1.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
2.
Boyz II Men
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Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. Formerly a quartet including bass Michael McCary, they are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan Morris alongside tenors Wanya Morris, during the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet. McCary left the group in 2003 due to issues and contractual agreements. During the 1990s, Boyz II Men gained international success and this began with the release of the number one single End of the Road in 1992, which reached the top of charts worldwide. End of the Road would set a new record for longevity, staying at one on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks. Ill Make Love to You also topped the charts in Australia, as of 2016, One Sweet Day still holds the all-time record with sixteen weeks at the top of the Hot 100. Consequently, Boyz II Men are top ranking members with regard to time spent at one in Billboard history. Furthermore, when On Bended Knee took the one spot away from Ill Make Love to You. These achievements were enough to earn Boyz II Men recognition as Billboard magazines fourth most successful group of the 1990s. Boyz II Men continue to perform worldwide, as a trio and their most recent studio album, Collide, was released in 2014. In 1987, Wanya Morris, who sang in the choir along with the members of Unique Attraction, joined the group. In 1988 Baldi, Shoats, and Walker all left the group due to graduation and they then recruited Shawn Stockman after seeing him perform a solo in the schools choir. Now with a permanent lineup of members the group would rehearse in the schools bathrooms, due to the excellent acoustics. They found inspiration in New Editions harmonies and routines, and eventually renamed the group Boyz II Men, after one of New Editions songs, Boys to Men, from their 1988 album Heart Break. After they sang New Editions Can You Stand The Rain for him, Bivins and he gave the group his number and told them to give him a call. Nate eventually called Bivins, and he agreed to manage and helped produce the group and this song, released as a single on June 30,1992, would become Boyz II Mens biggest hit. It reached the one position on the Billboard Hot 100 on August 22, remaining there for a record-setting 13 weeks. The success of End of the Road instantly transformed Boyz II Men from up-and-coming R&B stars into mainstream music celebrities
3.
TLC (group)
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TLC is an American girl group whose original line-up consisted of Tionne T-Boz Watkins, Lisa Left Eye Lopes and Rozonda Chilli Thomas. Formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1991, the group was successful during the 1990s and early 2000s in spite of numerous spats with the law, each other. They scored nine hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four number-one singles Creep, Waterfalls, No Scrubs. TLC also became the first R&B group in history to receive Million certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan for FanMail, having sold over 65 million records worldwide, TLC is the best-selling American girl group and second worldwide to the English group Spice Girls. VH1 ranked TLC as the greatest female group, placing them at number 12 on the list of 100 Greatest Women in Music, Billboard magazine ranked TLC as one of the greatest musical trios, as well as the seventh most successful act of the 1990s. The groups accolades include five career Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, twenty years after their debut, TLC was honored with Outstanding Contribution to Music at the 17th MOBO Awards and Legend Award at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards Japan. All three members of TLC are considered irreplaceable by the members, and each of them have contributed equally to the group. Following Lopes death in 2002, instead of replacing her, the members chose to carry on as a duo. In 2017, they are set to release their album as TLC. Jones put out a call for two girls to join her in this trio. Calling the group 2nd Nature, Jones, Watkins, and Lopes began working with producers Jermaine Dupri, impressed by the girls, Reid renamed the group TLC-Skee, with TLC being an Initialism for the names Tionne, Lisa, and Crystal. Reid arranged an audition for them with local record label LaFace Records, run by Kenneth Babyface Edmonds and Reids then-husband, Antonio Reid saw potential in Watkins and Lopes as performers, but felt that Jones should be replaced. According to Jones, things began to unravel for her after Pebbles denied the group the opportunity to take home the contracts that Pebbitone had drafted, Jones did not want to sign before having the contract reviewed by others and perhaps a lawyer. In contrast, Watkins recollection of Jones departure is that both she and Lopes asked Jones to leave the group before their contracts were negotiated. On February 28,1991, Watkins and Lopes signed production, management, as they looked for a replacement for Jones, the two-member TLC-Skee made its first recorded appearance on a track for LaFace act Damian Dames self-titled 1991 LP. Pebbles found the third member in Rozonda Thomas, one of Damian Dames part-time backup dancers, Thomas was signed to the act in April 1991, at about which time the groups name was shortened to TLC. To maintain TLCs name as an acronym for the names, Watkins became T-Boz, Lopes became Left-Eye. The girls were signed to LaFace in May through the production deal with Pebbitone
4.
