1.
Sean Kingston (album)
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Sean Kingston is the self-titled eponymous debut album by Sean Kingston, released on July 31,2007. The album was produced by J. R. Rotem, Sean Kingston wrote the lyrics with help from Evan Bogart. Kingston has claimed his lyrics are representative of his personal life. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA as of February 2008 with an excess of 500,000 copies, the album entered the U. S. Billboard 200 chart at #6 and fell to #13 the following week. The album reached #2 on RIANZ in its second week, sample credits Me Love - derived from the song, Dyer Maker, written by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham, performed by Led Zeppelin. Beautiful Girls - contains portions of and features samples from the recording, Stand by Me, written by Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, got No Shorty - contains interpolations of the composition, I Aint Got Nobody, written by Roger A. Graham and Spencer Williams, performed by Bing Crosby, I Can Feel It - features samples of the recording, In the Air Tonight, written and performed by Phil Collins. Colors - contains an interpolation of the track, Colors, written by Tracy Morrow and Charles Glenn, take You There - features a sample of a vocal melody from Say It Right by Nelly Furtado
2.
Miami, Florida
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Miami is a seaport city at the southeastern corner of the U. S. state of Florida and its Atlantic coast. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, Miamis metro area is the eighth-most populous, Miami is a major center, and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade. In 2012, Miami was classified as an Alpha−World City in the World Cities Study Groups inventory, in 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked 33rd among global cities, in 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami Americas Cleanest City, for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets, and citywide recycling programs. According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, Miami is nicknamed the Capital of Latin America and is the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality. Miami has the third tallest skyline in the U. S. with over 300 high-rises, Downtown Miami is home to the largest concentration of international banks in the United States, and many large national and international companies. The Civic Center is a center for hospitals, research institutes, medical centers. For more than two decades, the Port of Miami, known as the Cruise Capital of the World, has been the number one cruise port in the world. It accommodates some of the worlds largest cruise ships and operations, Metropolitan Miami is the major tourism hub in the American South, number two in the U. S. after New York City and number 13 in the world, including the popular destination of Miami Beach. The Miami area was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous Native American tribes, the Tequestas occupied the area for a thousand years before encountering Europeans. An Indian village of hundreds of people dating to 500–600 B. C. was located at the mouth of the Miami River, in 1566 the explorer, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, claimed it for Spain. A Spanish mission was constructed one year later in 1567, Spain and Great Britain successively controlled Florida, and Spain ceded it to the United States in 1821. In 1836, the US built Fort Dallas as part of its development of the Florida Territory and attempt to suppress, the Miami area subsequently became a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. Miami is noted as the major city in the United States conceived by a woman, Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower. The Miami area was known as Biscayne Bay Country in the early years of its growth. In the late 19th century, reports described the area as a promising wilderness, the area was also characterized as one of the finest building sites in Florida. The Great Freeze of 1894–95 hastened Miamis growth, as the crops of the Miami area were the ones in Florida that survived. Julia Tuttle subsequently convinced Henry Flagler, a tycoon, to expand his Florida East Coast Railway to the region
3.
Kingston, Jamaica
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Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal. In the Americas, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States. The local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew were amalgamated by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act of 1923, to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Greater Kingston, or the Corporate Area refers to areas under the KSAC, however, it does not solely refer to Kingston Parish. Kingston Parish had a population of 96,052, and St. Andrew parish had a population of 555,828 in 2001, Kingston is only bordered by Saint Andrew to the east, west and north. The city proper is bounded by Six Miles to the west, Stony Hill to the north, Papine to the northeast and Harbour View to the east, communities in urban and suburban Saint Andrew. Communities in rural St. Andrew such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Lawrence Tavern, Mt. Airy, two parts make up the central area of Kingston, the historic Downtown, and New Kingston. Both are served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller, Kingston was founded in July 1692 as a place for survivors of the 1692 earthquake that destroyed Port Royal. Before the earthquake, Kingston’s functions were purely agricultural, the earthquake survivors set up a camp on the sea front. Approximately two thousand people died due to mosquito-borne diseases, initially the people lived in a tented camp on Colonel Barrys Hog Crawle. The town did not begin to grow until after the destruction of Port Royal by fire in 1703. Surveyor John Goffe drew up a plan for the town based on a grid bounded by North, East, West, by 1716 it had become the largest town and the centre of trade for Jamaica. The government sold land to people with the regulation that they no more than the amount of the land that they owned in Port Royal. Gradually wealthy merchants began to move their residences from above their businesses to the lands north on the plains of Liguanea. The first free school, Wolmerss, was founded in 1729 and there was a theatre, first on Harbour Street, in 1755 the governor, Sir Charles Knowles, had decided to transfer the government offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. It was thought by some to be a location for the Assembly in proximity to the moral distractions of Kingston. By the end of the 18th century, the city contained more than 3,000 brick buildings, the harbour fostered trade, and played part in several naval wars of the 18th century
4.
Reggae fusion
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Reggae fusion is a fusion genre of reggae that mixes reggae or dancehall with other genres, such as pop, rock, R&B, jazz & drum and bass. Although artists have been mixing reggae with other genres from as early as the early 1970s, artists such as UB40 were described using terms that joined the various genres they performed. It was not until the late 1990s when the term was coined, the subgenre predominantly evolved from late 1980s and early 1990s dancehall music which instrumentals or riddims contained elements from the R&B and hip hop genres. Due to this, some consider dancehall artists such as Mad Cobra, Shabba Ranks, Super Cat, Buju Banton, for some of these artists, such as Buju Banton, reggae fusion became a staple throughout their careers. Therefore, Third World can be seen as arguably the original pioneers of reggae fusion leading the way for such as UB40. This led dancehall artists who were trying to break into the U. S, traditional dancehall acts, such as Shaggy and Beenie Man experienced commercial success in the American markets with the release of their albums in 2000. The early 2000s also saw Sean Paul achieve tremendous success internationally with singles such as Baby Boy, Breathe, Like Glue and Make It Clap, among many others. His albums Dutty Rock & The Trinity altogether spawned five top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits between 2002 and 2006, including number one hits, Get Busy & Temperature. In the early 90s, the evolution of reggae fusion reached another musical style in Europe with the worldwide #1 hits All That She Wants, The Sign, other Eurodance artists such as Dr. Alban, E-Rotic and the Vengaboys regularly fused their style with Reggae as well. The first reggae fusion-influenced riddim was produced in 2005 by Cordell Skatta Burrell, Reggae fusion is now a regular staple on Jamaican radio stations, especially Zip 103 FM, in the form of singles, mixes and remixes. This has led to more reggae fusion hits being produced as well as making waves on the Dancehall charts in Jamaica. One such single, Ramping Shop by Vybz Kartel and Spice, was one of the biggest reggae fusion hits in 2008, not to one of the top singles in Jamaica of that year. Holiday was also nominated and won for the Best Collaboration, in 2011, Shaggy established a reggae fusion record label called Ranch Entertainment. It is intended to be launched in the summer of 2012 and its growth locally, however, has not come without its criticisms as some feel that the subgenre only serves to dilute the raw sound of reggae and their musical culture. While On A Mission was recognized as the official song and was applauded by some. A popular dancehall artist, Mr. Vegas spoke out against the use of the song being quoted as saying It doesnt represent Jamaica 50, it doesnt reflect our culture or where our music is coming from. Stephens believed that due to ska not being at the forefront of Jamaican music for many years, combining it with something fresh could bring it back into the spotlight. Through other Caribbean-born artists such as Sean Paul, Damian Marley, Sean Kingston, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna who emerged during the mid-2000s, later in 2014, Canadian reggae fusion band, Magic
5.
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
6.
Contemporary R&B
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Contemporary R&B, also known as simply R&B, is a music genre that combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, funk, pop, hip hop and dance. The genre features a record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, an occasional saxophone-laced beat to give a jazz feel. Electronic influences are becoming a trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness. Contemporary R&B vocalists are often known for their use of melisma, popularized by such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Craig David, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston. That same year, Teddy Riley began producing R&B recordings that included hip hop influences and this combination of R&B style and hip hop rhythms was termed new jack swing and was applied to artists such as Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Al B. Guy, Jodeci and Bell Biv DeVoe, the style became less popular by the end of the 1990s, but later experienced a resurgence. In 1990 Mariah Carey released Vision of Love as her debut single and it was immensely popular peaking at number 1 in many worldwide charts including the Billboard Hot 100, and it propelled Mariahs carrier. The song is said to have popularized the use of melisma. During the mid-1990s, Whitney Houstons The Bodyguard, Original Soundtrack Album sold over 40 million copies becoming the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Janet Jacksons self-titled fifth studio album janet. which came after her historic multimillion-dollar contract with Virgin Records, sold over twenty million copies worldwide. Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey recorded several Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hits, including One Sweet Day, Carey also released a remix of her 1995 single Fantasy, with Ol Dirty Bastard as a feature, a collaboration format that was unheard of at this point. Carey, Boyz II Men and TLC released albums in 1994 and 1995—Daydream, II and CrazySexyCool. In the late 1990s, neo soul, which added 1970s soul influences to the hip hop soul blend, arose, led by such as DAngelo, Erykah Badu. Hill and Missy Elliott further blurred the line between R&B and hip hop by recording both styles, beginning in 1995, the Grammy Awards enacted the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, with II by Boyz II Men becoming the first recipient. The award was received by TLC for CrazySexyCool in 1996, Tony Rich for Words in 1997, Erykah Badu for Baduizm in 1998. At the end of 1999, Billboard magazine ranked Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as the first, simultaneously, in the second half of the 1990s, The Neptunes and Timbaland set influential precedence on contemporary R&B and hip hop music. R&B acts such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Usher, in 2001, Alicia Keys released Fallin as her debut single. It peaking at one on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Top 40
7.
