1.
Mixtape
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A mixtape is a home-made compilation of music recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto a cassette tape, though later replaced by CD or MP3 playlist formats. The songs can be sequential, or by beatmatching the songs and creating overlaps, compilations may include a selection of favorite songs, or music linked by theme or mood, perhaps tailored to the tapes intended recipient. Writing in 2004, essayist Geoffrey OBrien called the mix tape perhaps the most widely practiced American art form. Homemade mix tapes became common in the 1980s, but improvements in fidelity finally allowed the cassette to become a major player. The growth of the mixtape was also encouraged by improved quality and increased popularity of audio players in car entertainment systems. These recordings tended to be of technical ability than home-made mixtapes. One 12 October 1974 article in Billboard Magazine reported, Tapes were originally dubbed by jockeys to serve as standbys for times when they did not have disco turntables to hand, the tapes represent each jockeys concept of programming, placing, and sequencing of record sides. The music is heard without interruption, one- to three-hour programs bring anywhere from $30 to $75 per tape, mostly reel-to-reel, but increasingly on cartridge and cassette. Club proprietors, as well as DJs, would often prepare such tapes for sale, throughout the 1980s, mixtapes were a highly visible element of youth culture. The high point of traditional culture was arguably the publication of Nick Hornbys novel High Fidelity in 1995. Some mix enthusiasts also appreciate the potential of the mix CD for extended, continuous mixes, MP3 players have further enhanced track accessibility, though ones without a screen defeat that purpose. Today, websites concerned with electronic music provide mixes in a digital format and these usually consist of recorded DJ sets of live, beat-matched mixes of songs, which are used by DJs seeking to demonstrate their mixing skills to an online audience. Some radio shows worldwide specialize in mix series, including The Breezeblock on BBC Radio 1, The Solid Steel Show, and Eddy Temple-Morris/The Remix on Xfm. Additionally, DJs such as Grandmaster Flash, DJ QBert, DJ Spooky, DJ Z-Trip or DJ Shadow, The Avalanches, and Rjd2 have gained fame for creating new songs by combining fragments of existing songs. This practice is derived from the use of song loops as musical backdrops for an MCs rhymes in hip hop music. Frank Creighton, a director of anti-copyright infringement efforts for the Recording Industry Association of America and this requires the mixtape creator to consider the transitions between songs, the effects caused by juxtaposing a soft song with a loud song, and the overall narrative arc of the entire tape. It also came with an actual CD featuring ten of the songs discussed in the text, many have been so widely distributed that the CDDB has logged and can identify ID3 tags when a disc mix tape is inserted into a PC. In hip hops earliest days, the music existed in live form, so performers music was spread via tapes of parties
2.
Drake (musician)
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Aubrey Drake Graham is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. Drake initially gained recognition as an actor on the teen television series Degrassi. Intent on pursuing a career as a rapper, he departed the series in 2007 following the release of his debut mixtape and he released two further independent projects, Comeback Season and So Far Gone, before signing to Lil Waynes Young Money Entertainment in June 2009. Drake released his studio album Thank Me Later in 2010. They were followed by two mixtapes, with the trap-influenced If Youre Reading This Its Too Late, and a collaboration with Future for What a Time to Be Alive, in 2015. The former was certified platinum in the U. S. Drake released his fourth album, Views, in 2016. The dancehall-influenced Views sat atop the Billboard 200 for ten nonconsecutive weeks and its single One Dance topped the chart in several countries, including the U. S. the UK and Canada, where it became his first number-one single as the lead artist. This saw Drake leading the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 simultaneously for eight weeks and it achieved quadruple platinum status in the U. S. and earned over 1 million album-equivalent units in the first week of its release. The single Hotline Bling secured him his second and third Grammy win, for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song, Drake released the critically acclaimed multi-genre More Life in 2017. More Life, described by Drake as a playlist, was his seventh number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Drake owns several Billboard chart records and he has the most charted songs among solo artists in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, the most simultaneously charted Hot 100 songs in a single week and the most Hot 100 debuts in a week. Drake also has the most number one singles on the Hot Rap Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay, alongside his Grammy Award wins, Drake has won three Juno Awards and six BET Awards. Drake has developed other ventures, including his OVO Sound record label with longtime collaborator Noah 40 Shebib, Drake acts as a producer, producing under the pseudonym of Champagne Papi. Using the OVO moniker, Drake has his own clothing line and he is also currently acting as the global ambassador for NBA franchise, the Toronto Raptors. Aubrey Drake Graham was born on October 24,1986, in Toronto and his father, Dennis Graham, is an African American and a practicing Catholic from Memphis, Tennessee, and worked as a drummer, performing alongside country musician Jerry Lee Lewis. Bass guitarist Larry Graham and the late songwriter Teenie Hodges are his paternal uncles, Drakes mother, Sandi Graham, is a white Jewish Canadian who worked as an English teacher and florist. Drake attended a Jewish day school, and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony, Drakes parents divorced when he was five years old. After the divorce, he and his mother remained in Toronto, as a child, he witnessed his fathers arrest while visiting him in Memphis
3.
Austin, Texas
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Austin is the capital of the U. S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. It is the 11th-most populous city in the U. S. and it is the fastest growing large city in the United States and the second most populous capital city after Phoenix, Arizona. As of the U. S. Census Bureaus July 1,2015 estimate and it is the cultural and economic center of the Austin–Round Rock metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 2,056,405 as of July 1,2016. In the 1830s, pioneers began to settle the area in central Austin along the Colorado River, in 1839, the site was officially chosen to replace Houston as the new capital of the Republic of Texas and was incorporated under the name Waterloo. Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Austin in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas and the republics first secretary of state. The city subsequently grew throughout the 19th century and became a center for government and education with the construction of the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin. After a lull in growth from the Great Depression, Austin resumed its development into a city and, by the 1980s, it emerged as a center for technology. A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin, including Amazon. com, cisco, eBay, Google, IBM, Intel, Oracle Corporation, Texas Instruments, 3M, and Whole Foods Market. Dells worldwide headquarters is located in nearby Round Rock, a suburb of Austin, residents of Austin are known as Austinites. They include a mix of government employees, college students, musicians, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers. The city also adopted Silicon Hills as a nickname in the 1990s due to an influx of technology. In the late 1800s, Austin was known as the City of the Violet Crown because of the glow of light across the hills just after sunset. Even today, many Austin businesses use the term Violet Crown in their name, Austin is known as a clean-air city for its stringent no-smoking ordinances that apply to all public places and buildings, including restaurants and bars. The FBI ranked Austin as the second-safest major city in the U. S. for the year 2012, U. S. News & World Report named Austin the best place to live in the U. S. in 2017. Austin, Travis County and Williamson County have been the site of habitation since at least 9200 BC. When settlers arrived from Europe, the Tonkawa tribe inhabited the area, the Comanches and Lipan Apaches were also known to travel through the area. Spanish colonists, including the Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre expedition, traveled through the area for centuries, in 1730, three missions from East Texas were combined and reestablished as one mission on the south side of the Colorado River, in what is now Zilker Park, in Austin. The mission was in area for only about seven months
4.
