As a hip-hop artist, Common has a reputation for being one of the most consistently conscious spitters in the game but, until now, his acting roles haven’t conveyed the passion and spirit that has helped him maintain a respectable and long-lived music career. With Hell on Wheels, he enters new territory.
In the AMC series, which premiered November 6, he has taken a role that many would consider very risky, especially given his primary career. But, yet, playing former slave Elam Ferguson in 1865 as he works, along many others, including former Confederate soldiers, building the transcontinental railroad, is proving to be one of his smartest career choices to date.