Beluga Heights Records
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Beluga Heights Records is an American record label established by record producer J. R. Rotem. The label is known for working with musical artists such as Rihanna and Leona Lewis as well as discovering and developing new acts such as Sean Kingston, Jason Derulo. In August 2008, Beluga Heights moved to a new joint venture with Warner Bros, Records, where Jason Derulo, Auburn, and Iyaz were signed to the record label. The Beluga Heights phrase is found at the start of songs produced by the record label. Beluga Heights is also housed in the Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles, Sean Kingston Jason Derulo Iyaz Dawin J. R. R
8.
Epic Records
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Epic Records is an American record company owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. Epic was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953 and it later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of musical genres, including pop, R&B, rock and hip hop. Historically, the label has housed popular acts such as Boston, ABBA, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Dave Clark Five, Gloria Estefan, Pearl Jam, Shakira, Anastacia, and Sly & the Family Stone. Along with Columbia and RCA Records, Epic is one of Sony Music Entertainments three main record labels, L. A. Reid has served as chairman and CEO of Epic since July 2011. Sylvia Rhone was appointed president in March 2014, Epic Records was launched in 1953 by Columbia Records for the purpose of marketing jazz, pop and classical music that did not fit the theme of its more mainstream Columbia Records label. Initial classical music releases were from Philips Records which distributed Columbia product in Europe, pop talent on co-owned Okeh Records were transferred to Epic which made Okeh a rhythm and blues label. Epics bright-yellow, black, and blue became a familiar trademark for many jazz. By 1960, the musical base had been expanded to include all genres. This was done in part to prevent the roster of Columbia Records from being overstuffed with newer artists, subsequently, Epic became better known for its signing of newer, fledgling acts. By the end of the 1960s, Epic earned its first gold records and had evolved into a formidable hit-making force in rock and roll, R&B and country music. Among its many acts, it included Roy Hamilton, Bobby Vinton, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, Tammy Wynette, Donovan, The Yardbirds, Lulu, July, Helen Shapiro and Jeff Beck. Also during the 1960s, Epic oversaw the smaller subsidiary CBS labels including Okeh Records, in 1968, Epic recordings began being distributed in the UK by CBS after the distribution deal with EMI expired that year, Epic itself launched in England around 1971. Epic was involved in a trade of artists. Graham Nash was signed to Epic because of his membership in The Hollies, when the newly formed Crosby, Stills & Nash wanted to sign with Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegün worked out a deal with Clive Davis whereby Richie Furays new band Poco would sign with Epic. Also contributing to the success was its distribution of Philadelphia International Records. Sony bought CBS Records in 1987, and the company was renamed Sony Music in 1991. In 2004, Sony merged with another powerhouse music distributor, BMG, bringing labels such as RCA, Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive, in February 2009, singer and songwriter Amanda Ghost was appointed president of Epic Records. Later in the year, Sony BMG Music merged Epic and Columbias operations, Sony BMGs Legacy Recordings reissues the companys classic and catalog titles
9.
Entertainment One Music
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Entertainment One Music, a primary division of Entertainment One, is an independent record label in the United States. It has garnered the most Billboard hits of any independently owned music label in history and it is also distributed by the Universal Music Group in Europe under the name eOne Universal. On January 22,2009, Koch Records was officially branded as E1 Music by parent company Entertainment One, E1 Entertainment acquired KOCH Entertainment in June 2005, and renamed the company E1 Music. Since its inception as KOCH Records, E1 Music has charted over 100 albums on Billboards Independent Chart, E1 Music has been the number one independent label according to Billboard for the last six years and quickly grew to become North Americas largest independently owned and distributed record label. E1 Music covers all genres from adult-contemporary to rock, hip hop/urban to country. E1 Music was formed in January 1987 as Koch Records to serve as the North American umbrella for Koch Entertainment. They would sign many country, classical, and rock acts including Ringo Starr, Joan Baez, Chris Brubeck, Bob James, the label soon began to gain ground on the other independent record labels in the United States. In the 2000s, they began to sign hip hop acts. They signed various distribution deals with labels like Open Bar Entertainment, Terror Squad, D-Block Records, in 2004, they were able to sign a deal with Snoop Dogg and his Doggystyle Records along with Mobb Deep. They hired Snoop Dogg on to head up their western spin off Koch West, Koch also added onto their roster, Camron and his Diplomat Records. Diplomat rapper, Jim Jones would rise to prominence on the label through the deal, Koch later signed Yonkers rapper, J-Hood and his label On Da Grind Ent. Koch has also had releases from 2Pac, Tha Dogg Pound, Kurupt, Daz Dillinger and Gangsta Advisory. In 2007, when they signed J-Hood they gave him a big position in their Koch East division, J-Hood never released this album and he was booted from D-Block. In 2007, they signed a deal with Foxy Brown and her Black Rose Entertainment, as well as with Ray J. Slim Thug was signed to the label along with his Boss Hoggs label in late 2005. Latin Thug Records was formed by CEO Reyes to build a business with his brother and acting VP of A&R Mellow Man Ace that would focus on releasing personal projects. The label represents the extended Latin Thug family, including projects from Sen and Mellow and collaborations with B Real, Soul Assassins. In March 2008, the company signed neo-soul singer Dwele to their lineup, in October 2008, they signed also pop-jazz singer Basia, and released her comeback album Its That Girl Again a year later. Koch Records also releases music, such as Pokémon, Barney, Sesame Street, The Wiggles
10.
Empire Distribution
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EMPIRE is an American distribution company and record label based in San Francisco, California with offices in New York and Atlanta. EMPIRE has supported the albums and early singles of a number of early artists. In the Atlanta scene, they were the first label to release Trinidad James, Rich Homie Quan, Migos, Rocko, in Los Angeles, they have distributed and/or are still distributing artists such as Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Problem, Skeme and Crooked I. Theyve also been involved in New York with releases from Troy Ave, Styles P, Camron, on the R&B side they have signed artists such as Eric Bellinger, Jacquees, Jesse Boykins III, Jonn Hart and Lyrica Anderson. EMPIRE has also had several chart topping reggae albums, including reggae artist J Boogs album Backyard Boogie and Shaggys 2013 release Out Of Many, One Music. A number of albums and singles distributed by EMPIRE have charted on Billboard, including Look at Me by XXXTENTACION, All the Way Up by Fat Joe & Remy Ma, Broccoli by D. R. A. M. EMPIRE was founded in 2010 by CEO, Ghazi Shami, a music graduate of San Francisco State University. In operating the company, Shami was joined by Nima Etminan, One of the labels first charting releases was Authenticity by hip hop duo The Foreign Exchange, released on October 12,2010. It peaked at #145 on the US Billboard 200, and #23 on the US R&B chart, rapper ScHoolboy Qs album Setbacks, released on January 11,2011, also charted, reaching #100 on the Billboard 200. Longterm Mentality by Ab-Soul, released the following April, peaked at #32 on the US Billboard Top Heatseekers, in November 2013, Hopsins Knock Madness album peaked at #76 on the Billboard 200 and at #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.80. Released on July 2,2011, the album reached #113 on the US Billboard 200,2012 saw releases by artists such as Slum Village, Trinidad James, Snoop Dogg, and Freddie Gibbs, several of which charted. In 2012 the label helped organize a 2013 tour between Trae tha Truth and J. Stalin, also in 2013, EMPIRE distributed the album Still Goin In by Rich Homie Quan, which was named tenth best mixtape of 2013 by Rolling Stone. Recent albums include Phantom and the Ghost by Styles P, released on April 29,2014 and it charted at #74 on US Billboard 200, and #14 on US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. In 2013, EMPIRE established its recording division, with Fairfield, sages two debut singles Gas Pedal and Red Nose became nationwide hits, earning him and the label a platinum plaque for Gas Pedal and a gold plaque for Red Nose. Sages debut album Remember Me was released in March 2014 under EMPIRE Recordings/Republic Records. Other artists on Empire Recordings include Rayven Justice, Jonn Hart, D Lo, Emilio Rojas, Baeza, Dmac, M. I. C. Show Banga, Smoovie Baby, young Dolph & Ricco Barrino D. R. A. M
11.
Bohemia (rapper)
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Hes also known as the inventor and pioneer of Desi Hip Hop and The King of Desi Rap. Bohemia was born on 15 October 1979 in Karachi, Sindh into an ethnic Punjabi and he also has a bible and a Guru Granth Sahib at his home, as one of his forefathers was Sikh at one point. His father was an employee at Pakistan International Airline, within their first month on the block, He witnessed a young man get murdered over five dollars. The killer was the brother in law. This would be his first lesson on trusting others in the streets of Pardes, although he had strong knowledge and passion for writing music, he made it a second priority, and began hanging on the street corners to run drugs for local hustlers. The streets became a priority to Ra, but he would play keyboards at local Desi events. Through this platform, he gained recognition in the Desi music community, but what struck people most was his ability to write songs or poetry, mostly in Urdu and Punjabi. He was offered a job at a Sacramento based recording studio. He packed his bags and left his family behind to become a full-time musician, along with a crew of other musicians, he was now spending his days on the road, playing gigs throughout the US and Canada, sleeping in cars and on recording studio floors. It would be through this experience that he would learn about stage presence, as the youngest member of the musical family, he came to consider them his older brothers, but as certain members became entangled in hard drugs, the crew fell apart. It was at point that he, still a teenager. Again, he packed his bags, this time to join his cousin in Oakland, a city known for both its abundance of independent rap labels and it’s uncontrollable murder rate. Devastated by the loss of his friend and heavily influenced by his friends in Oakland, He began to focus on his music and indulge in heavy drugs, crime. He spent his days hanging in the streets and moving drugs across the 680 and 880 interstate, yet and still, Bohemia would be delivered an opportunity which would draw him back to his true passion. His cousin was working on a West Oakland recording studio, when he introduced him to a hip hop producer called Sha One. Sha was in the process of setting up his own label and he was looking for an artist who had a strong presence both live and on record and he saw this in Ra. He flipped out when he heard Bohemia reciting something he’d written in Punjabi and he has never rapped seriously before, but when he did, it was as if he’d found the perfect expressive medium for his writing. Over the next few months, he wrote a library of lyrics and this would become arsenal for his debut album Vich Pardesan De – an autobiographical story of his life as a Desi youngster adopting to the streets of America
12.