Hip hop music
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It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements, MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Other elements include sampling beats or bass lines from records, while often used to refer solely to rapping, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. Hip hops early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks and Jamaican toasting, rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. The Sugarhill Gangs 1979 song Rappers Delight is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain popularity in the mainstream. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles, prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to scenes in dozens of countries. New school hip hop was the wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D. M. C. The Golden age hip hop period was a period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s. Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles, in the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s. I. G. In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap, at the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being Neo soul and nu metal. Hip hop became a pop music genre in the mid-1990s. The popularity of hip hop music continued through the 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop, the United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics. Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane, during the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West. Creation of the hip hop is often credited to Keith Cowboy, rapper with Grandmaster Flash. However, Lovebug Starski, Keith Cowboy, and DJ Hollywood used the term when the music was known as disco rap. Cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into a part of his stage performance, the first use of the term in print was in The Village Voice, by Steven Hager, later author of a 1984 history of hip hop
5.
Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40
6.
Dancehall
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Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, in the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably, with digital dancehall becoming increasingly characterized by faster rhythms. Dancehall music saw mainstream success in Jamaica throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, by the 2010s, dancehall began to heavily influence the work of established Western artists producers which has helped to further bring the genre into the Western music mainstream. Dancehall is named after Jamaican dance halls in which popular Jamaican recordings were played by local sound systems and they began in the late 1940s among people from the inner city of Kingston, who were not able to participate in dances uptown. Themes of social injustice, repatriation and the Rastafari movement were overtaken by lyrics about dancing, violence, around the same time, producer Don Mais was reworking old rhythms at Channel One Studios, using the Roots Radics band. Sound systems such as Killimanjaro, Black Scorpio, Gemini Disco, Virgo Hi-Fi, Volcano Hi-Power and Aces International soon capitalized on the new sound, deejay records became, for the first time, more important than records featuring singers. The early 1980s also saw the emergence of female deejays in dancehall music, such as Lady G, Lady Saw, other female dancehall stars include artistes like Diana King and in the late 1990s to the 2000s Ce Cile, Spice, Macka Diamond and more. In the mid-1980s, French Caribbean group Kassav, the first in the Caribbean to use MIDI technology, King Jammys 1985 hit, Sleng Teng by Wayne Smith, with an entirely-digital rhythm hook took the dancehall reggae world by storm. Many credit this song as being the first digital rhythm in reggae, however, this is not entirely correct since there are earlier examples of digital productions, such as Horace Fergusons single Sensi Addict produced by Prince Jazzbo in 1984. The Sleng Teng rhythm was used in over 200 subsequent recordings and this deejay-led, largely synthesized chanting with musical accompaniment departed from traditional conceptions of Jamaican popular musical entertainment. Dub poet Mutabaruka said, if 1970s reggae was red, green and gold and it was far removed from reggaes gentle roots and culture, and there was much debate among purists as to whether it should be considered an extension of reggae. This shift in style again saw the emergence of a new generation of artists, such as Buccaneer, Capleton and Shabba Ranks, the deejays became more focused on violence, with Bounty Killer, Mad Cobra, Ninjaman and Buju Banton becoming major figures in the genre. By the early 2000s, dancehall inspired pop music saw increased popularity in Jamaica, as well as in the United States and international markets. This was first seen with artists, such as Sean Paul whos single Get Busy became the first dancehall single to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. The late 2000s saw domestic success for artists, such as Popcaan, Vybz Kartel, Konshens, Mr. Vegas. Donna P. Kingsley Stewart outlines ten of the major cultural imperatives or principles that constitute the dancehall worldview, such a drastic change in the popular music of the region generated an equally radical transformation in fashion trends, specifically those of its female faction. In lieu of traditional, modest rootsy styles, as dictated by Rastafari-inspired gender roles, women began donning flashy and this transformation is said to coincide with the influx of slack lyrics within dancehall, which objectified women as apparatuses of pleasure. These women would team up others to form modeling posses, or dancehall model groups
7.
OVO Sound
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OVO Sound is a Toronto-based Canadian record label founded by hip hop artist Drake, Oliver El-Khatib, and long-time producer Noah 40 Shebib in 2012. It operates as a subsidiary of, and is distributed through, current acts include Drake himself, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Majid Jordan, OB OBrien, Roy Woods, dvsn as well as in-house producers 40, Boi-1da, T-Minus, Mike Zombie, Nineteen85 and Future the Prince. This was due to Drakes standing as an unsigned artist at the time, Drake would then raise the profile of the label by prominently featuring OVO throughout his music, regularly mentioning the label in songs, on stage as well as the distribution of OVO merchandise. The record label was officially founded in 2012, by Drake and long-time producer, Noah 40 Shebib. According to Billboard, Drake shortly signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records with the label. As Ross is signed as a solo artist to Epic, the artists on Ross Maybach Music Group label are signed to Atlantic Records, former partners with Warner. Drake will still be signed as a solo artist to Republic Records through Young Money/Cash Money, upon founding the label in 2012, Drake and 40 signed frequent collaborators Boi-1da, T-Minus, and later Mike Zombie to the label as in-house producers. In April 2013, it was reported that Drake was close to signing the labels first recording artist, PARTYNEXTDOOR, in August 2013, Drake announced that he signed Toronto music duo Majid Jordan to OVO Sound. OB OBrien and iLoveMakonnen would soon sign in 2014, with the latter leaving OVO Sound in April 2016, Canadian rap artist Roy Woods, and R&B duo dvsn soon joined the label in 2015 and 2016, releasing an EP and studio album respectively. OVO Fest is a concert hosted by Drake in Toronto that began in 2010. Its held on the Civic Holiday weekend in the city, which coincides with the Caribana festival, OVO Fest is notable for the special guests that perform at the concert. OVO Sound Radio is a program that airs on Beats 1. The show primarily airs newer material, with at least one song premiering in each broadcast, the shows initial airing was on July 11,2015, and it was hosted by Drake and Oliver El-Khatib. The show is notable for debuting hit Drake singles, such as platinum-selling Hotline Bling, Grammy nominated Back to Back, OVO Clothing was launched in 2011. The series of clothing began with a series of collaborations between Roots Canada and OVO, which produced several parkas, jackets and other collaborations, in 2013, merchandise for the OVO figurehead included collaborations with the Toronto Raptors, which coincided with Drake becoming the franchises Global Ambassador. OVO has since morphed into a line in itself, releasing a slew of clothes during every season of the year. T-shirts, sweatshirts, varsity jackets, baseball hats, and knit beanies are seasonal installations, OVO Clothing oversaw the opening of a flagship store for the brands clothing in downtown Toronto, opening in December 6,2014. Exactly a year after the opening in Toronto, OVO stores expanded to the United States, opening a store in Los Angeles
8.
