1.
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
2.
Jeezy
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Jay Wayne Jenkins, better known by his stage name Young Jeezy, is an American rap artist from Atlanta, Georgia. In 1998, he launched the label imprint CTE World, aside from his solo career, Jeezy is the de facto leader of the southern hip hop group United Streets Dopeboyz of America, and is a former member of the Bad Boy Records rap group Boyz n da Hood. Jeezy is also known for helping pioneer the hip hop subgenre trap music, alongside fellow Atlanta-based rappers T. I. Jeezy embarked on his music career in 2001, as Lil J, with the release of Thuggin Under the Influence. He later joined Boyz n da Hood in 2005, the year his solo major label debut Lets Get It. Its lead single Soul Survivor, which features R&B singer Akon and his subsequent albums, The Inspiration and The Recession, both yielded chart-topping singles. Jay Wayne Jenkins was born in Columbia, South Carolina and relocated to Atlanta, because his parents were separated, custody of him transferred between family members frequently. In an interview with XXL magazine, he described his childhood as empty, in 1994, he spent nine months in YCA, a boot camp in Fort Stewart, Georgia, for narcotics possession. Jeezy released his first independent album, Thuggin Under the Influence and it featured artists such as Freddy J. Kinky B, Fidank, and Lil Jon, who also produced some of the tracks. In 2003, Jeezy released Come Shop wit Me, a set featuring completely new tracks with some songs from T. U. I. Jeezy signed with Bad Boy Records in 2004 and joined the group Boyz n da Hood, whose self-titled album was released in June 2005 and peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 albums charts. In May 2004, Jazze Phas manager Henry Noonie Lee showed Young Jeezys demo to his friend Shakir Stewart, Vice President Artist, Stewart fell in love with it the first time heard it and took it to L. A. Reid. Reid recognised the talent and gave Stewart the green light to sign him, as the hottest thing on the street at the time, various labels - including Warner and Interscope – were after his signature. However, Young Jeezy decided he wanted to be in business with Stewart, as a result, signed with Def Jam Records. Young Jeezys debut single off his album, And Then What featuring Mannie Fresh. Young Jeezys major label debut, Lets Get It, Thug Motivation 101, was released on July 26,2005 and it debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, selling 172,000 copies in its first week and was later certified Platinum by the RIAA. The second single off the album, Soul Survivor featuring Akon reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, the third single, My Hood, reached #77 on the Billboard Hot 100. In an interview with HitQuarters, A&R Shakir Stewart said that Jeezy had recorded over 60 songs for the album, in interviews and on several records, Young Jeezy has affirmed his resistance to commercialism in his music. Maintaining his street credibility, according to Young Jeezy, is of the utmost concern to him as an artist, in 2005, Young Jeezy was featured in several popular hip hop songs including Gucci Manes Icy and Boyz n da Hoods Dem Boyz
3.
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
4.
The Recession
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The Recession is the third studio album by American rapper Young Jeezy. It was released on September 2,2008, by Def Jam Recordings, the album was supported by five singles, Put On featuring Kanye West, Vacation, Crazy World, My President featuring Nas, and Who Dat. The albums lead single, called Put On was released on June 3,2008, the song features a guest verse from American hip hop recording artist Kanye West, with the production that was provided by Drumma Boy. The albums second single, called Vacation was released on August 12,2008, the song was produced by the duo The Inkredibles. The albums third single, Crazy World was released on October 25,2008, the track was produced by Midnight Black. The albums fourth single, My President was released on November 15,2008, the song features a guest verse from a fellow American rapper Nas, with the production that was provided by the duo Tha Bizness. The albums fifth and final single, Who Dat was released on January 6,2009, the song was produced by Shawty Redd, with the co-production by D. Rich. In the United States, the album debuted at one on the Billboard 200. To date, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, in 2009, the album sold 886,000 copies in the United States. The album so far has a score of 72 out of 100 from Metacritic based on generally favorable reviews. The Guardian gave it four out of five and said that The album touches upon economic issues without dwelling on them. Slant Magazine also gave it four out of five and said, Theres a unique pleasure in hearing a once one-dimensional rapper discover complexity. The Village Voice also gave it a review and said that Jeezys previous two albums were well-crafted, uncompromising in their focus, and exceptionally entertaining. AllHipHop gave it a score of seven-and-a-half stars out of ten and said, Overcoming shaky moments in the early half. But this time he combines a serious social theme with his content to make that distinction. And while theres no doubt that America is currently in an economic decline, club gave it a B and called it silly, repetitive, and wildly unoriginal. Yet thanks to Jeezys razor-blade rasp and goofy charisma, its also strangely infectious, paste gave it a 5.8 out of ten and said that the singles are exceptional, but the filler suffers from a detached and dispirited sound. Prefix Magazine gave it a 4, instead, we get more of the same
5.
Compact disc
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Compact disc is a digital optical disc data storage format released in 1982 and co-developed by Philips and Sony. The format was developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data. The first commercially available Audio CD player, the Sony CDP-101, was released October 1982 in Japan, standard CDs have a diameter of 120 millimetres and can hold up to about 80 minutes of uncompressed audio or about 700 MiB of data. The Mini CD has various diameters ranging from 60 to 80 millimetres, they are used for CD singles, storing up to 24 minutes of audio. At the time of the introduction in 1982, a CD could store much more data than a personal computer hard drive. By 2010, hard drives commonly offered as much space as a thousand CDs. In 2004, worldwide sales of audio CDs, CD-ROMs and CD-Rs reached about 30 billion discs, by 2007,200 billion CDs had been sold worldwide. In 2014, revenues from digital music services matched those from physical format sales for the first time. American inventor James T. Russell has been credited with inventing the first system to record information on an optical transparent foil that is lit from behind by a high-power halogen lamp. Russells patent application was first filed in 1966, and he was granted a patent in 1970, following litigation, Sony and Philips licensed Russells patents in the 1980s. The compact disc is an evolution of LaserDisc technology, where a laser beam is used that enables the high information density required for high-quality digital audio signals. Prototypes were developed by Philips and Sony independently in the late 1970s, although originally dismissed by Philips Research management as a trivial pursuit, the CD became the primary focus for Philips as the LaserDisc format struggled. In 1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new audio disc. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the Red Book CD-DA standard was published in 1980, after their commercial release in 1982, compact discs and their players were extremely popular. Despite costing up to $1,000, over 400,000 CD players were sold in the United States between 1983 and 1984, by 1988 CD sales in the United States surpassed those of vinyl LPs, and by 1992 CD sales surpassed those of prerecorded music cassette tapes. The success of the disc has been credited to the cooperation between Philips and Sony, who came together to agree upon and develop compatible hardware. The unified design of the disc allowed consumers to purchase any disc or player from any company. In 1974, L. However, due to the performance of the analog format
6.
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
7.
