No. 15: Common

The son of a professor, Lonnie Lynn Jr. has always been capable of putting together top-quality verses...and more often than not, he's done just that.

Common Sense made his debut in 1992 with Can I Borrow A Dollar?, and he sounded very little like the Common most fans have become familiar with. His style was clearly influenced by early-1990s East Coast acts (kind of like Jay-Z on his early "Show And Prove" cameo), as evidenced by his flow on the "Soul By The Pound" remix.*

(* — This was the first Common song I heard...and I was quasi-heartbroken when I bought Can I Borrow A Dollar? and the remix wasn't on there.)

Pretentious? Maybe. But I've earned the right to be.

After not generating enough buzz with his first LP, Common Sense went back to the lab to work on a new style. He emerged with Resurrection in 1994, sounding completely different and much more like his present-day self. The album brought him major critical acclaim, particularly for the classic "I Used To Love H.E.R." That same song wound up causing a beef between Common and the Westside Connection, eventually leading to Common's battle-ending "The Bitch In Yoo," one of the better dis tracks ever.

For his third album, One Day It'll All Make Sense, Common dropped the "Sense" from his name but not from his product. One Day might be the best all-around work of his career, featuring a host of notable guest appearances (De La Soul, Black Thought, Cee-Lo, Erykah Badu, & Q-Tip, among others). The three "Stolen Moments" tracks offer a solid example of storytelling, and Common delivers strong, boastful punchlines with Canibus on "Making A Name For Ourselves" — but the true jewel is "Retrospect For Life," a duet with Lauryn Hill looking back with regret at a terminated pregnancy:

From now on/I'm a use self-control instead of birth control
'Cause 315 dollars ain't worth your soul...

Common stayed conscious on Like Water For Chocolate, which proved to be his first true commercial success, then slipped a bit on Electric Circus, an experimental album that was ridiculed by some (including me) as too soft. Us critics got our comeuppance in 2005 with the release of Be, one of the better records of the last decade. Almost exclusively produced by Kanye West (who is much better behind the boards than he is on the mic), Be delivers an old-school feel throughout and reclaims Common's street cred.

He's mellowed again since...but while his music has been fairly hit-and-miss at times, Common deserves a ton of credit for maintaining an aura of positivity in a genre increasingly dominated by materialism, violence and bullshit in general. He's managed to carve out a long and distinguished career without (too many) blatantly commercial efforts, and he's shown himself capable of evolving and pulling off different styles.

Common is one of the few mainstream emcees left keeping real hip-hop alive. Honestly, I can't be mad if you think I under-ranked him by a couple of spots. But here he is.