N.E.R.D. is an American rock and hip hop band, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1999. The Neptunes were signed by Teddy Riley to Virgin. After producing songs for several artists throughout the late 1990s, the duo formed the band with Shay Haley as a side project of The Neptunes in 1999. N.E.R.D.'s debut album, In Search Of..., sold 603,000 copies in the United States and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was also awarded the second annual Shortlist Music Prize. The band's second album, Fly or Die, sold 412,000 copies in the United States, but shipped at least 500,000 units, certifying it Gold.
Charles Edward Hugo is an American record producer and musician. Alongside close colleague Pharrell Williams, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in 1992, with whom he's produced numerous hit records for various artists. He is also a member of the band N.E.R.D., alongside Williams and Shay Haley, and co-founded the record label Star Trak Entertainment with Williams in 2001. In contrast to Williams, Hugo typically does not perform on records.
Clipse, also known as The Clipse, is an American hip hop duo, chiefly active from 1994 to 2010. It consists of brothers Gene "No Malice" and Terrence "Pusha T" Thornton. Pusha T was known as Terrar during the group's early years, while No Malice was originally known as Malicious, then changed his stage name to Malice soon after the group's formation, before changing it again to No Malice in 2012 following a conversion to Christianity. The duo were based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and were heavily affiliated with producer and fellow Virginia Beach native, Pharrell Williams, who convinced the two in 1992 to be a rap duo instead of solo artists. Williams would go on to serve as their label head, main producer and frequent guest artist through most of their career. The duo frequently rapped about the drug dealing they had done in their youth. Clipse was integral in establishing Virginia as one of the East Coast's strongholds in hip hop.
Grand Hustle Records, also known as Hustle Gang Music, is an American hip hop record label, founded in 2003, by American rapper T.I. and his manager Jason Geter. The label was distributed by Atlantic Records until December 2012, and has since operated as an independent record label. Its roster has included acts such as 8Ball & MJG, B.o.B, Killer Mike, Young Dro, DJ Drama, Meek Mill, Chip, Travis Scott, and Trae tha Truth, the latter of whom also served as the label's vice president. The label also houses a roster of record producers, which has included Lil' C, Mars and Nard & B.
Tim Levinson, better known by the stage name Urthboy, is an Australian hip hop MC and producer from New South Wales. He is widely known for his solo music under the moniker Urthboy, as a founding member of the hip-hop group The Herd, and for co-founding and managing the Elefant Traks record label. Levinson has released six solo albums: Distant Sense of Random Menace (2004), The Signal (2007), Spitshine (2009), Smokey's Haunt (2012), The Past Beats Inside Me Like a Second Heartbeat (2016) and Savour (2023) ; as well as five studio albums with The Herd.
Child Rebel Soldier, shortened CRS, was an American hip hop supergroup composed of rappers Lupe Fiasco (child), Kanye West (rebel), and Pharrell Williams (soldier). Formed in 2007, the trio released two collaborative singles prior to their 2013 disbandment.
"Us Placers" is the debut song by American supergroup Child Rebel Soldier, a musical collaboration consisting of American hip-hop artists Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, and Pharrell Williams. It was released as the third song on the track-listing of West's 2007 mixtape Can't Tell Me Nothing. The song was produced by Fiasco and samples the 2006 song "The Eraser" by Thom Yorke. In "Us Placers," the trio speaks on the entrapments of fame. Having been released on a free mixtape, the song did not enter the charts but became an online hit and received strong reviews from music critics.
Seeing Sounds is the third studio album by American alternative rock band N.E.R.D released June 10, 2008 on Star Trak Entertainment and Interscope Records in the United States. After ending their contract with Virgin Records in 2005, the band felt their previous album Fly or Die (2004) was too consistent. Using their own money, the band recorded the album in Florida and California. The album was produced solely by record production duo The Neptunes, consisting of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, with additional assistance by rock band Spymob and was mainly written by Williams. The album's title, as well as its content, revolves around the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia, the mixing of sensory modalities.
U-N-I are a hip hop duo from Inglewood, Los Angeles, consisting of Y-O and Thurzday.