Def Jam Recordings
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Def Jam Recordings is an American record label, focused predominantly on hip hop and urban music, owned by Universal Music Group. In the UK, the takes on the name Def Jam UK and is operated through Virgin EMI, while in Japan. The label distributes various record labels, including Kanye Wests GOOD Music, Ludacris Disturbing Tha Peace, Def Jam was founded by Rick Rubin in his dormitory in Weinstein Hall at New York University and its first release was a single by his punk-rock group Hose. Russell Simmons joined Rubin shortly after they were introduced to other, according to one story. Another cites DJ Jazzy Jay as their connector, Rubin has said he met Simmons on the TV show, Graffiti Rock and recognized him then as the face of hip hop, He was five years older than me, and he was already established in the music business. And I had no experience whatsoever, the first single released with the Def Jam Recordings logo was T La Rock & Jazzy Jays Its Yours. The first releases with Def Jam Recordings catalog numbers were LL Cool Js I Need a Beat, the singles sold well, eventually leading to a distribution deal with CBS Records through Columbia Records the following year. A few years later, Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen started a label called Rush Associated Labels to handle Def Jam. RAL became the home to Nice & Smooth and EPMD after both acts were acquired due to the folding of their former label Sleeping Bag Records, other acts under the RAL umbrella included Redman, Onyx, Flatlinerz, Domino, Warren G and Jayo Felony. As the decade drew to a close, the label signed Public Enemy, Lyor Cohen became president of Def Jam/RAL in 1988, after winning a power struggle with Rubin, who would shortly thereafter leave the company to form Def American Recordings. Rubin would take Slayer with him to Def American in its initial stages, by 1992, despite recent multi-platinum selling releases from Public Enemy, and EPMD, Def Jam ran into severe financial troubles and was faced with folding. However, in 1994, PolyGram purchased Sonys 50% stake in Def Jam Recordings — subsequently bringing the label into its fold, following PolyGrams purchase, Def Jam distributed the Violator Records-signed artist Warren Gs Regulate. G Funk Era album, which went triple platinum and brought much-needed revenue to Def Jam through its distribution deal with Violator, PolyGram acquired an additional 10% in Def Jam Recordings in 1996, further strengthening its ownership of Def Jam. Shortly thereafter, Rush Associated Labels was renamed Def Jam Music Group, the label remained profitable as its veteran star LL Cool J released his successful album Mr. Smith in 1995. The label later signed Foxy Brown, whose debut album Ill Na Na became a seller in 1997. In 1998, PolyGram was purchased by Seagram and merged with the MCA family of labels and it then purchased the remaining interest of Def Jam Recordings from Russell Simmons for a reported $100 million. UMG merged 14+ record labels including, Def Jam, Island Records, despite the formation of IDJMG, the Def Jam, Mercury, and Island labels continued to operate as separate imprints underneath the bigger umbrella. Lyor Cohen was appointed co-president of IDJMG, and Kevin Liles succeeded him as president of Def Jam, Def Soul also issued recordings by Musiq, Montell Jordan, Case,112, Patti LaBelle, and Christina Milian
8.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
9.
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
10.
Drumma Boy
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Christopher James Gholson, better known by his stage name Drumma Boy, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, composer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Born in Memphis, Tennessee and raised in Cordova, Tennessee and his father holds an undergraduate degree from Michigan State University, a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the Catholic University of America. His father is also an emeritus of the Memphis Woodwind Quintet and his paternal grandfather was a high school principal and has a high school named after him Washington D. C. The rest of his family including grandmothers and aunts were also musicians. Drumma Boy says he had a recorder in his hand at age 3 and his father was instrumental in teaching him about traditional classical music yet it was his mother that introduced him to Curtis Mayfield and 1970s oldies rhythm and blues. A classical musically trained musician, Gholson began the practicing E-flat clarinet by the age of six, at the age of six, Gholson began taking piano lessons. Gholson started making hip hop beats at the age of 12 and he also produced an entire album at the age of 14 in his hometown. During high school, Gholson played basketball heavily from ninth grade to grade and was offered several athletic scholarships. As an amateur producer during his school days, he began charging $200 for each beat that he made. Gholson attended the University of Memphis as a Music Business major, Gholson also attended college to satisfy his fathers belief that a college degree was a ticket to a solid and stable career. Following his fathers advice and by his year, Drumma Boy established a name for himself and was quickly becoming the most sought-after producers in his home state of Tennessee. Gholson matriculated at the University of Memphis as a business major in 2001. Gholson spent much of his time outside of classes on the keyboard. In between attending classes, he would shop his homemade beats to local Memphis rappers such as Gangsta Boo, as well as travel to Texas to work on projects for Scarface. Though Gholson earned good grades, he was kicked out in 2004 due to his music career. The cash flow from his production company was so strong that Gholson pulled $20,000 per month where he eventually realized that he had no reason to stay in college. His father later became upset and embarrassed about him being kicked out and told Gholson that hip hop production was a career path. His father challenged him to earn $100,000 within 12 months to prove his independence, Drumma Boy later accepted the challenge, in October 2013, Drumma Boy conducted a halftime show during the 2013-2014 season opening of his hometown NBA team, the Memphis Grizzlies
11.
Dreamin' (Young Jeezy song)
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Dreamin is a song by American rapper Young Jeezys released as the third single from his second album The Inspiration. It features singer Keyshia Cole and is produced by The Runners and it samples Bill Summers song Dreaming. This beat was sampled in the song Another Trill N*gga Gone, the video directed by Chris Robinson was released on May 2,2007 on BETs Access Granted. In the music video Keyshia Coles hair style is similar to that of Mary J. Bliges in the video for the 1995 hit single Ill Be There For You/Youre All I Need to Get By
12.
Out Here Grindin
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Out Here Grindin is the first single from DJ Khaleds third studio album, We Global. The track features American hip hop artists Akon, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Lil Boosie, Trick Daddy, Ace Hood and it is produced by The Runners and co-produced by Akon and the hook is written by T-Pain. This song originally featured Lil Wayne in place of Young Jeezy, the version with Young Jeezy in place of Wayne is the official single version. Plies verse has been moved to Waynes part, the version with Jeezys verse was recently released on Jeezys mixtape The Prime Minister. The reason for Waynes verse being removed is allegedly because of him not being able to attend the video shoot. Out Here Grindin Out Here Grindin Out Here Grindin A fourth version, available on the Lil Wayne and Friends 4 mixtape, removes Plies verse and it is credited as Lil Wayne feat. A music video was on 106 & Park on July 23, the video premiered on BETs 106 & Park on July 22,2008. The video does not include Young Jeezy, but he is kept on the official single. The video version has Akon, Rick Ross, Plies, Lil Boosie, Ace Hood and Trick Daddy, and is the version that ended up being on the album. Out Here Grindin first made a Hot Shot Debut at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the issue of July 19,2008 making it DJ Khaleds highest debut on the chart, also in Canada it debuted at #71 on the Canadian Hot 100 based on downloads
13.
American Boy
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American Boy is a song recorded by British rapper and singer Estelle for her second studio album Shine. It features vocals from American rapper Kanye West, the song was written by Estelle, West, will. i. am, John Legend, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir, and Keith Harris. It was produced by will. i. am, who produced the albums previous single, Wait a Minute. American Boy is a breezy disco-funk song that describes a romance with an American suitor. The songs conception came after Legend, Estelles mentor, suggested she write a song about meeting an American man, American Boy was released by Atlantic Records as the albums second single on 31 March 2008. The song received positive reviews music critics, who praised its fresh sound. The song reached the top five in many European and Oceanic markets, including Belgium and it also achieved success in the United States, peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming Estelles breakout song in the country. The song earned nominations, and ultimately won a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The music video, featuring a variety of celebrity guests, earned a Video Music Award nomination for Best UK Video, as a result of the songs popularity, Estelle performed it at several award shows and venues. American Boy was written by Estelle, will. i. am, John Legend, Kanye West, Josh Lopez, Caleb Speir and Keith Harris. It was also produced by will. i. am and recorded over the instrumental of his song Impatient, the credits of Lopez, Speir, and Harris were the result of this sampling. In a 2008 interview with Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul, Estelle explained how the song came to fruition, We were just messing about in the studio, and John just said to me Why dont you write a song about meeting an American boy. So I was like Well, thats pretty easy - because I have a lot of friends out there in New York. And I unwittingly ended up creating a new ladies anthem and she also spoke about Wests involvement on the song, commenting Kanye basically just brought his own cheeky self to the track, his own sense of humour. At first he was like How can you rap over a dance beat. -, instrumentation on the track includes drums, keys, synths, and bass, the former were provided by will. i. am while Caleb Speir provided the latter. Will. i. am also co-recorded and co-engineered the song with Padriac Kerin at The Record Plant in Hollywood, Florida as well as Hit Factory Criteria, serge Tsai mixed the song and recorded Wests rap at Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York City. American Boy is a disco and funk song that, according to the sheetmusic published at Musicnotes. com by Alfred Publishing Co. Inc. is set to metronome of 120 beats per minute. Estelles vocals, which have been described as sweet and flirty, timothy Gabriele of PopMatters described Estelles vocals as those of one connecting with her inner soul chanteuse
14.