Young Money Entertainment
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Young Money Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne. Young Moneys president is Lil Waynes lifelong friend Mack Maine, the label is an imprint of Cash Money Records and is distributed by Republic Records. The label has released eleven US No, current artists include Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Mack Maine, Jae Millz and Cory Gunz among others. The label has released three albums, We Are Young Money, Rich Gang and Young Money, Rise of an Empire. In October 2007, Lil Wayne said in an interview with Vibe that he had stepped down as President of the label, as of 2009, Mack Maine is serving as President. Rapper Drake signed a joint venture between Cash Money Records and Young Money, President Mack Maine confirmed that Omarion was no longer on the label after many rumours were circulating the internet. To promote their collaboration album We Are Young Money, which was released on December 21,2009 and we Are Young Money debuted at number 9 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 142,000 copies in its first-week sales. The album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over a shipments of 500,000 copies in the United States, the album featured the highly successful single Bedrock. BedRock debuted at thirty six on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending December 12,2009, on the week ending March 13,2010, the song reached a peak of two, making it the most successful single by the group on the chart. BedRock debuted in the UK Singles Chart on 6 February 2010 at forty, on March 6,2010, the single climbed to twenty two, and the subsequent week the single climbed to eighteen, marking Young Moneys first Top 20 hit in the UK. Peaking at number nine on April 3,2010, making it Young Moneys first Top 10 hit in the UK. The label had three of the top 10 highest 2010 hip hop album sales with—in order—Drakes Thank Me Later, Lil Waynes Rebirth, on March 6,2010, Lil Wayne confirmed that rapper Cory Gunz was the latest artist to sign. In November 2011, Lil Wayne introduced 14-year-old singer Torion Sellers, on February 15,2013 Mack Maine announced We the Future and Lil Waynes 14-year-old daughter Reginae Carter had signed to Young Money. The next albums released by Young Money were Lil Waynes I Am Not a Human Being II, Tygas Hotel California and Drakes Nothing Was the Same on March 26, April 7, in December 2012 Mack Maine announced a second Young Money album will be released. In February 2013 Birdman released a mixtape with Cash Money and Young Money titled Rich Gang. Shortly after he announced an album titled, Rich Gang that was due to be released on May 21,2013 featuring members of Cash Money, Young Money. The first single from the project, Tapout would be released on March 12,2013 and featured Lil Wayne, Future, Mack Maine, the album would then be pushed back to July 23,2013. On January 22,2014, it was revealed that Young Money would be releasing their own album on March 11,2014, titled Young Money
9.
Cash Money Records
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Cash Money Records is an American record label founded by two brothers, Bryan Birdman Williams and Ronald Slim Williams. The label is distributed by Republic Records, which used to be Universal Republic, Cash Money is estimated to be worth $300 million USD. Cash Money Records was founded in 1991, Bryan Williams told some of his close friends the motivation for starting the label, I was hoping it would get us out of the projects and into a positive way of life. And we wanted to other people get out of this poverty Along the way he met a lot of influential people on the road with the Hot Boys. Cash Money and Universal negotiated the deal between Cash Money and Universal Músic Groups Universal Records, which became an 80%-20% distribution deal, later, UMG acquired a portion of Cash Money Records, making it a UMG subsidiary. For its first few years, Cash Money played host to a number of releases by artists, selling only one album. Some of the labels releases garnered some success in New Orleans, Louisiana. Artists on the label during this period included the group U. N. L. V, kilo G, Lil Slim, Pimp Daddy, and PxMxWx. In 1995, the label signed young rappers B. G, the signees marked what would be the second wave of Cash Money artists. In 1997, B. G. and Lil Wayne formed the group the Hot Boys together with Juvenile, although they made little impact outside of the region in the beginning, they became the labels most well-known artists early on. Cash Moneys big break came in 1998 when the Hot Boys, B. G. and Juvenile in particular, Dino Delvaille, who orchestrated the deal, later told HitQuarters, I made certain they retained 100% ownership of their work. After the deal Cash Money records achieved a new level of success, the release of Juveniles 1998 album 400 Degreez, which was certified 4X Platinum by the RIAA, solidified Cash Money as a powerful label in the national hip-hop scene. Later albums in 1999 such as the Hot Boys Guerrilla Warfare, B. G. s Chopper City in the Ghetto, and Lil Waynes Tha Block Is Hot also saw great chart success and furthered the labels reputation. These albums contained major Billboard hits such as Juveniles Back That Azz Up, B. G. s Bling Bling, All of Cash Moneys albums and singles in this period were solely produced by the labels in-house producer, Mannie Fresh. Their A&R at Universal, Dino Delvaille, said, When they first came into the business, they were very reluctant to make records with other people. They probably felt that people would steal their style or flavor, and I had to work hard to get them to open up to making records with Cam’ron, Puffy and this labels success continued into the 2000s. Between 2001 and 2003, the label sold 7 million albums, the song Still Fly by the Big Tymers was nominated for two Grammy Awards. However, B. G. and Juvenile left the label in 2002, in 2007, former Hot Boys member Lil Wayne was named president of Cash Money Records and CEO of Young Money Entertainment
10.
Republic Records
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Republic Records is an American record company that operates as a division of Universal Music Group. The label was endowed by Monte Lipman and Avery Lipman in 1995, the labels main offices are located in New York City, New York, United States, other offices of the record label are located at the Interscope Center in Santa Monica, California, U. S. According to Mediabase, Republic Records was 2012s top charting U. S. label, according to Avery Lipman, he and his brother Monte Lipman first conceived of Republic Records at the kitchen table of their apartment, My brother and I had been working at record companies. He was in between jobs and we started putting out as a hobby. We had an approach to the business. The first record we put out happened to work really well, frustrated by the limitations of being an independent with a very small staff, the Lipman brothers accepted an offer from Universal. One of several labels that comprise Universal Motown Republic Group, the newly named Republic Records was formed in 1995 as a sub-label of MCAs Geffen Records, Avery Lipman told HitQuarters that the pairing was a complete disaster, saying, Our ideas and vision didn’t fit with the label. We didn’t trust our own instincts and we let others decide what was right for the project. As of 2006, Universal Republic has adopted an A&R and partnership-based growth strategy, in an era of music industry transition they have proven effective, as Universal Republic has continued to grow in the industrys declining years. In mid-2012, Universal Republic Records changed its name to its former name Republic Records, all Universal Republic Records roster were moved to Republic Records. The label has released albums by Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi. The new Republic became the one label in soundtrack production. On March 31,2014, it was announced that Big Machine and Republic Records revived Dot Records, vH1 and Republic has both used Social media in this campaign. In 2015 Republic Records had songs in six of the spots in the top 10 of the Mediabase Top 40 Chart, in the earlier days, Republic Records released the Bloodhound Gangs EP, Dingleberry Haze, as well as their first LP, Use Your Fingers. Universal Republic has created strategic partnerships and co-ventures, singer Jay Sean and producer Kevin Rudolf of Cash Money Records. Rudolfs single, Let It Rock was certified 3x Platinum and licensed by multiple television networks for sports, Jay Seans debut single Down sold 3 million copies in the United States and 6 million worldwide. Seans follow-up single Do You Remember also sold over a million copies, American singer Taylor Swift with Nashville-based Big Machine Records. Swift today is a Diamond artist with 10 Grammys and 40 million records sold worldwide, jack Johnson on Brushfire Records who has achieved multi-Platinum certifications twice and is estimated to have sold about 8 million albums worldwide
11.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu
12.
