American rapper and actor Common recently made an appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose Podcast at the legendary Chicago Theater. The Grammy Award-winning artist opened up about his life from a young boy on the South Side of Chicago to pursuing a music career.Common was born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., on March 13, 1972, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. According to Britannica, he originally performed under the name Common Sense. However, after getting sued by a band with the same name in the mid-1990s, the 53-year-old artist shortened his stage name to Common.During his high school years, Common was a part of a rap trio called C.D.R.. Later, he left C.D.R. and went to study business. After getting back into music, Common achieved success and became the first in the rap world to win an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and an Academy Award.On Wednesday, July 23, 2025, British-Indian podcaster Jay Shetty asked Common what he was before winning the Emmy, the Grammy, and the Oscar. Talking about the start of his journey, the rapper said:“I was out as an artist. I was a young black boy from the south side of Chicago who had a tremendous, incredible mother and a great stepfather and a beautiful community that taught me everything from God to survival to intelligence to basketball to music to life and to love. And that gave me a foundation of someone who wanted to actually be something in the world.”Talking about how his childhood helped him to become the individual that he is today, the rapper added:“I didn't know what I wanted to be all the way, but I knew I wanted to give something to the world. And that's who I was before I actually got to be out there as an artist. Some of my dreams was basketball… to be a basketball player... I just wanted to be something.”Common says his “first dream” was to be a basketball playerDuring his appearance on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose Podcast, the American rapper also revealed his dream of pursuing basketball. When the 37-year-old host asked Common how “serious” he was to become a basketball player, the artist said:“No, that dream was very serious. I mean, I was dedicating my time and energy, a lot of it, to just playing ball. Like that was one of the most important things to me. And my dream was the Magic Johnson's, the Isaiah Thomas', the Michael Jordan's, all these great players that I actually got to be in the presence of, it was like it made it even that much more attainable to me. I worked on it. I worked on it and I got pretty good.”The Glory artist said it's “beautiful” how god orchestrates things for every individual to be where they should be. He recalled getting injured in his sophomore year and how not getting to play ball led him to wanting to write more music.“I was already writing, but it was like, ‘Okay, I can't hoop right now, so I'mma write.’ And when I came back to the team, I wasn't getting any playing time, so I was like, ‘Well, I'm going to go be a rapper then, man.’ And it just, you know, it kind of guided me to where I should be. So my first dream was to hoop.”Notably, the Testify singer discussed with Jay Shetty that he got to live out his first dream in the movie Just Wright, where he played an NBA player. As per the rapper, he felt the fulfillment as an actor by living his dream through his first leading role.Besides making a career in the music industry, Common reportedly got into television shows and movies in the 2000s. He has starred in films including American Gangster, Terminator Salvation, Date Night, Selma, Suicide Squad, and more.