Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, and is often cited as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Wayne's career began in 1995, when he was signed by rapper Birdman, joining Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label. From then on, he was the flagship artist of Cash Money Records before ending his association with the label in June 2018.
Pitchfork is an American online music publication that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog.
"Yeah!" is a song by American singer Usher featuring American rappers Lil Jon and Ludacris. The song is written by the featured artists alongside Sean Garrett, Patrick "J. Que" Smith, Robert McDowell, and LRoc. The song incorporates crunk and R&B—which Lil Jon coined as crunk&B—in the song's production. The song was released as the lead single from Usher's fourth studio album Confessions (2004) on January 26, 2004, after Usher was told by Arista Records, his label at the time, to record more tracks for the album.
"Soldier" is a song recorded by American group Destiny's Child, featuring American rappers T.I. and Lil Wayne, for the group's final studio album Destiny Fulfilled (2004). The artists wrote the song with Sean Garrett and Rich Harrison who produced it with the latter co-produced it with Beyoncé. A Southern hip hop mid-tempo song, it lyrically describes each member's favorite type of male love interest. The song was released as the second single from Destiny Fulfilled on November 9, 2004, by Columbia Records and Sony Urban Music.
Destroyer's Rubies is the seventh studio album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer, released on February 21, 2006 on Merge Records, Scratch Records, Acuarela Discos, Architecture, and Rough Trade Records.
Lil' Chief Records is a New Zealand–based indie pop record label formed in 2002. Operating from the Auckland suburb of Mt. Eden, it was founded on releases by The Tokey Tones and The Brunettes. The label's roster now includes a collective of pop artists such as Jonathan Bree, Princess Chelsea, The Ruby Suns, and Edmund Cake.
American rapper Lil' Kim has released five studio albums, one remix album, four mixtapes, forty-two singles, and thirteen promotional singles. In 1994, Kim was a member of the hip hop group Junior M.A.F.I.A. Their first album, Conspiracy, was released in August 1995, and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It spawned the gold and platinum-certified top-twenty singles, "Player's Anthem", "Get Money", and "I Need You Tonight".
The Ruby Suns are an indie pop group from New Zealand. They formed in 2004 when Californian Ryan McPhun moved to Auckland and started playing in several bands such as The Brunettes, The Tokey Tones, and The Reduction Agents.
The Ruby Suns is the first full-length album released by the New Zealand based band The Ruby Suns. The band was originally called Ryan McPhun & The Ruby Suns and the album was released with this title in New Zealand on Lil' Chief Records. The album has subsequently been released in the UK on Memphis Industries in 2006 and in Australia on Popfrenzy in 2007 with different art, and the title truncated to reflect the band's new name. The 2007 Australian release of the album contains two bonus tracks, both of which are from a self-pressed single by the band in 2007.
Lichen Ears is an EP by New Zealand band The Ruby Suns, featuring a number of songs from the same sessions that produced the band's 2008 album Sea Lion. It was released in 2007 exclusively on Auckland's Lil' Chief Records as a limited pressing of 300 copies.
"See You in My Nightmares" is a song by American rapper Kanye West, featuring fellow rapper Lil Wayne, from the former's fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak (2008). The song was written by West, No I.D., Jeff Bhasker and Lil Wayne. with production from the former two. It was scheduled to be released as the album's third single on March 10, 2009, ultimately being canceled in favor of "Amazing". A club number with an electronic beat, it relies on strings and synths. Lyrically, West and Lil Wayne discuss relationship troubles.
Keith Farrelle Cozart, better known by his stage name Chief Keef, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His music first became popular during his teen years in the early 2010s among high school students from Chicago's South Side. In 2012, his popular local single "I Don't Like" was remixed by American rapper Kanye West and reached the Billboard Rap Top 20, further raising Cozart's profile. A bidding war between major labels resulted in Keef signing with Interscope. His debut album Finally Rich was released in December 2012, and featured the singles "I Don't Like" and "Love Sosa", which would popularize the Chicago rap subgenre drill.