Swagga Like Us
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Swagga Like Us is a song by American hip hop recording artists Jay-Z, T. I. The song was produced by West and is constructed primarily around a sample of Paper Planes by British musician M. I. A. Swagga like Us received mostly mixed reviews from critics, whilst many complimented T. I. It was nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 51st Grammy Awards, winning the latter, herself, also performed Swagger Like Us and the original Paper Planes during the ceremony. Kanye West had originally wanted to work with British artist M. I. A. on his studio album Late Registration. T. I. accepted the production and originally planned Swagga like Us to be a collaboration with him and West only, writing two verses with West providing a verse of his own. He then, however, decided to make it an event record and send it to fellow rappers Jay-Z and Lil Wayne to record verses over, admitting to MTV News that it was an ambitious idea. All of the vocals on the mix, with the exception of M. I. A. s, were recorded at the Record Plant – a recording studio in Hollywood. The song was mixed by Andrew Dawson at Pacifique Studios in Los Angeles, California, West emailed one of the songs early demos to M. I. A. Herself, which she proclaimed really hot, but that the version sounded even better. The backing track is based upon a vocal sample of Paper Planes by British artist M. I. A. Specifically the line no one on the corner had swagger like us, since Paper Planes itself samples the 1982 song Straight to Hell by British rock group The Clash, all of the writers of both songs are credited as writing Swagga like Us. West added a bass and drum line similar to that of a marching band to the vocal sample. The Guardians Angus Batey considered the idea of the four artists recording together to be better than the itself, calling it good-on-paper. The song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Song, kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and M. I. A. Performed the song at Grammy Awards that year and this song was number 22 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008. Swagga Like Us was heavily remixed by various artists, hip hop duo Clipse included their remix on their mixtape Road to Till the Casket Drops. Diddy recorded a remix titled Swagger Like Puff, featuring Cassie singing the chorus, trey Songz has also recorded one under the name of Swagga Like Songz
15.
Lil' Kim
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Kimberly Denise Jones, known by her stage name Lil Kim, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, model, and actress. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, living much of her adolescent life on the streets after being expelled from home. In her teens, Jones would freestyle rap, heavily influenced by actress/singer Diana Ross, performing a freestyle rap for The Notorious B. I. G. got her music career start in 1995 with his group Junior M. A. F. I. A. Whose debut album Conspiracy generated two top 20 singles in the United States and her following albums, The Notorious K. I. M. and La Bella Mafia, were certified Platinum, making her the only female rapper besides Missy Elliott to have at least 3 Platinum albums. In addition, the remake won two MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year, and a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 44th Grammy Awards in 2002. In 2005, she served a prison sentence for lying to a jury about her friends involvement in a shooting four years earlier. During her incarceration, her fourth album The Naked Truth was released and she returned to the public eye in 2009 with an appearance on Dancing with the Stars. Throughout her career, Jones has sold over 15 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide. Jones has earned many accolades and honorific titles for her work including the Queen of Hip-Hop. Her songs No Time, Big Momma Thang and Ladies Night were listed on Complex Magazines The 50 Best Rap Songs By Women, at number 24,13 and 7, respectively. Crush On You, Its All About the Benjamins and Money, Power, in 2012, Lil Kim was honorably listed on VH1s 100 Greatest Women In Music list at number 45, the second highest position for a solo female hip-hop artist. Jones was born in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the child of Linwood Jones, a former U. S. Marine. She has one brother named Christopher. As a child, Jones attended Queen of All Saints Elementary School in Brooklyn, at the age of 9, her parents separated, and Jones was raised by her father, with whom she had a tumultuous relationship. After being kicked out of her house by her dad, Jones dropped out of high school, while still a teen, Jones met The Notorious B. I. G. Jones attended Sarah J. Hale Vocational High School for two and a half years, many of her friends also went there and she would often skip school to hang out with them. Since her school work wasnt being completed, the decision was made for her to transfer to Brooklyn College Academy to finish her remaining year and it was the same school that fellow rappers Nas and Foxy Brown also attended. In 1994, B. I. G. was instrumental in introducing and promoting the Brooklyn-based group, which included Jones, who was only 19 at the time. Wallace wrote most of the albums material, Three hit singles came from Conspiracy, Players Anthem, I Need You Tonight, and Get Money
16.
She Got It
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She Got It is the first single from 2 Pistols from his debut album Death Before Dishonor. It features T-Pain and Tay Dizm and was produced by J. U. S. T. I. C. E, there is also an original version produced by long-time friend Bolo Da Producer. It reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100, #9 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, a music video has been made for this song, featuring an appearance by Jay Lyriq & Sophia Fresh, who makes a cameo in the song during Tay Dizms verse. The official remix, She Got It, features T-Pain, Twista, Lil Flip has also a recorded freestyle version of the song called We Got It which can be heard on his MySpace profile. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
17.
Download (song)
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Download is a promotional single by rapper Lil Kim. It features R&B singers T-Pain and Charlie Wilson and was written by Lil Kim and T-Pain, the song samples Computer Love by Zapp. It peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and it eventually made it to the top 10 US Urban Radio airplay and climbed to #10 with 2171 hits. The sing The official remix to the song features T-Pain, Charlie Wilson, DJ Envy, The-Dream, & Soulja Boy Tell Em, it was leaked on the internet July 30,2009. There is a version of the remix that featured Soulja Boy with the 3 artists from the original version. The remixs digital download was released on August 25,2009 and these are the formats and track listings of major single releases of Download. The video was released on May 3,2009 via Kims MySpace and features Charlie Wilson as well as T-Pain, also, LisaRaye McCoy, Derek Hough, Khamani Griffin, & Lil B make cameos. The video ranked at #84 on BETs Notarized, Top 100 Videos of 2009 countdown, lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
18.
Hip hop
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Hip hop is a subculture and art movement developed by African-Americans and Latinos from the inner-city South Bronx neighbourhood in New York City in the late 1970s. Jamaican immigrant DJ Kool Herc also played a key role in developing hip hop music, at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Herc mixed samples of existing records and DJed percussion breaks, mixing this music with his own Jamaican-style toasting to rev up the crowd and dancers. These youths mixed these influences with existing musical styles associated with African Americans prior to the 1970s, Hip hop music became popular outside of the African-American community in the late 1980s, with the mainstream commercial success of gangsta rap. Critic Greg Tate described the hip hop movement as the only avant-garde still around, Hip hop culture has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the United States and subsequently the world. These elements were adapted and developed considerably, particularly as the art spread to new continents and merged with local styles in the 1990s. Sampling older culture and re-using it in a new context or a new format is called flipping in hip hop culture. Hip hop music follows in the footsteps of earlier African-American-rooted musical genres such as blues, jazz, rag-time, funk, cowboy later worked the hip hop cadence into his stage performance. The group frequently performed with artists who would refer to this new type of music by calling them hip hoppers. The name was meant as a sign of disrespect, but soon came to identify this new music. The song Rappers Delight, by The Sugarhill Gang, released in 1979, begins with the phrase I said a hip, hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, and you dont stop. Lovebug Starski, a Bronx DJ who put out a single called The Positive Life in 1981, and DJ Hollywood then began using the term when referring to this new disco rap music. Bill Alder, an independent consultant, once said, There was hardly ever a moment when rap music was underground, one of the very first so-called rap records, was a monster hit. Hip hop pioneer and South Bronx community leader Afrika Bambaataa also credits Lovebug Starski as the first to use the hip hop. Bambaataa, former leader of the Black Spades gang, also did much to popularize the term. In the 1970s, an urban movement known as Hip Hop began to develop in the South Bronx in New York City. It focused on emceeing over breakbeats, house parties and neighbourhood block party events, Hip hop music has been a powerful medium for protesting the impact of legal institutions on minorities, particularly police and prisons. Jamaican-born DJ Clive Kool Herc Cindy Campbell pioneered the use of DJing percussion breaks in hip hop music, beginning at Hercs home in a high-rise apartment at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the movement later spread across the entire borough. Herc created the blueprint for hip hop music and culture by building upon the Jamaican tradition of impromptu toasting, on August 11,1973 DJ Kool Herc was the DJ at his sisters back-to-school party
19.
