1.
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
2.
Kendrick Lamar
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Kendrick Lamar Duckworth is an American hip hop recording artist and songwriter. He began to gain recognition in 2010, after his first retail release, the following year, Lamar independently released his first studio album, Section.80, which included his debut single, HiiiPoWeR. By that time, he had amassed a large Internet following and collaborated with artists in the hip hop industry, including The Game, Snoop Dogg. Lamar secured a record deal with Aftermath and Interscope Records. His major-label debut, good kid, m. A. A. d city, was released in October 2012 to critical success and it debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart and was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The record contained the top 40 singles Swimming Pools, Bitch, Dont Kill My Vibe, Lamar won his first Grammy Award for i, lead single from his critical acclaimed third album To Pimp a Butterfly. The album drew on jazz, funk, soul, and spoken word, debuted atop the charts in the US and the UK. In 2016, Lamar released untitled unmastered, a collection of unreleased demos that originated during the recording sessions for Butterfly. Lamar has received a number of accolades over the course of his career, in early 2013, MTV named Lamar the number one Hottest MC in the Game, on their annual list. Time named Lamar one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, Kendrick Lamar was born in Compton, California, the son of a couple from Chicago, Illinois. His first name was given to him by his mother in honor of American singer-songwriter Eddie Kendricks and he grew up on welfare and section 8 housing. As a child, Lamar attended McNair Elementary in the Compton Unified School District, as a teenager, Lamar went on to attend Centennial High School in Compton, where he was a straight-A student. In 2004, at the age of 16, Lamar released his first full-length project, the mixtape was released under Konkrete Jungle Muzik and garnered local recognition for Lamar. The mixtape led to Lamar securing a contract with Top Dawg Entertainment. He began recording material with the label and subsequently released a 26 track mixtape two years later, titled Training Day. Throughout 2006 and 2007, Lamar would appear alongside other up-and-coming West Coast rappers, such as Jay Rock and Ya Boy, under the moniker K-Dot, Lamar was also featured on The Games songs The Cypha and Cali Niggaz. Lamar garnered further recognition after a video of a performance of a Charles Hamilton show surfaced. Lamar did not hesitate and began rapping a verse over the instrumental to Miilkbones Keep It Real, after receiving a co-sign from Lil Wayne, Lamar released his third mixtape in 2009, titled C4, which was heavily themed around Waynes Tha Carter III LP
3.
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
4.
Johnny "Guitar" Watson
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John Watson, Jr. known professionally as Johnny Guitar Watson, was an American blues, soul, and funk musician and singer-songwriter. A flamboyant showman and electric guitarist in the style of T-Bone Walker and his creative reinvention in the 1970s with disco and funk overtones, saw Watson have hits with Aint That a Bitch, I Need It and Superman Lover. His successful recording career spanned forty years, with his highest chart appearance being the 1977 song A Real Mother For Ya, Watson was born in Houston, Texas. His father John Sr. was a pianist, and taught his son the instrument, but young Watson was immediately attracted to the sound of the guitar, in particular the electric guitar as played by T-Bone Walker and Clarence Gatemouth Brown. His grandfather, a preacher, was also musical and my grandfather used to sing while hed play guitar in church, man, Watson reflected many years later. When Johnny was 11, his grandfather offered to him a guitar if, and only if. Watson agreed, but that was the first thing I did, a musical prodigy, Watson played with Texas bluesmen Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland. His parents separated in 1950, when he was 15 and his mother moved to Los Angeles, and took Watson with her. In his new city, Watson won several talent shows. This led to his employment, while still a teenager, with jump blues-style bands such as Chuck Higginss Mellotones and he worked as a vocalist, pianist, and guitarist. He quickly made a name for himself in the African-American juke joints of the West Coast and he was billed as Young John Watson until 1954. That year, he saw the Joan Crawford film Johnny Guitar, Watson affected a swaggering, yet humorous personality, indulging a taste for flashy clothes and wild showmanship on stage. His attacking style of playing, without a plectrum, resulted in him needing to change the strings on his guitar once or twice a show, because he stressified on them so much. Watsons ferocious Space Guitar single of 1954 pioneered guitar feedback and reverb, Watson would later influence a subsequent generation of guitarists. His song Gangster of Love was first released on Keen Records in 1957 and it did not appear in the charts at the time, but was later re-recorded and became a hit in 1978, becoming Watsons most famous song. He toured and recorded with his friend Larry Williams, as well as Little Richard, Don and Dewey, The Olympics, Johnny Otis and, in 1975 he is a guest performer on two tracks on the Frank Zappa album One Size Fits All. He also played with Sam Cooke, Herb Alpert and George Duke, but as the popularity of blues declined and the era of soul music dawned in the 1960s, Watson transformed himself from southern blues singer with pompadour into urban soul singer in a pimp hat. His albums Aint That a Bitch and Real Mother For Ya were landmark recordings of 1970s funk, Telephone Bill, from the 1980 album Love Jones, featured Watson rapping
5.
