Common’s Renaissance: A New Album and Upcoming Millennium Park Show

With over 30 years in Hip-hop, Common’s illustrious career continues to shine. The release of “The Auditorium Vol. 1” with Pete Rock, his performance with the Grant Park Orchestra, and his role in the Apple TV show “Silo” mark a season of gratitude and artistic growth for the South Side Chicago native (Photo Credit: Tacuma Roeback).To have a 20-plus year career and a stellar discography in Hip-hop is a rarity, like a quarterback winning multiple Super Bowls or an MLB player with 3,000 career hits. But that’s the rarefied air that South Side Chicago native Lonnie Rashid Lynn—aka Common—occupies.With the recent release of his exceptional album “The Auditorium Vol. 1” with legendary producer Pete Rock, Common remains one of his genre’s most influential artists, a vital link to the Native Tongues movement of the late 1980s and early 90s.Almost 32 years since his debut album “Can I Borrow a Dollar?” when Boyz II Men’s “End of the Road” was the No. 1 song in America, to now when Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” has radio in a chokehold, Common is as relevant as ever, blessed enough to receive what few artists get to enjoy while they’re living—their flowers.Speaking of being...