Name	On Fire
Cover	On_fire.jpg
Artist	Lloyd Banks
From album	The Hunger for More
Released	April 15, 2004
Format	CD single
Recorded	2004
Genre	Hip hop
Length	3:07
Label	G-Unit, Interscope
Writer	Christopher Lloyd
Producer	Eminem, Kwame Holland
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
This single	"On Fire"(2004)
Next single	"I'm So Fly"(2004)

"On Fire" was the 2004 hit single from Lloyd Banks' debut album, The Hunger for More. It quickly became a nationwide hit and cemented Lloyd Banks' name in the Hip Hop scene, the single peaked inside the top ten in the U.S. reaching number eight. The songs samples "The Champ" performed by The Mohawks.

Background

It features 50 Cent's vocals on the chorus, although 50 Cent is not officially credited as being a guest appearance on it. The single peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went gold. The song was produced by Eminem and Kwamé.

The song was featured in the movie Fantastic Four when Human Torch revealed his Fantastic Four outfit to the audience at a Motorcycle competition.

Music video

The music video features Lloyd Banks rapping on the roof and a small building on top of a large hotel building. Cameos include 50 Cent, Young Buck, Tony Yayo and The Game. At the end of the video, 50 Cent is seen breaking glass and the song changes to the chorus and the first verse of the song Warrior, which is also from Lloyd Bank's debut album The Hunger for More.

Chart positions

{|class="wikitable sortable" !Chart (2004) !Peakposition |- |UK Singles Chart |align="center"|19 |- |U.S. Billboard Hot 100 |align="center"|8 |- |U.S. Billboard Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs |align="center"|4 |- |U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Tracks |align="center"|2 |}

References

Category:2004 singles Category:Lloyd Banks songs Category:Singles certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America Category:Songs produced by Eminem

Name	Lloyd Banks
Background	solo_singer
Alias	The Boy Wonder, Blue Hefner, Punch Line King
Born	April 30, 1982New Carrollton, Maryland
Origin	New York City, New York, United States
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Rapper
Years active	1999–present
Label	G-Unit (2003 – present)Interscope (2003–2009)EMI (2010 – present)
Associated acts	G-Unit, Eminem, Young Buck, 50 Cent, Cashis
Url	www.lloydbanks.com

Christopher Charles Lloyd (born April 30, 1982), better known by his stage name Lloyd Banks, is an American rapper and member of the rap group G-Unit. Raised in South Jamaica, Queens, he dropped out of high school in 1998. G-Unit released two albums, Beg for Mercy in 2003 and T.O.S. (Terminate on Sight) in 2008. Banks released his first solo album The Hunger for More in 2004 with the top ten hit single "On Fire". He followed with Rotten Apple in 2006 and left Interscope Records 2009. In 2010 G-Unit signed with EMI to distribute Banks third studio album H.F.M. 2 (Hunger for More 2), which was released on November 22, 2010.

Early life

Banks was born in New Carrollton, Maryland and raised in Queens, New York City; he is of mixed Puerto Rican and African American descent. His father spent most of Lloyd's childhood in prison, leaving his mother to raise him and his two siblings. Lloyd attended August Martin High School but dropped out at age 16.

50 Cent was soon granted his own record label by Dr. Dre and released the album Get Rich or Die Tryin'; Lloyd Banks was featured on the song "Don't Push Me", and the remixed version of "P.I.M.P". Soon after the group had established their own record label, G-Unit Records, G-Unit released their first official group album Beg for Mercy in November 2003, which went on to be certified double platinum.

During August 2005, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, and their entourage were traveling in a van, when the vehicle was pulled over after passing through a red light in midtown Manhattan. Officers said they discovered a loaded handgun and another weapon in the van. Prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the charges after an investigation determined that neither Lloyd Banks nor Young Buck was in possession of the weapons. Felony gun charges against Lloyd Banks and Young Buck were dropped on November 8, 2006.

In the early morning hours of January 9, 2010, in a Kitchener, Ontario hotel, an alleged altercation took place between Banks and a concert promoter over performance fees. Banks, and three of his associates, were later charged with forcible confinement, aggravated assault and robbery, and released on $50,000 bail.

Feud with The Game

The most well known feud involving Lloyd Banks is the feud between him and The Game, which started publicly after The Game left G-Unit. Lloyd Banks speculates that The Game had jealous insecurities involving the attention he received after the success of his debut album The Hunger for More and Banks winning a lyricist title.

Solo career

The Hunger for More (2004-2005)

Lloyd Banks released his solo debut album The Hunger for More in June 2004. The first single was the summer smash hit "On Fire" which featured 50 Cent, however he was uncredited. Banks explained the reasoning behind the album's title: The album was a commercial success, receiving positive reviews. It debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts with 500,500 copies sold in the first week. The album has since sold over 4 million copies and has been certified double platinum by the RIAA. During an interview, Lloyd Banks commented on his first week sales: Two other singles were also released from The Hunger For More, "I'm So Fly" and "Karma", the latter was a hit reaching number 17 on the Hot 100, number 9 on the R&B; charts and number 6 on the rap charts.

Rotten Apple (2006-2007)

The Big Withdraw was intended to be Lloyd Banks's second album. The album was leaked to the internet after Banks had a ménage à trois encounter with two women and left the CD album behind. The leaked version of the album contained 23 tracks. During an interview, Lloyd Banks commented on the issue, he said:

concert.]] Due to the leak, Lloyd Banks began work on Rotten Apple. "Rotten Apple" is a play on New York City's nickname "The Big Apple". It was released on October 10, 2006. The album debuted at #3, selling 143,000 copies in its first week. Rotten Apple was not considered as a commercial success because his debut album sold a significantly higher number of copies in its first week. He has released three singles from Rotten Apple: "Hands Up", "The Cake", and "Help".

Departure from Interscope

Banks was dropped from Interscope Records in 2009. He is still signed to G-Unit Records, which will release his new album.

The Hunger for More 2 and signing with EMI (2010-present)

In late January 2010, it was announced that Banks would release a new song, "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley" featuring Juelz Santana, from his upcoming third studio album. "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley" charted at #49 on the Billboard Hot 100. In early June, Banks released the second single off the album The Hunger for More 2, called Any Girl and it featured R&B; singer Lloyd. Later on November 2, 2010 he released the third single Start It Up featuring Swizz Beatz, Kanye West, Ryan Leslie & Fabolous.

Lloyd Banks release info via his twitter announcing that the title for his third album has tentatively been called 'The Hunger for More 2' and will attempt to take him back to his best work. However, the G-Unit label later stated that the title is not set in concrete and still may be altered. The title of the album was confirmed by 50 Cent as The Hunger for More 2 in a interview with MTV News. According to Banks, Interscope is trying to get him back due to the success of the single "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley", but failed when Lloyd Banks revealed that he had signed a deal with EMI.

After being dropped by Interscope Records in 2009, Lloyd Banks announced on Friday, August 13, 2010 on MTV News that EMI Label Services has signed a deal with 50 Cent’s label, G-Unit Records, in which EMI will distribute and promote releases on the G-Unit roster in North America including Lloyd Banks third album The Hunger for More 2.

Banks' had this to say about the deal,

Awards

In 2004, Banks was awarded 2004's Mixtape artist of the Year at the Mixtape Awards. Lloyd Banks commented on this award in an interview with AOL Sessions:

In 2005, "On Fire" was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Rap Solo Performance. In 2006, "Touch It [Remix]" was nominated for Hip-Hop Video of the Year, and won for Best Collaboration at the BET Awards. The award was shared by Banks and his collaborators, Busta Rhymes, Mary J. Blige, Rah Digga, Missy Elliott, Papoose, and DMX. In 2010 with the excitement surrounding the release of H.M.F. 2 (Hunger for More 2) and his return to Hip-Hop's spotlight Hip-Hop news website HipHopDX wrote that Banks had the "Comeback of the Year" .

Discography

The Hunger for More (2004)

Rotten Apple (2006)

H.F.M. 2 (The Hunger for More) (2010)

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- |Before I Self Destruct |School Teacher |2009 |uncredited |- |Morning Glory |Himself |2010 | |- |}

References

External links

Lloyd Banks Official website

G-Unit UK

Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:American people of Puerto Rican descent Category:G-Unit members Category:G-Unit Records artists Category:Hispanic and Latino American rappers Category:People from Queens Category:People from Prince George's County, Maryland Category:Rappers from New York City

Name	Tony Yayo
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Marvin Bernard
Alias
Origin	New York City, New York, United States
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Rapper songwriter
Years active	1999–present
Label	G-Unit/Interscope (2003–2009)G-Unit/EMI (2010–present)
Associated acts	G-Unit, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks
Url	www.tonyyayo.com

Marvin Bernard (born on March 31, 1979),

Music career

G-Unit

G-Unit boss 50 Cent was granted his own record label, "G-Unit Records" by Interscope after releasing his debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Soon after the group had established their own record label, G-Unit Records, G-Unit released their first official group album Beg for Mercy in November 2003, which went on to be certified 2x Platinum in the United States. The album was released whilst Tony Yayo was in prison serving time, but Yayo still featured on the album. The second G-Unit album was released in July, 2008 and went on to sell 102,000 copies in the first week.

Solo career

Though his appearances on mixtapes announced his return on the street level, it was not until the release of "So Seductive" that his return received wide recognition. In August 2005, Tony Yayo released his debut, Thoughts of a Predicate Felon.

Tony Yayo has confirmed that work is in progress for his second studio album. No official name for the album has been decided yet. The first single is "Pass the Patron", which features 50 Cent. The album will be released with G-Unit Records/EMI who will both promote and distribute the album.

Labels

In 2003 Tony Yayo was signed to Interscope Records, where he released his debut album Thoughts of a Predicate Felon. In 2009, he was later dropped from Interscope Records. After being dropped by Interscope Records it was announced EMI Label Services has signed a deal with 50 Cent’s label, G-Unit Records, in which EMI will distribute and promote releases on the G-Unit roster in North America including Tony Yayo's untitled second album. Lloyd Banks announced this on Friday, August 13, 2010 on MTV News.

Legal issues

Felony jail time

Along with 50 Cent, Yayo was arrested on December 31, 2002 for weapons possession. When police discovered that Yayo had an outstanding warrant for a previous such charge, Yayo was sentenced for bail jumping and spent all of 2003 in prison. Yayo served time in the Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility and was paroled on January 8, 2004. The next day, he was arrested for possessing a forged passport and served time in federal prison until May 25, 2004. When Yayo was incarcerated, G-Unit began a campaign called "Free Yayo".

Assault charge

On March 24, 2007, Tony Yayo was arrested for allegedly assaulting the 14 year-old son of The Game's manager, Jimmy "Henchmen" Rosemond. Tony Yayo and 50 Cent were accused of approaching the child, with members of their entourage, and pushing him against a nearby wall. This was when Tony Yayo reportedly slapped the boy several times and said "Fuck Czar Entertainment". Tony Yayo has pleaded "not guilty" and 50 Cent has since proven his innocence with video footage showing him at his Connecticut mansion at the time of the alleged incident.

Tony Yayo made his first court appearance on the morning of April 25, 2007 in New York. The case was adjourned to July 24. Tony Yayo's Lawyer has expressed his belief that Yayo is innocent and commented on the situation in an interview with MTV:

On April 18, 2007, the house of Tony Yayo’s mother was "sprayed with bullets". The attack is believed to be in connection with Tony Yayo’s recent arrest.

On July 24, 2007, Tony Yayo attended a court hearing regarding his alleged assault. The prosecution offered him a nine-month prison sentence if he pleaded guilty which he rejected.

