Oscar Award-winning rapper Common has recently hooked up some Stateville Correctional Center inmates with a new recording studio.
The “Glory” chart-topper’s goal is to provide those doing time with a new skill set that can be used on the outside, in areas that are of interest to them.
According to CBS2 the state-of-the-art recording studio has mixing boards, musical instruments, microphones, and sound panels for the inmates to rock out on.
“The gentlemen who are incarcerated deserve access to better things in life so that’s why I fight for my city,” Common shared. “And that’s why my heart is always with Chicago.”
“Being from Chicago is one of the greatest gifts and assets to me in my career and my life,” the Windy City native continued.
Common, whose real name is Rashid Lynn, was inspired to donate the equipment (and fund a 12-week-course on how to operate a studio through his nonprofit Imagine Justice), after speaking to a friend of the family named Ari Williams.
It was the attorney’s brainchild to help some of the men that she has worked with in the past.
She said, “I know music brings us all together. I want them to be OK. I want them to do something they’ve love to do. And I know many of them are rappers. They love to rap and they love to sing.”
“This brings so much hope for them and inspiration for them. Them to know people actually care about them, that can change them as well,” Williams said.
But this not just going to benefit them while they are incarcerated or when they get out. It will also help them get out sooner.
Alyssa Williams, who works for the Department of Corrections, says, “Every day they’re in this program they’ll earn a day credit off of their sentence, as long as the statute allows for that.”