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…

b. Kasseem Dean, the Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Dean aka Swizz Beatz emerged in the early twenty-first century as one of urban music's most distinctive producers. He was raised in the Bronx but relocated to Atlant…

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…

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…

Born into a Jamaican-American family in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan Shawn Mims grew up influenced by the rappers just south of him in Harlem Despite the fact that he lost both parents by the time he was 13 Mims focused on music h…

Based in Mobile AL rapper Rich Boy born Maurice Richards didnt enter the music industry until after he enrolled as a mechanical engineering major at Tuskegee University Before then he did music in his spare time but he eventually dropped out of schoo…

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…

Hailing from New Orleans Baby Boy da Prince followed in the footsteps of his citys two major camps No Limit and Cash Money Records His excursion into the rap game officially began when he opened in concert for No Limit recording artist Choppa After s…

b. Lumidee Cedeño, New York City, New York, USA. This urban R&B singer grew up in the Spanish Harlem district of New York, and was rapping before she had even begun high school. After graduation she teamed up with local DJ Tedsmooth and signed to his…