Discography

Thoughts of a Predicate Felon (2005)

The Yayo Rampage (2011)

Filmography

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role |- |Morning Glory |Himself |In production |- |- |S.W.A.T.: Fire Fight |Harold Finkle |In production |}

References

External links

ThisisYayo.com

Official website

Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:2000s rappers Category:American people of Haitian descent Category:Dumout Records artists Category:G-Unit members Category:G-Unit Records artists Category:People from Queens Category:Rappers from New York City

Name	Kanye West
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kanye Omari West
Born	June 08, 1977Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genre	Hip hop
Instrument	Vocals, keyboards, sampler, percussion, synthesizer
Occupation	Producer, rapper, musician, singer
Years active	1996–present
Label	GOOD Music, Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam
Associated acts	Go Getters, Child Rebel Soldier, Jay-Z, Common, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Mr Hudson, Pusha T, Big Sean
Url

Kanye Omari West (; born June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used pitched-up vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments. However, subsequent productions saw him broadening his musical palette and expressing influences encompassing '70s R&B;, baroque pop, trip hop, arena rock, folk, alternative, electronica, synth-pop, and classical music.

West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008, and his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. His five albums have received numerous awards, including a cumulative twelve Grammys, All have been very commercially successful, with 808s & Heartbreak becoming his third consecutive #1 album in the U.S. upon release. West also runs his own record label GOOD Music, home to artists such as John Legend, Common and Kid Cudi. West's mascot and trademark is "Dropout Bear," a teddy bear which has appeared on the covers of three of his five albums as well as various single covers and music videos. About.com ranked Kanye West #8 on their "Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers" list. On May 16, 2008, Kanye West was crowned by MTV as the year's #1 "Hottest MC in the Game." On 17 December 2010, Kanye West was voted as the MTV Man of the Year by MTV.

Early life

Kanye West was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lived with his parents. When he was three years old, his parents divorced, and he and his mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. West's mother, Dr. Donda West, was a Professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, and the Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University before retiring to serve as West's manager. He was raised in a middle-class background, attending Polaris High School in suburban Oak Lawn, Illinois after living in Chicago. When asked about his grades in high school, West replied, "I got A's and B's. And I'm not even frontin'".

West attended art classes at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and also enrolled at Chicago State University, but dropped out to focus on his music career.

Music career

Early career (1996–2003)

Kanye West's first career productions came on Chicago rapper Grav's 1996 debut album Down to Earth. West produced eight tracks on the album. While the album didn't attract much attention and would be the only album released by Grav, West would soon be producing for higher profile artists. In 1998-1999 he produced for well known artists such as Jermaine Dupri, Foxy Brown, Goodie Mob, and the group Harlem World.

West got his big break in the year 2000 however when he began to produce for artists on Roc-a-Fella Records. He produced the well received Jay-Z song "This Can't Be Life" off of the album . West would later state that to create the beat for "This Can't Be Life" he sped up the drum beat from Dr. Dre's song "Xxplosive".

After producing for Jay-Z earlier, West’s sound was featured heavily on Jay-Z's critically acclaimed album The Blueprint, released on September 11, 2001. Jay-Z admitted that Roc-A-Fella was initially reluctant to support West as a rapper, claiming that he saw him as a producer first and foremost. Multiple record companies felt he was not as marketable as rappers who portray the "street image" prominent in hip hop culture. West's faith is apparent in many of his songs, such as "Jesus Walks", which became a staple at his benefit performances, such as the Live 8 concert. These songs were featured on West's debut album, The College Dropout, which was released on Roc-A-Fella Records in February 2004, and went on to receive critical acclaim. The album also defined the style for which West would become known, including wordplay and sampling. During 2003 West also co-produced songs for British singer Javine Hylton, even appearing in the music video to Real Things playing the love interest of Javine.

West was involved in a financial dispute over Royce Da 5'9"'s song "Heartbeat", produced by West and released on Build & Destroy: The Lost Sessions. West maintains that Royce never paid for the beat, but recorded to it and released it; hearing him on the beat, the original customers decided not to buy it from West. After the disagreement, West vowed to never work with Royce again. Other Kanye West-produced hit singles during the period The College Dropout was released included "I Changed My Mind" by Keyshia Cole, "Overnight Celebrity" by Twista and "Talk About Our Love" by Brandy. Like its predecessor, the sophomore effort garnered universal acclaim from music critics. Late Registration topped countless critic polls and was revered as the best album of the year by numerous publications, including USA Today, Spin, and Time. Rolling Stone awarded the album the highest position on their end of the year record list and hailed it as a "sweepingly generous, absurdly virtuosic hip-hop classic." The record earned the number one spot on the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll of 2005 for the second consecutive year. Late Registration was also a commercial success, selling over 860,000 copies in its first week alone and topping the Billboard 200. Grossing over 2.3 million units sold in the United States alone by year's end, Late Registration was considered by industry observers as the sole majorly successful album release of the fall of 2005, a season that was plagued by steadily declining CD sales. The sophomore album earned eight Grammy Award nominations including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for the song "Gold Digger". The album is certified triple platinum.

On August 22, 2005, the MTV special All Eyes On Kanye West aired, in which West spoke out against homophobia in hip-hop. He claimed that hip-hop has always been about "speaking your mind and about breaking down barriers, but everyone in hip-hop discriminates against gay people." He then reflected on a personal experience. He said that he had a "turning point" when he realized one of his cousins was gay. He said regarding this experience: "This is my cousin. I love him and I've been discriminating against gays." He drew comparison between African Americans' struggle for civil rights and today's gay rights movement. The following year, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, West further expounded his experiences with and views on the relationship between the black and gay communities.

In September 2005, West announced that he would release his Pastelle Clothing line in spring 2006: "Now that I have a Grammy under my belt and Late Registration is finished, I am ready to launch my clothing line next spring." The current status of this project is unknown. In that year, West produced the hit singles "Go" by Common and "Dreams" by The Game.

Graduation (2007)

.]] In 2007, it was announced that West would be starring in a series directed by Larry Charles. He has been working on the pilot episode for the past two years with Larry Charles and Rick Rubin. He also had this to say on January 14: "I wouldn't do something as cliché as a reality show. At least give me the credit for being more creative than that. It's a situational half-hour comedy. It's fictional, and loosely based on my life. " West also collaborated with Japanese hip-hop group Teriyaki Boyz to produce the single "I Still Love H.E.R.," a reference to Common's 1994 single "I Used to Love H.E.R.". Further to this, during a radio appearance in early 2007, West, like many of his peers, recorded an impromptu freestyle to the popular song "Throw Some D's." The song that to all other rappers was about automobile rims, was used by West to comically refer to D-cup breasts. Because of the unexpected success of the song, West went on to make a video for the freestyle, in which he is seen playing his 'Old Ass Cousin'.

West was also featured in a new song called "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)". It was believed to be a single for, Graduation, because he is featured on the track, but Nike quickly explained that it was for the Nike Air Force 1's anniversary. It was meant only to be an exclusive track for the company.

On March 25, 2007, he and his father Ray West supported World Water Day by having a "Walk for Water" rally. After a two-year break, West has returned to being a fashion columnist in lifestyle magazine Complex. On July 7, 2007, West performed with The Police and John Mayer at the American leg of Live Earth. West hosted the August 17 edition of British comedy- variety show The Friday Night Project.

In July 2007, West changed the release date of Graduation, his third album, from September 18, 2007, to the same release date as 50 Cent's album Curtis, September 11, 2007. 50 Cent later claimed that if Graduation were to sell more records than Curtis, he would stop releasing solo albums. However, 50 Cent would later dispel his comments. The album has been certified double platinum. Guest appearances included T-Pain, Mos Def, and Lil Wayne.

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On August 26, 2007, West appeared as himself on the HBO television show Entourage which he used as a platform to premier his new single "Good Life" during the end credits. On September 9, 2007, West performed at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, losing in every category he was nominated for; he gave an angry speech immediately afterward. (see "Controversies" section)

Following the MTV stint, West was nominated in eight Grammy Award categories for the 50th annual Grammy Awards. He won four of them, including Best Rap Album for Graduation and Best Rap Solo Performance for "Stronger" from Graduation. During the four-hour televised Grammy Awards ceremony, West also performed two songs: "Stronger" (with Daft Punk) and "Hey Mama" (in honor of his recently deceased mother).

Glow in the Dark Tour, 808s & Heartbreak (2008–09)

in Chicago]]

West kicked off the Glow In The Dark Tour in Seattle at the Key Arena on April 16. The tour was originally scheduled to end in June in Cincinnati but was extended into August. Over the course of the tour West was joined by a varying group of opening acts, including Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna, N.E.R.D., DJ Craze, and Gnarls Barkley. On June 15, West was scheduled to perform a late night set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival. His performance started almost two hours late and ran for half of its alloted time, angering many fans in the audience. West later wrote an outraged entry on his blog, blaming the festival organizers as well as Pearl Jam's preceding set, which ran longer than expected.

On September 7, West debuted a new song "Love Lockdown" at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. "Love Lockdown" features no rapping and only singing using an auto-tune device. This song appears on West's fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak. The new album was expected to be released on December 16, but West announced on his blog on September 24, 2008, that he had finished the album and would be releasing it sometime in November, earlier than previously scheduled. In early October, West made a surprise appearance at a T.I. concert in Los Angeles, where he stated that 808s & Heartbreak was scheduled to be released on November 25, though it was actually released on the 24th, and that the second single is "Heartless". The album was another number one album for West, even though the first week numbers fell well short of Graduation with 450,145 sold.

Along with Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Leona Lewis, and others, West performed at the American Music Awards ceremony on November 23. That same night he won two AMA awards, including Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album for Graduation and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Male Artist. West performed at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August 2008, along with Wyclef Jean and N.E.R.D. in support of Barack Obama. On January 20, 2009, Kanye West performed at the Youth Inaugural Ball hosted by MTV for Obama's inauguration.

On February 17, 2009, West was named one of Top 10 Most Stylish Men in America by GQ. The next day, February 18, 2009, West won International Male Solo Artist at The Brit Awards 2009. West was not in attendance but accepted his award with a video speech, saying "Barack is the 'Best Interracial Male' but I'm proud to be the Best International Male in the world.

In April 2009, Kanye West recorded a song called "Hurricane" with 30 Seconds to Mars to appear on their album This Is War, but was not released due to legal issues with both record companies. The song was eventually released on the deluxe version of This Is War, titled "Hurricane 2.0".

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Watch the Throne (2010–present)

In May 2010, West made an animated television guest appearance on Fox's animated television series The Cleveland Show (a spin-off of Family Guy) as the voice behind "Kenny West", a rival of Cleveland Brown's son. In his first episode he performed in a rap battle with Cleveland's son. The producers stated working with West was a very good experience and a reason they chose him was because they knew he was a fan of Family Guy. Kenny West re-appeared in the season 2 premiere of The Cleveland Show.

West spent the first half of 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii, working on his new album with the working title "Good Ass Job", later named My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, released on November 22, 2010. West has cited Maya Angelou, Gil Scott-Heron and Nina Simone as his musical inspirations for this album. Outside production is said to come from RZA, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, and DJ Premier. West also had Justin Vernon flown into his studio on Oahu after seemingly expressing interest in sampling one of Bon Iver's songs; Vernon proceeded to feature on a number of new tracks, including "Lost In The World," which features Vernon's vocal line from Woods.

On May 28, the Dwele-assisted first single from the album, entitled "Power", leaked to the Internet. On June 30, the track was officially released via iTunes. The upcoming music video was quoted as being "apocalyptic, in a very personal way" by the director Marco Brambilla.

