In the beginning, rap was not about keeping it real, but about escaping from what Marvin Gaye called the "inner city blues." Why would you want to hear about real life when a rapper could roll out a magic carpet of rhymes and transport you to regions of unimaginable wealth? Fast-forward to 2019, to a memoir by Chicago-born rapper/actor Common, Let Love Have the Last Word, and you'll find an MC with more money than a sucker could ever spend. He is very rich, among the 1 percent, and he has written a book that offers a very realistic image of this fantasy life. "It's human nature to feel the absence of things, the lack," he writes in that opening chapter, "more than the bounties, the presence of people and blessings, the very present itself." But Common was not born rich. He came from the streets, and he makes that clear: "The love of God, the Most High, adds depth to my very real and human life; regardless of being a celebrity, at heart I'm still that lanky Black dude from the South Side of Chicago."  by Charles Mudede