Usher (musician)
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Usher Raymond IV is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. Born in Dallas, Texas but raised and lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee until moving to Atlanta, at the age of 12, his mother put him in local singing competitions, before catching the attention of a music A&R from LaFace Records. In 1994 he released his debut album, Usher. 8701 produced the number-one singles U Remind Me and U Got It Bad and it sold 8 million copies worldwide and won his first two Grammy Awards as Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2002 and 2003. Confessions established him as one of the musical artists of the 2000s decade. Bolstered by its four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number one singles, Burn, Confessions Part II, and My Boo, it has been certified Diamond by the RIAA. Here I Stand and Raymond v. Raymond, debuted atop of the Billboard 200, the EP, Versus, also produced the Hot 100 top-five single DJ Got Us Fallin in Love. Looking 4 Myself, also debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, Raymond v. Raymond and Looking 4 Myself received Grammy Awards for R&B singles There Goes My Baby and Climax. Hard II Love peaked at five of the Billboard 200 albums chart. Usher has sold 23.8 million albums and 38.2 million digital songs in the United States, to date, his worldwide sales stand at 43 million albums and 75 million records overall, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Usher has won awards and accolades including 18 Billboard Music Awards and 8 Grammy Awards. Billboard also placed him at number 6 on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years, Usher has attained 9 US Hot 100 number-one singles. Considered an icon and sex symbol, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, in 2008, he started his own record label Raymond-Braun Media Group, a joint venture with talent manager Scooter Braun that includes Canadian singer Justin Bieber. Usher was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Jonetta Patton, from Tennessee, Usher spent the majority of his young life in Chattanooga, his father left the family when Usher was a year old. Usher grew up with his mother, then-stepfather, and half-brother, while in Atlanta, Usher attended North Springs High School. At age 10, Usher joined an R&B local quintet called the NuBeginnings, Usher recorded 10 songs with the group in 1991, and the ensuing album, Nubeginning Featuring Usher Raymond IV, was only made available regionally and by mail order. However, Patton took him out because, according to her, the album was re-released nationally in April 2002 by Hip-O Records. At age 13, Usher would meet A. J, alexander at local talent show in Atlanta
5.
Mariah Carey
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Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. In 1990, Carey rose to fame with the release of Vision of Love from her eponymous debut album, the album produced four chart-topping singles in the US and began what would become a string of commercially successful albums which solidified the singer as Columbias highest selling act. Carey and Boyz II Men spent a record sixteen weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995–1996 with One Sweet Day, following a contentious divorce from Sony Music head Tommy Mottola, Carey adopted a new image and traversed towards hip hop with the release of Butterfly. In 1998, she was honored as the worlds best-selling recording artist of the 1990s at the World Music Awards, Carey parted with Columbia in 2000, and signed a record-breaking $100 million recording contract with Virgin Records America. In the weeks prior to the release of her film Glitter and its soundtrack in 2001. The project was received and led to a general decline in the singers career. Careys recording contract was out for $50 million by Virgin. After a relatively unsuccessful period, she returned to the top of music charts with The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey once again ventured into film with a well-received supporting role in Precious, and was awarded the Breakthrough Performance Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Throughout her career, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, according to the RIAA, she is the third-best-selling female artist in the United States, with 63.5 million certified albums. With the release of Touch My Body, Carey gained her 18th number-one single in the United States, in 2012, the singer was ranked second on VH1s list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music. Mariah Carey was born in Huntington, New York, to Patricia and her mother is of Irish descent, while her father had African-American and Afro-Venezuelan ancestry. The surname Carey was adopted by her Venezuelan grandfather, Francisco Núñez, Patricia was an occasional opera singer and vocal coach before she met Alfred in 1960. As he began earning a living as an engineer, the couple married later that year. After their elopement, Patricias family disowned her for marrying a black man, Carey later explained that she felt neglected by her maternal family while growing up, which affected her greatly. In the years between the births of Careys older sister Alison and herself, the Carey family struggled within the community due to their ethnicity, Careys name was derived from the song They Call the Wind Maria, originally from the 1951 Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon. When Carey was three, her parents divorced, after their separation, Alison moved in with her father, while the other two children, Mariah and brother Morgan, remained with their mother. Carey grew apart from her father and would stop seeing him altogether. By age four, she recalled that she had begun to sneak the radio under her covers at night, during elementary school, she excelled in subjects that she enjoyed, such as music, art, and literature, but did not find interest in others
6.
