Common was born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. in Chicago's South Side on the 13th of March 1972. He is the son of educator Dr. Mahalia Ann Hines and former ABA basketball player turned youth counselor Lonnie Lynn. While a student at Luther High School South in Chicago, Common, with his childhood friends, record producer No I.D., and Corey Crawley formed a rap trio called C.D.R., that opened for acts that included N.W.A and Big Daddy Kane. Common attended Florida A&M University for two years under a scholarship and majored in business administration. After being featured in the Unsigned Hype column of The Source magazine, Common was signed to Relativity Records in December 1991. He debuted in 1992 with the single "Take It EZ", followed by the album Can I Borrow a Dollar?, under the stage name Common Sense. With the release of Resurrection in 1994, Common achieved a much larger degree of critical acclaim, which extended beyond Chicago natives. The album sold relatively well and received a strong positive reaction among alternative and underground hip hop fans at the time. Resurrection was Common's last album produced entirely by his long-time production partner, No I.D., who was also the then-mentor of a young Kanye West. This album was also the last album released under the stage name Common Sense because he was sued by an Orange County-based reggae band with the same name and he was forced to shorten his moniker to simply Common. Despite a few stretch marks in his catalog - mainly Universal Mic Control and some might say Electric Circus - Common has released other classics such as One Day It'll All Make Sense, Like Water For Chocolate and Be, as well as consistently solid albums like Finding Forever, The Dreamer/The Believer, Nobody's Smiling, and more; including a recent collaborative album with Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins as August Greene. Whether its acting, battle-rapping, breaking or freestyling, Common has shown time and again that he's rooted in this culture. Below is a playlist to celebrate his born day and the many great records he's released over the years. Check it out...