Boi-1da
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Matthew Jehu Samuels, professionally known as Boi-1da, is a Canadian hip-hop producer from Toronto, Ontario. He significantly collaborates with other producers who co-produce on his tracks, including The Maven Boys, Stephen Kozmeniuk, Vinylz and Allen Ritter, among others. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Samuels moved to Canada when he was three, and grew up in the North York and Scarborough districts of Toronto and he was also raised in Ajax, Ontario, where he currently resides. At the age of eight, his mother bought him a Casio keyboard, and at the age of 15, without any formal musical training, he started using the FL Studio beat-making program. A few years later, he won three consecutive Battle of the Beatmakers championships, because of this accomplishment, he was given a spot in the Battle of the Beatmakers judging panel. His first production work was at the age of 18, when he worked on two tracks on a mixtape for Drake, while Boi-1da is known to use samples in his productions, he often incorporates live instrumentation and an air horn sound effect. He currently uses FL Studio 12 to make beats, previously, Boi-1da was influenced by producers such as Dr. Dre, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, and The Neptunes. Dr. Dre appeared on the remix of Set It Off by Kardinal Offishall, in an interview with FLOW93.5, Boi-1da revealed that he was working on beats for Dr. Dres highly anticipated album, Detox, which was to be released in 2011. Unfortunately, the album was shelved, and none of the released or leaked tracks by Dr. Dre featured Boi-1das production. He had since stated that he was working with songwriter Sean Garrett and has submitted tracks for Usher, hes also working on Busta Rhymes upcoming album, Extinction Level Event 2. Boi-1da produced the hit song Not Afraid, by Eminem, which premiered April 29,2010, and hahahaha jk. from Das Racists debut album Sit Down, Man, which was released September 2010. In April 2011, Boi-1da was confirmed to be working on Drakes second album, Take Care, Boi-1da has worked with the rapper Lecrae on his song Gimme a Second from his mixtape Church Clothes. He has also collaborated with the rapper Bizzle for his album titled The Good Fight and he is also a member of Drakes Octobers Very Own with Noah 40 Shebib and T-Minus. Boi-1da produced Party Favors for Tinashe for her studio album. On January 8,2016, Kanye West released a song titled Real Friends in which he credits Boi-1da for the sample. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers hosts a series of shows, honoring people in different music categories. In 2011, Drake presented the award to him and 40, the Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Boi-1da has been nominated seven times and won one, official Blog Boi-1da at MySpace Boi-1da on Twitter HipHopCanada. com Interview
13.
Kanye West
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Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. Intent on pursuing a career as a rapper, West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004 to widespread critical and commercial success. He went on to pursue a variety of different styles on subsequent albums Late Registration, Graduation, and 808s & Heartbreak. In 2010, he released his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to rave reviews from critics, West released his abrasive sixth album, Yeezus, to further critical praise in 2013. His seventh album, The Life of Pablo, was released in 2016, Wests outspoken views and life outside of music have received significant mainstream attention. He has been a frequent source of controversy for his conduct at award shows, on social media and he is the founder and head of the creative content company DONDA. His 2014 marriage to television personality Kim Kardashian has also been subject to media coverage. He has won a total of 21 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all time, three of his albums have been included and ranked on Rolling Stones 2012 update of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. He has also included in a number of Forbes annual lists. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005 and 2015, West was born on June 8,1977 in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents divorced when he was three years old, after the divorce, he and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. His father, Ray West, is a former Black Panther and was one of the first black photojournalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Ray West was later a Christian counselor, and in 2006, opened the Good Water Store and Café in Lexington Park, Maryland with startup capital from his son. West, was a professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, West was raised in a middle-class background, attending Polaris High School in suburban Oak Lawn, Illinois after living in Chicago. At the age of 10, West moved with his mother to Nanjing, China, according to his mother, West was the only foreigner in his class, but settled in well and quickly picked up the language, although he has since forgotten most of it. When asked about his grades in school, West replied, I got As. West demonstrated an affinity for the arts at an early age and his mother recalled that she first took notice of Wests passion for drawing and music when he was in the third grade. Growing up in Chicago, West became deeply involved in its hip hop scene and he started rapping in the third grade and began making musical compositions in the seventh grade, eventually selling them to other artists
14.
Vinylz
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Anderson Hernandez, professionally known as Vinylz, is an American record producer from Washington Heights, New York City. He is certainly known for his work with artists that include Jay Z, Desiigner, Rick Ross, Drake, J. Cole, Nicki Minaj, Jeremih. Vinylz secured a deal with Sony ATV through fellow record producer and mentor, Boi-1da. Hernandez started producing at age 14 and he received his stage name, Vinylz, courtesy of a friend who noticed both of his interests for clever sampling and his fathers collection of vinyl records. Vinylz began taking music seriously and it remained his favorite hobby ever since. He got a professional start working with Swizz Beatz and decided to drop out of college after the first semester of his first year. Impressed by his work, Boi-1da became a mentor to the up-and-comer, a variety of hits, alongside Boi-1da, helped Vinylz reach a publishing deal with Sony ATV. List of songs as producer or co-producer, with performing artists and other credited producers, showing year released and album name
15.
Views (album)
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Views is the fourth studio album by Canadian rapper Drake. It was released on April 29,2016, by Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, Recording sessions took place from 2015 to 2016, with both Drake and his longtime collaborator and record producer 40 serving as the records executive producers. 40 also primarily handled the production on the album each of these several other record producers such as Nineteen85, Maneesh Bidaye, Kanye West and Jordan Ullman. The album contains the elements of such as R&B, dancehall, hip hop and pop. The album was supported by five singles, Hotline Bling, One Dance featuring Wizkid and Kyla, Pop Style featuring The Throne, Controlla and Too Good featuring Rihanna. One Dance became Drakes first number-one single in 10 countries as the lead artist, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the single spent 10 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and 15 weeks on the UK Singles Chart. Views was met with reviews from critics, many of whom found it to be an overlong retread of Drakes previous work. Despite this, it spent 13 non-consecutive weeks at one on the Billboard 200. Views became the first album to accumulate one-billion streams on Apple Music, on December 1,2016, Views was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. As of January 2017, Views sold 1.61 million copies, Views was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album at the 59th Grammy Awards. Additionally, Hotline Bling won for Best Rap/Sung Performance and Best Rap Song, the single version of Pop Style featuring The Throne was nominated for Best Rap Performance. The albums title was first announced as Views from the 6, according to Drake on Twitter, the 6 is a reference to his hometown of Toronto, Ontario. On April 29,2016, it was revealed that the title had been shortened to Views, the cover artwork for Views was released via Drakes Twitter account on April 24,2016, which features Drake sitting atop the CN Tower in Toronto. The fact that Drake was significantly larger than life-size on the cover was widely discussed, Drake premiered a single, called Summer Sixteen through OVO Sound Radio on January 30,2016. The track was produced by 40, Boi-1da and Cubeatz, the song contains a slowed-down sample of Glass Tubes performed by Brian Bennett. The cover art was designed by Filip Pągowski, who was a creator of the Comme des Garçons logo, the song peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, selling 215,000 copies in its first week, making it the highest debut sales of Drakes career. On March 26,2016, that single sold 358,000 copies in the United States, on April 4,2016, the album was initially teased in London. On April 9, Drake released a trailer for Views on Twitter, Drake opened the pop-up stores, giving away free black and white T-shirts with Views written on the front
16.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s
17.
