B2Ks Omarion went solo in 2005 with O featuring production help from the Neptunes Rodney Jerkins and the Underdogs The title track released as the lead single helped send the album to the top of the Billboard chart His second album 21 followed in lat…

Fergie fits in between a diminishing trance scene and the radical advent of UK garage with an uncomplicated take on hard house ethics Beginning his DJ career at the age of 14 and taken through the clubland ranks with the help of Tony De Vit Fergie ma…

Though he first came to fame as a member of the definitive boy band N Sync, Justin Timberlake gained superstar status after stepping out on his own with his first solo album in 2002. JUSTIFIED showed that there was more to the then-21-year-old Timber…

Beyonce Knowles rose to fame as a member of the R&B ensemble Destiny's Child. With Beyonce's father as a manager, the group garnered massive success with their 2001 album, SURVIVOR. Soon Beyonce, sporting a sexy yet girl-next-door image, broke out on…

Though it appears that he emerged fully-formed in 2004 from the mind of Kanye West, John Legend got his start on the East Coast in the mid 1990s as John Stephens, a promising neo-soul piano-player and songwriter. After he garnered the attention of La…

b. Austin, Texas, USA. R&B vocalist Ciara enjoyed immediate commercial success when her debut "Goodies', climbed up the US charts to reach the peak position in September 2004. As a child of a military family, Ciara spent an itinerant childhood moving…

Young singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, who hails from Victoria, BC, emerged seemingly from out of nowhere with her debut album WHOA NELLY in 2000, sporting an eclectic, genre-defying sound and winsome tone. Furtado's hugely popular work incorporates …

Songwriter arranger and vocalist Ne-Yo -- born Shaffer Smith -- was born in Arkansas and raised in Las Vegas NV His start in the music industry came as a songwriter Prior to exiting his teenage years he penned material for Youngstown and broke throug…

As the lead singer of California neo-ska pop-punks No Doubt, Gwen Stefani gained notoriety for her spunky, riot grrrl-lite approach to fronting a rock band. On her 2004 solo debut, LOVE. ANGEL. MUSIC. BABY., Stefani pulled a musical about-face and fu…

In an era when female R&B singers are often little more than pitch-corrected fashion divas, Corinne Bailey Rae's 2006 debut album was a heartening triumph of vocal chops and genuine soul. The U.K.-born singer/multi-instrumentalist got her start singi…

b. Aliaune Thiam, St. Louis, USA. The son of jazz percussionist Mor Thiam, Akon spent his early years in the west African country of Senegal before his family returned to the USA and settled in New Jersey. His parents relocated to Atlanta while he wa…

Britney Spears proved that the same goldmine that Madonna and Cyndi Lauper mined in the 1980s was again ripe for the picking, and she was immediately followed up the charts by another female teenybop sensation, Christina Aguilera. Closely aligned wit…

Urban crooner Lloyd topped BETs play list singing a steamy duet with Ashanti but he got his first spins on the anything but steamy Radio Disney Born January 3 1986 in New Orleans but raised in Atlanta Lloyd joined N-Toon -- the teen pop group put tog…

Outrageously raunchy Miami-based quartet Pretty Ricky -- Spectacular Diamond Slick and Pleasure -- make a bouncing hybrid of rap and RB coated in at least 30 layers of sleaze They debuted in 2005 with Bluestars released by Atlantic Lead single Grind …

New York native Mary J. Blige was one of the first female artists to successfully merge classic soul sounds with modern day hip-hop, resulting in a string of hit singles and albums in the 1990s and early 2000s. Her influence was felt quickly by other…