On September 12, 2010, West performed a new song, "Runaway" featuring Pusha T, at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Shortly after the performance, Kanye revealed he was working on a 35 minute short film based around the song. The movie is said to be influenced by film noir and concerns a fallen phoenix whom Kanye falls in love with. The short film debuted consecutively on VH1, MTV, and BET on October 23, 2010.

Watch The Throne, an upcoming collaborative studio album by West and Jay-Z, is scheduled to be released by Def Jam Recordings in 2011. It has been under production since August 2010 as part of West's GOOD Friday initiative of releasing new songs every Friday between August 20 and Christmas 2010. West said through a recent interview with MTV that the album is "going to be very dark and sexy, like couture hip hop. He appeared at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, performing the track "Lost in the World" from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. On January 6, 2011, Kanye announced via Twitter that the first official single from Watch the Throne would be a song called "H.A.M" produced by Lex Luger. The song was released on January 11, 2011.

Personal life

Relationships

Kanye West and designer Alexis Phifer ended their 18-month engagement in 2008. The couple had been dating on and off since 2002, with West eventually proposing in August 2006. According to a friend, the couple's relationship had been straining, significantly influenced by the sheer amount of time and attention West was dedicating to his current concert tour. "It's always sad when things like this end, and we remain friends," Phifer told People.

West was also in a high profile on/off relationship with Amber Rose from 2008 until the summer of 2010.

Mother's death

On November 10, 2007, West's mother, Donda West, died of complications from cosmetic surgery involving abdominoplasty and breast augmentation. TMZ reported that Beverly Hills physician Andre Aboolian had advised Donda West not to have surgery because of a health condition that placed her at risk for a heart attack. He had previously been under scrutiny by the medical board. Adams appeared on Larry King Live on November 20, 2007 but left before speaking. Two days later, he appeared again, with his attorney, stating he was there to "defend himself." He said that the recently released autopsy results "spoke for themselves". The final coroner's report January 10, 2008 concluded that Donda West died of "coronary artery disease and multiple post-operative factors due to or as a consequence of liposuction and mammoplasty."

The funeral and burial for Donda West was held in Oklahoma City on November 20, 2007. West held his first concert following the funeral at The O2 in London on November 22. He dedicated a performance of "Hey Mama", as well as a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", to his mother, and did so on all other dates of his Glow in the Dark tour.

At a December 2008 press conference in New Zealand, West spoke about his mother's death for the first time. "It was like losing an arm and a leg and trying to walk through that," he told reporters.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed the "Donda West Law," a legislation which makes it mandatory for patients to provide medical clearance for elective cosmetic surgery.

Musical style and influences

(left)]] At the start of his career, Kanye West's production style often used pitched-up vocal samples, usually from soul songs, with his own drums and instruments. His first major release featuring his trademark vocal sampling style was "This Can't Be Life", a track from Jay-Z’s . West said he sped up the drum beat of Dr. Dre's "Xxplosive" to use as a replacement for his drums on "This Can't Be Life". and has said on numerous occasions that Wu-Tang rappers Ghostface Killah and Ol' Dirty Bastard were some of his all-time favorites, "Wu-Tang? Me and my friends talk about this all the time... We think Wu-Tang had one of the biggest impacts as far as a movement. From slang to style of dress, skits, the samples. Similar to the [production] style I use, RZA has been doing that." RZA himself has spoken quite positively of the comparisons, stating in an interview for Rolling Stone, "All good. I got super respect for Kanye. He came up to me about a year or two ago. He gave me mad praising and blessings... For people to say Wu-Tang inspire Kanye, Kanye is one of the biggest artists in the world. That goes back to what we say: 'Wu-Tang is forever.' Kanye is going to inspire people to be like him."

While his use of sampling has lessened over time, West's production continues to feature distinctive and intricate string arrangements. This characteristic arose from him listening to the English trip hop group Portishead, whose 1998 live album Roseland NYC Live, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra inspired him to incorporate string sections into his hip hop production. Though he was unable to afford live instruments beyond violin riffs provided by Israeli violinist Miri Ben-Ari around the time of his debut album, its subsequent commercial success allowed him to hire his very own eleven-piece string orchestra. For a time, West stood as the sole current pop star to tour with a string section. Both a fan and supporter of indie culture, West uses his official website to promote obscure indie rock bands, posting up music videos and mp3s on a daily basis. This musical affinity is mutual, as West has collaborated with indie artists such as Santigold, Peter Bjorn and John and Lykke Li while his songs have gone on to be covered countless times by myriad rock bands.

Other ventures

Business ventures

In August 2008, West revealed plans to open 10 Fatburger restaurants in the Chicago area; the first was set to open in September 2008 in Orland Park. The second followed in January 2009, while a third location is yet to be revealed, although the process is being finalized. His company, KW Foods LLC, bought the rights to the chain in Chicago. Additionally, West planned to launch his fashion career, and applied for internships with major European fashion houses. He is due to release his own clothing line called Past Tell in 2009. He also collaborated with Nike to release his own shoe, Air Yeezys.

On January 22, 2009, during Paris Fashion Week, West introduced his first shoe line designed for Louis Vuitton. The line was released in summer 2009.

Philanthropy

West started the "Kanye West Foundation" in Chicago in 2003. On August 24, 2007, West hosted the inaugural benefit concert to launch the foundation's partnership with Strong American Schools. It is focused on helping Latino and African American children stay in school and to get a proper education through grade school, high school, and college. The foundation also helps children to stay in high school by finding a path through music. West has contributed over $500,000 to his foundation. The foundation has also been called the "Donda West Foundation".

Kanye West has appeared and participated in many fundraisers, benefit concerts, and has done community work for Hurricane Katrina relief, the Kanye West Foundation, the Millions More Movement, 100 Black Men of America, a Live Earth concert benefit, World Water Day rally and march, Nike runs, and a MTV special helping young Iraq War veterans who struggle through debt and PTSD a second chance after returning home.

Controversies

Media

West has had several controversies throughout his career. On September 2, 2005, during a benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief on NBC, A Concert for Hurricane Relief, West was a featured speaker. When West was presenting alongside actor Mike Myers, he deviated from the prepared script. Myers spoke next and continued to read the script. Once it was West's turn to speak again, he said "George Bush doesn't care about black people." At this point, telethon producer Rick Kaplan cut off the microphone and then cut away to Chris Tucker, who was unaware of the cut for a few seconds. Still, West's comment reached much of the United States. Bush stated in an interview that the comment was "one of the most disgusting moments” of his presidency.

In January 2006, West again sparked controversy when he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in the image of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns.

Award shows

Later in 2006, West had his first of a number of incidents involving music award events. After the 2006 Grammy nominations were released, West said he would "really have a problem" if he did not win the Album of the Year, saying, "I don't care what I do, I don't care how much I stunt — you can never take away from the amount of work I put into it. I don't want to hear all of that politically correct stuff." On November 2, 2006, when his "Touch the Sky" failed to win Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards, West went onto the stage as the award was being presented to Justice and Simian for "We Are Your Friends" and argued that he should have won the award instead. Hundreds of news outlets worldwide criticized the outburst. On November 7, 2006, West apologized for this outburst publicly during his performance as support act for U2 for their Vertigo concert in Brisbane. He later spoofed the incident in the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. On September 9, 2007, West suggested that his race had to do with his being overlooked for opening the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in favor of Britney Spears; he claimed, "Maybe my skin’s not right." West was performing at the event; that night, he lost all 5 awards that he was nominated for, including Best Male Artist and Video of the Year. After the show, he was visibly upset that he had lost at the VMAs two years in a row, stating that he would not come back to MTV ever again. He also appeared on several radio stations saying that when he made the song "Stronger" that it was his dream to open the VMAs with it. He has also stated that Spears hasn't had a hit in a long period of time and that MTV exploited her for ratings.

On September 13, 2009, during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards while Taylor Swift was accepting her award for Best Female Video for "You Belong with Me", West went on stage and grabbed the microphone to proclaim that Beyoncé's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated for the same award, was "one of the best videos of all time". He was subsequently removed from the remainder of the show for his actions. When Beyoncé later won the award for Best Video of the Year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", she called Swift up on stage so that she could finish her acceptance speech. and by President Barack Obama, who called West a "jackass" in an off the record comment. In addition, West's VMA disruption sparked a large influx of Internet photo memes with blogs, forums and "tweets" with the "Let you finish" photo-jokes. He posted two apologies for the outburst on his personal blog; one on the night of the incident and the other the same day he appeared on The Jay Leno Show, on September 14, 2009, where he apologized again. After Swift appeared on The View two days after the outburst, partly to discuss the matter, West called her to apologize personally. Swift said she accepted his apology. In September 2010, West wrote a series of apologetic tweets addressed to Swift including "Beyonce didn't need that. MTV didn't need that and Taylor and her family friends and fans definitely didn't want or need that" and concluding with "I'm sorry Taylor." West also revealed he had written a song for Swift and if she didn't accept the song, he would perform it himself.

Legal issues

In December 2006, Robert "Evel" Knievel sued West for trademark infringement in West's video for "Touch the Sky." Knievel took issue with a "sexually-charged video" in which West takes on the persona of "Evel Kanyevel" and attempts flying a rocket over a canyon. The suit filed in federal court claims infringement on his trademarked name and likeness. Knievel also claims the "vulgar and offensive" images depicted in the video damage his reputation. The suit seeks damages and to stop distribution of the video. West's attorneys argued that the music video amounted to satire and therefore was covered under the First Amendment. Just days before his death in November 2007, Knievel amicably settled the suit after being paid a visit from West, saying, "I thought he was a wonderful guy and quite a gentleman."

On September 11, 2008, West and his road manager/bodyguard Don Crowley were arrested at Los Angeles International Airport and booked on charges of felony vandalism after an altercation with the paparazzi in which West and Crowley broke the photographers' cameras. West was later released from the Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division station in Culver City on $20,000 bail bond. On September 26, 2008 the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said it would not file felony counts against West over the incident. Instead the case file was forwarded to the city attorney's office, which charged West with one count of misdemeanor vandalism, one count of grand theft and one count of battery and his manager with three counts of each on March 18, 2009. West's and Crowley's arraignment was delayed from an original date of April 14, 2009. West was arrested again on November 14, 2008 at a hotel near Gateshead after another scuffle involving a photographer outside a nightclub in Newcastle Upon Tyne. He was later released "with no further action", according to a police spokesperson.

Discography

; Studio albums

The College Dropout (2004)

Late Registration (2005)

Graduation (2007)

808s & Heartbreak (2008)

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

; Live albums

''Late Orchestration (2006)

(2010)

; Collaboration albums Watch The Throne (2011) (with Jay-Z)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Kanye West at Beatbuggy

Category:1977 births Category:1990s singers Category:2000s rappers Category:2010s rappers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:African American rappers Category:African American singers Category:American bloggers Category:American hip hop record producers Category:American music video directors Category:American pop musicians Category:American record producers Category:Songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Chicago State University alumni Category:Electro-hop musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Hip hop musicians Category:Hip hop singers Category:Living people Category:Mercury Records artists Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:Rappers from Chicago, Illinois Category:Roc-A-Fella Records artists Category:World Music Awards winners

Name	Eminem|Img
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Marshall Bruce Mathers III
Born	October 17, 1972 Saint Joseph, Missouri, U.S.
Origin	Warren, Michigan, U.S.
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Rapper, record producer, actor, songwriter
Years active	1995–present
Label	Mashin' Duck, Web, Interscope, Aftermath, Shady
Associated acts	Dr. Dre, D12, Royce da 5'9", 50 Cent, Obie Trice, Lil Wayne
Url

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP, which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The following album, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the fastest-selling solo album in United States history. It brought Eminem increased popularity, including his own record label, Shady Records, and brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition.