Auto-Tune
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Auto-Tune is an audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies which uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances. It was originally intended to disguise or correct off-key inaccuracies, allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned despite originally being slightly off-key, the processor slightly shifts pitches to the nearest true semitone. Auto-Tune can also be used as an effect to distort the voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly, such that the voice is heard to leap from note to note stepwise. Auto-Tune is available as a plug-in for professional audio multi-tracking suites used in a setting and as a stand-alone. Auto-Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios, instruments like the Peavey AT-200 guitar are seamlessly using the Auto Tune technology for real time pitch correction. Auto-Tune was initially created by Andy Hildebrand, an engineer working for Exxon, Hildebrand developed methods for interpreting seismic data and subsequently realized that the technology could be used to detect, analyze, and modify the pitch in audio files. The earliest commercial use of Auto-Tune as an effect in a popular song was Roy Vedas Fragments Of Life in August 17th 1998 and later on in Chers Believe. The effect is not to be confused with a vocoder or the talk box, devices referenced by producers of these songs when they were new to hide their use of Auto-Tune from music audiences. For example, in an interview, the producers of Believe claimed they had used a DigiTech Talker FX pedal. After the success of Believe the technique known as the Cher Effect. Originally, Auto-Tune was designed to discreetly correct imprecise intonations, and this technique soon became a widespread technique used in live performances and in pop recordings throughout the first ten years of the 21st century. According to Chris Lee of the Los Angeles Times, Believe is widely credited with injecting Auto-Tunes mechanical modulations into pop consciousness, in the year 2000, the single Naive Song performed by Mirwais Ahmadzai from his album Production is the first ever track using Auto-Tune on the complete vocals. The use of Auto-Tune as an effect was bolstered in the late 2000s by hip hop/R&B recording artist T-Pain who elaborated on the effect. He cites new jack swing producer Teddy Riley and funk artist Roger Troutmans use of the Talk Box as inspirations for his own use of Auto-Tune, T-Pain became so associated with Auto-Tune that he has an iPhone App named after him that simulates the effect, called I Am T-Pain. Auto-Tune has since used in other hip hop/R&B artists works, including Snoop Doggs single Sexual Eruption, Lil Waynes Lollipop. The effect has become popular in raï music and other genres from Northern Africa. According to the Boston Herald, country stars Faith Hill, Shania Twain, however, other country music singers, such as Allison Moorer, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks and Martina McBride, have refused to use Auto-Tune. At the 51st Grammy Awards in early 2009, the band Death Cab for Cutie made an appearance wearing blue ribbons to protest the use of Auto-Tune in the music industry
20.
Grammy Award
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A Grammy Award, or Grammy, is an honor awarded by The Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the mainly English-language music industry. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by prominent artists, and the presentation of awards that have a more popular interest. It shares recognition of the industry as that of the other performance awards such as the Emmy Awards, the Tony Awards. The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4,1959, to honor, following the 2011 ceremony, The Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 59th Grammy Awards, honoring the best achievements from October 2015 to September 2016, was held on February 12,2017, the Grammys had their origin in the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the 1950s. The music executives decided to rectify this by creating a given by their industry similar to the Oscars. This was the beginning of the National Academy of Recording Arts, after it was decided to create such an award, there was still a question of what to call it, one working title was the Eddie, to honor the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. They finally settled on using the name of the invention of Emile Berliner, the gramophone, for the awards, the number of awards given grew and fluctuated over the years with categories added and removed, at one time reaching over 100. The second Grammy Awards, also held in 1959, was the first ceremony to be televised, the gold-plated trophies, each depicting a gilded gramophone, are made and assembled by hand by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. In 1990 the original Grammy design was revamped, changing the traditional soft lead for a stronger alloy less prone to damage, Billings developed a zinc alloy named grammium, which is trademarked. The trophies with the name engraved on them are not available until after the award announcements. By February 2009,7,578 Grammy trophies had been awarded, the General Field are four awards which are not restricted by genre. Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a full album if other than the performer. Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the team of a single song if other than the performer. Song of the Year is awarded to the writer/composer of a single song, Best New Artist is awarded to a promising breakthrough performer who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording that establishes the public identity of that artist. The only two artists to win all four of these awards are Christopher Cross, who won all four in 1980, and Adele, who won the Best New Artist award in 2009 and the other three in 2012 and 2017. Other awards are given for performance and production in specific genres, as well as for other such as artwork. Special awards are given for longer-lasting contributions to the music industry, the many other Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast Premiere Ceremony earlier in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast
21.
Music video
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A music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie in marketing campaigns that allow them to more than just a song. Tie ins and merchandising could be used in toys or marketing campaigns for food, although the origins of music videos date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they came into prominence in the 1980s when MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these works were described by terms including illustrated song, filmed insert, promotional film, promotional clip, promotional video, song video. Music videos use a range of styles of contemporary videomaking techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation, music, combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variation it presents to the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the songs lyrics, other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the songs live performance. Product placement is a technique in music videos, exemplified by the appearance of the Beats Pill in numerous hip hop videos. In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B, marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song The Little Lost Child. Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a form of entertainment known as the illustrated song. In 1926, with the arrival of many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts featured many bands, vocalists and dancers, early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, the Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brothers musical films. Live action musical shorts, featuring such performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theaters. Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short film called St. Louis Blues featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period, soundies, produced and released from 1940 to 1947, were musical films that often included short dance sequences, similar to later music videos
22.
Amber Rose
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Amber Rose is an American model, rapper, actress and fashion designer. Amber Levonchuck was born on October 21,1983 in Philadelphia, to Dorothy Rose and her father is of Irish and Italian descent and her mother is of Cape Verdean and maternal Scottish descent from Ayrshire. She has one brother named Antonio Hewlett, Rose grew up in South Philadelphia. At the age of 15, Rose began stripping, under the pseudonym Paris to provide for her family after the divorce of her parents and she was signed with modeling agency Ford Models from 2009 to 2010. In 2010, she appeared in Russell Simmons reality show about his two assistants, Running Russell Simmons and she also starred in a PSA by NOH8 Campaign. In 2011, Rose was a guest judge on Season 3 of RuPauls Drag Race and she was also a judge on Season 2 of Master of the Mix. In November 2011, she became the spokesperson for Smirnoff and appeared in ads and billboards for the companys new flavors Whipped Cream. Rose released her debut single Fame, which features Wiz Khalifa, on January 10,2012, followed by a second single and she then rapped on the eleventh track of her ex-husbands album O. N. I. F. C. Titled Rise Above, along with rappers Tuki Carter and Pharrell Williams and she was managed by Leticia Tish Cyrus, mother of singer Miley Cyrus, who is a close friend to Rose and her ex-husband Wiz Khalifa. In September 2009, Rose announced plans to launch her own eyewear line, in 2012, Rose opened a clothing line with her friend Priscilla Ono called Rose & Ono. Rose guest-starred on an episode of Wild N Out on MTV2, and had a role as MaryWanna in the film School Dance, which was directed by her manager, Nick Cannon in 2014. Simon & Schuster published her first book, How to Be a Bad Bitch, in which she offers advice and personal anecdotes on everything from finances and career to love, the cover features an image shot by famed photographer David LaChapelle. In 2015, Rose filmed, Walk Of No Shame with Amber Rose, the viral video helped promote Roses SlutWalk, which took place on October 3,2015 in Los Angeles, California. In March 2016, Rose launched an app called MuvaMoji. Upon release, it shot to No.1 on the App Store charts and she earned US$4 million from the app. In May 2016, it was announced that Rose would star in her own show entitled The Amber Rose Show on VH1. On September 8,2016, Rose began hosting Loveline, on August 30,2016, Rose was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on the 23rd season of Dancing with the Stars. She was partnered with professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy and they were eliminated on October 17 and finished in 9th place
23.
