b. Sean Paul Henriques, 8 January 1973, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. Paul was educated at Wolmers High School near the National Heroes Stadium, and the exclusive Bel Air High School in uptown Mandeville. His principal vocational research was at th…

D4L broke out in 2005 with Laffy Taffy one of several crossover tracks released during the early 2000s to inspire revelry as often as contempt depending on listeners tolerance for cleverly produced tracks with sharp hooks and crude sexual euphemisms …

A popular Hollywood burlesque act, the Pussycat Dolls emerged as mainstream fixtures when they became an outlet for big-name celebrities looking to embrace their inner sex kittens. As a musical act, the Dolls scored huge hits with a familiar albeit …

b. LaRon James, Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. Juelz Santana began rapping and rhyming at the age of 12, when he and a friend formed Draft Pick. The duo played several local gigs, including an Amateur Night performance at the legendary Apollo.…

The Los Angeles-based hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas has made a name for itself by taking an eclectic and organic approach to rap, R&B, and funk. Led by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Will.I.Am., the band also includes two other MCs, Apl.de.Ap. and Ta…

Tallahassee-based MC and vocalist T-Pain born Faheem Najm came up in a rap group called Nappy Headz but went pro as a solo RB artist after he recorded Im Fked Up a personal take on Akons Top Ten hit Locked Up Akon heard the track and took T-Pain unde…

St. Louis, Missouri rapper Nelly (of the St. Lunatics clique) dominated MTV and radio in late 2000 with his debut COUNTRY GRAMMAR, which featured irresistible hooks, a danceable tempo, newly styled bounce beats different from the New Orleans-based No…

Atlanta-based Young Jeezy originally planned on having a background role in the music industry -- as a businessman not as a rapper Years before making his first Def Jam album -- Lets Get It Thug Motivation 101 released in July 2005 -- he set up Corpo…

Kanye West first gained fame as an acclaimed hip-hop producer, working with Jay-Z, Foxy Brown, Mase, and others. West's solo debut was delayed due to a serious car accident, but when THE COLLEGE DROPOUT finally appeared in 2004, it took the hip-hop w…

The name translates literally as "Barking Dog", a fitting title for Japan's finest exponents of melodic heavy metal. Formed in 1976, the band comprised Kyoji Yamamoto (vocals/guitar), Mitsuhiro Saito (vocals/guitar), Kenji Sano (bass) and Toshiri Nii…

Videos and albums are not always the preferred formats for gaining success as a recording artist--it was an appearance in the hit Will Smith movie MEN IN BLACK that gave Destiny's Child a major boost to their recording career. From there, the all-fem…

A green-eyed beauty with a sultry voice, Rihanna was discovered as a teenager on her island home of Barbados, and quickly signed with the venerable Def Jam records. Powered by a Soft Cell sample, her infectious dancehall/Caribbean single "Pon de Repl…

Out of the backwaters of Oklahoma rose the power-pop clatter of the All-American Rejects, whose 2002 self-titled debut album, released on the indie Doghouse Records, yielded a huge fan base and the attention of several major labels. In a field crowde…

The mercurial term "emo" has meant many different things since its first appearance in the mid-1980s hardcore punk underground. By the mid 2000s, the term was best exemplified by the band Fall Out Boy. Playing an accessible brand of melodic rock mark…

Flying under the mainstream radar for many years, Chamillionaire (aka the Mixtape Messiah) has been a fixture of the Houston hip-hop scene since he was a teenager, working with the now-legendary Swisha House clique and releasing dozens of mixtapes th…

Arriving on the heels of big sisterRB star Brandy rapper Ray J parlayed his success on television into a music career at the age of 14 Born in McComb MS Ray Js family moved to Carson CA when he was still a toddler landing him in the center of the ent…

Turning the music world on its head, Eminem, the blond-haired rapper from Detroit, forced the hip-hop world to accept him as an equal. Despite lyrics full of anger, misogyny, violence, racism, and homophobia, Eminem has been a major commercial succes…

A soulful and poppy sensation from the U.K., Natasha Bedingfield outdid her older brother Daniel's pop success when her debut album went triple platinum in her homeland, and her single "These Words" became a huge charter in the U.S. Born into a music…

As the urban regional style of Latin music heated up in the mid-2000s spearheaded by the burgeoning reggaeton sound Daddy Yankee above all led the charge selling hundreds of thousands of CDs in the wake of his international breakthrough hit Gasolina …

With the possible exception of Eightball & MJG, no single act has done more to put Memphis hip-hop on the map than siz-erp sippin' gangstas Three 6 Mafia. The group's woozy proto-Dirty South style dates back to the early 1990s, and was brought to as…