The Marshall Mathers LP and his third album, The Eminem Show, also won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. He then won the award again in 2010 for his album Relapse, giving him a total of 11 Grammys in his career. In 2003, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lose Yourself" from the film, 8 Mile, in which he also played the lead. "Lose Yourself" would go on to become the longest running No. 1 hip hop single. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the decade on the US Nielsen SoundScan, and has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide to date, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery. It became Eminem's sixth consecutive number-one album in the US and achieved international commercial success, charting at number one in several other countries. It stayed at number-one on the US Billboard 200 chart for five consecutive weeks and a total of seven weeks. Recovery was also reported by Billboard to be the best-selling album of 2010, making Eminem the first artist in Nielsen SoundScan history to have two year-end best-selling albums.

Eminem was ranked 79th on the VH1 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time. He was also ranked 82nd on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He was also named the Best Rapper Alive by Vibe magazine in 2008. Including his work with D12, Eminem has achieved nine No. 1 albums on the Billboard Top 200, 7 solo (6 studio albums, 1 compilation) and 2 with D12. Eminem has had 13 number one singles worldwide. In December 2009, Eminem was named the Artist of the Decade by Billboard magazine. His albums The Eminem Show, The Marshall Mathers LP, and Encore (in order) ranked as the 3rd, 7th, best-selling albums of the 2000–2009 decade by Billboard magazine. Also according to Billboard, Eminem has two of his albums among the top five highest selling albums of the 2000s. In the UK, Eminem has sold over 12.5 million records. Eminem has also sold more than 33 million track downloads and 39.6 million albums in the United States alone. In 2010, MTV ranked Eminem as the 7th biggest icon in pop music history. During 2010, Eminem's music generated 94 million streams, more than any other music artist. English, German, Swiss, Polish, and possibly Luxembourgian ancestry. His father abandoned the family when he was 18 months old, and he was raised solely by his mother in poverty. By the age of 12, Mathers and his mother had moved between various cities and towns in Missouri (including Saint Joseph, Savannah, and Kansas City) before they settled in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

After procuring a copy of the Beastie Boys album Licensed to Ill as a teenager, Mathers became interested in hip hop, performing amateur raps at age 14 under the pseudonym "M&M;" and joining the group called "Bassmint Productions" and released their first EP, Steppin' Onto The Scene. They later changed their name to "Soul Intent" and around 1995 they released their first single called "Fuckin' Backstabber" under the record label Mashin' Duck Records. Despite a well-documented struggle succeeding in a predominantly African-American industry, he gained the approval of underground hip hop audiences. After repeating the ninth grade twice due to truancy and near-failing grades,

Musical career

1992–1998: Early career and Infinite

Mathers was initially signed to FBT Productions in 1992, run by brothers Jeff and Mark Bass. Mathers also held a minimum-wage job of cooking and dishwashing at the restaurant Gilbert's Lodge at St. Clair Shores for some time. In 1996, his debut album Infinite, which was recorded at the Bassmint, a recording studio owned by the Bass Brothers, was released under their independent label Web Entertainment. Eminem recalled, "Obviously, I was young and influenced by other artists, and I got a lot of feedback saying that I sounded like Nas and AZ. 'Infinite' was me trying to figure out how I wanted my rap style to be, how I wanted to sound on the mic and present myself. It was a growing stage. I felt like 'Infinite' was like a demo that just got pressed up." Subjects covered in Infinite included his struggles with raising his newborn daughter Hailie Jade Scott while on limited funds and his strong desire to get rich. Early in his career, Eminem collaborated with fellow Detroit MC Royce da 5'9" under the stage name Bad Meets Evil. After the release of Infinite, Eminem's personal struggles and abuse of drugs and alcohol culminated in an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

Jimmy Iovine, CEO of Interscope Records, requested a demo tape of Eminem's after Eminem placed second at the 1997 Rap Olympics. Eminem had also won Wake Up Show's Freestyle Performer Of The Year award helping him acquire a record deal. Iovine played the tape for record producer Dr. Dre, founder of Aftermath Entertainment. The two began recording tracks for Eminem's upcoming major-label debut The Slim Shady LP, and Eminem made a guest performance on the album Devil Without a Cause by Kid Rock.

1997–1999: The Slim Shady LP

According to Billboard Magazine, at this point in his life Eminem had "realized his musical ambitions were the only way to escape his unhappy life". After being signed to Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records in 1998, Eminem released his first major studio album, The Slim Shady LP, heavily based on the production by Dr. Dre, one year later in 1999. Billboard praised the album as "light years ahead of the material he had been writing beforehand". It went on to be one of the most popular albums of 1999, going triple platinum by the end of the year. With the album's popularity came controversy surrounding many of the album's lyrics. In "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", he describes a trip with his infant daughter, disposing of his wife's body. Another song, "Guilty Conscience", ends with his encouraging a man to murder his wife and her lover. "Guilty Conscience" marked the beginning of the friendship and musical bond that Dr. Dre and Eminem would share. The two label-mates would later collaborate on a line of hit songs, including "Forgot About Dre" and "What's the Difference" from Dr. Dre's album 2001, "Bitch Please II" from The Marshall Mathers LP, "Say What You Say" from The Eminem Show, "Encore/Curtains Down" from Encore and "Old Time's Sake" and "Crack a Bottle" from Relapse. Dr. Dre would go on to make at least one guest appearance on all of Eminem's studio albums under the label Aftermath. The album has now been certified 4 times platinum by the RIAA.

2000–2001: The Marshall Mathers LP

The Marshall Mathers LP was released in May 2000. It went on to sell 1.76 million copies in its first week, breaking the records set by Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle as the fastest-selling hip hop album and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time as the fastest-selling solo album in United States history. The first single released from the album, "The Real Slim Shady", was a success and created some controversy by insulting celebrities and making dubious claims about them; he states, among other things, that Christina Aguilera performed oral sex on Fred Durst and Carson Daly. In his second single, "The Way I Am", he reveals to his fans the pressures from his record company to top "My Name Is" and sell more records. Although Eminem had parodied shock rocker Marilyn Manson in the video "My Name Is", the artists are reportedly on good terms. They performed a remix of the song "The Way I Am" together in concert. In the third single, "Stan" (which samples Dido's "Thank You"), Eminem attempts to deal with his new-found fame, taking on the persona of a deranged fan who kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend, mirroring "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" on The Slim Shady LP. In the music video of "Stan", Eminem was shown writing with his left hand, ending the fan debate over his dominant hand. Q magazine named "Stan" the third-greatest rap song of all time, and the song came tenth in a similar survey conducted by Top40-Charts.com. The song has since become highly acclaimed and was ranked 290th in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list. In July 2000, Eminem became the first white person to be featured on the cover of The Source magazine. the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), an organization that perceived Eminem's lyrics to be homophobic, condemned the openly gay John's decision to perform with Eminem. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "It was the hug heard 'round the world. Eminem, under fire for homophobic lyrics, shared the stage with a gay icon for a performance of "Stan" that would have been memorable in any context." On February 21, the day of the ceremony, GLAAD held a protest outside the Staples Center, the venue where the Grammy ceremony was held. Music tours that he participated in for 2001 included the Up In Smoke Tour with rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Ice Cube and Family Values Tour with the band Limp Bizkit.

2002–2003: The Eminem Show

Eminem's third major album, The Eminem Show, was released in summer 2002 and proved to be another hit for the rapper reaching number one on the charts and selling well over 1 million copies in its first week of release. However, L. Brent Bozell III, who previously criticized The Marshall Mathers LP for perceived misogynistic lyrics in the album, noted The Eminem Show for its extensive use of obscene language, giving Eminem the nickname "Eminef" for the of motherfucker, an obscenity prevalent in the album. The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of 2002.

2004–2005: Encore

The Media Research Center claims that on December 8, 2003, the United States Secret Service admitted it was "looking into" allegations that Eminem had threatened the President of the United States. The lyrics in question: "Fuck money/I don't rap for dead presidents/I'd rather see the president dead/It's never been said, but I set precedents ..." The song in question, "We As Americans", wound up on a bonus CD accompanying the album.

In 2004, Eminem released his fourth major album, Encore. The album was another chart-topper, as it was driven by the single "Just Lose It", notable for being disrespectful towards Michael Jackson. On October 12, 2004, a week after the release of "Just Lose It", Eminem's first single off Encore, Michael Jackson called into the Los Angeles-based Steve Harvey radio show to report his displeasure with the video, which parodies Jackson's child molestation trial, plastic surgery, and an incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. The lyrics to "Just Lose It" refer to Jackson's legal troubles, however he does state in his song "... and that's not a stab at Michael/That's just a metaphor/I'm just psycho...." Many of Jackson's supporters and friends spoke out about the video, including Stevie Wonder, who called the video "kicking a man while he's down" and "bullshit", and Steve Harvey, who declared, "Eminem has lost his ghetto pass. We want the pass back."

Regarding Jackson's protest, "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" on a track titled "Couch Potato" on his 2003 album Poodle Hat, told the Chicago Sun-Times, "Last year, Eminem forced me to halt production on the video for my "Lose Yourself" parody because he somehow thought that it would be harmful to his image or career. So the irony of this situation with Michael is not lost on me." Black Entertainment Television was the first channel to stop airing the video. MTV, however, announced it would continue airing the video. The Source, through its CEO Raymond "Benzino" Scott, wanted not only the video to be pulled, but the song off the album, and a public apology to Jackson from Eminem. In 2007 Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.

Despite the comedic theme of the lead single, Encore had its fair share of serious subject matter, including the anti-war track "Mosh". On October 25, 2004, a week before the 2004 US Presidential election, Eminem released the video for "Mosh" on the Internet. The song featured a very strong anti-Bush message, with lyrics such as "fuck Bush" and "this weapon of mass destruction that we call our president". The video features Eminem gathering up an army of people, including rapper Lloyd Banks, presented as victims of the Bush administration and leading them to the White House. However, once the army breaks in, it is revealed that they are there to simply register to vote, and the video ends with the words "VOTE Tuesday November 2" on the screen. After Bush was re-elected, the video's ending was changed to Eminem and the protesters invading while Bush was giving a speech.

2005–2008: Musical hiatus

In 2005, some industry insiders speculated that Eminem was considering ending his rapping career after six years and several multi-platinum albums. Speculation began in early 2005 about a double-disc album to be released late that year, rumored to be titled The Funeral. The album later manifested itself as a greatest hits album under the name in December. In July 2005, the Detroit Free Press broke news of a potential final bow for Eminem as a solo performer, quoting members of his inside circle who said that he will begin to fully embrace the role of producer and label executive. On the same day of the release of the compilation album, Eminem denied that he was retiring on Detroit-based WKQI's "Mojo in the Morning" radio show, but implied that he would at least be taking a break as an artist, saying "I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going ... This is the reason that we called it 'Curtain Call', because this could be the final thing. We don't know." He released The Re-Up with the members of his record label, Shady Records. It was released in 2006.

In 2005, Eminem was a subject of Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America; he ranked No. 58. Goldberg cited a 2001 column by Bob Herbert of The New York Times claiming, "In Eminem's world, all women are whores and he is eager to rape and murder them." Goldberg cited Eminem's song "No One's Iller" from The Slim Shady EP as an example of misogyny in his music. In summer 2005, Eminem embarked on his first US concert run in three years, the Anger Management 3 Tour, featuring 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil' Jon, D12, Obie Trice, The Alchemist, and others. In August 2005, Eminem canceled the European leg of the tour and subsequently announced that he had entered drug rehabilitation for treatment for a "dependency on sleep medication".

