The music industry can be fickle. The players change, the sounds shift and time marches on. Many artists are fortunate to enjoy a five-year career; a few might stay relevant for a decade. Musicians who thrive for 30 years stand as rare exceptions to the rule.
Enter Lonnie Rashid Lynn, who burst on the scene in 1992 as a young MC from the south side of Chicago under the name of Common Sense. In the early ‘90s, Chicago wasn’t a hip-hop hotbed; house music still reigned. That Common Sense — the moniker soon changed to Common due to a copyright lawsuit — emerged from such a low-key rap market and snagged a record deal makes his story even more remarkable.