Flo Rida
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Tramar Lacel Dillard, known professionally as Flo Rida, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from Carol City, Florida. His 2008 breakout single Low was number one for 10 weeks in the United States, Flo Ridas debut studio album, 2008s Mail on Sunday, reached number four in the US. The album was succeeded by R. O. O. T. S and his subsequent albums, 2010s Only One Flo and 2012s Wild Ones, also charted on the US Billboard 200 chart. Flo Rida has sold over 80 million digital downloads, making him one of the music artists. His catalog includes the international singles Right Round, Club Cant Handle Me, Good Feeling, Wild Ones, Whistle, I Cry, G. D. F. R. and My House. Flo Rida was born as Tramar Lacel Dillard in Carol City, Florida and his parents raised him and his seven sisters together, some of whom sang in a local gospel group. His brother-in-law was a man for local rap group 2 Live Crew. The GroundHoggz had been a group, with members who lived in the same apartment complex as Flo Rida. They started recording at underground studios in Carver Ranches, the GroundHoggz, in this four-man incarnation, remained together for eight years. Flo Ridas work with 2 Live Crew member Fresh Kid Ice, attracted the attention of DeVante Swing, however, he was rejected by several of the major labels, so he sought many other jobs outside of music. After graduating from school in 1998, he studied international business management at the University of Nevada. He returned to Florida to continue pursuing his career after receiving a phone call from a representative of the independent label Poe Boy Entertainment. Flo Rida signed with Hot Boyz, in 2000 and with Poe Boy, in 2004 and began affiliating himself for Cash Money with other Southern hip hop artists, such as Rick Ross, Trina, T-Pain, and Trick Daddy. A promotional single entitled Birthday, featuring Rick Ross, was his first significant release. He made his debut guest appearance with the song Bitch Im From Dade County on DJ Khaleds album We the Best, which also features Trick Daddy, Trina, Rick Ross, Brisco, C-Ride, Flo Ridas debut album, Mail on Sunday, was released in March 2008. The first single was Low, featuring T-Pain, which was included in the soundtrack to the movie Step Up 2. Low reached No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Elevator, featuring Timbaland, In the Ayer featuring will. i. am, and Roll featuring Sean Kingston followed, and both charted on the Hot 100 and other charts. In addition to T-Pain, there were featured guests throughout Mail on Sunday
13.
J.R. Rotem
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Jonathan Reuven Rotem better known by his stage name J. R. Rotem, is an Israeli American record producer, songwriter and music publisher. Rotem, who is Jewish, was born in South Africa to Israeli immigrant parents in 1975 and he moved to Toronto at the age of two and finally to Moraga, California at the age of twelve. Rotems entry point into music was in receiving classical piano instruction at a young age, when he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston it was initially with the intention of studying film scoring, but he ended up majoring in jazz composition. Nevertheless, further success was not forthcoming and for years Rotem struggled to make headway in the industry. Rotem says, One of my biggest goals for years was meeting a manager with a good reputation and with connections to get my music to people. When asked in an interview with HitQuarters what made Katz decide to take the producer on, he said, This was a time where most of the people were beat makers, JR on the other hand, had a vast musical background. So musically there were no limitations as far as what he could bring, number two J. R he was very, very focused. And number three he was humble, if I gave him any suggestions about his tracks he would literally sit there and take notes. Then he would back the next day with the changes I had suggested. Rotems next major cut was 50 Cents Position of Power in 2005, in 2006, together with Katz and his brother Tommy, Rotem started his own record label, Beluga Heights, inking a joint venture partnership with Epic. Sean Kingston, a young Miami-based artist, was the labels first signing, kingstons self-titled debut album went on to sell over 2 million albums and 10 million singles worldwide. Rotem also started a company under the Beluga Heights umbrella. Under a newly formed joint venture with Warner Bros, records, the label signed pop sensation Jason Derülo, whose debut album went on to sell 14 million singles and over 1 million albums worldwide. In 2009, Rotem was honored as BMI Producer of the Year, in 2011 he was again honored by BMI as Songwriter of the Year alongside Lady Gaga and Derülo. His trademark is a horn that follows with a stylised J-J-J-J-J-R and/or Beluga Heights at the start or end of records with which he has been affiliated, J. R. Rotem is managed by Pulse Management, a division of Pulse Recording. In 2015, Rotem worked alongside Neyo and Timbaland on the music for Season 2 of Foxs Empire, on October 17,2015, Gwen Stefani premiered Used to Love You, co-written and produced by Rotem at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City which was Gwens first single. Rotem has ten songs on Stefanis album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like which was released on March 18,2016, the DJBooth, Jonathan JR Rotem Interview SOHH June 2007 Feature Interview, HitQuarters Apr 2010
14.
Justin Bieber
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Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After a talent manager discovered him through his YouTube videos covering songs in 2008 and signed to RBMG, Bieber released his debut EP, My World and it was certified Platinum in the U. S. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a record chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Bieber released his first full-length studio album, My World 2.0 and it debuted at or near number one in several countries, was certified triple Platinum in the U. S. and contained his most successful single at the time, Baby. He released his studio album, Under the Mistletoe, in November 2011. Bieber released his studio album, Believe, in 2012. His fourth studio album Purpose was released in November 2015 to commercial success and his U. S. album and singles sales total 44.7 million. He has sold an estimated 100 million records, making him one of the world’s best-selling music artists, Bieber has won numerous awards, including the American Music Award for Artist of the Year in 2010 and 2012. In his career, he has won one Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for the song Where Are Ü Now at the 2016 ceremony. He has been listed four times by Forbes magazine among the top ten most powerful celebrities in the world in 2011,2012, Bieber also became the first artist to surpass 10 billion total video views on Vevo. Bieber was born on March 1,1994, in London, Ontario, at St Josephs Hospital and he is the only child of Jeremy Jack Bieber and Patricia Pattie Mallette. Pattie raised her son with the help of her mother, Diane and his mother is of French-Canadian descent, his paternal great-grandfather was of German ancestry, and his other roots are English, Scottish and Irish. He has also claimed that he has some undetermined Aboriginal Canadian ancestry, through Jeremy, Bieber has two younger half-siblings, Jazmyn and Jaxon. Pattie worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Bieber as a mother in low-income housing. Bieber has maintained contact with his father, Bieber attended a French-language immersion elementary school in Stratford, the Jeanne Sauvé Catholic School. Growing up, he learned to play the piano, drums, guitar and he graduated from high school in Stratford, Ontario, the St. Michael Catholic Secondary School in 2012 with a 4.0 GPA. In early 2007, aged 12, Bieber sang Ne-Yos So Sick for a singing competition in Stratford and was placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and she continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Biebers popularity on the site grew
15.
Sean Paul
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Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques, is a Jamaican rapper, singer, songwriter, musician, producer and actor. Sean Paul was born in Kingston, Jamaica to parents Garth and his mother is a well-known painter. His paternal grandfather is from a family that had emigrated from Portugal and his grandmother was Afro-Caribbean, his mother is of English. Sean Paul was raised as a Catholic, though aware that his grandfather came from an old respected Jamaican Jewish family, many members of his family are swimmers. His grandfather was on the first Jamaican mens national water polo team and his father also played water polo for the team in the 1960s, and competed in long-distance swimming, while Pauls mother was a backstroke swimmer. Paul played for the water polo team from the age of 13 to 21. Harding eventually met the singer when Paul came by his studio to ask for some advice, during the meeting Paul recorded a vocal over Hardings rhythm track and in the process created the song Baby Girl. Paul began hanging out at the every day, and the pair collaborated on several more tracks. When they recorded Infiltrate they decided they had something good enough to get on the radio, as Sean Paul started to attract local attention, Harding began looking after his affairs. He later told HitQuarters that his support of Pauls fledgling career initially led him assuming the roles of DJ, manager, road manager, Paul made a quick cameo appearance in the 1998 film Belly on stage performing. He made a successful collaboration with DMX & Mr. Vegas as a soundtrack of the film. In 2000, Paul released his album, Stage One with VP Records. In 2002, he began working extensively with a team of producers and choreographers from Toronto, namely Jae Blaze and Blaze Entertainment and announced the release of his second album, Dutty Rock. Pushed by the success of the singles Gimme the Light and the Billboard Hot 100 topper, Get Busy, the album Dutty Rock won the Reggae Album of the year at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards in 2004. His single Get Busy was also nominated for best Rap Song in that year, simultaneously, Sean Paul was heard on Beyoncés U. S. #1 single Baby Boy and Blu Cantrells Breathe, a chart hit in Europe. Both helped to push his reputation further still in the United States and he appeared on Punkd,106 & Park, Sean Paul Respect, Making the Video and his music videos have been broadcast on MTV and BET. Pauls third album The Trinity was released on 27 September 2005, the album produced five big hits, We Be Burnin, Ever Blazin, Give It Up to Me, Never Gonna Be the Same and the U. S. chart-topping smash hit Temperature. The video of Give It Up to Me was featured in the movie Step Up in 2006 and he also won an American Music Award for Give It Up to Me beating Kanye West and Nick Lachey who were also nominated for the award
16.