Curtain Call: The Hits was released on December 6, 2005, under Aftermath Entertainment. In its first week it sold nearly 441,000 copies in the US and was Eminem's fourth straight No. 1 album on the Billboard Hot 200. The album has been certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA.

2008–2009: Relapse and Relapse: Refill

In September 2007, Eminem called into New York radio station Hot 97 during an interview with 50 Cent and said he was "in limbo" and "debating" about when and if he would release another album. He said, "I'm always working – I'm always in the studio. It feels good right now, the energy of the label. For a while, I didn't want to go back to the studio ... I went through some personal things. I'm coming out of those personal things [and] it feels good."

Eminem made an appearance on his Sirius channel Shade 45 in September 2008 in which he said, "Right now I'm kinda just concentrating on my own stuff, for right now and just banging out tracks and producing a lot of stuff. You know, the more I keep producing the better it seems like I get 'cause I just start knowing stuff." It was around this time that Interscope finally confirmed the existence of a new Eminem album, with Spring 2009 later being stated as the period span in which the album is due. In December 2008, he gave more details on the album, which he recently reported was being titled Relapse. He said, "Me and Dre are back in the lab like the old days, man. Dre will end up producing the majority of the tracks on 'Relapse'. We are up to our old mischievous ways ... let's just leave it at that."

On March 5, 2009, Eminem reported in a press release that he would be releasing two new albums that year. Relapse, the first album, was released on May 19, while "We Made You", the first official single and its music video, were released on April 7. While Relapse didn't manage to sell as well as Eminem's previous efforts, it was still a commercial success that received some critical acclaim, while also re-establishing his presence in the hip hop world. Relapse was named one of the top albums of 2009. Relapse has sold more than five million copies worldwide. During the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, Sacha Baron Cohen descended upon the audience wearing an angel's costume and landed on top of Eminem with his buttocks facing towards Eminem's face, resulting in Eminem storming out of the awards ceremony in disgust. Three days later, Eminem stated it was a staged act that they had planned together. On October 30, Eminem performed at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans as a headliner in his first full performance in 2009. The performance included several songs from Relapse, as well as many of Eminem's older hits and an appearance by D12. On November 19, Eminem announced on his website that Relapse: Refill would be released on December 21. The album was a re-release of the Relapse album with seven bonus tracks, including "Forever" and "Taking My Ball". In a statement he described the forthcoming CD:

2010–present: Recovery

On April 13, 2010, Eminem tweeted, "There is no Relapse 2", to his followers. When he tweeted this, people started to believe that he was not releasing an album at all, but it simply meant that the album title would be changed to Recovery. He confirmed this by tweeting, "RECOVERY", with a link to his website. Eminem said, "I had originally planned for Relapse 2 to come out last year. But as I kept recording and working with new producers, the idea of a sequel to Relapse started to make less and less sense to me, and I wanted to make a completely new album. The music on Recovery came out very different from Relapse, and I think it deserves its own title." His seventh studio album, Recovery, was released on June 21. In the US, Recovery sold 741,000 in its first week to land atop the Billboard 200. The first single, "Not Afraid", was released on April 29, and debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by a second single, "Love the Way You Lie," which debuted at number 2 and then rose. Despite some criticism towards its consistency, Recovery received positive reviews from most music critics. , the album had sold three million copies in the US.

Eminem appeared at the 2010 BET Awards, performing "Airplanes Part II" with B.o.B and "Not Afraid". He also performed at the Activison E3 concert. In June 2010, Eminem and Jay-Z announced they would perform together in a pair of concerts in Detroit and New York. The event was dubbed The Home & Home Tour. The first two concerts rapidly sold out, prompting the scheduling of an additional show at each venue. BET also named Eminem the #1 rapper of the 21st century.

Eminem opened the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010, by performing "Not Afraid" and "Love the Way You Lie", with Rihanna performing the chorus. Due to the success of Recovery and the Home & Home Tour, he was named the 2010 Hottest MC in the Game by MTV and "Emcee of the Year" by Hip-Hop news website HipHopDX.

Eminem and Rihanna collaborated once again to make "Love the Way You Lie, Part II", the sequel to their hit single "Love the Way You Lie". Rihanna is the lead singer, as opposed to Eminem being the main singer in the original "Love the Way You Lie". The song is said to be from the female perspective. Nicki Minaj has said that she has collaborated with rapper Eminem on a song titled "Roman's Revenge" that is expected to appear on her Pink Friday album. The song references Minaj's alter-ego Roman Zolanski and will feature Eminem's alter-ego Slim Shady.

Eminem is featured on the track "That's All She Wrote" on T.I.'s album No Mercy. A new track leaked titled "I Need a Doctor" that features Dr. Dre with production by Alex da Kid. It is rumored to be either on Detox or a new upcoming Eminem release. A track titled "Echo" also leaked featuring Royce Da 5'9 possibly indicating a "Bad Meets Evil" sequel.

In December, 2010, in Billboard's "The Top 25 Music Moments of 2010", The "Great Eminem Recovery" was named the number one music moment of 2010.

Other ventures

Shady Records and D12

As Eminem succeeded in multi-platinum record sales, Interscope granted him his own record label. He and his manager Paul Rosenberg created Shady Records in late 1999. He followed this by signing his own Detroit collective D12 and rapper Obie Trice to the label. In 2002, Eminem signed 50 Cent through a joint venture between Shady and Dr. Dre's Aftermath label. In 2003, Eminem and Dr. Dre signed Atlanta rapper Stat Quo to the Shady/Aftermath roster. DJ Green Lantern, the former DJ for Eminem, was signed to Shady Records until a dispute related to the 50 Cent and Jadakiss feud forced him to depart from the label; he is no longer associated with Eminem. The Alchemist is now officially Eminem's tour DJ. In 2005, Eminem signed another Atlanta rapper, Bobby Creekwater, to his label along with West Coast rapper Cashis.

On December 5, 2006, Shady Records released compilation album, . It started out as a mixtape but Eminem found that the material was better than expected and released it as a full album. It was meant to help launch the new artists under the roster, like Stat Quo, Cashis and Bobby Creekwater. Around the time of recording Infinite, Eminem and rappers Proof and Kon Artis gathered the group of rappers now collectively in the group D12, short for "Detroit Twelve" or "Dirty Dozen", performing in the manner of the multi-man group Wu-Tang Clan. In 2001, Eminem brought his rap group, D12, to the popular music scene, and the group's debut album Devil's Night came out that year. The first single released off of the album was "Shit on You", followed by "Purple Pills", an ode to recreational drug use. For radio and television, the censored version "Pills" was heavily rewritten to remove many of the song's references to drugs and sex and was renamed "Purple Hills". While that single was a hit, the album's second single, "Fight Music", was not as successful.

After their debut, D12 took a three-year break from the studio, later regrouping to release their second album, D12 World, in 2004, which featured the popular hit single release "My Band". D12 member Bizarre said that Eminem is not featured on his new album Blue Cheese & Coney Island because "he's busy doing his thing".

Acting career

Although he had a brief cameo in the 2001 film, The Wash, Eminem made his official Hollywood acting debut with the semi-autobiographical 8 Mile, released in November 2002. He has said the movie is not an account of his life, but a representation of growing up in Detroit. He recorded several new songs for the soundtrack, including "Lose Yourself", which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2003. However, the song was not performed at the ceremony, due to Eminem's absence at the ceremony. His collaborator, Luis Resto, who co-wrote the song, accepted the award.

Eminem has participated in various voice acting roles. Some of these include the video game , where he voices an aging corrupt police officer who speaks in Ebonics and guest spots on the Comedy Central television show Crank Yankers, and a web cartoon called The Slim Shady Show, which has since been pulled off-line and is instead sold on DVD. He will be involved in either the soundtrack or scoring. He was also in the running for the part of David Rice in 2008's film Jumper after Tom Sturridge was dropped just two weeks before filming. Concerns over not having a more prominent actor prompted the director, Doug Liman, to consider other actors for the role. He eventually selected Hayden Christensen over Eminem. He also had a cameo appearance in the 2009 movie Funny People, in which he is involved in an argument with Ray Romano.

It was reported on November 8, 2009, that Eminem will star in the upcoming 3D horror anthology, Shady Talez, directed by John Davis. A four-issue comic book series based on the film is also expected to be published sometime in 2010.

Eminem appeared alongside Christina Aguilera on the Entourage Season 7 finale titled 'Lose Yourself' as himself. In December 2010, Deadline Hollywood announced that Eminem will star in the upcoming boxing drama, Southpaw, to be written by Kurt Sutter. Will be released on April 4, 2012. In January 2011, a report surfaced that Eminem will star in the upcoming thriller, Random Acts of Violence.

Memoir

On October 21, 2008, Eminem released a tell-all autobiography entitled The Way I Am, which details his struggles with poverty, drugs, fame, heartbreak and depression, along with stories about his rise to fame and commentary on past controversies. This book also contains some of the original lyric sheets from songs such as "Stan" and "The Real Slim Shady."

Artistry

Influences and rapping technique

Eminem has named several MCs who influenced his rapping style – these include Esham, Kool G Rap, Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, In the same book, Eminem is praised for various aspects of his rapping technique by numerous other MCs – these techniques include: his varied and humorous subject matter, connecting with his audience, carrying a concept over a series of albums, complex rhyme schemes, his ability to bend words so that they rhyme, his use of multisyllabic rhymes, complex rhythms, clear enunciation, use of melody, and syncopation. He is also known to write the majority of his lyrics down on paper, as documented in his book The Way I Am, as well as taking a few days or a week to craft lyrics, being a “workaholic”, and “stacking” vocals.

Featurings and productions

Although he typically collaborates with various rappers under Aftermath Entertainment and Shady Records, such as Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, D12, and Obie Trice, Eminem has collaborated with many other artists, including Redman, Kid Rock, DMX, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Method Man, Jadakiss, Fat Joe, Sticky Fingaz, T.I. and others. Eminem rapped a verse in a live performance of Busta Rhymes' "Touch It" remix at the 2006 BET Music Awards on June 27, 2006. Eminem was featured on Akon's single "Smack That" which appeared on Akon's album Konvicted. He was featured on Lil Wayne's hit song Drop the World.

Eminem is also an active rap producer. Besides being the executive producer of D12's first two albums, Devil's Night and D12 World, he has executive produced Obie Trice's Cheers and Second Round's on Me as well as 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre. In addition, Eminem has produced and appeared on several songs by other famous rappers, such as Jadakiss' "Welcome To D-Block", Jay-Z's "Renagade" and "Moment of Clarity" Lloyd Banks' "On Fire", "Warrior Part 2", and "Hands Up", Tony Yayo's "Drama Setter", Trick Trick's "Welcome 2 Detroit", and Xzibit's "My Name" and "Don't Approach Me". Most of The Eminem Show was produced by Eminem himself, with co-production from longtime collaborator Jeff Bass. He split the production with Dr. Dre on Encore. In 2004, Eminem was the Executive Producer of 2Pac's posthumous album Loyal to the Game with 2Pac's mother Afeni Shakur. He produced the UK No. 1 single "Ghetto Gospel" which featured Elton John. He has produced "The Cross" off Nas's album God's Son. On August 15, 2006, Obie Trice released Second Round's on Me. Eminem produced 8 tracks on the album. He was featured in the song "There They Go". Eminem produced some tracks on the new Trick Trick album, The Villain. He is also featured in "Who Want It".

