Rapper Common may not have given too much thought to a voicemail he left for an aspiring rapper a decade ago, but chances are he’s giving himself a pat on the back now.
While speaking to USA Today on the Oscars red carpet Sunday, March 4, the “Stand Up for Something” performer explained he only recently learned the teenager who received the message was none other than Grammy winner Chance the Rapper.
“My grandmother asked me to leave a message for one of her friends’ sons, because he raps,” Common says at the 1:06 mark. “I left a message, I called his phone, he didn’t answer. … I left a message, an inspiring message. Ten years later, I found out it was Chance the Rapper, he told me, ‘Yo, [you] left a message.'”
“I don’t remember [what I told him],” the native of Chicago — just like Chance — says. “I told him, [to] pursue his goals and go for it. Just believe in what you’re doing and go for it.'”
