd’s, but now I really want to go out and listen to more of his older stuff.
And that’s about it. If you ever hear about Common, you’ll hear him described as a “conscious rapper” and that’s more or less true. Sure he raps about some grittier stuff, but I like Common so much because he’s socially, spiritually, and poltically aware and that comes through in his songs. He’s thoughtful and intelligent and his songs make you think. I hate when people automatically associate all rap with “thug / hate / sex / violence” music, I hate when people hear Lil Wayne on the radio and assume that THAT’S what all rap is. Common is the perfect rapper to clear up those misconceptions. He’s a great example of hip-hop.
So, overall an interesting read. Go listen to Common (I recommend his cd’s Be and Finding Forever) and if you like what you hear, then check out his book.
Sarah Says: 3 stars