IPad
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IPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. which run the iOS mobile operating system. The first iPad was released on April 3,2010, the most recent iPad models are the 9. 7-inch iPad Pro released on March 31,2016, the user interface is built around the devices multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. The iPad includes built-in Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity on select models, as of January 2015, there have been over 250 million iPads sold. IPad tablets are second most popular, by sales, against Android-based ones, since 2013, an iPad can shoot video, take photos, play music, and perform Internet functions such as web-browsing and emailing. Other functions – games, reference, GPS navigation, social networking, as of March 2016, the App Store has more than one million apps for the iPad by Apple and third parties. There have been six versions of the iPad, the first generation established design precedents, such as the 9. 7-inch screen size and button placement, that have persisted through all models. The third generation added a Retina Display, the new Apple A5X processor with a graphics processor, a 5-megapixel camera, HD 1080p video recording, voice dictation. The fourth generation added the Apple A6X processor and replaces the 30-pin connector with an all-digital Lightning connector, the iPad Air added the Apple A7 processor and the Apple M7 motion coprocessor, and reduced the thickness for the first time since the iPad 2. The iPad Air 2 added the Apple A8X processor, the Apple M8 motion coprocessor, an 8-megapixel camera, and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, there have been four versions of the iPad Mini. The first generation features a screen size of 7.9 inches and features similar internal specifications as the iPad 2 except it uses the Lightning connector. The iPad Mini 2 features the Retina Display, the Apple A7 processor, the iPad Mini 3 features the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The iPad Mini 4 features the Apple A8 and the Apple M8 motion coprocessor, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said in a 1983 speech that the companys strategy is really simple. What we want to do is we want to put a great computer in a book that you can carry around with you. And we really want to do it with a link in it so you don’t have to hook up to anything and you’re in communication with all of these larger databases. Apples first tablet computer was the Newton MessagePad 100, introduced in 1993, powered by an ARM6 processor core developed by ARM, Apple also developed a prototype PowerBook Duo based tablet, the PenLite, but decided not to sell it in order to avoid hurting MessagePad sales. Apple released several more Newton-based PDAs, the one, the MessagePad 2100, was discontinued in 1998. Apple re-entered the mobile-computing markets in 2007 with the iPhone, smaller than the iPad, but featuring a camera and mobile phone, it pioneered the multi-touch finger-sensitive touchscreen interface of Apples iOS mobile operating system. By late 2009, the release had been rumored for several years
6.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
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My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the fifth studio album by American hip hop rapper and producer Kanye West. Following a period of public and legal controversy, West retreated to an exile in Hawaii in 2009. There, he worked on the album in a communal recording environment that involved numerous contributing musicians, the album features guest appearances from Bon Iver, Jay Z, Pusha T, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, Nicki Minaj, John Legend and more. Production is led by West himself, alongside a variety of record producers including Mike Dean. Jeff Bhasker, RZA, S1, Bink and DJ Frank E, the album deals with themes of excess and celebrity, and explores such issues as consumer culture, race, and the idealism of the American Dream. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was released on November 22,2010, to promote the album, West released free songs through his GOOD Fridays series and four singles, the Billboard hits Power, Monster, and Runaway, and the international hit All of the Lights. It was also promoted with a film set to the records music. The album debuted at one on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold 1,032,000 copies in the United States. A widespread critical success, it was named the best record of 2010 by many publications and has appeared on several lists ranking the greatest albums of all time. The album was conceived during Wests self-imposed exile in Oahu, Hawaii, following a period of legal and public image controversy amid an overworked mental state. West later said that his fatigue from overworking led to his controversial outburst at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, his disgust with its ensuing media response and it was formerly known as Good Ass Job and tentatively Dark Twisted Fantasy. GOOD Music artist Big Sean was the second to announce the title of the album as Good Ass Job, on July 24,2010, on Kanye Wests blog, a banner appeared reading My Dark Twisted Fantasy Trailer. On July 28,2010, West announced via his new official Twitter account that The album is no longer called Good Ass Job Im bouncing a couple of titles around now, the official title, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was announced on October 5,2010. It was reported that West spent over $3 million in expenses from his record label Def Jam on the recording. Drake, Common, Jay-Z, Eminem, Lil Wayne, John Legend, Fergie, Rihanna, The-Dream, Ryan Leslie, Elton John, Justin Vernon, Seal, Beyoncé, Kid Cudi, Mos Def, Santigold, Alicia Keys, Elly Jackson, and Tony Williams. Record producers who participated in the sessions with West included Q-Tip, RZA, DJ Premier, Madlib, Madlib said he made five beats for the album, while DJ Premier said his beats were ultimately discarded. West, who had recorded at Avex for 808s & Heartbreak. According to Noah Callahan-Bever, who visited West during the recording sessions and he heads to another studio room to make progress on another song
7.
NME
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New Musical Express is a British music journalism magazine published since 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. It started as a newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s. An online version of NME, NME. com, was launched in 1996 and it became the worlds biggest standalone music site, with over seven million users per month. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector, the paid circulation in the first half of 2014 was 15,830. In 2013, the list of NMEs The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, NME magazine was relaunched in September 2015 as a nationally distributed free publication. NMEs headquarters are in Southwark, London, England, the brands editor-in-chief is Mike Williams, who replaced Krissi Murison in 2012. The paper was established in 1952, the Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn, for the sum of £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It was relaunched as the New Musical Express, and was published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart, the first of these was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was Here in My Heart by Al Martino, during the 1960s the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The NME circulation peaked under Andy Gray, Editor 1957–1972, with a figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists appeared at the NME Poll Winners Concert. The concert also featured a ceremony where the winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners Concerts took place between 1959 and 1972, from 1964 onwards they were filmed, edited and transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place. The latter part of the 1960s saw the chart the rise of psychedelia. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as rock, in early 1972 the paper found itself on the verge of closure by its owner IPC. Alan Smith was made editor and in 1972 was told by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure, according to The Economist, the New Musical Express started to champion underground, up-and-coming music. NME became the gateway to a more rebellious world
8.
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
9.