Chelsea Nikkel, better known by her stage name Princess Chelsea, is a producer, musician and visual artist from Auckland, New Zealand, and a previous member of twee pop band the Brunettes and cult Auckland band Teenwolf. Chelsea has released four albums of original material and one covers album. Nikkel is associated with the Lil' Chief Records collective and is a part-time member of Disciples of Macca, a Paul McCartney covers band featuring members of the Brunettes, Ruby Suns, Bressa Creeting Cake and Lawrence Arabia and more recently performs as bass player in three-piece rock'n'roll band, Hang Loose. Chelsea’s baroque musical style has been attributed to her classical training, and the New Zealand Herald has praised her "angelic vocals and acerbic wit". Her best known song, "The Cigarette Duet" received significant press exposure after its video went viral on YouTube in early 2012, recently reaching over 80 million views. This led to her being featured on The Guardian's "New Band of the Day". Chelsea is also known for her distinctive and influential visual style which emerged with her creation of homemade low budget music videos beginning in 2011. Chelsea cites Andy Warhol’s Screen Testsand director Robert Altman as influencing her visual style and more recently has begun making visual content for other artists directing and editing music videos for In The Sunshine and Politics by Jonathan Bree. The self-directed music video for ‘I Love My Boyfriend’ is an example of her signature visual style which often incorporates mixed multimedia and VHS with an editing style that favours long voyeuristic shots as depicted in early music videos for ‘Yulia’ ‘Ice Reign’ and most famously ‘The Cigarette Duet’.
Jonathan Owen Bree is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and producer, best known for his work as a solo artist, as well as co-founding the indie pop group The Brunettes, in 1998 and Lil' Chief Records, in 2002. He frequently collaborates with label-mates as a musician, engineer, and record producer.
Drill is a subgenre of hip hop music that originated in Chicago in the early 2010s. It is sonically similar to the trap music subgenre and lyrically similar to the gangsta rap subgenre. Early drill artists are noted for their explicit, adversarial style of lyricism and association with crime in Chicago, especially the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples. The genre progressed into the American mainstream in 2012 following the success of pioneering rappers like Chief Keef, Lil Reese, Lil Durk, Fredo Santana, G Herbo, Lil Bibby and King Louie, who had many local fans and a significant internet presence alongside producer Young Chop. Other rappers, such as LA Capone and RondoNumbaNine, also contributed to the early drill scene. As the audience grew, media attention and the signing of drill musicians to major labels followed.
Miles Parks McCollum, known professionally as Lil Yachty, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He first gained recognition on the internet in 2015 for his singles "One Night" and "Minnesota" from his debut EP Summer Songs. He released his debut mixtape Lil Boat in March 2016. In June 2016, Yachty announced that he had signed a joint venture record deal with Motown, Capitol Records, and Quality Control Music.
Emo rap is a fusion genre of hip hop and emo music. Originating in the SoundCloud rap scene in the mid-2010s, the genre fuses characteristics of hip hop music, such as beats and rapping, with the lyrical themes, instrumentals, and vocals commonly found in emo music. Lil Peep, XXXTentacion, and Juice Wrld are some of the most notable musicians in the genre.
Eternal Atake is the second studio album by American rapper Lil Uzi Vert. It is their first project since their debut studio album Luv Is Rage 2 (2017). After being initially announced in 2018, the album was released on March 6, 2020, through Generation Now and Atlantic Records as a surprise release. The album was supported by the singles "Futsal Shuffle 2020" and "That Way", which later appeared as the album's bonus tracks. The album features a sole guest appearance from American singer Syd.
My Turn is the second studio album by American rapper Lil Baby. It was released on February 28, 2020, by Capitol Records, Motown Records, Wolfpack Music Group, and Quality Control Music. The album features guest appearances from Gunna, 42 Dugg, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, Moneybagg Yo, Young Thug, and Rylo Rodriguez. It also features production from record producers such as Tay Keith, Quay Global, Section 8, Twysted Genius, Hit-Boy, DJ Paul, Murda Beatz, and Wheezy, among others. The album was supported by five singles: "Woah", "Sum 2 Prove", "Emotionally Scarred", "All In", and "The Bigger Picture". The latter song received two Grammy nominations at the 2021 Grammy Awards.
This article summarizes the events, album releases, and album release dates in hip hop music for the year 2021.
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