In the mid-1980s, the idea of white middle-class Jewish rappers may have provoked laughter or outright disdain, but the Beastie Boys' albums and singles have shown that they are anything but a joke. After hip-hop and rock fused into the music of choi…

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…

Since releasing his recording debut while still a teenager, LL Cool J has enjoyed one of the most successful and sustained careers in rap history. His aggressive, self-aggrandizing style was one of the form's touchstones in its early incarnation. Aft…

Hailing from Queens, New York, rapper 50 Cent had already garnered a grass-roots reputation as one of the hottest MCs around when he was tapped in the early 2000s by hip-hop golden boy Eminem for inclusion on the soundtrack to his film 8 MILE and a p…

Atlanta-based hip-hop duo Outkast succeeded in bringing an unorthodox rhyme style and quirky, P-Funk-influenced sound and presentation into the rap mainstream. Successful since their 1994 debut, Outkast have gotten progressively more idiosyncratic. T…

In the late 1980s, Public Enemy connected the dots between politics, soul music, hard rock, marketing, turntablism, and rhyme, and turned hip-hop into an urban global youth movement. PE's pioneering albums are heralded as avant-garde artworks whose d…

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…

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, Georgia-based rapper Ludacris was a local success story. As a former intern on an Atlanta radio station, he became known for his theatrical station IDs. In 2000 he parlayed this notoriety into a successful debut album that he self-marketed t…

Considered one of the best lyricists to emerge in the wake of the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac's deaths, Jay-Z has since carried the flag of hip-hop narrative skill. His Roc-A-Fella family had already created a solid reputation based on Jay-Z's 1997 de…

Springing without warning from a late-1980s crack war-torn Los Angeles, N.W.A. made their neighborhood infamous with STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON. The group--which included Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E--was among the first on the West Coast to address str…

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…

Snoop Doggy Dogg ensured his place in rap history by providing the perfect vocal complement to Dr. Dre's mellow, ominous, West Coast G-funk sound. His distinctively lazy singsong and soft-spoken drawl was first heard on Dre's title cut from the DEEP …

With a smoother, more hypnotically listenable version of Run-DMC's streetwise forthrightness, Eric B. & Rakim added another layer of depth to 1980s rap music. Among the first acts to articulate a hip-hop worldview, the duo represented the first flowe…

Dr. Dre has dictated the pace of change in West Coast rap more than any other single figure. As DJ/producer for N.W.A., he ushered in a whole new era in rap by adapting the raw sonics of Public Enemy & Boogie Down Productions to the ethos of L.A.'s y…

b. Anthony Ray, 12 August 1963, USA. Seattle based MC and producer Sir Mix-A-Lot broke with "Posse On Broadway", a statement of intent released on his own label in 1986, which went on to sell over a million copies. Further crossover success arrived w…

Coming out of the grass-roots Gilman St. punk scene of the early-1990s Bay Area, Green Day exploded into the mainstream with their third album, 1994's DOOKIE. The trio's punk energy and pop hooks, influenced by first-generation punks like the Buzzcoc…

One of the most thuggish rappers ever embraced by the mainstream Trick Daddy broke out of the South in 2001 with Im a Thug and established himself as an unlikely national superstar Before his breakthrough he scored a few regional hits here and there …

Hailed as a potential savior of the East Coast hardcore sound in an era when West Coast G-funk held a monopoly on the hip-hop audience's attention, Nas garnered no end of critical praise and street credibility with his debut album, 1994's influential…

In the spotlight since the age of four, Michael Jackson rose to fame as the lead vocalist for the Jackson Five. In the late 1970s, Jackson embarked on a solo career as a young adult with the Quincy Jones-produced OFF THE WALL. With one hit album unde…