Soulja Boy
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DeAndre Cortez Way, known professionally as Soulja Boy Tell Em, or simply Soulja Boy, is an American rapper, record producer, actor and entrepreneur. In September 2007, his debut single Crank That peaked at one on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100. The single was initially self-published to the internet, and later became a hit in the United States for seven non-consecutive weeks starting in September 2007. On August 17, Way was listed at number 18 on the Forbes list of Hip-Hop Cash Kings of 2010 for earning $7 million for that year. Way has released three albums and one independent album, his debut studio album Souljaboytellem. com was certified platinum by the RIAA. The DeAndre Way sold only 100,000 copies, Way was born in Chicago and moved to Atlanta at the age of six, where he became interested in rap music. At age 14, he moved to Batesville, Mississippi, with his father who provided a studio for Way to explore his musical ambitions. In November 2005, Way posted his songs on the website SoundClick, following positive reviews on the site, he established accounts on YouTube and Myspace. In March 2007, he recorded Crank That and released his first independent album Unsigned & Still Major, Da Album Before da Album, followed by a low-budget video demonstrating the Crank That dance. By the end of May 2007, Crank That had received its first airplay and Way met with Mr. Collipark to sign a deal with Interscope Records. On August 12,2007, the song was used on the television series Entourage, Ways major label debut album, Souljaboytellem. com, was released in the United States on October 2, peaking at number four on both the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. The album was recorded using just the demo version of FL Studio. For the 50th Grammy Awards, Way was nominated for Best Rap Song with Crank That, Souljaboytellem. com received a favorable review from Allmusic, but received mainly negative reviews from other sources such as Entertainment Weekly. Several reviewers credited Soulja Boy with spearheading a new trend in hip-hop, the follow-up to souljaboytellem. com, iSouljaBoyTellem, was released on December 16,2008 to negative critical reception. The first single from the album, Bird Walk, peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and it was performed on YouTube Live on November 22,2008, with an introduction from MC Hammer. Kiss Me Thru the Phone, with Sammie, followed, peaking at three on the Hot 100 and number one on the Hot Rap Tracks charts. Chris Brown was originally Ways first choice to sing the hook, Way then tried to do it on his own with Auto-Tune but he found it unacceptable. It sold over 2,000,000 digital copies in the United States, on January 26,2009, Way released the third single Turn My Swag On
17.
Jamaican Americans
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Jamaican Americans are Americans who have full or partial Jamaican ancestry. The largest proportion of Jamaicans live in New York City, which has various other Caribbean cultural elements such as food and music. There are also communities of Jamaican Americans residing in Philadelphia, Boston, South Florida, Tampa, Los Angeles, Orlando, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta, Cleveland, Western New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. After 1838, European colonies in the Caribbean with expanding sugar industries imported large numbers of immigrants to meet their acute labor shortage, large numbers of Jamaicans were recruited to work in Panama and Costa Rica in the 1850s. After slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, American planters imported temporary workers, called swallow migrants and these workers, many of them Jamaicans, returned to their countries after harvest. Between 1881 and the beginning of World War I, the United States recruited over 250,000 workers from the Caribbean,90,000 of whom were Jamaicans, to work on the Panama Canal. During both world wars, the United States again recruited Jamaican men for service on various American bases in the region, the vast majority of Jamaican American are of black Afro-Caribbean descent. Apart from Canada and England, the U. S. houses the majority of Jamaican émigrés worldwide, Jamaican immigration to the U. S. increased during the civil rights era of the 1960s. As with many sources of Caribbean immigration, the geographical nearness of Jamaica to the U. S. increased the likelihood of migration. The economic attractiveness and general Jamaican perception of the U. S. as a land of opportunity explain continued migration flows despite economic downturn in America. Traditionally, America has experienced increased migration through means of family preference, through this category a substantial amount of Jamaican immigrants were able to enter mainly urban cities within the U. S that provided blue-collar work opportunities. Jamaican immigrants utilized employment opportunities despite the policies that affected some Caribbean émigrés. At present, Jamaicans are the largest group of American immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean, however, it is difficult to verify the exact number of Jamaican Americans in this country because most of them assimilate into the wider African-American communities. The 1990 census placed the number of documented Jamaican Americans at 435,025. According to the text of Immigrant America, there were 554,897 Jamaican-born people living in the U. S. in 2000 and this represents 61% of the approximate 911,000 Americans of Jamaican ancestry. Many Jamaicans are second, third and descend from older generations. Jamaicans refer to Miami metropolitan area and Brooklyn colloquially as Kingston 21 and Little Jamaica respectively. S, and Philadelphia. In recent years, many Jamaicans have left New York City for its suburbs, Boston, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, Los Angeles, and Providence
18.
Ocho Rios
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Ocho Rios is a town in the parish of Saint Ann on the north coast of Jamaica. Just outside the city, travelers and residents can visit Columbus Park, where Columbus supposedly first came on land and it was once a fishing village but now caters to tourists. It is a port of call for ships as well as for cargo ships loading sugar, limestone. Scuba diving and other sports are offered in the towns vicinity. The name Ocho Rios is a misnomer because there are not eight rivers in the area and it is most likely a British corruption of the original Spanish name Las Chorreras, a name given to the village because of the nearby Dunns River Falls. The north coast highway from the airport at Montego Bay to Ocho Rios has been improved since 2000. On 26 August 2011, the Jamaican government announced a $21 million revitalization plan for the resort area, the town has restaurants, nightclubs in Margaritaville and Dolphin Cove, where tourists swim and interact with dolphins. Another major point of interest is Fern Gully, Fern Gully is the result of a 1907 earthquake that destroyed one of the river beds in the area. Fern Gully stretches about 3 miles of great rocky gorge where travellers can see over 540 variety of ferns, in 1907, the British government paved over the destroyed river bed to create what is currently known as The Fern Gully Highway. It is perhaps most notable for its use in Dr. No, the very first James Bond film and it was the home of Miss Taro, played by Zena Marshall, who was an adversary of Bond and in alliance with the main villain Dr. Julius No. It also appears as the location for the horror sequel Piranha II, The Spawning, many of the scenes being photographed at the Mallards Beach-Hyatt. In 2016, the Rio Chico resort just outside of Ocho Rios was featured on the 20th season of ABCs reality TV show The Bachelor. Ocho Rios is the name of the track on the album Sounding out the City by El Michels Affair and was also featured in the 10cc song From Rochdale to Ocho Rios. Beaches Resorts - Ocho Rios Rooms Resorts RIU Hotels & Resorts Jewel Dunns River Resort Ocho Rios travel guide from Wikivoyage Jamaica Tourist Board Ocho Rios page
19.
Myspace
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Myspace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. It is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Myspace was acquired by News Corporation in July 2005 for $580 million. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world, since then, the number of Myspace users has declined steadily in spite of several redesigns. As of March 2017, Myspace was ranked 3,178 by total Web traffic, Myspace had a significant influence on pop culture and music and created a gaming platform that launched the successes of Zynga and RockYou, among others. Despite an overall decline, in 2015 Myspace still had 50.6 million unique visitors and has a pool of nearly 1 billion active and inactive registered users. In June 2009, Myspace employed approximately 1,600 employees, in June 2011, Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake jointly purchased the company for approximately $35 million. In August 2003, several employees with Friendster accounts saw potential in its social networking features. The group decided to mimic the popular features of the website. Within 10 days, the first version of Myspace was ready for launch, a complete infrastructure of finance, human resources, technical expertise, bandwidth, and server capacity was available for the site. The project was overseen by Brad Greenspan, who managed Chris DeWolfe, Josh Berman, Tom Anderson, the first Myspace users were eUniverse employees. The company held contests to see who could sign up the most users, eUniverse used its 20 million users and e-mail subscribers to breathe life into Myspace, and move it to the head of the pack of social networking websites. A key architect was tech expert Toan Nguyen who helped stabilize the Myspace platform when Brad Greenspan asked him to join the team. Despite over ten times the number of developers, Friendster, which was developed in JavaServer Pages, could not keep up with the speed of development of Myspace and cfm. The MySpace. com domain was owned by YourZ. com, Inc. intended until 2002 for use as an online data storage. By 2004, it was transitioned from a storage service to a social networking site. A friend, who worked in the data storage business. DeWolfe suggested they charge a fee for the basic Myspace service, Brad Greenspan nixed the idea, believing that keeping Myspace free was necessary to make it a successful community. Myspace quickly gained popularity among teenage and young adult social groups, in February 2005, DeWolfe held talks with Mark Zuckerberg over acquiring Facebook but DeWolfe rejected Zuckerbergs $75 million asking price
20.
HitQuarters
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HitQuarters is an international music industry publication and contact database founded in 1999. It is the site to the songwriting tip sheet SongQuarters. The website hosts a music industry directory that includes regularly updated contact info for A&Rs. The directory is distinctive for including track records for individual entry. The idea behind this is that users can judge the value of a contact by reviewing their past successes. It also means that users are able to search for a particular artist and find out the appropriate A&R, members of HitQuarters that have gone on to find success have included Christelle, The Knife, Dominique Young Unique, Bobby Creekwater, Lesley Roy and State of Shock. One of HitQuarters most prominent features is its weekly in-depth interviews with major figures such as A&Rs. Past judges have included Visible Noise CEO Julie Weir, and producers Colin Richardson and Eddie Galan, HitQuarters founded the worlds first A&R chart that measured the success of individual A&R representatives based on points accumulated from their respective artists chart success. Most notably,2004 saw Wind-Up Records Diana Meltzer become the first woman to top HitQuarters World Top 100 A&R Chart, previous number 1s have included Clive Davis, Tommy Mottola, Dr. Dre and Mark Williams. HitQuarters is a site to SongQuarters, an online tip sheet for songwriting leads to major. SongQuarters shares the same directory as HitQuarters and its members automatically have access to the HitQuarters site. SongQuarters is a subscription based service with 7-day trials available for those wanting to try it out first, the songwriting leads are split into three categories according to the level of the artist they relate to, Top 500, Newly Signed and Developing and Unsigned and Up-and-coming. SongQuarters Official HitQuarters Facebook page Official Twitter
21.