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
7.
Kelly Rowland
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Kelendria Trene Kelly Witherspoon is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Rowland rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destinys Child. Rowland also transitioned into acting, with guest appearances in television sitcoms, following the disbandment of Destinys Child in 2005, she released her second album Ms. Kelly, which included international hits Like This and Work. In 2009, Rowland served as a host on the first season of The Fashion Show, the songs global success influenced Rowland to explore dance music on her third album Here I Am, which spawned the international top-ten hit Commander and US R&B/Hip-Hop number-one Motivation. In 2011, she returned to television as a judge on the season of The X Factor UK. Following the release of Rowlands fourth album Talk a Good Game, she married her manager, Tim Witherspoon, since then, Rowland has continued her television career by hosting Chasing Destiny in 2016 and becoming a coach on The Voice Australia in 2017. Throughout her career, Rowland has sold over 40 million records as a solo artist and her work has earned her several awards and nominations, including four Grammy Awards, two Billboard Music Awards and two Soul Train Music Awards. In 2014, Fuse ranked Rowland in their 100 Most Award-Winning Artists list at number 20, kelendria Trene Rowland was born on February 11,1981, in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the daughter of Doris Rowland and Christopher Lovett Rowland, Kelly has an older brother named Orlando. When she was seven, her mother took her and left her father, at the age of eight, she relocated to Houston. In 1992, Rowland joined a group, originally named Girls Tyme. Rowlands addition made it a six-member group, West coast R&B producer, Arne Frager, flew to Houston to see them and eventually brought them to his studio, The Plant Recording Studio, in Northern California. As part of efforts to sign Girls Tyme to a major record deal, Fragers strategy was to debut them on Star Search. They participated, but lost the competition, in 1995, Rowland moved in with Beyoncé Knowless family. Not long after the inclusion of Rowland, Beyoncés father, Mathew, the group continued performing as an opening act for other established R&B girl groups of the time, such as SWV, Dru Hill and Immature. They auditioned before record labels and were signed to Elektra Records, only to be dropped months later. Taken from a passage in the Biblical Book of Isaiah, the changed their name to Destinys Child in 1993. Together, they performed in events and, after four years on the road
8.
