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…

With her multi-octave voice and more than 80 million records sold worldwide, it's no surprise that pop diva Mariah Carey is viewed as the successor to Whitney Houston. She emerged as the premier R&B/pop songstress of the 1990s, and by the end of the …

The name translates literally as "Barking Dog", a fitting title for Japan's finest exponents of melodic heavy metal. Formed in 1976, the band comprised Kyoji Yamamoto (vocals/guitar), Mitsuhiro Saito (vocals/guitar), Kenji Sano (bass) and Toshiri Nii…

b. Mario Barrett, 27 August 1986, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. This teenage R&B sensation rose to prominence in 2002. Mario decided at an early age that he wanted to pursue a career in entertainment, as he began utilizing a karaoke machine and tinkering…

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, 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…

b. Austin, Texas, USA. R&B vocalist Ciara enjoyed immediate commercial success when her debut "Goodies', climbed up the US charts to reach the peak position in September 2004. As a child of a military family, Ciara spent an itinerant childhood moving…

Sean "Puffy" Combs, as the head of his own record company (Bad Boy), helped launch the career of the boy band 112. Unlike most of the other artists on Bad Boy, 112 have an image was the complete opposite of tough guy gangsta rappers--both their music…

Videos and albums are not always the preferred formats for gaining success as a recording artist--it was an appearance in the hit Will Smith movie MEN IN BLACK that gave Destiny's Child a major boost to their recording career. From there, the all-fem…

Tijuana-born and San Diego-raised contemporary RB artist Frankie J was raised on a steady diet of Latin music and American artists like Michael Jackson and Run-DMC At the age of 15 he was involved with the Latin freestyle scene and released a series …

Hailing from Chattanooga, TN, Usher Raymond (best known by his given name) emerged in the '90s as a young R&B singer full of promise. The stars must have been aligned correctly for him, as he snagged Puffy Combs as a producer for his eponymous 1994 d…

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…

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…

A member of ImmatureIMx Marques Batman Houston debuted as a solo artist in 2003 with MH Interscope Since joining Immature as a young adolescent in the early 90s Houston has crossed over into television as a recurring cast member of Sister Sister and …

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. Amerie Rogers, USA. Some influential music critics heralded this urban R&B singer as the new Mary J. Blige when she broke into the US pop charts in 2002. Amerie was raised in a military family, moving around the world as a youngster before finally…

If you're looking for the perfect music to cap a romantic evening or, for that matter, get one started, slow-jam master R. Kelly might just do the trick. Whether he's turning out heart-on-sleeve love ballads (the R. Kelly-penned Michael Jackson 1995 …

b. Barry Reese, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Despite being only 20 years old at the time of his debut album's release in 2004, rapper Cassidy possesses rhyming skills of someone much more mature. Brought up in Philadelphia, Cassidy was influenced…

Brooke Valentines career has been groomed by Dj a producer who placed the vocalist in a short-lived late-90s group called Best Kept Secret After the group fell through the two relocated from Houston to Los Angeles with the intent to land a solo recor…

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…