A founding member of seminal West Coast gangsta rap group NWA, Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson) has managed to acheive longevity in the notoriously short-lived world of rap stardom. His earlier solo albums (LETHAL INJECTION, DEATH CERTIFICATE) are among the…

Springing without warning from a late-1980s crack war-torn Los Angeles, N.W.A. made their neighborhood infamous with STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON. The group--which included Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E--was among the first on the West Coast to address str…

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…

Of the many skilled lyricists among his early-1990s East Coast contemporaries (Nas, Jeru, Black Moon), Biggie Smalls, AKA the Notorious B.I.G., was the only one who lived up to the predictions of a comeback for the East Coast hardcore sound. With the…

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…

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…

A member of famed Houston gangsta rap group the Geto Boys, Scarface is one of the most respected southern MCs of all time. As a solo artist, he is by far the most successful member of the Geto Boys and is often credited with bringing southern hip-hop…

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…

Arriving in the early 1990s, when rap was split between gangstas and bohemian jazz-rappers, Staten Island's Wu-Tang Clan promptly reinvented intelligent hardcore hip-hop. A unique contract deal, allowing the group's individual members--including Ol' …

Cross hardcore rap, alternative rock, and a defiantly pro-marijuana agenda, and you get groundbreaking hip-hoppers Cypress Hill. The band's genre-bending approach, as well as its English-Spanish bilingualism and rapper B-Real's distinctive nasal styl…

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…

The early-1990s advent of A Tribe Called Quest represented one of the key evolutions in rap music. The New York group signaled a shift from the boisterous braggadocio of the old school to a more laid-back, fun-loving form buoyed by sophisticated prod…

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…

Prior to gaining mainstream exposure during late 2004 and early 2005 with his single Still Tippin Houston-based MC Mike Jones had long become a stalwart of the Swishahouse label with a handful of releases under his belt His breakout album Who Is Mike…

With a smoother, more hypnotically listenable version of Run-DMC's streetwise forthrightness, Eric B. & Rakim added another layer of depth to 1980s rap music. Among the first acts to articulate a hip-hop worldview, the duo represented the first flowe…

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…

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…

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…

Striking the perfect balance between street cred and sophisticated musicality, Guru and DJ Premier of Gang Starr emerged as hip-hop pioneers in the late 1980s with their sophisticated, jazz-influenced sound. They are among the select few who command …

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…