Bruno Mars
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Peter Gene Hernandez, known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and choreographer. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age and he graduated from high school and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career. After being dropped by Motown Records, Mars signed a contract with Atlantic Records in 2009. In 2009, he co-founded the production team The Smeezingtons, responsible for the singles Nothin on You by B. o. B and he featured on the hooks for both singles, becoming recognized as a solo artist. His debut studio album Doo-Wops & Hooligans included the U. S. Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles Just the Way You Are and Grenade and his second album, Unorthodox Jukebox, peaked at number one in the United States. The album spawned the international singles Locked Out of Heaven, When I Was Your Man, in 2014, Mars lent his vocals to Mark Ronsons Uptown Funk. In 2016, he released his studio album 24K Magic with the lead single of the same title released on October 7,2016. To date, he has sold over 100 million singles and albums combined worldwide, Mars has landed six number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 since his career launched in 2010, attaining his first five faster than any male artist since Elvis Presley. Mars has received awards and nominations, including five Grammy Awards. In December 2013, he ranked number one on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, Mars is known for his stage performances and retro showmanship. He is accompanied by his band, The Hooligans, who play a variety of such as electric guitar, bass, piano, keyboards, drums and horns. Mars performs in a range of musical styles. Peter Gene Hernandez was born on October 8,1985, in Honolulu, Hawaii to Peter Hernandez and Bernadette San Pedro Bayot and his father is of half Puerto Rican and half Ashkenazi Jewish descent, and is originally from Brooklyn, New York. His mother emigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii as a child, and was of Filipino and his parents met while performing in a show in which his mother was a hula dancer and his father played percussion. At the age of two, he was nicknamed Bruno by his father, because of his resemblance to professional wrestler Bruno Sammartino. Mars is one of six children and came from a family which exposed him to a diverse mix of genres including, reggae, rock, hip hop. His mother was both a singer and a dancer, and his father performed Little Richard rock and roll music, Mars uncle was an Elvis impersonator, and also encouraged three-year-old Mars to perform on stage. Mars performed songs by such as Michael Jackson, The Isley Brothers
9.
The Weeknd
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Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, known professionally as The Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer. In late 2010, Tesfaye anonymously uploaded several songs to YouTube under the name The Weeknd and he released three nine-track mixtapes throughout 2011, House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence, which were critically acclaimed. In 2012, he released a compilation album Trilogy, thirty tracks consisting of the remastered mixtapes and it was released under Republic Records and his own label XO. In 2013, he released his studio album Kiss Land. The songs have held the top three spots on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart, making him the first artist in history to achieve this. The Weeknd has won two Grammy Awards and nine Juno Awards, in September 2016, the release of the third album Starboy was announced along with the release of the title track single Starboy, which subsequently reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Abel Makkonen Tesfaye was born on 16 February 1990, in Scarborough, Ontario and he is the only child of Makkonen and Samra Tesfaye, who were Ethiopian migrants to Canada in the 1980s. He was raised in Scarborough, a neighborhood within the city. During his youth, his mother would work several jobs to support the family, often as a nurse and caterer, while also attending night school. His father later abandoned the family, prompting his grandmother to take care for him and his paternal cousin Issam Nazar. This allowed him to become fluent in Amharic, with the Semitic language acting as his first language and she would also take him to services at an Ethiopian Orthodox church. He started smoking marijuana at age 11, and later moved on to hard drugs, describing his teenage years as KIDS without the AIDS, he would shoplift from the local supermarket with his cousin Issam, and began using MDMA, Xanax, cocaine, psilocybin and ketamine. He attended West Hill Collegiate Institute and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute, the spelling was modified to avoid trademark issues with the Canadian band The Weekend. Tesfaye met producer Jeremy Rose, who had an idea for a dark R&B musical project called The Weeknd. After trying to pitch the idea to musician Curtis Santiago, Rose played one of his instrumentals for Tesfaye, who freestyled over it, and they began working on an album. He produced three songs – What You Need, Loft Music, and The Morning – and others that Tesfaye rapped on, Rose let Tesfaye keep the tracks he had produced under the condition that he would ultimately be credited for them. However, in December 2010, Tesfaye uploaded What You Need, Loft Music and The Morning to YouTube under the name The Weeknd, though his identity was initially unknown. The songs drew attention online through word of mouth, including a blog featuring the songs posted by rapper Drake and they subsequently received coverage from outlets such as Pitchfork Media and The New York Times
10.
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
11.
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
