b. Nicholas Gene Carter, 28 January 1980, Jamestown, New York, USA. The first member of the Backstreet Boys to undertake a solo career, blonde good-looking Carter took the chance to exhibit his love of hard rock on Now Or Never, released by Jive Reco…

In the late 1990s, the upper reaches of the pop charts were inhabited by a plethora of teen bands, among them the talented R&B group 98 Degrees. Although many considered them just an extension of such established male teen outfits as the Backstreet B…

b. William Wendell Gilman, 24 May 1988, Westerly, Rhode Island, USA. The youngest artist ever to have a US hit country single, Gilman's precocious talent rivals that of pop singer Aaron Carter, classical soprano Charlotte Church, and rapper Lil Bow W…

This Irish boy band, originally known as Westside, emerged in the late 90s as the highly successful protégés of Ronan Keating of Boyzone. The three founding members, Kian Egan (b. 29 April 1980, Sligo, Eire), Shane Filan (b. 5 July 1979, Sligo, Eire)…

b. 5 May 1981, Southampton, Hampshire, England. Craig emerged in late 1999 and early 2000 on the UK soul and R&B scene. His first success was as the smooth, soulful voice on Artful Dodger's "Re-rewind When The Crowd Say Bo Selecta" that reached numbe…

Rivaling Sean "Puffy" Combs for the title of Most Visible Rap Mogul, rapper Master P (born Percy Miller) ran the No Limit label, was a player with the Charlotte Hornets, and put out films such as the comedy I GOT THE HOOK-UP. Responsible for exportin…

Jamaican-born Carl Douglas was working with producer Biddu during 1974 when the necessity to record a b-side to "I Want To Give You My Everything", resulted in "Kung Fu Fighting", a song which apparently took only 10 minutes to record. When the Dougl…

The untimely death of the precocious young R&B star Aaliyah in 2001 was a shock to her many fans and to the music industry. The youthful siren's albums and her collaborations with Timbaland, R. Kelly, and Missy Elliot brought her as much renown as he…

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…

This gimmicky duo of real life "hip-hop twins" Glennis "Sly" and Lennis "Slick" Brown began to rap in New York City, New York, USA, in the late 80s. Signed to Profile Records, their debut self-titled album, released in 1989, graced the Billboard Top …