Whenever anyone mentions the name of Detroit rapper Royce Da 59 a whole list of other names surround it First people mention his passing resemblance to LL Cool J Others might know him as the guy who teamed up with teen singer Willa Ford on her 2001 h…

Rebellious and nasty the Blood Brothers defined their own punk-soaked angst rock when they came together in 1997 Jordan Blilie vocals Johnny Whitney vocals Waxwings Cody Votolato guitar Morgan Henderson bass and Mark Gajadhar drums all hail from Seat…

b. Troy Birklett, South Park, Houston, Texas, USA. This southern rapper's entrepreneurial spirit - he runs his own Short Stop Records label - earned comparisons to Master P in its implicit challenge to the east coast/west coast domination of hip-hop.…

When the quick-rapping crunk to the core Lil Wyte first came to the attention of the Three 6 Mafia it was with an all-white group of which Wyte was a member The group fell apart but the Memphis-based Wyte was too skilled to be stopped Three 6 Mafia m…

Everlast first broke onto the music scene in the early-'90s as part of the Irish-American frat-boy rappers of House Of Pain (who scored a monster hit with "Jump Around"). He launched a solo career after the outfit split in the middle of the decade. D…

A Change of Pace initially came together around high-school buddies Torry Jasper vocalsguitar and Jonathan Kelly drums who were both itching to graduate so they could get out of their sleepy hometown of Peoria AZ Bonding over a shared love of pop-pun…

Inspired by groups like Refused and the Mars Volta Tucson-based post-hardcore quintet the Bled burst onto the national scene with their 2005 Vagrant debut Found in the Flood By that point the bands lineup featured vocalist James Muoz guitarists Ross …

Proteges of the late Erick "Eazy-E" Wright, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony quickly found a mass audience in the 1980s for their unique style, a combination of syrupy R&B harmonies with gang-banger imagery and double-time, tongue-twisting rhymes derivative of t…

Philadelphias Circa Survive was formed by former Saosin vocalist Anthony Green with guitarist Colin Frangicetto -- both of them veterans of the local emo and hardcore scenes looking to indulge in the rule-breaking freedom of the neo-progressive movem…

Houston, TX hip-hop trio the Geto Boys--featuring Bushwick Bill, Scarface, and Willie D.--exploded onto the rap world in the early 1990s with a style that gleefully exposed the dark underbelly of modern life. With tracks delving unflinchingly into th…

One of several rap metal bands to emerge in the twenty-first century, the Nashville, Tennessee, USA-based Hot Action Cop comprises vocalist Rob Werthner (b. New York, USA; vocals), Tim Flaherty (guitar), Luis Espaillat (bass), and Kory Knipp (drums).…

Shock rock and theatrics are nothing new to the hard-rock world, but few had combined them with hip-hop until Insane Clown Posse came along in the early 1990s. Led by two gentlemen who hide their identities behind Kiss-like Kabuki make-up, the group …

California-based Saosin burst onto the post-hardcore scene in March 2003 with their explosive screamo-tinged debut EP Translating the Name on Death Do Us Part For the recording the band was comprised of vocalist Anthony Green former Slayer guitar tec…

Originally known as the Chiodos Bros the sextet better known as simply Chiodos pronounced chee-OH-dose -- named after an obscure 80s horror movie term -- came together during high school in their hometown of Davison MI located just outside of Flint C…

Oakland, California's original hip-hop export, Too Short was also one of the very first West Coast MCs, having started self-releasing records as early as 1983. Too Short is very much a prototype of the hustla/pimp/playa figure that has virtually come…

Like From Autumn to Ashes Nora and Hopesfall just to give three examples Emery is an alternative poprock outfit that has been described as melodic hardcore That means that they arent providing pure unadulterated hardcore let alone metalcore in the tr…

Similar in sound and style to melodic hard rock bands such as Incubus and P.O.D., the Stockholm, Sweden quartet Blindside has been performing since 1994, even though all four of its members, Christian Lindskog (vocals), Simon Grenehed (guitar), Tomas…