The classic song Common wrote as a love letter to Erykah Badu
Like Water for Chocolate, released in 2000, marked a major step forward for Common, who, several years deep into his rap career, was finally now beginning to break into the mainstream. His fourth album was filled with socially conscious lyrics and beats created by J Dilla, while one of its highlight tracks functioned as a straight-up love song.
Common, during this point in his life, was going out with neo-soul legend Erykah Badu, and it was for her that he wrote ‘The Light,’ which ended up being nominated for Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammys. It was a hit.
Part of what made ‘The Light’ stand out was the manner in which it addressed women. Hip-hop, obviously, has had a strong tendency towards misogyny through the years, but this was a rare example of a rap song that resisted the trend.
Common was completely smitten by Badu at the time, which he spoke to GQ about in 2019. Acknowledging that she was the first person he had ever truly fallen in love with, he said, “I was like 25, 26, and I fell in the kind of love where all that mattered was that love, you know?”
Common looked back on his experience of loving Badu as “creative,” which, presumably, is what powered him to write ‘The Light’ about her. “It was fun,” he said of his time with Badu. “I was learning a lot and it was that feeling of butterflies in the stomach that lasts for a really long time. Also, at that time, I was striving to be a man who was willing to sacrifice and give things to build in a relationship.”
But even though he fell hard for Badu, their relationship didn’t make it. After about two years, things ended—and Common was left devastated.
“When we split, I was 27 or 28,” he recalled to People in 2019. “I was in a haze, just going through the motions. It was hard to eat.”
The break-up hit Common hard, but he claimed to People that he didn’t blame her for it. Things just didn’t work out, as they so often don’t. “It wasn’t her fault,” he said, “the relationship just didn’t go forward.”
Common got over it eventually, going on to date tennis legend Serena Williams for a couple of years before, most recently, getting into a relationship with singer and actor Jennifer Hudson. His days with Badu are long in the past, but ‘The Light’ stands as a testament to the relationship.