There's a lot of misconceptions about Common with a lot of the younger generation assuming that he's always been this peaceful, docile member of the hip-hop community but that's not true at all. At one point in time, Common was one of the hardest mainstream rappers to come out of Chicago and even sparked a pretty big beef with west coast gangsta rapper, Ice Cube that almost turned violent. Luckily, Common found a new sense of consciousness and has been dropping classic albums ever since.
His 2000 album, Like Water For Chocolate, provided him with the respect and notoriety throughout the entire hip-hop community but it wasn't until his album solely produced by Kanye West entitled Be, that he won a Grammy for Best Rap Album. Now, Common has become the spokesperson for almost everything positive and he's everywhere from commercials to television shows to movies and still has the ability to drop a dope sixteen at any time.