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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

b. Howard Bailey, 9 March 1980, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. This US rapper burst into the mainstream charts in summer 2003 with the anthemic "Right Thurr', a catchy slice of southern hip-hop that briefly threatened to unseat the reigning king of pop ra…

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 …

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…

One of the most thuggish rappers ever embraced by the mainstream Trick Daddy broke out of the South in 2001 with Im a Thug and established himself as an unlikely national superstar Before his breakthrough he scored a few regional hits here and there …

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…

Emerging in the wake of hip-hop's greatest loss--the deaths of Notorious B.I.G. and 2pac--Ja Rule traded narrative skill for photogenic presence, party-minded rhymes, and a DMX-influenced mode of volatile masculinity. Reflecting the political title o…

Along with fellow Cash Money Click labelmate Juvenile, Lil Wayne is one of the most important MCs in the unfairly overlooked early 21st-century New Orleans rap scene. As one might guess, blunt ghetto narratives about the hustler's life fill Wayne's …

The boisterous and brash Trillville began their bid for the title Gods of Crunk in 1997 while attending ninth grade in Atlantas public school system Dirty Mouth was leader of the schools snare drum line along with writing his own rhymes Don P was rap…

b. Wesley Weston, Houston, Texas, USA. Lil' Flip aka the Leprechaun, burst onto the national US hip-hop scene in 2002 with the release of his major label debut, Undaground Legend. The young rapper first made a name for himself with appearances on mix…

b. Jerrell Jones, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Although his debut single, "Tipsy", quickly found its way into the Billboard Top 5 in the USA at the start of 2004, rapper J-Kwon's life had been a struggle prior to this success. Originating from St. Louis…