In a career spanning 10 albums, and a plethora of powerful feature, soundtrack, and compilation appearances, Common’s catalog is staggering. Speaking with Tim Einenkel’s The Library Podcast, the MC formerly known as Common Sense was asked to select his five personal songs that would “make up an autobiography.”

This year’s Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival headliner’s selections, none of which pull from the same album twice, may surprise you.

“From my body of work, I would say ‘The Book Of Life’ off my album Resurrection would be one. I would have to go with ‘Invocation,’ which was the intro to One Day It’ll All Make Sense. Off of Like Water For Chocolate, I would say ‘The Light’ because it definitely expresses a certain aspect of me.”

Common continued, further into the 2000s. “Off of Be, I would say ‘It’s Your World’ [which] expresses who I am [like an] autobiography. Off of Finding Forever, it would be ‘The People.’ I feel like I’m a man of the people.”

What song do you think most embodies Common?

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