BET
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Black Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the BET Networks division of Viacom. It is the most prominent television network targeting African American audiences, the channel has offices in Washington, D. C. New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, programming on the network consists of original and acquired television series and theatrically and direct-to-video-released films. After stepping down as a lobbyist for the industry, Freeport. Johnson would soon acquire a loan for $15,000 and a $500,000 investment from media executive John Malone to start the network, the network, which was named Black Entertainment Television, launched on January 25,1980. Initially broadcasting for two hours a week as a block of programming on Nickelodeon, the lineup consisted of music videos. BET launched a program, BET News, in 1988. In 1996, the talk show BET Tonight debuted with Tavis Smiley as host, in 2001, in 1991, the network became the first black-controlled TV company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2001, the network lost its status as a business when it was bought by media conglomerate Viacom for $3 billion. In 2005, Johnson retired from the network, turning over his titles of president, by 2007, the network had launched two more music-oriented networks, BET Hip-Hop and BET Gospel. BETs president of entertainment Reginald Hudlin resigned from the network on September 11,2008 and he was then replaced by Stephen Hill, who is also executive vice president of music programming and talent. BET announced in March 2010 that Ed Gordon would return to the network to host a variety of news programs, original programming currently seen on BET include Real Husbands of Hollywood, and Being Mary Jane. By the early 2010s, the only regularly airing urban music video program on BET was 106 & Park, BET also airs a program block called BET Inspiration which features Christian programming. In the years after the cancellation of 106 & Park, would BET resume airing infomercials in early mornings and, in 2017, its Christian programming block changed its name to BET Rejoice. In addition, the channel broadcasts acquired television series, primarily in the form of sitcoms, drama series, feature films released theatrically and on home video are also aired on the channel, comprising much of its primetime and weekend schedule. The BET Walk of Fame Awards were established in 1995 by BET, the BET Awards were established in 2001 by the network to celebrate African Americans and other minorities in music, acting, sports and other fields of entertainment over the past year. The awards are presented annually and broadcast live on BET, BET commissioned Artist/Sculptor and Hip-Hop culture icon Carlos Mare139 Rodriguez to design the Award sculpture. Global promotion is provided by Kroszover Entertainment, the BET Honors were established in 2008 by the network to honor the lives and achievements of African-American luminaries
24.
106 & Park
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106 & Park was an American hip hop and R&B music video show set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast Monday to Friday at 6/5c on BET. Since its inception, it had been the networks number-one rated show, on November 14,2014, BET cancelled 106 & Park. The show was produced in Harlem, New York City. Viacoms acquisition of BET prompted a change to the CBS Broadcast Center at 524 West 57th Street between 10th & 11th Avenues, in the Hells Kitchen section of Midtown Manhattan, around this time, Terrence J would be guest co-host the show with Julissa. And notable celebrities hosted the show as well, on July 6,2006, Rocsi, who was a radio host on Power 92.3 in Chicago in the afternoon, and Terrence Jenkins became the hosts after winning the BET New Faces Contest. On May 29,2012, Rocsi and Terrence J announced they would be leaving 106 & Park in 2012, thus beginning a nationwide search for the next hosts of 106 & Park, which has been active since June 1,2012 and ended on October 1,2012. Terrence J and Rocsis last episode as hosts was broadcast on September 28,2012, the announcement for the new hosts of 106 & Park was broadcast on Monday, October 1,2012. The highly anticipated farewell episode aired on September 28,2012 and was hosted by La La Anthony, in the taped video messages, several celebrities wish their farewell for Terrence J and Rocsi. They included Jim Jones, French Montana, Julissa Bermudez, Big Tigger,2 Chainz, Ace Hood, Alicia Keys, Amare Stoudemire, Big Sean, B. o. B, Bobby V. On October 1,2012, the new hosts for 106 & Park were announced, including Shad Bow Wow Moss, Jordan Shorty da Prince Johnson, Kimberly Paigion Walker and Mykel Miss Mykie Gray. For the first time in the shows 12-year history, there were officially four hosts for 106 & Park, on January 15,2013,106 & Park revealed a new set, graphics, logo, and theme song. On January 23,2013, the former hostess Rocsi Diaz made an appearance on the show. New segments included The Mykie Report, The Battle of the Sexes, Girl Chat, Inside the Rappers Studio, the hosts had not appeared on the show in nearly two months dating back to May 2013. On November 14,2014, BET cancelled 106 & Park, the series aired its final episode on December 19,2014. The show began for one hour and, until 2005, the show was broadcast late night at 2am/1am, immediately before BET After Dark, in 2001, it was extended to 90 minutes. In 2008, the show was extended to two hours, but still reverts to 90 minutes depending on BETs scheduling for that day, the show celebrated its 2, 000th episode on August 20,2008. From July 25,2011, to September 2,2011, the shows tenth anniversary special was on October 6,2010. The previous hosts A. J. Calloway & Free, Julissa & Big Tigger, Terrence J & Rocsi, The Search consisting of Miss Mykie, Paigion, & Shorty da Prince, Angela Simmons, Bow Wow & Keshia Chanté returned to the show to celebrate
25.
Great Recession
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The Great Recession was a period of general economic decline observed in world markets during the late 2000s and early 2010s. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country, in terms of overall impact, the International Monetary Fund concluded that it was the worst global recession since World War II. According to the US National Bureau of Economic Research the recession, as experienced in that country, began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the Great Recession was related to the financial crisis of 2007–08 and U. S. subprime mortgage crisis of 2007–09. The Great Recession has resulted in the scarcity of valuable assets in the market economy, under the academic definition, the recession ended in the United States in June or July 2009. In the broader, lay sense of the word however, many use the term to refer to ongoing hardship. The Great Recession met the IMF criteria for being a recession, requiring a decline in annual real world GDP per‑capita. According to the U. S. National Bureau of Economic Research the recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, the years leading up to the crisis were characterized by an exorbitant rise in asset prices and associated boom in economic demand. Further, the U. S. shadow banking system had grown to rival the depository system yet was not subject to the regulatory oversight. US mortgage-backed securities, which had risks that were hard to assess, were marketed around the world, the emergence of sub-prime loan losses in 2007 began the crisis and exposed other risky loans and over-inflated asset prices. With loan losses mounting and the fall of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the global recession that followed resulted in a sharp drop in international trade, rising unemployment and slumping commodity prices. Several economists predicted that recovery might not appear until 2011 and that the recession would be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Economist Paul Krugman once commented on this as seemingly the beginning of a second Great Depression. Governments and central banks responded with fiscal and monetary policies to national economies. The recession has renewed interest in Keynesian economic ideas on how to combat recessionary conditions, economists advise that the stimulus should be withdrawn as soon as the economies recover enough to chart a path to sustainable growth. Income inequality in the United States has grown from 2005 to 2012 in more than 2 out of 3 metropolitan areas, median household wealth fell 35% in the US, from $106,591 to $68,839 between 2005 and 2011. The majority report of the U. S, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, composed of six Democratic and four Republican appointees, reported its findings in January 2011. There were two Republican dissenting FCIC reports, one of them, signed by three Republican appointees, concluded that there were multiple causes. He wrote, When the bubble began to deflate in mid-2007, There are several narratives attempting to place the causes of the recession into context, with overlapping elements. Four such narratives include, There was the equivalent of a run on the shadow banking system
26.
Flag of the United States
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The flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag, is the national flag of the United States. S. Nicknames for the flag include The Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, the current design of the U. S. flag is its 27th, the design of the flag has been modified officially 26 times since 1777. The 48-star flag was in effect for 47 years until the 49-star version became official on July 4,1959, the 50-star flag was ordered by the then president Eisenhower on August 21,1959, and was adopted in July 1960. It is the version of the U. S. flag and has been in use for over 56 years. At the time of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, the flag contemporaneously known as the Continental Colors has historically been referred to as the first national flag. The name Grand Union was first applied to the Continental Colors by George Preble in his 1872 history of the American flag, the flag closely resembles the British East India Company flag of the era, and Sir Charles Fawcett argued in 1937 that the company flag inspired the design. Both flags could have been constructed by adding white stripes to a British Red Ensign. However, an East India Company flag could have nine to 13 stripes. In any case, both the stripes and the stars have precedents in classical heraldry, Flag Day is now observed on June 14 of each year. While scholars still argue about this, tradition holds that the new flag was first hoisted in June 1777 by the Continental Army at the Middlebrook encampment. The first official U. S. flag flown during battle was on August 3,1777, Massachusetts reinforcements brought news of the adoption by Congress of the official flag to Fort Schuyler. A voucher is extant that Capt. Swartwout of Dutchess County was paid by Congress for his coat for the flag, the 1777 resolution was most probably meant to define a naval ensign. In the late 18th century, the notion of a flag did not yet exist. The flag resolution appears between other resolutions from the Marine Committee, on May 10,1779, Secretary of the Board of War Richard Peters expressed concern it is not yet settled what is the Standard of the United States. However, the term, Standard, referred to a standard for the Army of the United States. Each regiment was to carry the standard in addition to its regimental standard. The national standard was not a reference to the national or naval flag, the appearance was up to the maker of the flag. Some flag makers arranged the stars into one big star, in a circle or in rows, one arrangement features 13 five-pointed stars arranged in a circle, with the stars arranged pointing outwards from the circle, the so-called Betsy Ross flag
27.
