Miles Parks McCollum, better known as Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty, broke onto the scene in 2015 with his self-released Summer Songs EP. The delightfully off-kilter tracks “One Night” and “Minnesota” garnered all kinds of attention, and a record deal quickly followed. His debut mixtape Lil Boat and the subsequent Summer Songs 2 were the first of his releases through a joint venture […]
Lil Wayne is the “Greatest Rapper Alive.” After signing to Birdman’s Cash Money Records at 11 years old, Weezy joined forces with labelmates Juvenile, Young Turk, and B.G. (formerly Lil’ Doogie) to create Hot Boys. The trio’s debut album Get It How U Live!! landed in 1996 but Hot Boys didn’t find true success until 1999’s Guerrilla Warfare and the smash […]
You can call Kid Cudi a lot of things. He’s a GRAMMY Award winning, Gold-selling rapper, in-demand producer, songwriter, acclaimed actor, and an “artist” in the truest sense of the word. The Cleveland-born MC singlehandedly ushered in a different era of hip-hop in the late aughts. His first official project, A Kid Named Cudi, was released in 2008 and caught […]
Born in Southern California, Jhené Aiko started her career early, laying down vocals for B2K, but gave up a record deal to finish her education, raise her daughter, and eventually blaze her own trail as a singer/songwriter. In 2011, Aiko returned with her first full-length project Sailing Soul(s) and later that year, she signed a deal with No I.D.’s ARTium—distributed […]
Chicago crooner Jeremih is a bonafide triple threat—the singer/songwriter/producer has stayed ahead of the game for years. Born into a musical family, Jeremih taught himself a variety of instruments during his childhood. He found his niche as an artist while at Columbia College Chicago, and eventually landed a meeting with Def Jam. After signing a deal in 2009, Jeremih hit the […]
Born in Macon, GA and raised in Atlanta, Jeezy made his name in the underground with an undeniable hot streak of mixtapes. Projects like Trap or Die accurately depicted the glory and tragedy of mid-aughts in Atlanta, which gained him the respect of the streets and mainstream support. His 2005 debut album, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and was quickly […]
Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope rapper and Black Hippy crew member Jay Rock was named to XXL‘s 2010 Freshman Class but his debut single dropped two years priod. “All My Life” featured industry heavyweights Lil Wayne and will.i.am and quickly put him into the spotlight. After the release of his debut album Follow Me Home in 2011, Jay Rock was lauded for his verse on Kendrick Lamar’s […]
Jadakiss is New York hip-hop royalty. As part of the legendary trio The L.O.X., Jadakiss has been a part of nearly every important era of hip-hop in the Tri-State. His raspy vocals and gritty rhymes have been a game changer ever since he made his debut on the scene with longtime friends Styles P and Sheek […]
Erykah Badu, best known for her eccentric style and cerebral music, is a Grammy-award winning American soul singer and songwriter. Regarded as the Queen of Neo Soul, Badu’s sound—a concoction of soul, hip-hop, and jazz—cannot be contained in a single genre. Baduizm, her highly acclaimed debut album, was released in early 1997. The album went 3x […]
Eric Barrier and William Griffin a.k.a. Rakim were not just a DJ/MC duo, they were the DJ/MC duo during what many consider hip-hop’s “Golden Age” in the late 1980s. The two New Yorkers recorded their debut album Paid in Full over the course of one week in 1987 and nothing was the same. Rakim’s masterfully lyrical approach to rapping and […]
Born and raised in Harlem, Cam’ron epitomizes the unmatched entrepreneurial spirit of the neighborhood between the 110th and 155th blocks of Upper Manhattan, having successfully tackled with finesse the roles of hip-hop artist, director, actor, screenwriter, designer, and entrepreneur. He is the de facto leader and founding member of The Diplomats, arguably one of the most influential crews […]
DMX (born Earl Simmons) is one of the most prominent American rappers of the 1990s and early 2000s, and has had a number of memorable acting roles in films such as Belly, Cradle 2 The Grave, and Romeo Must Die. Growing up in Yonkers, NY with a lifelong interest in rap, DMX found himself on tracks with the likes of JAY-Z, […]