With regard to the productions on his own records, Eminem is seen as having an unusual style in that rather than write to beats he typically starts with an idea of how he wants his song to be structured based on the lyrics and then creates music according to that. A notable exception to this was the song "Stan", which came from an idea and scratch track produced by Mark the 45 King. The couple first divorced in 2001 but remarried in January 2006. Their second divorce was finalized in December of the same year, with the couple agreeing to share custody of their daughter, Hailie Jade Mathers (born December 25, 1995). Hailie Mathers has often been referenced or featured on various Eminem songs, such as "'97 Bonnie & Clyde", "Hailie's Song", "My Dad's Gone Crazy", "Like Toy Soldiers", "Mockingbird", "Forgot About Dre", "Cleanin' Out My Closet", "When I'm Gone", "Deja Vu", "Beautiful", "Sing For The Moment", "Airplanes Part II", and "Going Through Changes". In early 2010, Eminem responded publicly to tabloid reports of his pending reunion with Kim with a firm denial.

Eminem adopted two other daughters: Alaina "Lainey" Mathers, the child of Kimberley Scott's sister,

Mathers was arrested on June 3, 2000 during an altercation at a car audio store in Royal Oak, Michigan, with Douglas Dail, where he pulled out an unloaded gun and kept it pointed at the ground. The following day, in Warren, Michigan, he allegedly saw his then wife, Kim, kiss bouncer John Guerrera in the parking lot of the Hot Rock Café, and he assaulted him.

In the summer of 2001, Mathers was sentenced to probation on weapons charges that stemmed from an argument with an employee of Psychopathic Records, giving him a fine around $2,000 as well as several hours of community service.

In 2007, his music publishing company, Eight Mile Style LLC, together with Martin Affiliated LLC, filed suit against Apple, Inc and Aftermath Entertainment claiming Aftermath did not have the appropriate authority to negotiate a deal with Apple for digital downloads of 93 Eminem songs on Apple's iTunes service. The case against Apple was settled shortly after trial began in late September 2009.

Drug issues

Eminem has spoken openly about his addiction to prescription drugs, including Vicodin, Ambien, Valium and Methadone. His group-mate Proof from D12 stated that Mathers "sobered up" in 2002 from drug and alcohol dependence. However, he did turn to zolpidem (Ambien) sleeping pills for relief from sleeping troubles. This caused Mathers to cancel the European leg of the Anger Management Tour in August 2005 and eventually go into rehab for treatment for a "dependency on sleep medication". In a 2009 interview with British talk-show host Jonathan Ross, Mathers admitted that at the height of his addiction, he considered suicide, saying that, "I just wasn't taking care of myself, at times I wanted to just give it up." He also confirmed that he is now sober, commenting that, "[R]ap was my drug ... Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that. Now rap's getting me high again." She says that they hung out but nothing sexual or intimate occurred. Eminem has referenced her on many songs that include "Superman", "Jimmy Crack Corn", "Bagpipes From Baghdad", and "The Warning". While "Superman" was released in 2003, Carey released a song entitled "Clown" on her Charmbracelet album, released around the same time, which makes similar references in line with her 2009 hit "Obsessed".

Eminem's "Bagpipes From Baghdad" from his album Relapse may be his most well known reference to Carey due to the controversy it caused. The song disparages Carey and husband Nick Cannon's relationship. Cannon responded to Eminem by saying his career is based on "racist bigotry", and that he would get revenge on Eminem, joking that he may return to rapping. Eminem later stated that the couple misinterpreted the track and it was wishing the two the best.

In 2009, Carey released "Obsessed" in which she sings about an obsessed man who claims to be having a relationship with her. Cannon claimed that the song was not an insult directed at Eminem. However, Eminem responded in late July 2009 by releasing a track titled "The Warning". It contained samples of voice mail recordings which Eminem claimed were left by Mariah Carey when the two were together. Eminem also hinted that he had other evidence of their relationship in his possession. A little over a year later in September 2010 Nick Cannon responded with the song "I'm a Slick Rick" which in Slick Rick's flow he takes shots at Eminem.

Discography

Infinite (1996)

The Slim Shady LP (1999)

The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)

The Eminem Show (2002)

Encore (2004)

Relapse (2009)

Recovery (2010)

Number-one singles

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Eminem has eleven Grammy Awards. He has been praised for having "verbal energy", high quality of lyricism and has been ranked at number nine on MTV's list of The Greatest MCs of All Time, In 2003 he was listed as number thirteen on MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music and number 82 on Rolling Stone's "The Immortals". In 2008, the readers of Vibe Magazine voted him "The Best Rapper Alive". He was also named "Best Rapper Ever" taking down all opponents very easily in a poll which was conducted by music fans on the Vibe website.

Ironically, "The Real Slim Shady", one of the songs from his second Grammy-winning album, The Marshall Mathers LP, slammed the Grammy Awards in its second verse, and stated the opinion that negative feelings about his material would keep him from ever winning one.

Business ventures

Shady Records

Shade 45 Sirius

Shady Ltd. Clothing

Shady Games

Eight Mile Style LLC

See also

Artists with the most number-one European singles

List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)

List of best-selling music artists

List of best selling music artists in U.S.

List of best-selling singles worldwide

References

Literature

External links

Official website

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Category:1972 births Category:Living people Category:1990s rappers Category:2000s rappers Category:2010s rappers Category:Actors from Michigan Category:Actors who attempted suicide Category:Aftermath Entertainment artists Category:American film actors Category:American hip hop record producers Category:American male singers Category:American musicians of English descent Category:American musicians of German descent Category:American musicians of Scottish descent Category:American people of Swiss descent Category:American rappers of European descent Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Hip hop singers Category:Horrorcore artists Category:People from St. Joseph, Missouri Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Rappers from Detroit, Michigan Category:Shady Records artists Category:World Music Awards winners

Name	Akon
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Badara Akon Thiam
Born	April 16, 1973St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Origin	Dakar, Senegal
Genre	R&B;, hip hop, pop
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, record producer
Years active	1996–present
Label	Universal, SRC, Konvict, UpFront, Kon Live
Associated acts	T-Pain, Kardinal Offishall, Colby O'Donis, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Sway DaSafo, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie
Url

Akon (born Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Badara Akon Thiam), (), (born April 16, 1973) is a Senegalese-American R&B; singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and businessman.

He grosses over 30 million dollars a year according to Forbes. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first single from his debut album Trouble. His second album, Konvicted, earned him a Grammy Award nomination of the single "Smack That". He has since founded two record labels, Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution.

Akon often sings hooks for other artists and is currently credited with over 300 guest appearances and 45 Billboard Hot 100 songs. He has worked with numerous performers such as Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Quincy Jones, Eminem and Whitney Houston. He is the first solo artist to hold both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice. He has had 6 Grammy Awards nominations and has produced many hits for artists such as Lady Gaga, Colby O'Donis and Leona Lewis. Lady Gaga and T-Pain are two artists who were given their chance at fame by Akon. He has also released a song called "Beautiful" featuring Colby O'Donis and Kardinal Offishall which is in his hit album named Freedom which he released in 2008 and also "Right Now (Na Na Na)" in the same album.

Early life

As the son of Senegalese percussionist Mor Thiam, Akon was raised in a musical setting and taught to play several instruments including the djembe. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S., so that he would not have to go through the immigration process. However, Akon lived in Dakar, Senegal, splitting time between America and Senegal until he was in high school, when he settled permanently in Newark, NJ.

Akon has claimed in interviews that his full name is Aliaune Damala Akon Thiam and he is Muslim, he has never drunk alcohol or smoked due to his faith, although there is some ambiguity and debate about Akon's legal name and birth date. Akon is usually credited as Aliaune Thiam. In addition to the longer form, Akon's full name has been reported both as Aliaune Badara Thiam and Alioune Badara Thiam and About.com claims that this middle name has never been independently verified.

In regards to his birth date, Akon is very protective of it, which is the reason many media outlets have reported incorrect dates. However, legal documents released by The Smoking Gun list Akon's name as Aliaune Damala Thiam and his date of birth as April 16, 1973.

Music career

2003–05: Discovery and Trouble

Akon's alleged three years in jail saw him begin to recognize his music abilities and develop an appreciation for his musical background. Music mogul Devyne Stephens, president of Upfront Megatainment first heard about Akon when the rapper Lil' Zane brought him along to Stephens' rehearsal hall, a place that at the time saw talents such as Usher and TLC being developed. The relationship between Stephens and Akon began as a friendship and mentorship, with the young artist regularly stopping by to ask for advice, but when Akon lost his deal with Elektra Stephens signed him to his production company and began grooming him professionally. The songs Akon recorded with Stephens were brought to the attention of Universal's imprint SRC Records.

In 2005, he released the single "Lonely" (which samples Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely"). The song reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the charts in Australia, the UK and Germany. His album also climbed to number one in the UK in April, 2005. When music channel The Box had a top ten weekly chart, which was calculated by the amount of video requests, Akon's "Lonely" became the longest running single on the top of the chart, spanning over fifteen weeks. Akon then released another single featuring with a New Zealand rapper, Savage with the single Moonshine, which had become a success in both New Zealand and Australia, becoming number one in the New Zealand charts. In 2005, He made his first critically acclaimed guest appearance on Young Jeezy's debut album, , with the song "Soul Survivor." In December the same year his manager, Robert Montanez was killed in a shooting after a dispute in New Jersey.

2006–07: Konvicted

Akon's second album, Konvicted was released on November 14, 2006. It included collaborations with Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Styles P. The first single "Smack That" featuring Eminem was released in August 2006 and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for five consecutive weeks. "I Wanna Love You," (featuring Snoop Dogg) was the second single released in September, it would go on to earn Akon his first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and Snoop's second. "I Wanna Love You" topped the U.S. charts for two consecutive weeks. In January 2007, a third single "Don't Matter" which earned him his first solo number one and second consecutive Hot 100 chart topper was released. "Mama Africa" was released as a European single in July 2007, making it the fourth overall single from the album reaching just 47 in the UK. To coincide with the release of the Platinum (deluxe) edition of the album "Sorry, Blame It on Me" was the album's fifth single, debuted in August 2007 on the Hot 100 at number seven. The deluxe version was fully released on August 28, 2007. The final single was confirmed by Akon to be "Never Took the Time." Konvicted debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 286,000 copies in its first week. After only six weeks, Konvicted sold more than one million records in the U.S. and more than 1.3 million worldwide. The album was certified platinum after seven weeks, and after sixteen weeks it was certified double platinum. It stayed in the top twenty of the Billboard 200 for 28 consecutive weeks and peaked at number two on four different occasions. On November 20, 2007, the RIAA certified the album ‘triple platinum’ with 3 million units sold in the US. It has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide.

On October 5, 2006, Akon broke a record on the Hot 100, as he achieved the largest climb in the chart's 48-year-history with "Smack That" jumping from number 95 to 7. The leap was fueled by its number six debut on Hot Digital Songs with 67,000 downloads. The record has since been broken several times. In December 2006, Akon's "Smack That" was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, but lost to Justin Timberlake and T.I.'s "My Love".

2008–09: Freedom

Akon released his new album Freedom on December 2, which spawned four singles: "Right Now (Na Na Na)", "I'm So Paid" (featuring Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy), "Beautiful" (featuring Kardinal Offishall and Colby O'Donis) and "We Don't Care". "We Don't Care" has failed to chart significantly in many countries, only reaching 61 in the UK and 91 in Australia. After the unexpected death of The King Of Pop Michael Jackson, who Akon was working with in Jackson's last years, Akon released a tribute song called "Cry Out Of Joy". Akon & Michael Jackson were close friends near the end of Jackson's life.

