Common Celebrates His Daughter's Incredible Achievement
Rapper and actor Common celebrated the graduation of his only child, Omoye Lynn, from Howard University law school this weekend. His mother, Mahalia, joined him as he cheered on the graduate during her hooding ceremony. "There are no words to describe how proud I am! Finishing Law School at Howard University in the 3 years is pretty AMAZING!" he wrote on Instagram. "Congrats to my daughter and all the graduates of 2022. Now go out in the world and be great!" Common's daughter has been an integral part of his work. He dedicated the song "Retrospect for Life" to her and wrote about their relationship in his memoirs One Day It'll All Make Sense and Let Love Have the Last Word.
He told PEOPLE in 2019 that, at the time, he and Omoye had begun the journey to happiness, but the path was not easy. "She's loving, funny, and really aware," Common told the publication. "And she's emotional. Now she's starting to open up more." While he and Omoye's mother, Kim Jones, split when she was only 1, he says he always tried to ensure he was present in her life. But he recently learned from his daughter that he hadn't been there for her enough, as he shared in Let Love Have the Last Word. In one late-night conversation between her father and daughter, Omoye, then 19, questioned Common about his love for her. "It kind of shocked me because that's the first time I had ever heard it," he said. "I was like, 'What do you mean?'" The feelings of abandonment she had harbored since childhood came to the surface when the two sat down together. "She said, 'It felt like you didn't fight for me.'" He believed that was largely due to complications surrounding his split from her mother. "It's the typical things you hear about with two parents who are splitting up, especially young," he explained.
In Omoye's case, "that love is obviously there. But it's like sometimes I wasn't able to have as much access, and without that we couldn't build the strongest relationship." He added, "some of it was me being in the pursuit of my career, too." As he chased success on the charts and the big screen, "It was like, not only am I fulfilling a dream, but I'm also using it to take care of her, the family." They both took positive steps forward after hearing each other out. "We had a therapy session together, and I loved it. Well, not everything that was said, but I knew it was something that would help her move forward," Common said. "A woman's relationship with her father definitely affects how she is in relationships." These days Common gets to fully embrace the role of a proud parent in a loving, supportive relationship as he applauds his daughter's accomplishments.
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