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The late '90s produced very few gifted and intelligent rappers compared to the music's commercial success of the time; Chicago's Common proved to be one of the best, breaking out with his 1997 LP One Day It'll All Make Sense. A former ball boy for the Chicago Bulls, the rapper was originally known as Common Sense on a pair of albums for Combat and Ruthless, 1992's Can I Borrow a Dollar? and 1994's Resurrection. From the latter album, "I Used to Love H.E.R." gained respect in hip-hop's underground for its denouncement of gangsta rap. By 1997, Common Sense had shortened his name to Common, and his third album One Day It'll All Make Sense included a duet with the Fugees' Lauryn Hill, as well as collaborations with Q-Tip (from A Tribe Called Quest), De La Soul, Black Thought (from the Roots) and Erykah Badu. Like Water for Chocolate followed in the spring of 2000.





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