Speaking of his relationship with Michael Jackson to noted UK R&B; writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning 'Blues & Soul' in October 2008, Akon stated: "Mike is the King Of Pop, and I think that it's a dream come true for ANY major artist/songwriter/producer to be able to work with the best in the business! You know, to work with someone like Mike – who's created opportunities, opened doors for so many people, and achieved so much in the music world, period – is just an experience which would be enough to take home for ANYONE! I mean, when I first flew up to Vegas and met him it was almost like we'd known each other for YEARS! LITERALLY! 'Cause musically we were on the same exact page! The chemistry was just INCREDIBLE! And, as a person, he was the most cool, humble dude I've ever met! I mean, we even actually got to go to the movies together – in broad daylight! Which was an experience in itself!"

David Guetta collaborated with Akon in Sexy Bitch, a first house track by Akon, and has been a "summer anthem" across the globe. Reaching #1 in more than 6 countries, and charting at 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 , it is featured on Guetta's One Love album. Which has made it his 19th Top 20 hit worldwide.

2010–present: Akonic

It was announced in late 2009 that Akon's fourth studio album, Akonic, was set for release in the first quarter of 2010. However, following managerial commitments to other artists, work on the album has not been completed. It was suggested that this would push the album's release back to 2011. However, this was proven false as the album will actually be released on November 29, 2010. Akon had also stated that the title of the album may change between now and that time, since originally it was titled "Stadium Music" or "Stadium". Two tracks from the album have been leaked onto the web - "Nosy Neighbour", which was suggested for the lead single, and "Party Animal", both of which have been produced by David Guetta. The album's lead single, "Angel", was released to US radio stations on September 14, 2010. and was released as a single on September 27, 2010.

Featured projects

In 2006, Akon started his new record label Kon Live Distribution under Interscope Records. His first signed artist was Ray Lavender.

He was featured on Gwen Stefani's latest album, The Sweet Escape. He made an appearance on the title track and second single, "The Sweet Escape." Akon produced the song. On December 10, 2006, Akon and Stefani appeared as musical guests on Saturday Night Live, however they did not perform the song as Stefani had not yet learned the lyrics. He performed the song live, however, on American Idol on March 28, 2007 due to Gwen Stefani's appearance as a coach the night before. "The Sweet Escape" has reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Akon collaborated with Chamillionaire on his mixtape, Mixtape Messiah 2, featuring on the track “Ridin' Overseas” which he also produced. The mixtape was available for download on Chamillionaire's website from December 24, 2006.

In 2006, after their 2005 Akon-produced single, "Soul Survivor," the duo of Akon and Young Jeezy said that there is a lot more to expect from them in the future. The pair announced there are currently plans for a collaborative album. Akon also appeared on Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's album Strength and Loyalty and Three 6 Mafia's eighth studio album, Last 2 Walk, We The Best by DJ Khaled, Fabolous's album, From Nothin' to Somethin', with 50 Cent on some tracks for Curtis, T.I.'s 5th album, T.I. vs. T.I.P., Mario's third solo album Go!, and produced with Daddy Yankee" in the song called "Bring It On" on the album called which was released on June 5, 2007.

On July 7, 2007 Akon performed at the American leg of Live Earth.

In November 2007, Akon recorded a remix of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" with Michael Jackson. In February 2008, the remix was released on the 25th anniversary rerelease of Michael Jackson's Thriller. Akon produced the track entitled "Echo" on Latin Boy band Menudo's latest album, released in the spring of 2008.

‘Konvict Music’ would be responsible for the re-release of Kat Deluna’s debut album 9 Lives (album) which would feature Akon on the single "Am I Dreaming."

In July 2008 a song called "Hold My Hand" circulated the internet. The song is an R&B; duet/collaboration between Michael Jackson and Akon, composed by Claude Kelly. There also exists another version featuring only Akon. It was not included in the track list for Freedom as Akon previously stated. During an interview with Tavis Smiley, Akon said that Jackson had planned on a high-profile release including a music video until the track had leaked. This is Jackson's last known song before he died on June 25, 2009. Recently, Akon has finished work on the song and it will included on the upcoming posthumous album, Michael. The song itself was released as a single on November 15, 2010.

Akon was also the executive producer of Kardinal Offishall's fourth solo album Not 4 Sale, released September 9, 2008. The promo single "Graveyard Shift" features Akon as does the first single "Dangerous", which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and won the award for Single of the Year at the 2009 Juno Awards.

Akon co-wrote and recorded "Put It on My Tab" with New Kids on the Block for their 2008 reunion album The Block.

Akon co-wrote and produced Leona Lewis' hit record Forgive Me, off her debut album Spirit.

He is currently working with X Factor 2008 winner Alexandra Burke on her upcoming debut album.

Akon co-wrote Kon Live artist Lady Gaga's worldwide hit "Just Dance", which also featured Colby O'Donis, and which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording at the 51st Grammy Awards.

Flo Rida’s new album R.O.O.T.S. features Akon on the track “Available”.

Akon has recorded a song with E-40 titled "Wake It Up" for E-40's album, The Ball Street Journal. Akon experiments with the auto-tune effect in the song.

Rap singer Nelly confirmed that Akon, Pharrell, and T-Pain have talked about forming a rap supergroup in 2009. Akon and Konvict Muzik are also producing hip hop/rock group Flipsyde's 2009 release, State of Survival, which will be released via Kon Live Distribution and Cherrytree Records. Akon worked with Whitney Houston for her 2009 comeback album I Look to You. He appears on the track "Like I Never Left".

In May 2009, Akon collaborated with Taiwanese artist 潘瑋柏 (Wilber Pan) and released another version of the song, Be With You.

Akon worked with bachata group Aventura and Reggaeton duo Wisin y Yandel on All Up 2 You the second single from Aventura's album The Last that dropped in June. The song received two nominations at the Premios Lo Nuestro 2010 for "Urban Song of the Year" and "Video Collaboration of the Year".

Akon recently signed Jayko, a Hispanic R&B; and Reggaeton artist, to his label and is working with him on his debut album titled "Marcando Territorio"

Sexy Bitch was released in July 2009, a collaboration with French DJ David Guetta.

In August 2009, Akon released another version of Beautiful featuring BoA, a popular and legendary Korean singer. However, this version was for the Japanese market.

Akon also sang in a song with Colby O'Donis called "What You Got".

In 2009 Akon collaborated with Pitbull on the single "Shut It Down" from the album "Rebelution".

Akon worked to help Matisyahu remix his single "One Day" on his album Light.

In 2010 Akon collaborated with up and coming pop singer JRandall on a song entitled ''oo la la" which premiered on JustJared.com on October 6.

In 2010 he is one of over 70 artists singing on "", a charity single in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. He also entered into the Indian market, working with composers Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani on the soundtrack to the Bollywood action film Ra.One.

Akon co-produced Natalia Kills' first single, Mirrors, from her forthcoming debut album, Perfectionist.

Other ventures

Television and film

Akon has confirmed that a reality television show is in the works. It will be called "My Brother's Keeper" and the point is that Akon's two nearly identical brothers will go around in Atlanta posing as him fooling people into thinking that it is in fact Akon. They will try to get VIP treatment, girls and free things. Akon has claimed that people have mistaken his brothers for him many times in Atlanta which is what the show is based on.

Akon is planning to work on a full-length movie titled Illegal Alien. The film is based on some of the events of his life and actor Mekhi Phifer is set to play him. Besides Akon confirmed in August 2007, in the interview with Polish website INTERIA.PL, that he works on a movie "Cocaine Cowboys," which tells the story of Jon Roberts, the main pilot of Medellin Cartel (Colombian drug traffickers). He was also featured on a Verizon Wireless commercial and singing Snitch along with Obie Trice on a episode named "Poppin' Tags."

On November 30, 2007, Akon entered the Big Brother house in Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2 as a guest so the housemates can meet him for only 100 seconds. He also appeared on November 17, 2008 edition of WWE Raw, with Santino Marella citing him in his speech. Because of Santino's Italian Stereotyping, he mispronounced Akon's name to "Akorn".

On April 27, 2008, Akon appeared with Colby O'Donis in Dance on Sunset. On January 27, 2010, Akon performed on the Brazilian reality show Big Brother Brasil.

Fashion

In February 2007, Akon launched his clothing line, Konvict Clothing. It features urban streetwear including denim jeans, hoodies, t-shirts and hats. Aliaune is the upscale version, or high-end line, for males and females, which includes blazers, denim jeans and other items. Timothy Hodge appeared on MTV's Direct Effect alongside Akon while promotioning the Konvict clothing line.

Personal life

He has also been rumored to have three wives, however he has since revealed that he only has one, named Tomeka. Akon claims he has six children with three different women in an interview with Blender. Akon claims to have great relationships with all his children, and that he wishes to keep his family protected from the public eye. He also states that his religion made him a better person, and provides guidance to how he acts among others in life.

He also has his own charity for underprivileged children in Africa called Konfidence Foundation. Akon owns a diamond mine in South Africa and denies the existence of blood diamonds (also known as "conflict diamonds") saying, "I don't believe in conflict diamonds. That's just a movie. Think about it. Nobody thought or cared about conflict diamonds until 'Blood Diamond' was released." However, he has since stated that he does accept that blood diamonds exist, and that he is partial-owner of an African mine that is dedicated to avoiding use of blood diamonds while also donating profits to local communities.

"The Smoking Gun" reported in April 2008 that much of Akon's purported criminal and incarceration history has been dramatically embellished. In particular, Akon's claims to be part of an auto-theft ring and his claim to have spent three years in prison were challenged with court records and interviews with detectives involved in Akon's case. According to "The Smoking Gun's" article, Akon was not convicted of any crime and did not serve any time in prison from 1999 to 2002 as previously claimed. He stated that "The Smoking Gun's" attempt to “discredit” him “makes no sense as it is something he is trying to forget.” Akon retorted that he never spent 3 years in prison consecutively, but many shorter sentences that add up to three years, and cites that as the mis-understanding by The Smoking Gun's article.

Legal difficulties

In April 2007, Akon drew criticism for an onstage act which included simulated sex with Danah (Deena) Alleyne, a preacher's daughter aged 15 at the time, at a club in Trinidad and Tobago, as part of a fake contest, despite the club's claim to have a 21 years and over age limit. The incident was filmed by Akon's crew and later uploaded to the Internet. On April 20, 2007 local media, channel TV6, aired the video clip publicly. Amid criticism on the radio, television, and from the blogosphere, Verizon Wireless removed ringtones featuring Akon's songs. Verizon also decided not to sponsor The Sweet Escape Tour where Akon was to be the opening act for Gwen Stefani. However, Universal Music Group did not take action against Akon, but rather simply ordered the video clip be removed from video-sharing site YouTube due to copyright infringement. Conservative commentator and Parents Television Council founder Brent Bozell called this "corporate irresponsibility."

Political commentators Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, and Bill O'Reilly criticized Akon for "degrading women." Malkin uploaded commentary about Akon to YouTube, using footage from music videos and the Trinidad concert, and Universal Music Group then forced its removal by issuing a DMCA takedown notice. The Electronic Frontier Foundation joined Malkin in contesting the removal as a misuse of copyright law, citing fair use. In May 2007, UMG rescinded its claim to the video, and the video returned to YouTube.

On June 3, 2007, at WSPK's KFEST concert at the Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, New York, a concert attendee threw an object towards Akon on stage. Akon asked the crowd to identify who threw the object and that he be brought on stage. Security staff grabbed the young man and took him up to the stage. Akon then pulled him up from the crowd and hoisted him across his shoulders. The singer then tossed the attendee back into the crowd from his shoulders. Video of the incident was reviewed by Fishkill police. Akon has claimed that the incident was staged and that he in fact used the act to set up for the next record.

Visa Issue

March 23, 2010 – Considering the allegations against the singer Akon, the Sri Lankan Government has decided not to issue him a visa to enter into Sri Lanka, the Government Information Department said a short while ago. The Jathika Bhikku Sansadaya (National Monks' Association) earlier today said that they vehemently protested the planned concert of Akon claiming that his music video insulted Buddhism.