Young Thug
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Jeffery Lamar Williams, best known professionally as Young Thug, is an American rapper from Atlanta, Georgia. I. and Gucci Mane. Young Thug initially released a series of independent mixtapes beginning in 2011 with I Came From Nothing, in early 2013, he signed a record deal with Gucci Manes 1017 Records and later that year he released his label debut mixtape 1017 Thug, which featured the track Picacho. Young Thug received mainstream recognition in 2014 with the songs Stoner and Danny Glover in addition to appearances on singles, including About the Money. That year, he signed to Lyor Cohens 300 Entertainment and collaborated on the mixtapes Black Portland and Rich Gang. In 2015, he released a number of mixtapes, including Barter 6 and these were followed in 2016 by the mixtapes Im Up, Slime Season 3, and Jeffery in anticipation of his long-delayed debut studio album, Hy. £UN35. Jeffery Lamar Williams was born on August 16,1991, in Atlanta, Georgia and he is from Sylvan Hills, a neighborhood in Atlanta, and grew up in the Jonesboro South projects. Other rappers from the neighborhood include Waka Flocka Flame,2 Chainz, Ludacris and Williams childhood friend PeeWee Longway, Thug subsequently released his first project on the label, his fourth mixtape,1017 Thug. The mixtape was met with reviews from music critics, which noted it for its original style. 1017 Thug was included in a number of lists for 2013, such as the Pitchfork Albums of the Year, Honorable Mention. FACT called it the best mixtape of 2013, Rolling Stone placed it at five on their 10 Best Mixtapes of 2013. In July 2013, Complex included him in their list of 25 New Rappers to Watch Out For, in October 2013, Young Thug released his commercial debut single Stoner. The song spawned a number of remixes by several rappers, including Wale, Jim Jones, Jadakiss, Iamsu. and Trick-Trick. Thug expressed his disapproval for the remixes, commenting If you feel like my song isnt tough enough to the point where you have to freestyle, dont think Im happy that youre doing it because of who you are. His song Danny Glover also received a number of remixes by Waka Flocka Flame and Nicki Minaj, in December 2013, Thug performed at Fools Gold Day Off show in Miami, among Danny Brown, Trick Daddy and Travis Scott. Pitchfork ranked 1017 Thug as one of the best albums of the first half of the 2010s decade, on January 18,2014, Young Thug revealed that he was offered $1.5 million to sign to Futures Freebandz record label. In March 2014, Young Thugs affiliation with Cash Money Records and its executive officer Birdman. However, the labels publicist later stated this was untrue, in 2014, Thug also recorded several songs with Kanye West, who praised him for his ability to make songs so fast. Thug announced that he has upcoming mixtapes with Rich Homie Quan, Chief Keef, Young Thug would go on to be featured on the March 2014 cover of The Fader
18.
Giggs (rapper)
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Nathaniel Thomson, better known by his stage name Giggs, is an English rapper from London. Giggs was signed to XL Recordings in 2009, in 2008 he released his debut studio album Walk in da Park and released a follow-up album, Let Em Ave It the following year peaking at number 35 on the UK Albums Chart. The singles Dont Go There featuring B. o. B, Giggs released his third studio album When Will It Stop, in October 2013. In 2016, Giggs released his fourth album Landlord, which entered and peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart – becoming Giggs highest-charting album of his career and it is also his most critically acclaimed album. He is the leader of SN1, alongside his brothers Gunna Dee, Joe Grind, Spender and Young Giggs, Kyze, the groups main producers are Boom Productions, Universe, Pablo Productions, Paws Productions, Bayoz Musik and upcoming music producer Mitz Productions. Nathaniel Thompson was raised by his Jamaican single mother in Peckham and he dropped out of school at the age of 16. Originally, he was nicknamed Giggler because of his tendency to laugh at times, later. He and his SN1 crew were part of the Peckham Boys gang and his mixtapes have supposedly sold more than 10,000 units. This success helped his popularity expand outside London, in 2007, Giggs released the track Talkin da Hardest, which featured Giggs rapping over the instrumental of Stat Quos song Here We Go originally produced by Dr. Dre. In 2008 he released his debut album Walk in da Park independently and this album helped Giggs’ popularity expand outside London and in 2008 he was nominated for the BET Awards in the US for Best Hip-Hop Act, UK. Giggs won the award beating out more established acts at the time, in August 2009 Giggs signed a record deal with XL Recordings. Giggs released Let Em Ave It in 2009 and singles released from that album include Slow Songs featuring Mike Skinner, Look What The Cat Dragged In and Dont Go There featuring American rapper B. o. B. At the Reading Festival in 2010, Giggs appeared on BBC Three and that year he also appeared on Tinchy Stryders single Game Over Alongside Chipmunk, Devlin, Example, Tinie Tempah and Professor Green. The single charted at No.21 in the Official UK Singles Chart and this year he was nominated at the MOBO awards in the Best UK Hip Hop/Grime category. He was then nominated again for the award in 2011. In 2012 Giggs was arrested again for firearms along with three other people, all four were charged with possession with intent to endanger life. Giggs was held in Brixton Prison for nearly four months after the arrest, the rapper was later acquitted of all charges. In 2013, Giggs released the album When Will It Stop, the album featured artists such as Ed Sheeran and Styles P
19.