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
22.
Beautiful Girls (Sean Kingston song)
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Beautiful Girls is the debut single by reggae-influenced musician Sean Kingston from his eponymous debut, it was first released in 2007. Kings classic Stand by Me and uses digital pitch correction technology on the vocals, the song is about a boy who is suicidal over the failure of his relationship with a beautiful girl. Rapper Lil Mama and actors Kenny Vibert and Lil JJ are featured in the video directed by Marcus Raboy. Certain radio stations, play the version of the song. On MTV the word suicidal is completely removed with no replacement, on BET, Fuse and MuchMusic, as well as several top 40, urban and rhythmic top 40 and AC stations, suicidal was left intact. It was allegedly pulled from two FM although a spokesperson said the song is not on its playlist but could not confirm if it had been in the past. FM104 replaced suicidal with in denial, a change Sean Kingston made for the radio station, on July 24, Beautiful Girls was accidentally leaked onto the U. S. iTunes Store, two days before the planned release date. The week after the digital release it hit number one on Billboards Hot Digital Songs. Kingston became the first artist born within the 1990s to top the Hot 100 and it has also gone on to occupy the top spot on the U. S. Hot 100 Airplay and the Canadian Hot 100 and it remained on top of the UK Singles Chart for four weeks before being knocked off by the Sugababes first single from their 5th studio album Change, About You Now. The song ended 2007 as the years 15th biggest-selling single in the UK, on the official ARIA charts in Australia it debuted at #1, fell to #2 when Delta Goodrems comeback single took the top spot. Beautiful Girls returned the week and remained for a month before being replaced by Timbalands The Way I Are. After an online vote user Mallory Robbins won with an a cappella version of the song, Top honors also went to a rock cover of the song performed by the Ailan Christopher Project. Shortly afterward, recording artist JoJo released a cover version of the track which was released on MySpace. Chris Moyles also released a cover, however it was about the song describing how bad it was in his opinion. The Lead Singer of Sublime, Rome, sang the Acoustic version of Beautiful Girls on RAWsession on October 20,2008, the Plain White Ts, whose song was knocked out of the charts by this one, did a cover version for Yahoo Music. Lead vocalist Tom Higgenson says that the group started covering it as a joke almost and we started learning it because we were number one for a few weeks and then we got knocked out of the number one spot by Sean Kingston, by this song. Its kind of like an ode to Sean, maverick Sabre did the same at BBC Radio 1s Live Lounge
23.
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US
24.
Gwen Stefani
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Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer, songwriter, and fashion designer. During the bands hiatus, Stefani embarked on a pop career in 2004 by releasing her debut studio album Love. Inspired by pop music from the 1980s, the album was met both critical and commercial success. It spawned three successful singles, What You Waiting For. Rich Girl, and Hollaback Girl, the reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 while also becoming the first US download to sell one million copies. In 2006 Stefani released her studio album The Sweet Escape. The album produced two singles, Wind It Up and the albums title track The Sweet Escape. Her third solo album This Is What the Truth Feels Like was released in March 2016, Stefani has won three Grammy Awards. As a solo artist she has received accolades, including an American Music Award, Brit Award, World Music Award. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L. A. M. B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture, Stefani performs and makes public appearances with four back-up dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. She was married to British musician Gavin Rossdale from 2002 to 2015, Billboard magazine ranked Stefani the 54th most successful artist and 37th most successful Hot 100 artist of the 2000–09 decade. VH1 ranked her 13th on their 100 Greatest Women in Music list in 2012, including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide. Stefani was born on October 3,1969, in Fullerton, California and she was named after a stewardess in the 1968 novel Airport, and her middle name, Renée, comes from The Four Tops 1968 cover of The Left Bankes 1966 song Walk Away Renée. Her father, Dennis Stefani, is Italian American and worked as a Yamaha marketing executive and her mother, Patti, worked as an accountant before becoming a housewife. Gwens parents were fans of music and exposed her to music by artists like Bob Dylan. She has two siblings, Jill and Todd, and an older brother named Eric. Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt before leaving the band to pursue a career in animation on The Simpsons. Her brother Eric introduced Gwen to 2 Tone music by Madness and The Selecter and, in 1986, he invited her to provide vocals for No Doubt, finally, in 1991, the band was signed to Interscope Records
25.
The Sweet Escape Tour
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The Sweet Escape Tour was the second concert tour by American singer-songwriter Gwen Stefani. The tour began in April 2007 in support of her solo album The Sweet Escape. The tour was Stefanis follow up to her previous The Harajuku Lovers Tour and it went worldwide as compared to her previous tour which was constricted only to North America and had more than double the number of shows. It was Stefanis last solo effort as she rejoined her band No Doubt after the tour ended, the main feature were usage of various props such as a prison for Stefanis opening act, a six-piece band and a large multimedia screen in the backdrop showing videos and animations. The tour had its own set of controversies, a group of students making up for The National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students, banned Stefanis concert that was slated to take place August 21 at Putra Indoor Stadium. The unions vice president, Abdul Muntaqim said, Her performance and it promotes a certain degree of obscenity and will encourage youth to emulate the western lifestyle. The organizer of the vent, Maxis Communications later responded, Stefani has confirmed that her concert will not feature any revealing costumes and she will abide by the Malaysian authorities guidelines to ensure that her show will not be offensive to local sensitivities. In April, Akon drew criticism for having on-stage dirty dancing with a fifteen-year-old preachers daughter, at a club in Trinidad and Tobago, as a result, the tours sponsor Verizon Wireless decided not to sponsor the tour. Stefani donated $166,000 from her October 30 concert in San Diego to The San Diego Foundation fire relief fund, on her June 22 and June 23 concerts in Irvine, California, Stefani was joined onstage by her No Doubt bandmates. They performed their songs Just a Girl, Spiderwebs, Sunday Morning, Hella Good, the Sweet Escape tour was generally well received by critics. Christina Fuoco-Karasinski of Livedaily said, The shows pacing was impeccable, instead of silence or banter between songs, Stefanis band played musical interludes, or the dancers entertained. Katrina-Kasey Wheeler on PopMatters appreciated the props saying, everything from the set list to the visuals and props displayed a larger-than-life aura, years after Gwen Stefani first emerged as a major presence in the world of pop music, shes finally got a show to match. Chris Macias of Sacbee also appreciated the concert and described the show as Its part pep rally, part Broadway musical, joan Anderman of Boston. com said. her bad notes were hers, part of a real personality rather than a standard-issue pop star. T. Michael Crowell of the San Diego Union-Tribune also agreed and said, Her vocal range is narrow, the tour was a commercial success. The tour was the twenty-third most successful tour in the United States in 2007, the tour grossed $30,511,669 through the 55 shows in the U. S with 53 sold-out shows. Gwen announced in both the October 30 concert at the Cox Arena at Aztec Bowl and the November 1 concert at the Stockton Arena that she was filming her Sweet Escape Tour DVD. Only one concert of the Cox Arena, and Stockton Arena can be chosen for the Sweet Escape Tour DVD, for the Special occasion, Gwen did a special performance of the song U Started It which had only been seen at a few shows. During the concert she ran out into the audience to sing Cool, however, the recorded performances were not released as a separate DVD
26.
Kelly Clarkson
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Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in 2002 after winning the first season of American Idol, Clarksons debut single, A Moment Like This, topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became the best-selling single of 2002 in the U. S. It was followed with her studio album, Thankful, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Trying to reinvent her own image, Clarkson decided to part ways with American Idol management and developed a pop sound for her second album. It sold over 15 million copies worldwide and earned Clarkson two Grammy Awards and she took further creative control for her third album, My December, by becoming the executive producer and co-writing the entire material. However, it caused feud with her label, that was dissatisfied with her darker, less commercial rock music, Clarkson returned to the top of the charts with her more mainstream-oriented fourth album, All I Ever Wanted. Its lead single, My Life Would Suck Without You, holds the record for the biggest jump to one on the Billboard Hot 100. She scored another Hot 100 number-one single with Stronger from her studio album. Clarkson also became the first act to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album twice. Her sixth studio album and first Christmas record, Wrapped in Red, ended up as the holiday album of the year. Her seventh and final album under RCA, Piece by Piece, was her album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200. Its title track became her eleventh single on the Hot 100. She signed with Atlantic Records in 2016 and has prepared a soul-influenced album for a 2017 release, Clarkson has sold over 70 million records worldwide and scored a total of 100 number ones on the Billboard charts. Her accolades include three Grammy Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, four American Music Awards, and two Academy of Country Music Awards. Often called one of the best vocalists in the industry, Clarkson is known for her powerhouse voice and she became the first artist in history to top each of Billboards pop, adult contemporary, country and dance charts. She was ranked nineteenth on VH1s list of 100 Greatest Women in Music, Clarkson has also ventured into television and film, as well as writing childrens book. Clarkson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Jeanne Ann, a first-grade English teacher, and Stephen Michael Clarkson and she is the youngest of three children with a brother named Jason and a sister named Alyssa. Clarkson also has two half brothers from her fathers second marriage
27.
