Lana Michele Moorer, better known by her stage name MC Lyte, is an American rapper, DJ, actress and entrepreneur. Considered one of the pioneers of female rap, Lyte first gained fame in the late 1980s, becoming the first solo female rapper to release a full album with 1988's critically acclaimed Lyte as a Rock. She released a total of eight solo studio albums and an EP with Almost September.
Percy Robert Miller Sr., known by his stage name Master P, is an American rapper, record executive, actor, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the record label No Limit Records, which was relaunched as New No Limit Records through Universal Records and Koch Records, and again as Guttar Music Entertainment, and currently, No Limit Forever Records. He is also the founder and CEO of P. Miller Enterprises and Better Black Television, which was a short-lived online television network. Miller initially gained fame in the mid-1990s with the success of his hip hop group TRU as well as his fifth solo rap album Ice Cream Man, which contained his first single "Mr. Ice Cream Man". Miller gained further popularity in 1997 after the success of his Platinum single "Make 'Em Say Uhh!". In total, Miller has released 15 studio albums.
James Todd Smith, known professionally as LL Cool J, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. With the breakthrough success of his 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.
Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States and the Southeastern United States, especially in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memphis, and Miami—five cities which constitute the "Southern Network" in rap music.
Horrorcore, also called horror hip hop, horror rap, death hip hop, or death rap, is a subgenre of hip hop music based on horror-themed and often darkly transgressive lyrical content and imagery. Its origins derived from certain hardcore hip hop and gangsta rap artists, such as the Geto Boys, which began to incorporate supernatural, occult, or psychological horror themes into their lyrics. Unlike most hardcore hip hop and gangsta rap artists, horrorcore artists often push the violent content and imagery in their lyrics beyond the realm of realistic urban violence, to the point where the violent lyrics become gruesome, ghoulish, unsettling, or slasher film- or splatter film-esque. While exaggerated violence and the supernatural are common in horrorcore, the genre also frequently presents more realistic yet still disturbing portrayals of mental illness and drug abuse. Some horrorcore artists eschew supernatural themes or exaggerated violence in favor of more subtle and dark psychological horror imagery and lyrics.
Percy Romeo Miller, also known by his stage name Romeo, is an American rapper, actor, and television personality. He gained fame as a rapper in the early 2000s after signing with No Limit Records, then owned by his father, Master P. He soon released his debut single "My Baby" in 2001 which peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Later the same year, Miller released his debut album Lil' Romeo, which charted the US Billboard 200 at number six selling 99,000 copies in its first week and went on to be certified Gold.
Roc-A-Fella Records, LLC. is an American hip hop record label and music management company founded by record executives and entrepreneurs Damon "Dame" Dash, Kareem "Biggs" Burke, and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter in 1995.
Tommy Boy Entertainment is an American independent record label and multimedia brand founded in 1981 by Tom Silverman. The label is credited with helping and launching the music careers of Queen Latifah, Afrika Bambaataa, Stetsasonic, Digital Underground, Coolio, De La Soul, House of Pain, Naughty By Nature, and Force MDs. Tommy Boy is also credited with introducing genres such as EDM, Latin freestyle, and Latin hip hop to mainstream audiences in America.
Nappy Roots is an American alternative Southern rap group. The group met in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1995 while attending Western Kentucky University. They are best known for their hit singles "Po' Folks", "Awnaw", "Roun' The Globe" and "Good Day". They were the best selling hip hop group of 2002. The group consists of Milledgeville, Georgia native Fish Scales and Kentucky natives Skinny DeVille, B. Stille and Ron Clutch.
Phonte Lyshod Coleman, better known mononymously as Phonte, is an American rapper, currently of the North Carolina hip-hop trio/duo Little Brother and one-half of the duo The Foreign Exchange. He has also recorded R&B-flavored output as a singer, and with Nicolay on The Foreign Exchange. His rhymes tend to be no-frill perspectives on working-class life.
Gabriel Benn, better known as Asheru, is an American hip hop artist, educator, and youth activist. He performed the opening and closing themes for the popular TV series, The Boondocks.
Jun Seba, better known by his stage name Nujabes, was a Japanese record producer, audio engineer, DJ, composer and arranger best known for his atmospheric instrumental mixes sampling from hip hop, soul, and jazz, as well as incorporating elements of trip hop, breakbeat, downtempo, and ambient music.
Kung Faux is an American action comedy television series and audiovisual art assemblage created by Mic Neumann, a conceptual artist, showrunner and multimedia entrepreneur, who remixes classic kung fu films with popular music and comic book style editing along with video game style visual effects and new storylines featuring voice acting by contemporary art stars, hip hop personalities, and pop culture icons.
Hussain Yoosuf, better known by his stage name Spek, is a Canadian hip hop musician. He is best known for his singles "Smell the Coffee" and "I'm a Hippie". He is a former member of the Canadian hip hop pioneers, Dream Warriors, and, more recently, known for his work as an entrepreneur and music publisher.
Christopher James Gholson, better known by his stage name Drumma Boy, is an American record producer.
Following an historical process of appropriation of American popular music by Senegal, hip hop emerged in the Senegalese capital city in the early mid- 1980s. Although hip hop galsen is now famous for its diverse musical productions, the movement there spread out from its dancing appeal rather than from its musical one. Indeed, Senegalese hip hop artists initially participated in this movement as smurfer, breakdancer, B-boy in general performing during organised podiums. Schools, nightclubs and other temporary public stages thus played an essential role in amplifying this movement in Dakar. Besides, and in contrast to American hip hop, which grew from the youth in the inner city ghettos, hip hop in Dakar began among a somehow middle-class youth who was able to access and/or introduce in their home place new ideas and new cultural expressions coming from abroad. Indeed, hip hop became popular in the capital city through the intensive through informal circulation of VH7 cassettes and recorded videos, which were imported from USA or France by diaspora people.
Gerald C. Calliste Jr., also known as Hashim, is an American entrepreneur, producer, songwriter, publisher, and former DJ who is best known for the hip hop, electro, and dance music song "Al-Naafiysh " (1983).
Whiteboyz is a 1999 American comedy film. The independent, limited release feature was written by Danny Hoch, Garth Belcon, Henri M. Kessler, Richard Stratton, and Marc Levin, and directed by Levin. The film opened to 37 theatres on the week of September 11, 1999. It marked the film debut of actress Piper Perabo, in a minor role.
Run-DMC was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture and one of the most famous hip hop acts of the 1980s. Along with Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Public Enemy, the group pioneered new school hip hop music. The group was among the first to highlight the importance of the MC and DJ relationship.
Vighnesh Shivanand, better known by his stage name Brodha V, is an Indian hip-hop artist, lyricist, rapper and music producer. Born in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, the Bangalore-based artist started rapping at the age of 18 and took part in online rap battles on Orkut. As an independent artist, Brodha V released a mixtape called Deathpunch which had a limited release and which garnered him some attention from the hip hop fraternity and the independent music circuit in South India.
