Common, the Oscar-winning rapper, actor and activist, has alleged that he was sexually abused as a child by a family friend.
In his memoir Let Love Have the Last Word, he recalls a trip to his aunt’s house aged nine or 10, accompanied by a relative of a family friend. He alleges that when they had to share a bed together one night, “Brandon” molested him and tried to have him reciprocate. “I kept repeating ‘no’ and pushing him away,” Common writes. “I felt a deep and sudden shame for what happened.”
He says he “pushed the whole thing out of my head”, and didn’t recall the incident until working on The Tale, a 2018 film whose storyline features a woman investigating childhood rape cases, and questioning her own past. “One day, while talking through the script with Laura [Dern], old memories surprisingly flashed in my mind,” he writes. “I caught my breath and just kept looping the memories over and over, like rewinding an old VHS tape … I said ‘Laura, I think I was abused.’”
He writes that he has forgiven his alleged attacker: “I want to be a person who helps break cycles of violence.”
Common has had an illustrious career in music and film, with 11 studio albums and roles in films including American Gangster, Terminator Salvation and the John Wick saga. He has earned three Grammys from 20 nominations, and has twice been nominated for an Oscar for best original song, winning in 2015 for Glory, recorded for Selma.