My December Tour
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The My December Tour was the fifth headlining concert tour by American pop rock artist Kelly Clarkson, and followed the release Clarksons third studio album, My December. A considerably smaller-scale tour commenced in September 2007 and ran to April 2008, with the legs in Europe. The tour was announced by both Billboard. com and Clarksons official website on April 26,2007. For the first time, Clarkson would be playing in arenas instead of the amphitheatres that her previous tours were staged in. Describing the tour, Clarkson stated, This will be the biggest tour I’ve ever done and its all about the music – we’re bringing extra musicians and we’ll be making an arena environment intimate because I want the fans to be part of the show. And you’ll hear all your favorite hits too, the show would feature a 36-row catwalk and b-stage, in order to make the large arenas more intimate for fans. Mat Kearney would be her support act for the tour, the tour was to be sponsored by Vitamin Water. The company set up a website, kellyallaccess. com. LiveNation CEO Michael Rapino said, Ticket sales have not been what we anticipated, in the end, we are in the Kelly Clarkson business and for that reason we believe that this decision will only benefit her and her fans in the long run. The My December album itself was released on June 26,2007. On September 4,2007, a new My December Tour for Fall 2007 in North America was announced on via Billboard. com and it was specified to play 26 dates in 3, 000-to-6,000 seat theatres rather than the previous arenas. Shows in Toronto, Minneapolis and Chicago also sold out, Clarkson then added Australian and European legs to the tour, to take place starting March 2008, after the first leg of her 2 Worlds 2 Voices Tour with Reba McEntire. Tickets for the Australian tour went on sale October 8,2007, on October 23,2007, the full European lineup was announced and tickets went on sale immediately. German, Swedish and Dutch tickets went on sale for fans through a number of different ticketing websites and stores across the continent, there was a high demand for Glasgow and Manchester fans and a further date was added for each within a week. Clarkson scheduled an appearance on the UK TV show This Morning on December 12 to promote the UK leg of the tour, as in the past, Clarksons concerts held more in common with traditional rock concerts than with pop- or R&B-oriented diva productions. Clarkson immediately shed the bulky red dress, however, and performed in a black pants. Halfway through the show the main curtain closed, and Clarkson and selected members performed a quieter mini-set of Because of You, Up to the Mountain. In all she performed for 75 to 80 minutes
28.
Tomorrow (Sean Kingston album)
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Tomorrow is the second studio album by reggae singer Sean Kingston. The album was released on September 7,2009, currently, two singles have been released from the album. Despite Fire Burning being a summer hit in 2009, the album only peaked at #37 on the U. S. Billboard 200 albums chart with only 13,000 copies sold in the first week of release. It dropped out of the top 40 the next week, falling 40 spots to #87, tomorrows sound is significantly different from the sound of Kingstons debut album. In this new LP, he explores sounds of 1990s eurodance and electropop, using instruments like Roland 808 drum machine, Auto-Tune and synthesizers while adding his signature reggae and pop music. Tomorrow also melds together genres of rock and soft rock. Influences of nu-disco, Euro disco and electropop show on Fire Burning, Face Drop, the song War was originally supposed to feature rap artist Lil Wayne, but he was taken out of the song on the final version. Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone said For the most part--despite Auto-Tuned slow songs--Kingstons mix of young-adult desire, simon Vozick-Levinson of Entertainment Weekly felt that Although hes got plenty of hooks, personality is in much shorter supply. While some of his reviews are positive, others feel his album lacks novelty, jason Richards of Now Magazine said that although he is a good singer-songwriter, his album lacks novelty and feels irritating. Bill Lamb of About. com, Its abundantly clear on Tomorrow that Sean Kingston plans to stick around for awhile, at least half of the songs here could be pop hit singles and fit easily into contemporary pop radio playlists. Sean Kingston may want to consider stripping his sound down a bit more, Sean Kingston has successfully delivered the goods he has to offer a second time around. Fire Burning was the first official single from the album, released on April 24,2009 and it peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the most successful single from the album. Face Drop was the official single from the album. It was released to radio stations on August 18,2009, lyrically, Face Drop is plea to not judge by appearance. It peaked at #61 on the Billboard Hot 100, which was of moderate success compared to Kingstons previous hits, iTunes released promotional singles from the album as part of Countdown to Tomorrow. All singles received the same animated artwork, each with a different color background and my Girlfriend was the first promo single and was released digitally on July 28,2009. Wrap U Around Me was the promo single and was released digitally on August 4,2009. Tomorrow was the promo single and was released digitally on August 11,2009
29.
Fire Burning
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Fire Burning is a song by Jamaican-American singer-songwriter Sean Kingston. It is released as the single from his second studio album Tomorrow. Unlike many of his previous singles, which are all produced by J. R. Rotem, the song was used for the opening number of the Miss Universe 2009 live at the Atlantis Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas. Fire Burning is a written by Robin Wang. The songs instrumentation consists of a heavy synthesizers and a variety of percussive sounds, the song is set in common time with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute and is written in the key of B♭ minor. It begins with an energetic clarion call to the floor followed by modern dance beat. Kingston had released the song on his MySpace webpage to promote his song, the song was released to radio stations and for digital download April 24,2009. To date the song has played more than 13 million times on his MySpace page. As of July 22,2012, the song has sold over 3 million downloads, Sean Kingston performed the song for the first time live at the Teen Choice Awards 2009. The music video premiered on MTV on June 15,2009, rick Ross makes a cameo appearance in the video along with fellow island singer Iyaz. The video was directed by Gil Green, the video also shows Kingstons Audi R8 in the video. Fire Burning Fire Burning Fire Burning Fire Burning Fire Burning Fire Burning 103.5 KTU replaced the opening Shorty fire burning in the opening, to KTU is burning. He also comments that the chorus is repetitive, it sounds just like Unstoppable by Kat Deluna, but this song is often what makes for a sizzling club hit. Digital download Fire Burning –4,03 CD-Single Fire Burning –4,00 War –2,59 Fire Burning debuted at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100, since then it has entered the top ten peaking at #5. It also peaked at two on the Canadian Hot 100 for eight consecutive weeks. It became a #1 Record in South Africa. Prior to this Fire Burning was ranked 36th on South Africas Year-End-Chart, Sean Kingston MySpace Official website Official UK website Sean Kingston interview by Pete Lewis, Blues & Soul August 2009 Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
30.
Face Drop
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Face Drop is the second single from Sean Kingstons second studio album Tomorrow, was released to radio stations on August 18,2009 and released digitally on iTunes on September 1,2009. The song has gone gold in the US, selling over 500.000 copies and it features Seans girlfriend breaking up with him then lil Sean appears. Everytime he walks by a pedestrian, they become animated, after, they appear at a pool party where his ex is then they start splashing her. The official remix features former Pretty Ricky member & singer Pleasure P was released, face Drop became Kingstons second #1 from the album Tomorrow in South Africa. It has also been certified Gold in New Zealand and was Top 30 on US radio, seanKingston. com -Sean Kingston Official Site Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
31.
Jason Derulo
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Jason Joel Desrouleaux, known professionally as Jason Derulo, is an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. Since the start of his recording career in 2009, Derulo has sold over 30 million singles and has achieved eleven Platinum singles, including Wiggle, Talk Dirty, In My Head. After Beluga Heights became part of the Warner Music Group, Derulo released his debut single Whatcha Say in May 2009 and it sold over five million digital downloads, gaining an RIAA certification of triple Platinum, and reaching number 1 in the U. S. and New Zealand. Derulo released his single, In My Head, in December 2009. His debut album, Jason Derulo, was released on March 2,2010 and he released his second studio album, Future History, on September 16,2011, the album was preceded by the release of the UK number-one single Dont Wanna Go Home. Derulos third international album, Tattoos, was released on September 24,2013, in 2015, Derulo released his single Want to Want Me and announced his fourth studio album, Everything Is 4, which was released on June 2,2015. Derulo was born in Miramar, Florida, the son of Haitian parents and he started singing at a young age. He attended performing arts schools in Florida and made early attempts at music composition. His writing skills began attracting attention when he was a teenager and he also wrote Bossy for Birdman, a New Orleans-based rapper, and made a guest appearance on the song, highlighting his ability as a vocalist. Derulo has been writing songs for artists including Diddy, Danity Kane, Donnie Klang, Sean Kingston, Cassie, Derulo was discovered by music producer J. R. Rotem, who signed him to his record label Beluga Heights Records and Warner Bros. On August 4,2009, Jason released his debut single and it was produced by J. R. Rotem with additional production by Fuego. The track heavily samples the Imogen Heap song Hide and Seek, in late August 2009, the song debuted at number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number 1 in November 2009. It was Derulos first and only one hit. The singles music video was released in September 2009, after the single became successful and he released the second single from his album, In My Head, on December 8,2009. It debuted at number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100, Derulos debut album, Jason Derulo, stylised with an umlaut as Jason Derülo, was released on March 2,2010. Jason Derulo first charted within the top ten of the UK and he spent six weeks promoting the album in his appearances as one of the opening acts for Lady Gagas 2009–2010 The Monster Ball Tour. The third single of the album is Ridin Solo, which was released worldwide on April 26,2010, by July, the single had reached number nine in the Billboard Hot 100. Derulo has also featured in a song by new artist Will Roush called Turn it Up
32.