Madlib
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Otis Jackson Jr. known professionally as Madlib, is an American DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. Madlib has described himself as a DJ first, producer second, and MC last, Madlib was born in Oxnard, California to musician parents Otis Jackson, Sr. and Dora Sinesca Jackson. His younger brother is the producer and rapper Michael Oh No Jackson and his uncle is the jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis. He was raised in Oxnard, where he began his music career, in the early 1990s, Madlib formed a loose-knit collective composed of rappers that worked with Madlib in his Oxnard-based Crate Diggas Palace studio. This collective was composed primarily of his friends, and became known as CDP, Madlibs first commercially released music was production for the rap group Tha Alkaholiks in 1993. He went on to music of his own with the group Lootpack. Their 12-inch EP Ill Psyche Move, was released by Madlibs father in 1995 on a label also called Crate Diggas Palace and this record caught the attention of Peanut Butter Wolf, founder of the Stones Throw Records label, who signed the group in 1998. The Lootpacks 1999 debut album Soundpieces, Da Antidote ushered in a string of releases on Stones Throw centering on Madlibs production work which would continue for a decade and his first solo work, under the guise of Quasimoto, The Unseen, came in 2000. The album was met with acclaim, named by Spin Magazine as one of the top 20 albums of the year. Over the next years, through several record releases on Stones Throw and other labels. Madlib was later invited to remix tracks from the Blue Note Records archive in 2003, in addition to the remixes, the album contained newly recorded interpretations of Blue Note originals, many of which were credited to members of Yesterdays New Quintet. Returning to hip-hop music in 2003, Madlib announced two collaborative projects, working with the late hip hop producer J Dilla, the duo known as Jaylib released Champion Sound. The other was Madlibs collaboration with rapper MF Doom, known together as Madvillain and their 2004 Madvillainy album was highly anticipated and well-received, topping many critics year-end lists. In 2010, Madlib announced his own imprint called Madlib Invazion, the series would ultimately take over two years to complete, culminating with 13 album releases and several vinyl-only EPs, spanning hip-hop, jazz, remixes, and multi-genre DJ mix tapes. The label has continued to release records outside of the original series, freddie Gibbs and Madlib announced plans for a collaboration album late in 2011 with the release of an EP titled Thuggin. A second EP titled Shame followed on June 22,2012, a third EP titled Deeper was released on September 24,2013. The duos collaboration album Piñata was later released to acclaim on March 18,2014. Madlib produced Cadillacs with Snoop Dogg for his mixtape Thats My Work Volume 3, in a 2010 interview with LA Weekly, Madlib stated that Kanye West put five of his beats on hold for the album he was working on at the time
10.
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
11.
GOOD Music
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GOOD Music, Inc. is an American record label founded in 2004, by hip hop artist and record producer Kanye West. The label has housed several successful recording artists throughout the years, such as Big Sean, Pusha T, Common, John Legend, Tyga, Kid Cudi, Desiigner, Teyana Taylor and Mos Def, among others. Their roster of producers include Travis Scott, Southside, Hit-Boy, Hudson Mohawke, Q-Tip, Jeff Bhasker. The label has released 10 albums certified gold or higher by the Recording Industry Association of America, Kanye West founded GOOD Music in 2004, in conjunction with Sony BMG, shortly after releasing his debut album, The College Dropout. John Legend, Common, and West were the labels inaugural artists, legends Get Lifted was the labels first album release - this received eight nominations and three wins at the 2006 Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist and Best R&B Album. In October 2006, Legend released his album, Once Again. Commons Be, the second release, was the recipient of four Grammy Award nominations. The label later added GLC, Really Doe, Malik Yusef, Tony Williams, Wests second studio album, Late Registration, included featured guest appearances by every artist signed to GOOD Musics roster at the time of its release in August 2005. In May 2007, Detroit rapper Big Sean signed to the label, in 2008, West signed British singer-songwriter Mr Hudson, after hearing A Tale of Two Cities. He also signed then up-and-coming rapper Kid Cudi, after hearing his work from producer and manager Plain Pat. Kid Cudis debut album, Man on the Moon, The End of Day was released under GOOD Music on September 15,2009, the album earned three Grammy nominations and was certified Gold by the RIAA. A month later Mr Hudsons solo debut, Straight No Chaser, was released, the label held a cypher for the 2010 BET Hip Hop Awards in June, that featured West, Common, Big Sean and new signee Cyhi the Prynce. In late 2010, West released several tracks featuring himself, and others members of the GOOD Music roster, in a free weekly giveaway known as, G. O. O. D. In September 2010, West signed Brooklyn rapper Mos Def to GOOD Music. and shortly afterwards Consequence released a diss track, the following month Pusha T announced his signing. Late in 2010, Kid Cudi released his studio album Man on the Moon II, The Legend of Mr. Rager. In April 2011, West signed American rapper and producer Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, Kanye West also signed producer Hit-Boy, to Very G. O. O. D. In 2011, West signed Nigerian artists Dbanj and Don Jazzy, in June 2011, GOOD Music signed their first distribution agreement, with Def Jam Recordings. Big Seans debut Finally Famous was the first album released by GOOD Music with distribution by Def Jam, in late 2011, plans were announced for a release of a compilation album, later entitled Cruel Summer