Jay-Z
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Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as Jay Z, is an American rapper, businessman, and investor. He is one of the musicians of all time, having sold more than 100 million records. MTV ranked him the Greatest MC of all time in 2006, Rolling Stone ranked three of his albums—Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint, and The Black Album —among the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2014, Forbes estimated his net worth at nearly $520 million, Jay Z co-owns the New York 40/40 Club sports bar, and is the co-creator of the clothing line Rocawear. He is the president of Def Jam Recordings, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records. He also founded the sports agency Roc Nation Sports and is a certified NBA, as an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 with 13. He has also had four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, in 2009, he was ranked the tenth-most successful artist of the 2000s by Billboard as well as the fifth top solo male artist and fourth top rapper behind Eminem, Nelly, and 50 Cent. He was also ranked the 88th-greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone, Jay Z married Singer-Songwriter Beyoncé in 2008. Shawn Carter was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Marcy Houses and he and his three siblings were raised by their mother, Gloria Carter after their father, Adness Reeves abandoned the family. Reeves would later meet and reconcile with Jay Z before dying from liver failure in 2003, Jay Z claims in his lyrics that in 1982, at the age of 12, he shot his older brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry. Along with future rapper AZ, Carter attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn until it was closed down, according to his interviews and lyrics, during this period he sold crack cocaine and was shot at three times. According to his mother, Carter used to wake up his siblings at night banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table and she bought him a boom box for his birthday, sparking his interest in music. He began freestyling and writing lyrics, known as Jazzy around the neighborhood, Carter later adopted the showbiz/stage name Jay-Z in homage to his mentor Jaz-O. He would drop the hyphen in 2013, Jay Z can be briefly heard on several of Jaz-Os early recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including The Originators and Hawaiian Sophie. Jay Z became embroiled in several battles with rapper LL Cool J in the early 1990s and he first became known to a wide audience on the posse cut Show and Prove on the 1994 Big Daddy Kane album Daddys Home. When I would leave the stage to go change outfits, I would bring out Jay Z and Positive K and let them freestyle until I came back to the stage. The young Jay Z appeared on a song by Big L, Da Graveyard, and on Mic Geronimos Time to Build. His first official rap single was called In My Lifetime, for which he released a music video, an unreleased music video was also produced for the B-side I Cant Get with That
28.
T-Pain
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Faheem Rashad Najm, better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer from Tallahassee, Florida. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005, in 2007, T-Pain released his second album Epiphany, which reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. His third album, Thr33 Ringz, was released in 2008, T-Pain has also released a string of hit singles, including Im Sprung, Im n Luv, Buy U a Drank, Bartender, Cant Believe It,5 OClock and more. T-Pain has earned two Grammy Awards, alongside artists Kanye West and Jamie Foxx respectively, T-Pain is the founder of the record label imprint Nappy Boy Entertainment, established in 2005. Najm was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida and his stage name is short for Tallahassee Pain, and was chosen because of the hardships he experienced while living there. Najm was brought up in a Muslim household, but he has expressed his lack of interest in the concept of religion, at age ten, Najm turned his bedroom into a music studio, using a keyboard, a beat machine and a four-track recorder. T-Pain joined the rap group Nappy Headz in 2004 and later recorded Im Fucked Up, recording artist Akon heard the song and immediately signed T-Pain to Konvict Muzik, his label. After being discovered, T-Pain began singing instead of rapping, T-Pain subsequently recorded and released his debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, on December 6,2005. The album reached number thirty-three on the Billboard 200, and has since been certified Gold by the RIAA, for reaching sales of 500,000 units. The album was preceded by the single, Im Sprung. The second single, Im N Luv, featuring Mike Jones, was released in December 2005 and reached five on the Hot 100. The third and final single from the album, Studio Luv, was released in October 2006, in mid-2006, T-Pain began work on his second album, now with the Zomba Label Group as well as Konvict Muzik and Jive Records. The album, titled Epiphany, was released on June 5,2007, the album sold 171,000 records in its first week, reaching number one on the Billboard 200. The record has since sold 819,000 records in the United States, the album was preceded by the lead single Buy U a Drank featuring Yung Joc in February 2007. The single reached number one on both the Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, becoming his first single to top charts. The albums second single, Bartender, featuring Akon was released in June 2007 and reached five on the Hot 100. The third and final single from the album, Church, was released in October 2007, while promoting his second album, T-Pain made guest appearances on multiple songs by other artists. T-Pain was featured on Im a Flirt by R. Kelly with T. I
29.
Ludacris
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Christopher Brian Chris Bridges, better known by his stage name Ludacris, is an American hip hop recording artist and actor from Atlanta, Georgia. Alongside his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, throughout his career, Ludacris has won Screen Actors Guild, Critics Choice, MTV, and Grammy Awards. Along with fellow Atlanta-based rappers Big Boi and André3000 of OutKast, born in Champaign, Illinois, Ludacris moved to Atlanta at age nine, where he began rapping. In 2001, he released Word of Mouf, followed by Chicken-n-Beer in 2003 and he took a more serious approach with his next two albums, Release Therapy, and Theater of the Mind. His next record, Battle of the Sexes, was released in 2010, Ludaversal was released on March 31,2015. As an actor, he has appeared in films including Crash, Gamer, and New Years Eve, but is best known for playing Tej Parker in the The Fast and the Furious film series. Ludacris was born as Christopher Brian Bridges in Champaign, Illinois and he later moved to the Chicago area, where he attended Emerson Middle School in Oak Park, and Oak Park & River Forest High School for one year. He then moved to Centreville, Virginia and attended Centreville High School for one year and he attended Banneker High School in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated in 1995. From 1998 to 1999, he studied management at Georgia State University. His parents were both African-American, and he also has some English and Native American ancestry and he is a distant cousin of late comedian Richard Pryor. Bridges wrote his first rap song at age nine when moving to Atlanta, Bridges served as an intern and then a DJ at Atlantas Hot 97.5 under the name Chris Lova Lova. He was also known for DJing during Freaknik at one point, Ludacris collaborated with Timbaland on the track Phat Rabbit from his album Tims Bio, Life from da Bassment. This song was a hit in many countries, in Ludacris early music career he collaborated with Dallas Austin and Jermaine Dupri. In 1998, Ludacris began to record his debut album Incognegro and this album was the defining example of Ludacris fast, wild, and comedic flow, a unique style for southern rappers. Timbaland handled part of the production, despite its poor sales, it was never deleted and is still sold today. Ludacris also appeared on Timbalands 1998 debut on Phat Rabbit, a track that would later be used on his re-issue of Incognegro called Back For The First Time, in 2000, Ludacris released his major label debut, Back for the First Time. It was produced with the help of the underground producer Sessy Melia, the album reached as high as #4 on the U. S. Billboard 200, and was a major success. Ludacris made his mark on the industry with such as Southern Hospitality and Whats Your Fantasy, along with his first ever single the Phat Rabbit
30.
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
31.