Whatcha Say
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Whatcha Say is the debut single by American singer Jason Derulo and the first single released from his self-titled debut album. It was available for download on May 5,2009. It was produced by J. R. Rotem with additional production by German record producer Fuego and heavily samples the song Hide, whatcha Say topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week. Derulo recorded a new French-English version with French Guiana singer Fanny J, a new music video has also been released. But Derulo weaves easily in and out of Heaps parts and matches his autotuned vocals to hers pretty well to craft a catchy, if derivative, whatcha Say was performed live by Derulo on Thanksgiving Day in Philadelphia for the 90th anniversary of the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade. The song was featured in Ben Afflecks film The Town, the song was also featured on the popular teen show, Gossip Girl, in the episode Treasure of Serena Madre, which premiered on November 30,2009. The music video was released as the video of the week on iTunes on October 27,2009. The music video premiered on Monday, November 16 on MTVs AMTV, a music video was also released for the acoustic version, which features J. R. Rotem playing the piano. It reached number one in the issue dated November 14,2009, the song also reached the number-one spot on the Canadian Nielsen SoundScan Digital Songs chart. Whatcha Say entered and peaked on the UK Singles Chart on November 22,2009 at number 3, by June 2014, the single has sold over 4 million digital copies in the US
33.
Sugababes
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The Sugababes are an English girl group, formed in 1998 with founding members Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan. Their debut album, One Touch, was released in the UK through London Records on 27 November 2000, the album achieved moderate success, peaking at number 26 in April 2001 and eventually being certified Gold. In 2001, Donaghy departed the group amid rumours of a rift with Buchanan and they released three studio albums before Buena announced her departure in December 2005, leading to Amelle Berrabah being brought in to replace her. Following the release of their first greatest hits album, the new line-up released two studio albums, in September 2009, after 11 years in the Sugababes, Buchanan, the final original member, was replaced by former UK Eurovision entry Jade Ewen. Range, Berrabah and Ewen released the seventh studio album, Sweet 7, in 2010, after which they signed to RCA Records. In 2013, Ewen confessed that the Sugababes had split two years earlier, the original line-up of the band reformed in 2011, under the new name Mutya Keisha Siobhan. In 2006, British Hit Singles & Albums named the Sugababes as the most successful act of the 21st century with six UK number one singles. They have been a fixture in the British tabloids due to their several line-up changes. The Sugababes were formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom, Siobhán Donaghy and Mutya Buena, both aged just 13, had been signed as solo artists, but decided to work together after performing at the same showcase. While working in the studio, Buena invited her best friend Keisha Buchanan to watch them, manager Tom decided the three girls were to be a trio, likening their different appearances to the United Colors of Benetton campaign. Originally dubbed the Sugababies, the name was tweaked to Sugababes when they were signed by London Records to give the group a more mature image. The groups debut single, Overload, peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart in 2000 and was nominated for a BRIT Award for Best Single, the group co-wrote most of the tracks on debut album One Touch with the help of All Saints producer Cameron McVey. One Touch peaked at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart, the album produced three more top 40 hits—New Year, Run for Cover and Soul Sound. The sales of One Touch did not meet London Records expectations and it was later certified gold by the BPI and had sold 220,000 copies in the UK by 2008 according to Music Week. During a Japanese promotional tour in August 2001, Donaghy left the group and she stated initially that she wanted to pursue a fashion career, but was eventually diagnosed with clinical depression amid reports of in-fighting amongst the groups members. Donaghy later stated that she was forced out of the group by Buchanan, former Atomic Kitten member Heidi Range was announced as Donaghys replacement. Having already started work on an album with new member Range. Their first single on the new label, Freak like Me scored the group their first UK number 1 single, follow-up single Round Round also debuted on top of the UK Singles Chart and peaked at number 2 in Ireland, the Netherlands and New Zealand
34.
Sweet 7
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Sweet 7 is the seventh and final studio album by British girl group the Sugababes, released on 15 March 2010, by Island Records. It marks as the release from the fourth line up following them splitting in 2011. Production for the album began in April 2009 and was completed in January 2010, Sweet 7 is the only release since the controversial departure of Keisha Buchanan, who was replaced by 2009 Eurovision Song Contest entry Jade Ewen in September 2009. As a result of the group line-up change, Sweet 7 was re-recorded to feature the vocals of new member Ewen, as a result, this is the only album that features none of the original members. Despite the high-profile input, Sweet 7 was negatively received by critics, the negative reviews stemmed to the originality of the image due to the loss of Buchanan, as well as a lack of an identifiable sound and soul from the project. Sweet 7 peaked at number 14 in the UK and number 35 in Ireland, promotion for the album ended after the release of the final single so that the group could begin work on a new album. But they split after they released its intended single Freedom, prior to the albums creation, Sugababes signed a US record deal with Jay-Zs label Roc Nation. The album was recorded by Sugababes mostly in Los Angeles and New York, the group primarily worked with RedOne, Ryan Tedder, Stargate, Fernando Garibay, up-and-coming production team the Smeezingtons. One of the tracks, No More You, was written by Ne-Yo. Keisha Buchanan compared the song to Rihannas Hate That I Love You, the group also collaborated with Sean Kingston. Sugababes also joked that Rihannas been like our fourth member, listening to all our songs and saying what she liked and what she didnt like. Buchanan told BBC Radio 1s Newsbeat, the album has definitely got the British feel throughout the album - weve not gone away, Buchanan continued, I think its given us a fresh energy again. I think the one thing we wanted to do was come back with something different and she also admitted the girls had become complacent around the time of Catfights and Spotlights but they also said that they are very proud of that album. After the release of the albums first single Get Sexy and just two months before its projected November 2009 release, it was reported by the media that Amelle Berrabah had quit the group. Buchanan, however, denied any drama within the group and insisted that Berrabah would remain a member for the moment. On 21 September 2009, it was announced that Buchanan had left the band, Buchanan was replaced by Jade Ewen, who immediately began recording her vocals over Buchanans in preparation for the albums release. Thank You for the Heartbreak is a song with a 1980s electro influence. David Balls of Digital Spy described it as a snappy electropop number, there was a potential lyrical mashup with the songs lyric, dancing off my tears, on which Heidi Range replied, If people want to sing that when we perform it, well, we wont complain
35.
The O2 Arena
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It is named after its primary sponsor, the telecommunications company O2. The closest underground station to the venue is the North Greenwich station on the Jubilee line, following the closure of the Millennium Experience at the end of 2000, the Millennium Dome was leased to Meridian Delta Ltd. in 2001, for redevelopment as an entertainment complex. This included plans for an indoor arena, construction of the arena started in 2003 and finished in 2007. Owing to the impossibility of using cranes inside the dome structure, the arena buildings structure was then built around the roof. The arena building, which houses the arena and the concourse, is independent from all other buildings in the O2. The arena building itself takes up 40% of the dome structure. The seating arrangement throughout the arena can be modified, similar to the Manchester Arena. The ground surface can also be changed between ice rink, basketball court, exhibition space, conference venue, private hire venue, the arena was built to reduce echoing, a common problem among London music venues. By 2008 it had become the worlds busiest venue with sales of more two million, taking the crown from MEN Arena. Since 2009 the arena has hosted the prestigious ATP World Tour Finals, in 2015 it was announced that the tournament would extend its deal to hold the tournament until 2018. The venue has hosted the event for the second longest tenure, during the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, The O2 Arena was referred as the North Greenwich Arena due to Olympics regulations regarding corporate sponsorship of event sites. On 25 September 2013, Christine McVie joined Fleetwood Mac on stage and she later re-joined the band officially in January 2014. In 2014, the O2 arena hit controversy when guests were prevented from bringing food on site because they represented a terror threat, however, staff reportedly said that the food was banned because the food outlets were not making enough money. On 16 January 2016, the O2 arena hosted the fight of former heavyweight champion David Haye. As of 2015, the O2 Arena is the busiest music arena in the world in terms of ticket sales, handling 1,819,487 tickets. com Profile London 2012 Olympics profile
36.
Mumzy Stranger
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Muhammad Mumith Ahmed, better known by his stage name Mumzy Stranger, is a British Bangladeshi MC, singer, songwriter and record producer, known for his distinctive soulful-bashment style. He made his recording debut in the summer of 2009 with his debut single One More Dance. He is the first artist of Bangladeshi descent to have entered the music industry. Ahmed sings in a unique tone, in English, Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali. Ahmed was born and raised in Plaistow, Newham in East London to Bengali Muslim parents and he is of Bengali origin and was raised in a traditional Islamic home. In 2000, Ahmed started out in the UK garage scene at the age of 16, so far since his rise to local fame, his main fan base today is still derived from the East side of London and has also gained international success. Two years later, as a graduate from the University of Westminster, achieving a BA in Business Information Technology, with the help of Rishi Rich, he released his promo single, Lets Party in 2007, which Rich produced along with the next single, Stranger. He performed in the UK at the Royal Festival Hall in South Bank, London and at the 2008 Boishakhi Mela and he also performed at the award show for the UK Asian Music Awards in 2008. Ahmeds debut single One More Dance was produced by Rishi Rich and was released in July 2009, the single was set to be titled One More Chance but was later changed to One More Dance, according to Rishi Rich. It failed to reach the charts but topped the UK Asian Charts on its debut. His second single, Showgirl, was released in August 2009, Mumzy is heard on two tracks on The Streets of Bollywood 3, a remix album by Rishi Rich, Hunterz and Kami K, mainly focusing on bringing Indian and urban music together. Ahmed collaborated with several UK and international artists, such as H-Dhami, Preeya Kalidas, Abbas Hasan. On 18 November 2010, Ahmed supported Sean Kingston at The O2 Arena, Ahmed released his debut mixtape, No Stranger to This, which was put together in the course of seven days and officially released on 11 December, a day before his debut album, Journey Begins. Stranger and Stereo Nation are heard on the soundtrack of Its a Wonderful Afterlife, the track is a remix of a hit song by Stereo Nation, Larl Larl Buleeya. The track is Strangers debut on a British film soundtrack and he is also heard on the soundtrack of Toonpur Ka Super Hero, making his debut on a Bollywood film soundtrack. In December 2010, Strangers debut album was Journey Begins released on in the UK, Stranger performed songs from the album with a live orchestra to 600 fans and media at a one-off concert on 18 December at Stratford Circus in Stratford, London. The albums lead single is Fly With Me, produced by himself at his home studio, the single debuted at number 15 on the UK Asian Download Chart and stayed in the top 40 for more than 17 weeks but dropped off the chart at week 18. There are several remixes of Fly With Me, a Grime Mix featuring Flo Dan, Gods Gift, KID & Roly, a Rishi Rich Kulcha Mix, Strangers fourth and final single from the album is Spaceman featuring Wiley
37.