Skepta
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Joseph Junior Adenuga, better known by his stage name Skepta, is a British grime artist, songwriter, record producer and music video director. His fourth studio album, Konnichiwa, was released on 6 May 2016 to critical acclaim, Adenuga has stated ‘DIY’ music is the future and told Time Out magazine, I’m not a rapper. His influence on contemporary British popular culture as a key figure in the scene saw him appear on Debretts 2017 list of the most influential people in the UK. Following the formation of Boy Better Know, Skepta clashed with fellow MC Devilman for the DVD Lord of the Mics 2, shortly after the clash, Skepta released a mixtape entitled Joseph Junior Adenuga. He is the brother of fellow musician Jme and radio presenter Julie Adenuga, Skepta was originally a DJ from Tottenham-based grime crew Meridian Crew. Following the formation of Boy Better Know, Skepta clashed with fellow MC Devilman for the DVD Lord of the Mics 2, shortly after the clash, Skepta released a mixtape entitled Joseph Junior Adenuga. Skepta publicly released his debut album Greatest Hits on 17 September 2007, Skepta self-released the first single Rolex Sweep in September 2008 and reached number 89 on the UK Singles Chart. Skepta then released the album Microphone Champion on 1 June 2009 and he then also released single Too Many Man with JME, Wiley, Frisco and Shorty, which went to chart at number 79. Three singles charted in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, cross My Heart came in at number 31 and dropped out of the Top 40 a week later. Doin it Again spent 3 weeks in the top 100 album charts, in 2011 Skepta caused a big controversy by releasing a hardcore music video of his single All over the house. In 2012, Skepta released two singles from his forthcoming album. Both Hold On and Make Peace Not War were Top 40 charting singles in the UK but were a departure from Skeptas usual sound, Skeptas second major label album was intended to be released in the fourth quarter of 2011, entitled The Honeymoon but was delayed till 2012. After a disappointing response from the first two singles Skepta decided to release a mixtape, titled Blacklisted. It was released on 2 December 2012 along with music videos to support the prior to the release. The singles music video won the award for Best Video at the 2014 MOBO Awards, upon receiving the award, Skepta stated that the video cost him £80. In late 2014, Skepta released another single titled It Aint Safe featuring A$AP Bari and this was followed in early 2015 with Shutdown, as well as features on Red Eye to Paris by Flatbush Zombies and the remix of Ojuelegba by Wizkid, also featuring Drake. Skepta and others joined Kanye West at a show in London. He was also named one of GQs 50 best dressed British men in 2015, in an interview it stated that Skeptas making his acting debut in 2015 film Anti-Social Released initially in May
20.
Quavo
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Migos is an American hip hop group formed in 2009, from Lawrenceville, Georgia. The group is composed of three rappers, known by their stage names Quavo, Takeoff and Offset, Migos released their commercial debut single Versace, in 2013, taken from their mixtape Y. R. N. They went on to several successful singles, such as Fight Night, Look at My Dab. The group released its debut album Yung Rich Nation, in 2015 and its second album, Culture, was released in January 2017. Migos are managed by Coach K, the manager of prominent Atlanta-based rappers Gucci Mane and Young Jeezy. Migos was formed in 2009, by Quavo, Takeoff and Offset, originally from Lawrenceville, the three members are directly related and were raised together, Quavo is Takeoffs uncle, and Offset is Quavos cousin. The group released their first full-length project, a mixtape titled Juug Season, on August 25,2011 and they followed with the mixtape No Label, on June 1,2012. In 2013, Migos released their breakout single Versace, the single was produced by Zaytoven and peaked at number 99 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Later that year, Canadian rapper Drake brought the more recognition when he remixed the song, adding a verse. On June 13, Migos released their mixtape Y. R. N. which features the lead single Versace, to critical acclaim. Brandon Soderberg of Spin gave it 8 out of 10 stars, commenting that it is a super-cut of Dirty South vibes, on June 15,2013, the group performed at rap radio station Hot 107. 9s Birthday Bash. In October 2013, the group was featured in XXLs section Show & Prove, Y. R. N. was named the 27th best album of 2013 and sixth best hip-hop album of 2013 by SPIN. On February 25,2014, Migos released the sequel to their second mixtape, the tape was downloaded over 100,000 times in the first week of its release and was certified gold on popular mixtape sharing site DatPiff. No Label 2 was met generally positive reviews from music critics. Consequence of Sound described it as the mix of raucous party tunes and triumphant rap anthems for your next BBQ or block party. Commented that it is packed with potential hits, vibe also praised the production on the tape, calling it extensive and impressive. On March 14,2014, it was revealed by Migos mixtape Y. R. N,2, that this project has turned out to be a full-fledged album. The trio are looking to put it up for amount of 20 songs on their effort, in June 2014, it was then revealed, that Migos has signed a deal to 300 Entertainment, which is distributed by Atlantic Records
21.
Travis Scott
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Jacques Webster, Jr. better known by his stage name Travis Scott, is an American hip hop recording artist and record producer from Houston, Texas. In 2012, Scott signed a deal with Epic Records. In November of the year, Scott signed a deal with Very GOOD Beats. In April 2013, it was announced he signed with T. I. s Grand Hustle imprint and he released his first full-length project, a mixtape titled Owl Pharaoh, in May 2013. He then released his second mixtape Days Before Rodeo in August 2014 and his debut album Rodeo, was released on September 4,2015. His sophomore album, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, was released on September 2,2016, jacques Webster, Jr. was born on April 30,1992 in Houston, Texas. He grew up in Missouri City, a suburban area bordering southwest Houston. Scott stayed with his grandmother in the hood from ages one to six, but later moved to the suburbs, Scott attended the University of Texas at San Antonio before dropping out to fully pursue his music career. At the age of 16, Scott began his career as a record producer. He subsequently entered his first partnership with his friend, Chris Holloway. In 2008, the duo released their untitled first EP on Myspace, the following year, both Scott and Holloway formed with OG Chess, and formed a group, entitled The Classmates. The Classmates released two projects with Buddy Rich in 2009 and Cruisn USA in 2010, Scott mainly handled production work on both projects. Later in the year, personal conflicts and financial disputes lead to the disbanding of the group, after Scott left college, Scott moved from Houston, Texas to Washington, New York, where Scott began work with friend Mike Waxx, who owned the music website Illroots. Eventually frustrated in New York, Scott moved to Los Angeles, rapper T. I. subsequently listened to one of Scotts produced songs, entitled Lights. While in Los Angeles, T. I. s rep contacted Scott, during the meeting, T. I. freestyled over Animal, one of Scotts instrumental productions. His first project, titled Owl Pharaoh was set to be released as a download for 2012. However, the project was delayed, and was announced to be slated for the 2012 release, Scott released his track, called Blocka La Flame, a remix of fellow GOOD Music signee Pusha Ts single Blocka. The song was produced by Young Chop, with the production by Scott himself
22.
2 Chainz
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Tauheed Epps, known professionally as 2 Chainz, is a Grammy award-winning American rapper from College Park, Georgia. He initially gained recognition for being one-half of the Southern hip hop duo Playaz Circle, alongside his friend and fellow rapper. They are perhaps best known for being signed to fellow Georgia-based rapper Ludacris Disturbing tha Peace label, in February 2012, Epps signed a solo record deal with Def Jam Records, an imprint of Universal Music Group. The following August, he released his studio album Based on a T. R. U. II, Me Time was released on September 11,2013 and it was supported by the singles Feds Watching and Used 2. 2 Chainz was born Tauheed Epps in College Park, Georgia and he attended North Clayton High School, where he played basketball and graduated second in his class. While in high school, he dealt marijuana and was arrested for cocaine possession when he was 15 years old. He later attended Alabama State University on a scholarship, and played on its team for the 1996–97 season. Theres a lot of stuff on there, to the point that every time I try to fix one thing, something else comes out. In fact, he attended Alabama State for his freshman year only, I got into some trouble, went somewhere else, and came back. But I graduated, and that’s that, Epps formed the hip hop duo Playaz Circle in College Park, Georgia in 1997, with his high school friend Earl Conyers, while Epps adopted Tity Boi as his moniker. After taking interest in Playaz Circle, Ludacris began to record songs with the group. Ludacris soon became one of the rappers in the Southern United States. After hearing of their situation, Ludacris requested of Epps that the duo join his newly formed record label Disturbing Tha Peace, Epps agreed to sign, although Conyers did not officially join the label until his mother regained her health, a year after the initial signing. Their debut album Supply & Demand, was released on October 30,2007, the lead single and their debut single, Duffle Bag Boy, became an urban hit single. The song features Lil Wayne, and was performed by the duo at the BET Hip Hop Awards, the duo released their second studio album Flight 360, The Takeoff, on September 29,2009. In January 2010, Playaz Circle filmed a video for their single Big Dawg featuring Lil Wayne. Shortly afterwards, Epps left Disturbing tha Peace, a move he claimed was taken in order to advance his career, although Ludacris was initially reluctant to allow Epps to leave the label, he eventually accepted the decision
23.