Lil Wayne
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Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American hip hop recording artist and author from New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1991, at the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, in 1996, Lil Wayne joined the southern hip hop group Hot Boys, with his Cash Money label-mates Juvenile, Young Turk and Lil Doogie. Hot Boys debuted with Get It How U Live. that same year, Most of the groups success came with their platinum-selling album Guerrilla Warfare and the 1999 single Bling Bling. Along with being the flagship artist of Cash Money Records, Lil Wayne is also the Chief Executive Officer of his own imprint, Young Money Entertainment. Lil Waynes solo debut album Tha Block Is Hot, was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and his subsequent albums, Lights Out and 500 Degreez, went on to be certified gold. Wayne reached higher popularity with his fourth album Tha Carter, which was led by the single Go D. J. and his appearance on Destinys Childs Top 10 single Soldier, that same year. The album was followed by Tha Carter II, as well as several mixtapes, Wayne gained more prominence with his sixth album Tha Carter III, which became his most successful album to date, with first-week sales of over one million copies in the United States. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and includes the hit singles Lollipop, A Milli, following the success of Tha Carter III, Wayne decided to record a rock-esque album titled Rebirth. The album, released in 2010, was certified gold by the RIAA, in March 2010, Lil Wayne began serving an 8-month jail sentence in New York after being convicted of criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an incident in July 2007. Waynes eighth album I Am Not a Human Being, was released during his incarceration and his 2011 album and first following his release, Tha Carter IV, sold 964,000 copies in its first week of availability in the United States. It includes the singles 6 Foot 7 Foot, How to Love, on September 27,2012, Lil Wayne passed Elvis Presley as the male with the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with 109 songs. The record has since passed by other artists. Lil Waynes thirteenth studio album, Tha Carter V has been delayed multiple times and has no scheduled release date, Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. was born on September 27,1982, and grew up in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. His mother, a cook, gave birth to him when she was 19 years old and his parents divorced when he was 2, and his father permanently abandoned the family. Although Wayne and Birdman have a relationship and Birdman calls Carter his son, Waynes biological father. Lil Wayne has also spoken about his stepfather, Rabbit. Carter has a dedicated to Rabbit, who was murdered before Carter became a star. Carter enrolled in the program of Lafayette Elementary School and in the drama club of Eleanor McMain Secondary School
32.
Tha Carter III
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Tha Carter III is the sixth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne, released on June 10,2008, by Cash Money and Universal Motown. It follows a string of mixtape releases and guest appearances on other hip hop and R&B artists records. The albums cover art features a picture of Wayne and is similar to covers of hip hop albums such as Nass Illmatic. Amid release delays and leaks, Tha Carter III became one of the most anticipated releases of 2008, the album debuted at number one on the U. S. Billboard 200 chart, selling 1,005,545 copies in its first week. Upon its release, Tha Carter III received universal acclaim from critics and earned Lil Wayne several accolades. It has been certified triple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and has sold 3.6 million copies in the United States. Lil Wayne stated that producers would include The Alchemist, Cool & Dre, Deezle, Jim Jonsin, Just Blaze, Kanye West, Mannie Fresh, The Runners, Timbaland, Danja, and will. i. am. In an interview with HipHopCanada. com, Solitair of the Black Jays stated that he and Cipha Sounds produced a track called Outstanding, the Runners have stated that they have produced three tracks for Tha Carter III. Lil Wayne revealed that he has a track for Eminem, which he has yet to send to him and he described this song as the craziest. Some believe that his request was turned down, but it most likely turned into Drop the World on his 2010 album Rebirth. The album features guest appearances by Fabolous, T-Pain, Brisco, Bobby V, Babyface, Betty Wright, Static Major, Robin Thicke, Jay-Z, Juelz Santana, and Busta Rhymes. MTV reported that Wyclef Jean worked on a couple of tracks for the album and that a song featuring Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, however, that Timbaland-produced track did not make the final cut. David Banner confirmed that he will be credited for five tracks on the cut of Tha Carter III. After the copyright controversy of Playing with Fire, the track was removed and replaced with another David Banner-produced track Pussy Monster. Swizz Beatz stated he was working on the album. When asked about how many tracks Kanye West had contributed, he answered, On the first visit he had five joints, I then told him to slow down and he left me alone, but we got a good three on the album. He confirmed that he had a few tracks on The Leak that are produced by Kanye West, Tha Carter IIIs lead single, Lollipop, peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, staying at the top for three weeks. It was Waynes most successful single in his career, winning one Grammy Award, a BET Award
33.
Dedication 3
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Dedication 3 is a mixtape by DJ Drama and Lil Wayne. It is the sequel to its predecessors, The Dedication and the highly successful Dedication 2, Lil Wayne also told MTV, Tha Carter IV is nice but you need to be looking for Dedication 3. Although Dedication 3 was a success, it failed to match that of its predecessors. The mixtape has sold over 70,000 copies in the United States, besides the interludes, a majority of the mixtape has Wayne using auto-tune and rapping alongside artists signed to his label, Young Money Entertainment. All tracks were arranged by DJ Drama
34.
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
35.
Tyga
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Micheal Ray Stevenson, known by his stage name Tyga, is an American rapper. In 2011, Tyga signed a contract with Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records. He released his third album Hotel California, on April 9,2013, and includes the singles Dope featuring Rick Ross, For The Road featuring Chris Brown, and Show You featuring Future. Micheal Ray Stevenson was born in Compton, California, on November 19,1989 and he is of Vietnamese and Jamaican descent. He is the cousin of Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes and he grew up listening to Fabolous, Lil Wayne, Camron and Eminem among others. On December 3,2012, debate arose concerning Tygas upbringing and he also claimed that he attained his nickname from his mother calling him Tiger Woods. There has been speculation that his claims on the show were satirical, Tyga responded to the videos leak on Twitter, When u 14 an ambitious u dont give a fuk about anything. Scripted tv isnt that what we all live for. Hahahaha No Introduction, one of the songs from this album, Diamond Life, was used in the video games Need for Speed, Undercover and Madden NFL2009, as well as in the 2009 movie Fighting. His 2007 debut mixtape, Young On Probation, garnered him enough attention to sign a deal with Young Money Entertainment. He created Fan of a Fan with Chris Brown and producers DJ Ill Will and it features other artists such as Bow Wow, Lil Wayne, and Kevin McCall featured in several tracks. Four tracks are accompanied by music videos. The track Deuces was released as the single of the mixtape and reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The track has also nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 53rd Grammy Awards. The track, among others, was on the track list of Chris Browns fourth studio album, Tyga also told MTV in an interview that the mixtapes production took just short of a week. Careless World, Rise of the Last King was his studio album. The album was released on February 21,2012 on Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, and Universal Republic Records. Careless World, Rise of the Last King is a move to the style he featured in the collaboration album We Are Young Money rather me than the poppy dance element shown on No Introduction. Tyga stated that the shows he has grown up but still relates to the kids
36.
Gudda Gudda
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Carl Lilly Jr. better known by his stage name Gudda Gudda, is an American rapper from New Orleans. He was originally a member of Sqad Up with Kidd Kidd, after forging a long-time friendship with Wayne, he signed to Young Money Entertainment, and later Republic Records. Gudda was born Carl Lilly on March 11,1983 in San Jose, when he was still a baby he moved to New Orleans. He grew up in the 9th Ward, where he befriended Lil Wayne at the age of fifteen and this was much before he had ever thought of rapping as a career. As he began to rap, Wayne would mentor and inspire him, together they formed the group Squad Up with rappers Dizzy and Kidd Kidd. Throughout 2002 and 2003, Gudda was featured on the seven mixtapes that Squad Up released over the time period, Gudda Gudda would be one of the first artists signed to Waynes Young Money Entertainment upon its officially founding in 2005. Gudda had been present the day Wayne had come up with the idea for Young Money and that would shortly after result in a deal with Cash Money Records and Republic Records. On May 26,2009, Gudda released Certified a collaboration album with fellow rapper Lil Flip on Real Talk Entertainment, the album was met with generally positive reviews. He described the theme to MTV saying, Im taking people on a walk through my eyes. Every time you heard me been a group project, Guddaville is just me expressing how I feel about a lot of different things, taking you in my world. Both singles were very huge success, both peaking in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. He was also featured on the track I Dont Like the Look of It on Lil Waynes album I Am Not a Human Being, on June 7,2010, Gudda released the sequel to his first mixtape titled, Back 2 Guddaville. His second official mixtape featured guest appearances from Waka Flocka Flame, Mack Maine, Jay Rock, Lil Wayne, Vado, Ya Boy and Jae Millz, then for two years Gudda remained quiet recording music without releasing hardly any music. He was featured on the remix to Im On along with Big K. R. I. T, jadakiss, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, B. o. B, Tyga, and Bun B. On November 5,2012, Gudda released the tracklist to his official mixtape Guddaville 3. The tracklist revealed guest appearances from Wiz Khalifa,2 Chainz, Lil Wayne, Mystikal, Crooked I, Trae tha Truth, Ace Hood, Future, Jae Millz, Birdman, Kevin Gates, Tyga, and Mack Maine. Two days later on November 7,2012, Gudda released Guddaville 3, around the time he formed the group Loyalty Amongst Thieves, featuring Kevin Gates, Flow and T-Streets, which he said planned to release a self-titled mixtape. On March 11,2013, Gudda released his official mixtape Redrum
37.
