Midwest rapper Common may not be the first great rap artist to come out of Chicago, but the Illinois native certainly is one of the surviving rappers dedicated to an increasingly rare jazz-rap sound in the country. With a strong sense of creativity and sometimes politically charged songs, Common has shown the nation that he exemplifies his alter ego, previously known as Common Sense.

Born Lonnie Rashied Lynn, the man with the alias Common grew up on Chicago's South Side, working hard to scratch the surface of the hip-hop scene. Initially dubbing himself as Common Sense, the rapper got his first break when he won The Source magazine's Unsigned Hype Contest. Pushing his talent to the limits, Common Sense released his debut album "Take it EZ" in 1992, quickly followed by his debut album Can I Borrow a Dollar? The first hit singles the rapper produced gained him a sizeable following in the hip-hop underground, and he eventually signed with Ruthless Records, releasing the 1994 album Resurrection. The album caused a stir (even sparking a feud with rapper Ice Cube) with the song "I Used to Love H.E.R.," which criticized the degradation of rap to songs about sex and violence, but by this time Common Sense was unstoppable. Eventually shortening his moniker to Common after being sued by a ska band of the same name, the rapper soon switched labels to Relativity and released a number of hit albums like One Day It'll All Make Sense, Soundbombing, Vol. 2 and Like Water for Chocolate. Common's albums Be and Finding Forever reached number one on the charts, and the rapper even took home two Grammys for the 2002 single "Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip Hop)" the 2007 single "Southside." Continuing his musical domination with major label MCA, Common keeps pumping out hits, attracting more and more followers with every single that touches the charts.