TIME unveiled their annual list of 100 most influential people on Thursday and many familiar faces made the cut. Chance the Rapper is featured on the list and, in his letter of support, fellow Chicago native Common remembered calling the aspiring rapper to offer some advice.
"Years ago, my grandmother asked me to call her friend’s grandson. 'I want you to give him some words of encouragement,' she said. 'He wants to be a rapper.' She gave me his number, and I left him a message," Common wrote in his essay about Chance. "I told him to keep following his dreams. Then I forgot all about it."
Years later, Common's daughter played him Chance's debut mixtape, 10 Day, and he connected the dots. "There was something unique and soulful about it — I could tell he really knew hip-hop. And when I first met him, I realized that he knew me too. 'You won’t remember this,' he said, 'but you called me when I was a kid.'”
The TIME 100 list also includes Donald Glover, Ava DuVernay, Barry Jenkins, Alicia Keys, Kerry James Marshall, Riz Ahmed, Colson Whitehead, and more. See the full list here.
