Common: He is the Idris Elba of hip hop. He struts into any situation with a quiet cool calm of male self-assuredness that makes the ladies sick with it. Yet, women nationwide were happy for Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr when he was courting the queen of tennis, Serena Williams, for a quick minute. Hailing from the South Side of Chicago, Common comes packing with all the turbulence from that upbringing but he strains it through his soul, and what gets pour onto wax is college-level material that’s coated with love — love of himself and his people. That’s why we all had a great time laughing when first lady Michelle Obama got mad drama for inviting the “promoter of cop killers”, as some ignorant conservative with a fire-engine red neck described Common, to the White House for a special poetry session. Actually, Common looks like he’d be as comfortable in the classic romantic flick, Love Jones, which was set in Chi-town, as he is in the studio. And he has gotten much more comfortable showing his dark side on the big screen, as his gangsta role in the gritty cop drama Street Kings proved undoubtedly. That scene with Cedric the Entertainer just before the explosion of bullets was intense.