Rick Ross
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William Leonard Roberts II, known professionally by his stage name Rick Ross, is an American rapper and entrepreneur. In 2009, Ross founded the record label Maybach Music Group, on which he released his studio albums Deeper Than Rap, Teflon Don, God Forgives, I Dont, Mastermind, Hood Billionaire, Ross was also the first artist signed to Diddys management company Ciroc Entertainment. In early 2012, MTV named Ross as the Hottest MC in the Game, william Leonard Roberts II was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and raised in Carol City, Florida. After graduating from Miami Carol City Senior High School, he attended the historically black college Albany State University on a football scholarship, Roberts worked as a correctional officer for 18 months from December 1995, until his resignation in June 1997. In his early years at Suave House Records, Roberts initially made his debut under the pseudonym Teflon Da Don and he made his recording debut on the song Aint Shhh to Discuss on Erick Sermons lone album for DreamWorks, Def Squad Presents Erick Onasis. In the mid-2000s, he changed his name to Rick Ross and he derived his stage name from the former drug kingpin Freeway Rick Ross, to whom he has no connection. After being signed to Suave House Records, former label for rap duo 8Ball & MJG, he signed a deal with Slip-n-Slide Records. While signed to Slip-n-Slide, Roberts toured with fellow rapper Trick Daddy and made guest performances on other Slip-n-Slide albums. His debut album Port of Miami was released in August 2006 and debuted at the top spot on the U. S. Billboard 200 album chart, Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone magazine predicted that it would be the summers biggest rap record. The second single was Push It, which samples Scarface, the song from the gangster film Scarface. The music video for Push It was modeled after the film, during that time, Ross made guest performances on two singles from DJ Khaleds debut Listennn. The Album, Born-N-Raised and Holla at Me, Port of Miami received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on November 8,2006. In March 2008, his second album Trilla was released and, as its predecessor Port of Miami had, debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. Its lead single Speedin featuring R. Kelly peaked at number 21 on the U. S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, the third single Here I Am featured Nelly and Avery Storm. MTV News ranked Ross on the spot in its 2008 Hottest MCs in the Game list among ten rappers. The fourth single This Is The Life featured Trey Songz and was released in July, I look at all the strategies people use and what made them successful. What made Birdman just as relevant today after selling 50 million records, to see the class of Jay-Z, his accomplishments and see how he sits backs and accurately makes his moves. A track from the album called Valley of Death was what stood out to MTV reporters, in the song, Ross speaks briefly on his controversial stint as a prison guard
38.
Ace Hood
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Antoine McColister, better known by his stage name Ace Hood, is an American rapper. He was born in Port St. Lucie, Florida and raised in Deerfield Beach and he is signed to DJ Khaleds label We the Best Music Group and was formerly signed to Def Jam Recordings and Cash Money Records. His song Top of the World, from his studio album Gutta, was featured in the basketball simulation game. He has released four albums with his most successful being his last two albums, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Trials & Tribulations which was released on July 16,2013. He is best known for the hit singles Hustle Hard and Bugatti. Ace Hood was born in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on May 11,1988 and was raised by his mother with his younger cousin Ty Barton, Jr. in Deerfield Beach and he graduated from Deerfield Beach High School. Following a football injury in the 10th grade, and after realizing he wouldnt be able to go pro, so Hood teamed up with a local group called Dollaz & Dealz and released a single titled M. O. E. in 2006. He also began promoting himself via open mic events and talent shows around town, in 2007, he met DJ Khaled outside the office of the WEDR99 Jamz radio station, where they mainly played the hip hop and R&B music. After Ace gave Khaled an autobiography and his tape, Khaled asked Ace to do a freestyle over the instrumental of his song Im So Hood. Ace was named as an artist, along with several others and his first album, Gutta, was released in 2008. Singles included Cash Flow featuring T-Pain and Rick Ross, and Ride featuring Trey Songz, Hood also released mixtapes called Ace Wont Fold and All Bets On Ace. It is from Khaleds third studio album We Global, and was certified gold by the RIAA. Ace Hood appeared on Wildstyle Radio on WUAG103. 1FM in Greensboro, North Carolina, on September 7,2008, to promote his album, Gutta, the album debuted at #36 on the Billboard 200, selling 25,000 copies its first week. On June 30,2009, seven months later, Ace Hood released his album, titled Ruthless. The albums first single was Overtime, which was produced by The Runners and featured Akon, the albums second single is Loco Wit The Cake, which was produced by Schife, of the Palm Beach County Karbeen Mafia. The albums guest lists includes Rick Ross, Ludacris, Jazmine Sullivan, The-Dream, Birdman, the album debuted at #23 on the Billboard 200, selling 20,000 copies its first week. Ace Hood confirmed that his album will be called, Blood. It was released on August 9,2011, the first official single, Hustle Hard, became Aces highest charting solo single, peaking at #60 on the Billboard 100
39.
Plies (rapper)
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Algernod Lanier Washington, better known by his stage name Plies, is an American hip hop recording artist. He is the founder of Big Gates Records, born in Fort Myers, Florida, Washington was a wide receiver on the football team of Miami University in Ohio in 1996 and 1997 before he became a rapper. After dropping out of college, he founded Big Gates with his stepbrother, signed to Slip-n-Slide Records, from 2007 to 2008 he released three albums. Plies debuted in 2007 with The Real Testament with successful singles Shawty, Plies also released two albums in 2008, Definition of Real and Da REAList, and later released Goon Affiliated in 2010. Plies was born Algernod Lanier Washington in Fort Myers, Florida, while at Fort Myers Senior High School, he played receiver and defensive back in its football team, was crowned Homecoming King, and was named the Best Dressed student of his class. He attended Miami University and under the name Nod Washington was wide receiver on its team from 1995 to 1997, then transferred to the University of Central Florida. As a freshman in 1995, Washington had nine receptions for 69 yards, in 1996, his sophomore year, Washington had 25 receptions for 262 yards and 2 touchdowns. The next season, Washington had five receptions for 43 yards, in the late 1990s, Plies and his stepbrother Ronnell Lawrence Lavatte, also known as Big Gates, established an independent record label, Big Gates Records. Although Plies initially refused to rap, after a demonstration for one of his artists, Big Gates and Plies promoted the single and traveled many times to Miami, which eventually led to a deal for Plies on Slip-n-Slide Records. Pliess girlfriend Brandy Lacole Lyons gave birth to a son, Nijier Lanier Washington, at the University Community Hospital in Tampa, after signing to Slip-n-Slide in 2004, Plies released several mixtapes. The Real Testament was released in August 2007 and his debut single Shawty featuring T-Pain topped the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart and peaked at number nine on the Hot 100. Hypnotized, the single, featured Akon, and peaked at number three on the Rap chart and 14 on the Hot 100. The third single was I Am the Club, Definition of Real, his second album, was released in June 2008,10 months after releasing his first album. The lead single was Bust It Baby Pt.2 featuring Ne-Yo, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling over 214,000 copies its first week. The next single was Please Excuse My Hands, featuring Jamie Foxx, RIAA certified Gold Bust It Baby on September 17 and Definition of Real October 14. In the same year Plies released his album, Da REAList, in December 2008. The first official single off this album is Put It on Ya, the album debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 with 114,000 copies sold in its first week. The second single is Want It, Need It, featuring Ashanti and he did a guest performance on Ludacriss single Nasty Girl from Ludacriss album Theater of the Mind
