Christopher Brian Bridges, known professionally as Ludacris, is an American rapper and actor. After forming his own label, Disturbing tha Peace in the late 1990s, Ludacris later signed with Def Jam South and would go on to become one of the first Dirty South rappers to achieve mainstream success with his subsequent releases. For his music, Ludacris has won an MTV Video Music Award and three Grammy Awards.
James Todd Smith, better known by his stage name LL Cool J, is an American rapper, record producer, actor, author, and entrepreneur from Queens, New York. With the breakthrough success of his hit single "I Need a Beat" and the Radio LP, LL Cool J became an early hip-hop act to achieve mainstream success along with Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC.
Melissha Martinez, better known by her stage name Maya Jupiter, is a Mexican-born Australian rapper, songwriter, MC and radio personality. She released her debut album, Today, in 2003. She was a member of hip-hop group, Foreign Heights, with MC Trey and DJ Nick Toth, which released a self-titled album in 2007. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2007 the trio was nominated for 'Best Urban Release' for "Get Yours (Remix)". From 2004 to 2008, Jupiter hosted the national radio station, Triple J's weekly Hip-Hop Show. Thereafter she pursued her solo career based in Los Angeles and released her second album, Maya Jupiter, in December 2010.
M.O.P. is an American hip hop duo. Composed of rappers Billy Danze and Lil' Fame, the duo are known for their aggressive lyrical delivery style. Although they maintain a strong underground following, they are mainly known for the song "Ante Up", released on their Warriorz album in 2000, and with which they have had mainstream success. The group has frequently collaborated with DJ Premier. Fame sometimes produces under the moniker Fizzy Womack, and has produced a significant number of tracks on all M.O.P. releases since 1996's Firing Squad, as well as work for other artists including Kool G Rap, Teflon and Wu-Tang Clan.
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik is the 1994 debut album of American hip hop duo Outkast. After befriending each other in 1992, rappers André 3000 and Big Boi pursued recording music as a duo and worked with production team Organized Noize, which led to their signing to LaFace Records. The album was produced by the team and recorded at the Dungeon, D.A.R.P. Studios, Purple Dragon, Bosstown, and Doppler Studios in Atlanta.
Matthew David Lambert, better known by his stage name Suffa, is an Australian rapper and producer best known as one of the members of the hip hop group, Hilltop Hoods. He has produced tracks for other artists, such as Funkoars and Kate Miller-Heidke, in addition to his work with the Hilltop Hoods. Lambert has been an active artist for over 15 years since the release of the debut Hilltop Hoods album.
Richard Preston Butler Jr., better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but split his childhood between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and New York City's Harlem neighborhood. He attended Florida A&M and, while visiting Atlanta, Georgia, worked his way into the music industry through connections with Usher, who would become one of Love's frequent collaborators.
Blue Sky Black Death is a production duo based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It consists of Ryan Maguire, better known by his stage name Kingston, and Ian Taggart, better known by his stage name Young God, or, later, Televangel. They are known principally for their hip hop and instrumental music, made with a mixture of live instrumentation and sampling. Their name is "a skydiving phrase alluding to beauty and death."
Lawrence "Kris" Parker, better known by his stage names KRS-One, an abbreviation of Knowledge Reigning Supreme Over Nearly Everyone, and Teacha, is an American rapper and occasional producer from Bronx, New York. He rose to prominence as part of the hip hop music group Boogie Down Productions, which he formed with DJ Scott La Rock in the mid-1980s. KRS-One is best known for his top hits, "Sound of da Police", "Love's Gonna Get'cha ", and "My Philosophy", among others. Boogie Down Productions received numerous awards and critical acclaim in their early years. Following the release of the group's debut album, Criminal Minded, fellow artist Scott La Rock was shot and killed, but KRS-One continued the group, effectively as a solo project. He began releasing records under his own name in 1993. He is politically active, having started the Stop the Violence Movement after Scott's death. He's also a vegan activist, expressed in songs such as "Beef". He is widely considered an influence to many hip hop artists, including 2Pac and Eminem.
Noah Raymond Brickley, better known by his stage name Noah23, is a Canadian-American hip hop artist from Guelph, Ontario. He is co-founder of the Plague Language collective and record label, and has been described as "one of Canada's best, most underrated MCs".
Quicksand is a 2002 album by Canadian-American alternative hip hop artist Noah23. Most of the album's production was handled by Orphan, the Plague Language collective's most prolific producer at the time.
Tetragammoth is the 2002 debut album by alternative hip hop artist Baracuda72. Most of the album's production was handled by Orphan, the Plague Language collective's most prolific producer at the time.
Benjamin Reeve, better known by his stage name Livestock, is an underground hip hop artist from Guelph, Ontario. Livestock was a long-time member of the Plague Language collective founded by Noah23 and Orphan.
Shante Scott Franklin, better known by his stage name Currensy is an American rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur, and record executive. He was one of the original members of Young Money Entertainment, a label founded by Lil Wayne. In 2011, Franklin founded the label Jet Life Recordings.
Noah23 is a Canadian-American underground hip hop artist from Guelph, Ontario. His discography consists of twenty-eight solo albums, four collaboration albums, sixteen EPs, eleven mixtapes, five compilations, three physical singles, and many guest appearances on other artists' tracks.
This article summarizes the events, album releases, and album release dates in hip hop music for the year 2004.
Blue Sky Black Death is a production duo based in Seattle, Washington. It consists of Kingston Maguire, better known mononymously as Kingston, and Ian Taggart, better known by his stage name Young God. They are known principally for their hip hop and instrumental music, made with a mixture of live instrumentation and sampling.
Majid Jordan is a Canadian R&B duo, consisting of singer Majid Al Maskati and producer Jordan Ullman from Toronto, Ontario. They formed in 2011 and signed to OVO Sound, the record label co-founded by rapper Drake, producer Noah "40" Shebib and Oliver El-Khatib, releasing their debut EP, A Place Like This, in 2014.
Julio Francisco "Ceschi" Ramos, better known as Ceschi Ramos, or simply as Ceschi, is an American hip hop musician based in New Haven, Connecticut. He is a co-founder of Fake Four Inc. He won the Connecticut Music Awards for Best Hip Hop in 2014.
Gary Earl Grice, better known by his stage names GZA and The Genius, is an American rapper and songwriter. A founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, GZA is the group's "spiritual head", being both the first member in the group to receive a record deal and being the oldest member. He has appeared on his fellow Clan members' solo projects, and has maintained a successful solo career starting with Liquid Swords (1995).
