"Yo, the education of the Lon-chicka-Lonnie Lynn/Began, began with time"

Chicago's Common, is a Grammy, Emmy, and Academy Award–winning rapper, actor, and activist. Rising in the ’90s with "Resurrection" and “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” his catalogue of music is one of pure artistry. 

But if Common had to tell his life story through his own music, which songs would make the cut? Here’s the legend himself, breaking down the tracks that define his journey.

"Yo, the education of the Lon-chicka-Lonnie Lynn/Began, began with time" Chicago's Common, is a Grammy, Emmy, and Academy Award–winning rapper, actor, and activist. Rising in the ’90s with "Resurrection" and “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” his catalogue of music is one of pure artistry. But if Common had to tell his life story through his own music, which songs would make the cut? Here’s the legend himself, breaking down the tracks that define his journey.

Common

An artist’s story is usually told in pages or on a screen.

But what if they told it themselves — through the songs that made them?
Library Presents: Discography Autobiography flips the script. Instead of a traditional interview, we ask artists to soundtrack their own lives. The tracks that changed them. The moments that defined them.

From Hip-Hop legends and producers to cultural historians, each guest curates the music that shaped their journey — and reveals the stories behind every selection.

No narrator. No filter. Just the life… in songs.

Arts

Music

History

Performing Arts

Music History

An artist’s story is usually told in pages or on a screen. But what if they told it themselves — through the songs that made them? Library Presents: Discography Autobiography flips the script. Instead of a traditional interview, we ask artists to soundtrack their own lives. The tracks that changed them. The moments that defined them. From Hip-Hop legends and producers to cultural historians, each guest curates the music that shaped their journey — and reveals the stories behind every selection. No narrator. No filter. Just the life… in songs.

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Common

Common