Grime (music genre)
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Grime is a genre of music that emerged in East London in the early 2000s. It developed out of earlier UK electronic music styles, including UK garage and jungle, and also influence from Jamaican dancehall, ragga. The style is typified by rapid, syncopated breakbeats, generally around 130 or 140 bpm, rapping is also a significant element of the style, and lyrics often revolve around gritty depictions of urban life. Other prominent artists include Ghetts, Jme, Skepta, Stormzy, prominent grime crews include Boy Better Know, Newham Generals, Roll Deep, and Ruff Sqwad. In the mid 2010s, grime began to receive attention in North America. Grime emerged in the early 2000s in Londons East-end and it has origins tied with UK pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM, Deja Vu FM, Freeze 92.7 and Raw Mission. This indicated the movement of UK garage away from its house influences towards darker themes, among the first tracks to be labelled grime as a genre in itself were Eskimo, Ice Rink and Igloo by Wiley, Pulse X by Musical Mob and Creeper by Danny Weed. Dizzee Rascal garnered widespread acclaim and commercial success with Boy in da Corner winning the 2003 Mercury Music Prize. Grime has since received exposure from television stations including Channel U, Logan Samas show on London radio station Kiss FM, Grime is not an offshoot of early electronic music, but rather a subgenre that draws from a wide variety of influences. The genre’s popularity grew exponentially in the United Kingdom, as people across the musical spectrum appreciated Grime’s eclectic mix of instrumentation. This hybridization united many different music scenes, allowing for it to spread in the same word-of-mouth and mixtape-based style as hip-hop and it also paved the way for more electronic music artists to incorporate stronger African and Caribbean influences in the future. Grime never received the same attention worldwide that it did in the UK, much like many other less mainstream forms of British electronic music, its main scene and fan base remained in the United Kingdom. From 2013 onwards producers started to create what they called instrumental grime and they battled in so-called war dubs, in April 2014, Meridian Dan reached #13 in the UK Singles Charts with his single German Whip featuring Big H and Jme. Two months after that, Skepta reached #21 in the UK Singles Chart with his single Thats Not Me featuring his brother Jme. Two months later, Lethal Bizzle released the single Rari WorkOut featuring Jme and Tempa T, as of 2015, Lethal Bizzle has four of the highest charting grime songs to date. In February 2016, Ministry of Sound and DJ Maximum released a compilation entitled Grime Time. In May 2016, Skeptas fourth studio album, Konnichiwa, entered the UK Albums Chart at number two, the album explored grimes relationship with the United States, and features appearances from ASAP Mob members Young Lord and ASAP Nast as well as production and vocals from Pharrell Williams. The album was awarded the 2016 Mercury Prize, in February 2017, Stormzys album Gang Signs & Prayer, was the first grime album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart
24.
Afrobeat
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African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music, many genres of popular music like blues, jazz, salsa, zouk, and rumba derive to varying degrees on musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by enslaved Africans. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently been adapted by newer genres like rock, likewise, African popular music has adopted elements, particularly the musical instruments and recording studio techniques of western music. Afropop is a sometimes used to refer to contemporary African pop music. The term does not refer to a style or sound. Cuban music has been popular in sub-Saharan Africa since the mid twentieth century and it was Cuban music that more than any other, that provided the initial template for Afropop. To the Africans, clave-based Cuban popular music sounded familiar and exotic. The Encyclopedia of Africa v.1, a proliferation of music clubs, recording studios, and concert appearances of Cuban bands in Léopoldville spurred on the Cuban music trend during the late 1940s and 1950s. Congolese bands started doing Cuban covers and singing the lyrics phonetically, soon, they were creating their own original Cuban-like compositions, with French lyrics. The Congolese called this new music rumba, although it was based on the son. The Africans adapted guajeos to electric guitars, and gave them their own regional flavor, the guitar-based music gradually spread out from the Congo, increasingly taking on local sensibilities. This process eventually resulted in the establishment of different distinct regional genres. Cuban popular music played a role in the development of many contemporary genres of African popular music. The Cuban connection began very early and was to last at least twenty years, the re-working of Afro-Cuban rhythmic patterns by Africans brings the rhythms full circle. The re-working of the harmonic patterns reveals a difference in perception. The I IV V IV harmonic progression, so common in Cuban music, is heard in pop music all across the African continent and those chords move in accordance with the basic tenets of Western music theory. The largest wave of Cuban-based music to hit Africa was in the form of salsa, in 1974 the Fania All Stars performed in Zaire, Africa, at the 80, 000-seat Stadu du Hai in Kinshasa. This was captured on film and released as Live In Africa, the Zairean appearance occurred at a music festival held in conjunction with the Muhammad Ali/George Foreman heavyweight title fight
25.
Pop music
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Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form in the United States and United Kingdom during the mid 1950s. The terms popular music and pop music are used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular. Pop and rock were synonymous terms until the late 1960s, when they were used in opposition from each other. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music. Pop music is eclectic, and often borrows elements from other such as urban, dance, rock, Latin. Identifying factors include generally short to medium-length songs written in a format, as well as the common use of repeated choruses, melodic tunes. David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop music as a body of music which is distinguishable from popular, jazz, according to Pete Seeger, pop music is professional music which draws upon both folk music and fine arts music. Although pop music is seen as just the singles charts, it is not the sum of all chart music, the music charts contain songs from a variety of sources, including classical, jazz, rock, and novelty songs. Pop music, as a genre, is seen as existing and developing separately, pop music continuously evolves along with the terms definition. The term pop song was first recorded as being used in 1926, Hatch and Millward indicate that many events in the history of recording in the 1920s can be seen as the birth of the modern pop music industry, including in country, blues and hillbilly music. The Oxford Dictionary of Music states that while pops earlier meaning meant concerts appealing to a wide audience. Since the late 1950s, however, pop has had the meaning of non-classical mus, usually in the form of songs, performed by such artists as the Beatles. Grove Music Online also states that, in the early 1960s pop music competed terminologically with beat music, while in the USA its coverage overlapped with that of rock and roll. From about 1967, the term was used in opposition to the term rock music. Whereas rock aspired to authenticity and an expansion of the possibilities of music, pop was more commercial, ephemeral. It is not driven by any significant ambition except profit and commercial reward, and, in musical terms, it is essentially conservative. It is, provided from on high rather than being made from below, pop is not a do-it-yourself music but is professionally produced and packaged. The beat and the melodies tend to be simple, with limited harmonic accompaniment, the lyrics of modern pop songs typically focus on simple themes – often love and romantic relationships – although there are notable exceptions
26.
