Black Entertainment : Rapper Common's Father, Lonnie Lynn, Dies at 71

LOS ANGELES — Sep 16, 2014, 12:40 AM ET
By RYAN PEARSON AP Entertainment Writer



Lonnie Lynn, known to hip-hop fans for his soulful spoken-word poems on rapper son
Common's albums, has died.

Lynn died at age 71 on Friday, Common said in an interview Monday in Los Angeles. He
gave no further details.

Lynn was a star high school basketball player in Chicago and played in the 1969-1970
season in the American Basketball Association. He struggled with drug addiction and
with being a father to six children, topics he addressed in poignant, sometimes regretful
poems that concluded many of Common's albums.

"He was truly a natural poet and master of words. His personality and soul shined
through his work," Common, whose real name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., said in the
interview Monday.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/rapper-
commons-father-lonnie-lynn-dies-71-25527581

 

May the ancestors hold a spot for him at the kitchen table.

 

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