Common

Illustration: Rob Kelly

Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr.—better known as the rapper Common—may still have a residence in Brooklyn, but he’s totally gone Hollywood. This week, the 36-year-old Kanye West crony follows up his supporting role in American Gangster with a turn as a wise assassin alongside Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman in Wanted, loosely based on the Matrixy comic-book miniseries. Even more impressive: His new album, Invincible Summer, arrives in July; he’ll costar with Christian Bale in 2009’s Terminator 4; and he has been cast as Green Lantern in a live-action adaptation of DC Comics’ Justice League of America. We spoke to Common as he was cruising around Los Angeles, dishing out driving directions.

In Wanted, you play Gunsmith, a weapons expert. Did personal history help you with the role?
Well, I’ve had experiences with guns. But I don’t have a heavy knowledge of artillery. Put it this way: I’m not really a gun guy.

Have you ever owned a gun?
Yeah, I’ve owned a gun. And I’ve used a gun—but I’ve never shot it at a person. I’m not that type. That ain’t my nature, to be honest. The irony is that every movie I’ve been in, I’ve held a gun. As much as I’ve expressed peace in my music, it’s like, Man, I’m carrying guns in every movie!

You famously had a feud with the Westside Connection in the mid-1990s, though. Was it gunplay-free?
Yeah. It was strictly on record. It got squashed really quick because it was a time when we needed more peace in hip-hop. So we kept the peace, man. We just acted the way grown men do.

Have you had any beefs recently?
No. I’m a vegetarian. Well, I’m pescatarian. I eat fish—but no beef.

What did you think of Angelina Jolie?All around, she’s just the freshest, man.

Could you define freshest?
Someone who’s fresh has a lot of good qualities. When I describe Angelina as being fresh, I’m saying, like, she’s beautiful, she’s creative, she’s cool, she’s funny, she’s real, she has style, she’s a good mother. It’s like being a good tree. A good tree don’t bear no bad fruit. Angelina is a good tree.

What percentage of people you meet are fresh?
I’d give it 5 percent—and I meet a lot of people.

Who else is fresh?
Obama is fresh. John F. Kennedy was fresh. With certain people, it’s just about what they do. It’s about their aura, about who they are, the choices they’ve made.

So I take it that you don’t think George W. Bush is fresh?
Are you saying that you think that he is?

No! Do you?
Nah—he’s the opposite. He’s wack. Or, as N.E.R.D. says, “He so anti, he don’t even matter. He’s antimatter.”

You grew up in Chicago. True or false: You first became interested in rap when you heard “The Super Bowl Shuffle.”
False. That’s very false. I loved that song—all the Bears superstars giving it up for rap, which wasn’t big at the time. But I was into rap by ’80, ’81. The movie Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo? It was fresh.

Agreed. As a teenager, you worked as a ball boy for the Chicago Bulls. Did you have to pick up jockstraps?
I didn’t pick up no jocks. I picked up towels and sweatsuits, and I got the players water. But I wasn’t a jock picker-upper. I was too cool for that.

Your father was briefly in the ABA. Are you a baller?
I had game. I should have been in the NBA, I could have been in the NBA. But man, I played in the celebrity game at NBA All-Star Game weekend this year, and I had the worst outing I could ever have.

What happened?
Basically, I had just got the rebound with five seconds left and we were down by one. I turn around and shoot—and get my shot blocked by some girl that plays in the WNBA.

Ouch.
She got me, man. At first I thought the worst thing that could happen to me there was that Taylor Hicks hit a jump shot on me. That was bad. But then when the girl blocked my shot? Man, that was not how I pictured it.

Wanted opens June 27.