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
38.
Nicki Minaj
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Onika Tanya Maraj, known professionally as Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-born American rapper, singer, songwriter and model. Born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago and raised in South Jamaica, Queens, New York and she has been signed to Young Money Entertainment since 2009. In 2010, Minaj became the first female solo artist to have seven singles simultaneously charting on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100. Her third studio album, The Pinkprint, was preceded by its single, Anaconda. Minaj made her debut in the 2012 animated film Ice Age, Continental Drift, followed by supporting roles in The Other Woman and Barbershop. In 2013, she was a judge on the season of American Idol. Minaj was the first female artist included on MTVs Annual Hottest MC List, in 2016, Minaj was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. Her rapping is distinctive for its fast flow and the use of alter egos and accents, early in her career, Minaj was known for her colorful costumes and wigs. According to Billboard, Minaj has the most Hot 100 entries for a female artist in the charts history and she has further endorsed Adidas, MAC Cosmetics and Pepsi. She has sold 20 million singles as a lead artist, and 60 million singles as a featured artist worldwide, Onika Tanya Maraj was born on December 8,1982, in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago. Her father, Robert Maraj, a executive and part-time gospel singer, is of Indo-Trinidadian and Afro-Trinidadian descent. Her mother, Carol Maraj, also a singer, is of Afro-Trinidadian ancestry. Carol worked in payroll and accounting departments during Minajs youth, Minajs father was addicted to alcohol and other drugs, and had a violent temper, burning down their house in December 1987. As a small child, Minaj and a sibling lived with her grandmother in Saint James and her mother, who had moved to The Bronx, New York to attend Monroe College, brought the family to Queens, New York, when Minaj was 5. By then the family had a house on West 147th Street, Minaj recalled, I don’t think I had a lot of discipline in my household. My mom motivated me, but it wasn’t a strict household, I kind of wanted a strict household. Minaj successfully auditioned for admission to LaGuardia High School in Manhattan, after graduation, Minaj wanted to become an actress, and she was cast in the Off-Broadway play In Case You Forget in 2001. At the age of 19, as she struggled with her career, she worked as a waitress at Red Lobster in the Bronx
39.
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
40.
Wyclef Jean
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Nel Ust Wyclef Jean, best known by his professional name Wyclef Jean, is a Haitian rapper, musician and actor. At the age of nine, Jean immigrated as a child to the United States with his family and he first achieved fame as a member of the New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees. Jean has won three Grammy Awards for his musical work, on August 5,2010, Jean filed for candidacy in the 2010 Haitian presidential election. The Electoral Commission ruled him as ineligible to stand for office, Jeans efforts at earthquake relief, highly publicized in 2010 throughout Haiti and the United States, were channeled through his charitable organization, Yéle Haiti. The charity, which conducted education and welfare activities in Haiti between 2005 and 2010, effectively closed in 2012 and it was investigated for failure to file tax returns and mismanagement of funds, a high proportion of its money went to travel and administrative expense. The New York Times reported that much of the money raised by the organization in the Hope for Haiti Now telethon was retained by Jean for his own benefit, in 2012 Jean published his memoir Purpose, An Immigrant’s Story. Along with Carlos Santana, Avicii and Alexandre Pires, Jean was chosen to perform the ceremony at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Their single, Dar Um Jeito, the official World Cup anthem, was released on April 29,2014, Jean was born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti. In 1982, he immigrated with his family as a child to the United States, after living in Brooklyn, New York, they settled in East Orange and Newark. He began to make music as a child and has cited reggae artist Bigga Haitian as one of his influences, as well as neighborhood heroes MC Tiger Paw Raw. His mother recognized his talent and bought him a guitar when he was in his teens. Jean graduated from Vailsburg High School, Newark, New Jersey, briefly attended Eastern Nazarene College, Jean has been a resident of Saddle River, South Orange, and North Caldwell, New Jersey. In 2009, Jean enrolled in the Berklee College of Music, Jean and other musicians formed a group in the 1980s under the name Tranzlator Crew. After they signed with Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records in 1993, they renamed their group as Fugees – an abbreviation of refugees, the groups debut album, Blunted on Reality, was released in 1994. It achieved limited success, peaking at number 62 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album peaked at number 122 on the UK Albums Chart in 1997, Blunted on Reality spawned three singles, Boof Baf, Nappy Heads and Vocab. Nappy Heads was the Fugees first single to be ranked on the US Billboard Hot 100, in 1996, the Fugees released their second album, titled The Score. The album achieved significant commercial success in the United States, topping the US Billboard 200 and it was later certified as six-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
41.
Cher Lloyd
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Cher Lloyd is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, and model. She rose to fame in 2010 when she finished fourth in the series of The X Factor. Following the seventh series finale, she was signed to Syco Music, Lloyds debut single, Swagger Jagger, was released in July 2011. The single entered at one on the UK Singles Chart. Lloyd released her album, Sorry Im Late in 2014. Despite its positive acclaim, the failed to match the success of its predecessor. Though the album met with success in the charts, Sorry Im Late outsold her debut album Sticks. Lloyd also experienced crossover appeal, signing to US record label Epic Records in 2012, cher Lloyd was raised in Malvern, Worcestershire, with her parents Darren and Diane and her three younger siblings, Sophie, Josh, and Rosie. Her family is of Romani origin, and Lloyd spent the first year of her life travelling around Wales with her parents in a caravan. Speaking to Now, her uncle claimed she was teased and bullied by classmates for her origins, Lloyd attended Dyson Perrins High School, where she studied performing arts. She also attended the arts school Stagecoach. Lloyd had previously auditioned for The X Factor before, singing ballads, Lloyd has previously performed at holiday camps and said she gets a mixed reaction to her music, but was a big hit with X Factor judges at the time. She auditioned singing the Keri Hilson version of Turn My Swag On by Soulja Boy, at bootcamp she sang a rap version of Viva La Vida. At the judges houses, she performed Cooler Than Me but suffered from tonsillitis and was unable to complete the song, Lloyd sang a rendition of Just Be Good to Me in the first of the live shows. In the second show, she sang Hard Knock Life. In the third show, she sang a mashup of No Diggity and Shout. This was the first time Lloyd did not rap in her performance, in week five, Lloyd sang Empire State of Mind, but judges stated that after the previous week they were disappointed. However, the judges agreed that she redeemed herself with her rendition of Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word mixed with Mockingbird, by Elton John and Eminem, respectively, in the following week, Lloyd performed Girlfriend, followed by Walk This Way
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Akon
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Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, better known as Akon, is a Senegalese-American singer, rapper, songwriter, businessman, record producer and actor. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of Locked Up and he has since founded two successful record labels, Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution. He is the first solo artist to hold both the one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice. Akon has had four songs certified as 3× platinum, three songs certified as 2× platinum, more than ten songs certified as 1× platinum and more than ten songs certified as gold in digital sales, Akon has sung songs in other languages including Tamil, Hindi, and Spanish. He was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the #1 selling artist for master ringtones in the world, Akon often provides vocals as a featured artist and is currently credited with over 300 guest appearances and more than 35 Billboard Hot 100 songs. He has worked with performers such as Michael Jackson, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Whitney Houston, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. He has had five Grammy Awards nominations and has produced songs for such as Lady Gaga, Colby ODonis, Kardinal Offishall, Leona Lewis. Forbes ranked Akon 80th in Forbes Celebrity 100 in 2010 and 5th in 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa list, Billboard ranked Akon No.6 on the list of Top Digital Songs Artists of the decade. Akon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and spent much of his childhood in the West African country Senegal, the child of a dancer mother and a percussionist father, Mor Thiam, Akon learned to play five instruments, including drums, guitar and djembe. At age 7, he moved with his family to Union City, New Jersey, growing up in New Jersey, Akon had difficulties getting along with other children. When he and his brother reached high school, his parents left them on their own in Jersey City and moved the rest of the family to Atlanta. In regards to his date, Akon is very protective of it. However, legal documents released by The Smoking Gun list his date of birth as April 16,1973, Akons alleged three years in jail saw him begin to recognize his music abilities and develop an appreciation for his musical background. The songs Akon recorded with Stephens were brought to the attention of Universals imprint SRC Records, in an interview with HitQuarters SRC A&R Jerome Foster said, What caught my attention right away was Lonely, and I said, this kid is official – this is a huge record. Foster and SRC CEO Steve Rifkind immediately boarded a plane to Atlanta to meet the young artist. Akon knew of Fosters work as producer Knobody and so there was a mutual respect for one another, Akon increased his exposure further by collaborating with overseas artists, including New Zealands rapper Savage and hip-hop producer P-Money, performing choruses as a featured vocalist. Akons solo debut album, Trouble was released on June 29,2004 and it spawned the singles Locked Up and Lonely, Belly Dancer, Pot Of Gold, and Ghetto. Locked Up reached 8th position in the U. S. Ghetto became a radio hit when it was remixed by DJ Green Lantern to include verses from rappers 2Pac and The Notorious B. I. G
