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…

This controversial Detroit, Michigan, USA-based populist hip-hop crew have benefited from their close involvement with Eminem, who has stayed true to his word by taking breaks from his highly successful solo career and recording with his former cohor…

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…

Owing to the extraordinary success of his official solo debut, Get Rich Or Die Tryin', it was only a matter of time before US rapper 50 Cent (b. Curtis Jackson, 6 July 1976, Queens, New York City, New York, USA) launched his own collective, G-Unit. W…

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…

Aside from 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks is the most successful member of G-Unit to go solo. Banks was a founding member of the Queens rap group along with Tony Yayo and Fiddy himself; he released his first solo album, THE HUNGER FOR MORE, in 2004. Bringing t…

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…

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…

Xzibit is one of the most respected rappers in the West Coast underground. The Detroit-born/L.A.-based MC created a nice buzz with his 1996 debut, AT THE SPEED OF LIFE, which displayed Xzibit's fierce, technically dazzling flow, and a creative emphas…

Rapper Jayceon Taylor, better known in the hip-hop world as the Game, turned to music for redemption after his wild youth led to his near-fatal shooting. By the time he recovered from his wounds, he had developed a formidable style rooted in old-scho…

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…

Beginning his career in the early 1990s as a member of the Oakland rap-funksters Digital Underground, 2Pac rose to become perhaps the single most controversial figure in rap music, easily equal in popularity and notoriety to Snoop Dogg on the West Co…

Although T.I. was a player on the Atlanta rap scene as early as early as 2001, a less-than-stellar debut and a brief prison stint delayed his rise to fame until 2004 and the release of URBAN LEGEND. Featuring a host of top-shelf producers and guest M…

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…

Like pop stars in the days of yore, late-1990s hip-hop icon DMX has made his mark both as a recording artist and as an actor. His charisma and intensity serve him as well on screen as they do on record, and he has appeared in such popular films as RO…

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 …

b. John Jackson, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. This New York rapper shot to fame in 2001 as the poster-boy of DJ Clue?'s new label, Desert Storm. Hired as much for his looks as his rapping ability, Fabolous was used by Clue? to cash in on t…

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-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…

b. David Brown, 15 March 1981, Tennessee, USA. Gangsta rapper Young Buck came to prominence in the early years of the twenty-first century as a member of 50 Cent's G-Unit crew. The Nashville, Tennessee native began rapping at an early age and after l…