Grammy-winning rapper Common has debuted his new memoir Let Love Have the Last Word that details a painful experience from when he was a child. The book as a whole explores the definition of love and Common's personal journey with self-love and love with both family members and partners. One passage of the book explains the moment Common was working on a scene for his role in The Tale and how a workshop for understanding his character, triggered a memory from when he was molested as a child.
“I was excited for a road trip I was about to take with my family. My mother; my godmother, Barbara; her son and my godbrother Skeet; and his relative, who I’ll call Brandon…” the memoir reads
Common was just nine or 10-years-old at the time and once they arrived at their destination, he and Brandon were made to share a bed together.
“At some point I felt Brandon’s hand on me,” he writes. “I pushed him away. I don’t remember saying a whole lot besides ‘No, no, no’…He kept saying ‘It’s okay, It’s okay,’ as he pulled down my shorts and molested me. After he stopped he kept asking me to perform it on him. I kept repeating ‘No’ and pushing him away,” he continued. “I felt a deep and sudden shame for what happened.”
Common explains how he pushed it out of his head as a means to cope with the traumatic event. “Maybe it’s a matter of survival—Even now, two years after that flash resurgence of memories, as I’m writing, I’m still working through all of this in myself and with my therapist.”