Billboard 200
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The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists, often, a recording act will be remembered by its number ones, those of their albums that outperformed all others during at least one week. The chart is based mostly on sales of albums in the United States, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, tracking week begins on Friday and ends on Thursday. A new chart is published the following Tuesday with an issue post-dated to the Saturday of the following week, the charts streaming schedule is also tracked from Friday to Thursday. Example, Friday January 1 – sales tracking week begins Thursday January 7 – sales tracking week ends Tuesday January 12 – new chart published, New product is released to the American market on Fridays. Digital downloads of albums are included in Billboard 200 tabulation. Albums that are not licensed for sale in the United States are not eligible to chart. As of the issue dated April 15,2017, the album on the Billboard 200 is More Life by Drake. Billboard began an album chart in 1945, initially only five positions long, the album chart was not published on a weekly basis, sometimes three to seven weeks passing before it was updated. A biweekly, 15-position Best-Selling Popular Albums chart appeared in 1955, the position count varied anywhere from 10 to 30 albums. The first number-one album on the new weekly list was Belafonte by Harry Belafonte, the chart was renamed to Best-Selling Pop Albums later in 1956, and then to Best-Selling Pop LPs in 1957. Beginning on May 25,1959, Billboard split the ranking into two charts Best-Selling Stereophonic LPs for stereo albums and Best-Selling Monophonic LPs for mono albums and these were renamed to Stereo Action Charts and Mono Action Charts in 1960. In January 1961, they became Action Albums—Stereophonic and Action Albums—Monophonic, three months later, they became Top LPs—Stereo and Top LPs—Monaural. On August 17,1963 the stereo and mono charts were combined into a 150-position chart called Top LPs, on April 1,1967, the chart was expanded to 175 positions, then finally to 200 positions on May 13,1967. In 1960, Billboard began concurrently publishing album charts which ranked sales of older or mid-priced titles and these Essential Inventory charts were divided by stereo and mono albums, and featured titles that had already appeared on the main stereo and mono album charts. In January 1961, the Action Charts became Action Albums—Monophonic, Albums appeared on either chart for up to nine weeks, then were moved to an Essential Inventory list of approximately 200 titles, with no numerical ranking. This list continued to be published until the consolidated Top LPs chart debuted in 1963, in 1982, Billboard began publishing a Midline Albums chart which ranked older or mid-priced titles. The chart held 50 positions and was published on a bi-weekly basis, on May 25,1991, Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart
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Streaming media
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Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. A client end-user can use their player to begin to play the data file before the entire file has been transmitted. For example, in the 1930s, elevator music was among the earliest popularly available streaming media, the term streaming media can apply to media other than video and audio such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered streaming text. As of 2017, streaming is generally taken to refer to cases where a user watches digital video content or listens to audio content on a computer screen. With streaming content, the user does not have to download the digital video or digital audio file before they start to watch/listen to it. There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet, as of 2016, two popular streaming services are the video sharing website YouTube, which contains video and audio files on a huge range of topics and Netflix, which streams movies and TV shows. Live streaming refers to Internet content delivered in real-time, as events happen, Live internet streaming requires a form of source media, an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, in the early 1920s, George O. Attempts to display media on computers date back to the earliest days of computing in the mid-20th century, however, little progress was made for several decades, primarily due to the high cost and limited capabilities of computer hardware. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, consumer-grade personal computers became powerful enough to various media. These technological improvement facilitated the streaming of audio and video content to users in their homes and workplaces. The band Severe Tire Damage was the first group to live on the Internet. On June 24,1993, the band was playing a gig at Xerox PARC while elsewhere in the building, as proof of PARCs technology, the bands performance was broadcast and could be seen live in Australia and elsewhere. Microsoft Research developed a Microsoft TV application which was compiled under MS Windows Studio Suite, realNetworks was also a pioneer in the streaming media markets, when it broadcast a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners over the Internet in 1995. The first symphonic concert on the Internet took place at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, the concert was a collaboration between The Seattle Symphony and various guest musicians such as Slash, Matt Cameron, and Barrett Martin. When Word Magazine launched in 1995, they featured the first-ever streaming soundtracks on the Internet.4 in 1999, in June 1999 Apple also introduced a streaming media format in its QuickTime 4 application. It was later widely adopted on websites along with RealPlayer. In 2000 Industryview. com launched its worlds largest streaming video archive website to help promote themselves
28.
Complex (magazine)
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Complex is a New York–based media platform for youth culture which was founded as a bi-monthly magazine by fashion designer Marc Eckō. Complex reports on trends in style, pop culture, music, sports and sneakers with a focus on streetwear, sneaker culture, hip-hop, Complex currently reaches over 120 million unique users per month across its owned and operated and partner sites, socials and YouTube channels. The magazine ceased publication with the December 2016/January 2017 issue, in 2016 December, Complex acquired the website Trillera. com. In 2016, it became a subsidiary of Verizon and Hearst. Complex was established in 2002 by the founder of the Eckō Unltd, Brand, Marc Eckō, as a print magazine aimed at providing young males a report of the latest in hip-hop, fashion and pop culture without regard to race. The name Complex evolved from a slogan developed to promote the Eckō Unltd, the idea was to create a mens magazine that combined Eckōs streetwear and hip-hop attitude along with the style of Japanese mens magazines by providing consumer guides. This was achieved by creating a magazine in two sections, one magazine, and the other a shopping guide. In 2005, Complex was joined by the senior editor of Vibe magazine. He became editor-in-chief and chief content officer a year later, a position he retains as of February 2014. By 2006, Complex had begun to turn a profit which allowed the magazine to consider an expansion of their online presence, in April 2007, Complex soft-launched a media network with four websites, NahRight, Nice Kicks, SlamxHype and MoeJackson. In September 2007, Complex launched Complex Media in order to capitalize on the trend toward digital content. In 2010, ad sales grew 154%, according to comScore, Complex got 12 million unique hits in March 2012. This encouraged large brands such as Coors, AT&T, Ford, McDonalds, Nike, Adidas, Complex now includes over 100 sites. In 2011, Complex acquired Pigeons and Planes, a music and rap blog. In 2013, Complex launched the music site Do Androids Dance and Green Label. That year, Complex also acquired the sneakerhead culture magazine and website Sole Collector, on November 4,2013, Complex premiered a new logo and cover design on Instagram that would appear online, as well as on the December 2013 Eminem cover issue. In 2013, Complex partnered with Mountain Dew to launch Green Label an entertainment, in 2014, Complex launched an NBA-themed website called Triangle Offense in a partnership with Bacardi rum. In August 2014, Complex ranked #3 in the United States in a ComScore survey of visitors between the ages of 18 and 34 with 20.3 million in that demographic per month
