I just wanted to chime in about all of the other pages...
I never said that Common was hard, I said that he rapped.
In my opinion there are no Hard rappers, just Hard beats that are rapped on.
Everyone that produces a lyrical melody is rapping IMO. Common, Nas, Mos Def, Fat Joe, Big Pun, LL Cool J, Tupac, Big, 3-6 mafia, Lil Jon, Remi martin, etc... THEY ALL RAP...
but the songs that they put out might be classified as an R&B song...
Tupac is a gansta rapper, most would agree, so is BIG and 50 cent...
YET the songs that they have put out might not be considered a rap song.
for example
"message to my unborn child" by tupac
"Staring through my rear View" also by tupac
both can be consider R&b songs...