Common Freestyles at the Student Center
‘I’m rockin’ it for who? Yo, the Temple Owls.’
On Thursday, April 7th, hip hop icon and actor, Common, came to speak in the Student Center about achieving greatness.
Common is a Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award winning artist from Chicago, Illinois who started his rap career in 1992.
Students were lined up in front of room 200 to see Common speak, waiting up to two hours before the event.
When he came in, the audience cheered him on, and he began telling stories about his childhood and his path to success.
He opened up his discussion with a freestyle about Temple.
He mentioned how when he was 12 years old, he learned the story of Emmett Till, a 14 year old African American who was beaten to death in 1955. He said that the story resonated with him.
“Whatever I have to give in life, I have to give to those who lost their lives.”
He then quoted Kahlil Gibran, saying, “work is love made visible.”
He spoke about how he grew to believe in himself after his breakup with singer, Erykah Badu, which occurred during a time when he questioned his abilities. He said belief is contagious, that the more you believe, the more others believe. He then gave an anecdote about his encounter with rapper Kanye West, who was very confident at an album release party for The College Dropout.
He assured the audience by telling them, “You were created to be big. You were created to be big as a gift to this world.”
Finally, he talked about his encounter at the 2006 Grammy Awards, about the hip hop industry today, and about his faith and road to success.