Asher Paul Roth is an American rapper. His debut single "I Love College" in 2009 is considered the birth of the frat rap genre. Roth released his debut studio album Asleep in the Bread Aisle, on April 20, 2009, by Universal Motown, SRC, and School Boy Records; the latter of which was launched by Roth's former manager Scooter Braun. Roth later left Schoolboy Records in late 2012, due to creative differences with Braun. In 2013, Roth signed with indie record label Federal Prism, on which he released his second studio album, RetroHash.
Slaughterhouse was an American hip hop supergroup consisting of rappers Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz, Crooked I and Royce da 5'9". They released their eponymous debut studio album independently in 2009, and signed to Shady Records, an imprint of Interscope Records to release it's follow up, Welcome to: Our House in 2012. The group disbanded in 2018.
Love the Future is the debut album by the band Chester French, which was released on April 21, 2009 under the record label Star Trak Entertainment.
The R.E.D. Album is the fourth studio album by American rapper Game. It was released on August 23, 2011, by DGC Records and Interscope Records, which serves as Game's first release under DGC and his first album for Interscope since 2005's The Documentary. His previous two, Doctor's Advocate (2006) and LAX (2008), were released under Interscope's subsidiary imprint, Geffen Records.
Jabari Miles Evans, better known by his stage name Naledge, is an American rapper and one half of the hip-hop group Kidz in the Hall. He is also an assistant professor of Race and Media at the University of South Carolina in School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Donavan LaMond Johnson better known by his stage name XV is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Wichita, Kansas. He first gained major attention after the release of his twelfth mixtape Everybody's Nobody, for which he received two awards from DJBooth.net. His name, XV, refers to the age (15) at which he began his musical career. On Monday July 26, 2010, XV announced that he had signed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records via his Twitter page.
Mark Anthony Williams Jr., better known by his stage name Mickey Factz, is an American hip hop recording artist from the Bronx borough of New York City, New York.
Chidera Anamege, now known by his stage name Chiddy Bang, is an American rapper from Philadelphia. Prior to its breakup, Chiddy Bang was an American hip hop duo consisting of Anamege, under the stage name Chiddy, and Noah Beresin, under the stage name Xaphoon Jones. The duo was introduced by former band member Zachary Sewall in late 2008 while the two were studying at Drexel University, in Beresin's hometown of Philadelphia. Anamege's sound is based on the fusion of hip hop and alternative using samples from artists such as Ellie Goulding, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, Passion Pit, MGMT, Matt and Kim and Yelle. In 2013, Beresin left the group to focus on producing, and Anamege became a solo artist, with Beresin playing the role as frequent collaborator.
Teyon Isiah Winfree, better known by his stage name Vado, is an American rapper from New York. He formed the hip hop duo U.N. with hometown native Cam'ron in 2009, with whom he has released two collaborative albums—Heat in Here Vol. 1 (2010) and Gunz n' Butta (2011)—and the Boss of All Bosses mixtape series. As a solo act, Vado signed with DJ Khaled's We the Best Music Group, an imprint of Cash Money and Republic Records in 2013 to release his debut commercial single, "My Bae" the following year. Despite failing to chart, Vado made notable guest appearances on Khaled's studio albums We the Best Forever (2011), Suffering from Success (2013), and I Changed a Lot (2015); he continued releasing mixtapes for the regional New York audience until departing We the Best by 2020.
The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted is the seventh studio album by American rapper Gucci Mane. It was released on September 28, 2010, by 1017 Brick Squad Records, Warner Bros. Records and Asylum Records. It serves as a sequel to his previous studio release The State vs. Radric Davis (2009), which was released after the Atlanta rapper's incarceration from prison. The album debuted at number 4 on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 61,450 copies; it has sold an estimated 169,500 copies as of the week ending of August 21, 2011.
D.A. Wallach is an American musician and business executive. He is the former lead singer of the group Chester French and is currently a solo artist signed by Harvest Records, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. He is the former artist-in-residence at Spotify, a company where he was an early investor. As a business executive, he has invested in and advised several companies that have included SpaceX, Emulate, Synthego, Beam Therapeutics, Glympse Bio, Ligandal, and Ripple.