Discography

Trouble (2004)

Konvicted (2006)

Freedom (2008)

Akonic (2011)

Awards and nominations

Name	Akon
Awards	1
Nominations	12
Americanw	1
Americann	3
Grammyn	5
Mtvvideon	4

Akon received four Grammy Award nominations in 2008, including Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "The Sweet Escape" with Gwen Stefani, Best R&B; Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Bartender" with T-Pain, Best Contemporary R&B; Album for Konvicted, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with "I Wanna Love You" with Snoop Dogg. The only award that Akon has received is Favorite Soul/R&B; Male Artist from the American Music Awards in 2007. Overall, Akon has received one award from twelve nominations.

American Music Awards

The American Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony created by Dick Clark in 1973. Akon has received one award from three nominations.

|- |rowspan="3"| ||rowspan="3"| Akon || Favorite Soul/R&B; Male Artist || |- | Artist of the Year || |- | Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist ||

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States. Akon has received five nominations.

|- | || "Smack That" (with Eminem) || Best Rap/Sung Collaboration || |- |rowspan="4"| || "The Sweet Escape" (with Gwen Stefani) || Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals || |- | "Bartender" (with T-Pain) || Best R&B; Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group || |- | Konvicted || Best Contemporary R&B; Album || |- | "I Wanna Love You" (with Snoop Dogg) || Best Rap/Sung Collaboration ||

MTV Video Music Awards

The MTV Video Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony established in 1984 by MTV. Akon has received four nominations. Akon has the record for most nominations in the Most Earthshattering Collaboration category.

|- | || "Locked Up" || MTV2 Award || |- |rowspan="3"| || Akon || Male Artist of the Year || |- | "Smack That" (with Eminem) || Most Earthshattering Collaboration || |- | "The Sweet Escape" (with Gwen Stefani) || Most Earthshattering Collaboration ||

World Music Awards

In 2007 Akon won three World Music Awards:

(1) Best Selling R&B; Male Artist

(2) Best Selling African Artist

(3) Best Selling Internet Artist.

In 2008 Akon won:

(1) Best Selling African Artist

Note: Akon also won Artist Of The Year in 2007 by the Billboard Music Awards

Billboard Legacy

Made the Top Artists of the Year Chart in: 2009

Made the Billboard 200 Albums of the Year Chart in: 2009, 2007, 2005, 2004

Made the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Year Chart in: 2005, 2004

Premios Lo Nuestro

|- |rowspan="2"| 2010 || "All Up 2 You" (with Aventura and Wisin & Yandel) || Urban Song of the Year || |- | "All Up 2 You" (with Aventura and Wisin & Yandel) || Video Collaboration of the Year || |-

Tours

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania One-off Concert (2006).

Konvicted Tour (July to September 2007, then additional dates in 2008)

The Sweet Escape Tour with Gwen Stefani (April to July 2007)

The Good Girl Gone Bad Tour with Rihanna (Canadian-leg only, September – December 2008).

Konvict Muzik Tour with T-Pain, Australia only, October 26–27, 2009.

Brazilian Mini-Tour, (Brazil, January 2010)

References

External links

Official website

Category:1990s singers Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:African American singers Category:African American rappers Category:African American Muslims Category:American Muslims Category:American male singers Category:Dance musicians Category:Hip hop record producers Category:Hip hop singers Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:Musicians from Missouri Category:Rappers from St. Louis, Missouri Category:People from Dakar Category:People from Newark, New Jersey Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:American people of Senegalese descent Category:American hip hop record producers Category:Sony/ATV Music Publishing artists Category:World Music Awards winners Category:Living people Category:Senegalese expatriates in the United States Category:1973 births

Name	Swizz Beatz|Img = Swizz beatz at hot 97 summer jam 2007.jpg
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Kasseem Dean
Born	August 30, 1978 The Bronx, New York, United States
Instrument	Keyboard, sampler
Occupation	Record producer, rapper, record executive, painter, artist
Years active	1998–present
Genre	Hip hop
Label	Full Surface, Ruff Ryders, Atlantic
Associated acts	DMX, Alicia Keys, Eve, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Drag-On, Cassidy, T.I., G-Unit
Url	http://swizzbeatzonline.com

Kasseem Daoud Dean (born August 30, 1978), better known by his stage name, Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, DJ, and rapper. At the age of 17, he gained attention in the hip-hop world through his friendship with rapper DMX. Grady Spivey and rapper Cassidy helped launch his label Full Surface Records.

Early life

Kasseem Daoud Dean was born to an African American Muslim father and a Puerto Rican Christian mother. Dean didn't see much of his father, a postal worker, due to his parents being separated, and was raised by his mother. He was born and raised in the southwestern area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. It was there where he spent most of his childhood, first encountered Hip hop and began deejaying. He began deejaying after he got some equipment from his stepfather and his uncles. He later relocated to Atlanta as a teenager due to having too many fights at Harry S. Truman High School; there he started to work for his uncles, Joaquin and Darrin Dean, who were co-CEOs of the Ruff Ryders label. Forgoing the practice of using samples, he mostly used the Korg Trinity and Triton Keyboards and tried to accentuate the performance aspect of his music. The next five years would find him landing hit after hit and becoming more in demand with each production.

Career

1998-2002: Ruff Ryders and Full Surface

With his uncles (Chivon, Dee, and Waah Dean) involved with the Ruff Ryders label, he began to produce tracks at the age of 16. He sold his first beat at 17 which became DMX's hit single "Ruff Ryders' Anthem". In 2001 at the age of 23 he established his own record label, Full Surface, in a joint venture with Clive Davis of J Records. The first artist signed was Philadelphia-based rapper Cassidy. But it wasn't until Swizz's first compilation album, 2002's Swizz Beatz Presents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories, that he started to get notices for his production style and interesting ideas and Cassidy began to get attention. He released two singles "Guilty" and "Bigger Business", both charted on the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs and were accompanied by music videos.

2003-2006: Super producer status and mainstream success

Swizz Beatz along with being associated with Ruff Ryders & Roc-A-Fella Records, began to produce for artists from labels such as Elektra Records, Atlantic Records, Epic Records, Def Jam Recordings, and Bad Boy Entertainment and his career largely grew from that point. Swizz Beatz produced hit songs for many elite rap, hip-hop soul and R&B; artists of that time, such as DMX ("Party Up (Up in Here)"), Beyoncé ("Check on It", "Ring the Alarm"), T.I. ("Bring 'Em Out"), Styles P ("Good Times"), Cassidy ("Hotel", "I'm a Hustla"), Busta Rhymes ("Touch It") and many more.

In 2003 he began to expand his label; Big Tigger, Keith Sweat, Bounty Killer and Yung Wun were all in talks to signing with Full Surface but in the end only Yung Wun was signed. Yung Wun, whom Swizz took under his wing and was executive producer of his album, The Dirtiest Thirstiest and co-produced the lead single "Tear It Up''.

In 2006 he became a partner involved in the popular clothing company Kidrobot, a creator and retailer of limited-edition art toys and apparel.

2007–present: One Man Band Man, new ventures and Haute Living

In February 2007, the producer mixed the music for design duo Heatherette's Fall 2007 New York Fashion Week runway show. On August 21, 2007, Swizz Beatz released his second solo album, titled One Man Band Man. The album sold 45,000 records in its first week and includes singles "It's Me Bitches" and "Money in the Bank".

In 2007 Swizz Beatz signed longtime friend Drag-On, legendary Cleveland-based rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and former Ruff Ryder member Eve to his label.

April 24, 2009 Swizz Beatz did a promo song for Hennessy Black, entitled "When I Step In The Club". A video was made and was directed by Hype Williams.

In 2009, Swizz Beatz produced many popular singles including "Nasty Girl" by Ludacris featuring Plies, "Who's Real" by Jadakiss featuring OJ da Juiceman, "Million Bucks" by Maino, "Million Dollar Bill" by Whitney Houston, "I Can Transform Ya" by Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne and "On to the Next One" by Jay-Z .

Although in 2010 on his twitter Swizz Beatz renamed his album three times. He first announced he was calling it King Issues but later on that day settled on The Perception of Greatness, and on August 23 while in a studio session with Mary J. Blige in New York City, Swizz unveiled his new album title Haute Living, stating that it's the perfect phrase to represent what he's all about. The album will be released under his actual contract with Everest Entertainment/Atlantic/Warner, who signed the rapper in August 2010. Confirmed guest appearances include Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Bono, Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige and John Legend.

Swizz Beatz also was named the first "Producer in Residence" at New York University. This will last from the 2010-2011 academic year.

In 2010, inspired by Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Fridays series, Swizz Beatz launched his own series of free weekly mp3s titled Monster Monday. The first song, "DJ Play that Beat" featuring Estelle, was released on October 25. Other Monster Monday tracks include features from Rakim, Pusha T, DMX, Busta Rhymes and Pharrell.

On twitter in 2010, Swizz Beatz revealed his new sneaker line with Reebok.

Personal life

In 2004, he married R&B; singer Mashonda Tifrere, together they have two children, Prince Nasir Dean (born 2000), Kassem Dean Jr. (born 2007). In April 2008, they announced their plans to divorce after four years of marriage. Rumors have since surfaced online suggesting singer Alicia Keys was involved in the break-up, but Swizz has since then stated this is not true. In May 2009, Swizz Beatz admitted to having a relationship with Alicia Keys. He explained that he's kept their relationship under wraps because he didn't want to upset Mashonda and says that what he and Keys have is "so precious." Beatz' divorce from Mashonda was finalized on May 7, 2010.

In May 2008, singer and producer Jahna Sebastian gave birth to a daughter, Nicole, whom Swizz Beatz had fathered. In May 2010 Beatz confirmed he was engaged to singer Alicia Keys, and that Keys was pregnant with Beatz' fourth, and her first child. During the time of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the couple took part of a union and had the unborn child blessed in a Zulu ceremony, which took place in the Illovo suburb of South Africa. Keys and Swizz Beatz held a wedding celebration on the French island of Corsica on July 31, 2010. Alicia Keys gave birth to their son, Egypt Daoud Ibarr Dean, on October 14, 2010.

Swizz Beatz not only collects paintings but also paints on his own free time. He donates the money he earns from his paintings to the Children's Cancer & Blood Foundation.

Awards and nominations

2009: Urban Music Awards Best Producer (won)

Grammy Awards

*2010, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group "On to the Next One" [Nominated]

*2010, Best Rap Song "On to the Next One" [Nominated]

*2010, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group "Fancy" [Nominated]

Discography

; Studio Albums

One Man Band Man (2007)

Haute Living (TBA)

; Compilation Albums

G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories (2002)

Ryde or Die Vol. 1 (1999)

References

External links

Official website

Interview, HitQuarters Jun 02

Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz Engaged? PopEater, January 27, 2010

Meet Alicia Keys' secret boyfriend, Swizz Beats NY Daily News, May 17, 2009

Category:1978 births Category:African American rappers Category:African American Muslims Category:American record producers Category:African American record producers Category:American hip hop record producers Category:American Muslims Category:Living people Category:People from the Bronx Category:Ruff Ryders artists Category:2000s rappers Category:2010s rappers

Name	Jim Jones
Birth name	James W. Jones
Birth date	May 13, 1931
Birth place	Crete, Indiana, U.S.
Death date	November 18, 1978
Death place	Jonestown, Guyana
Occupation	Leader, Peoples Temple

James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 suicide of more than 900 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.

Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in that state in the 1950s. Jones and the Temple later moved to California, and both gained notoriety with the move of the Temple's headquarters to San Francisco in the mid-1970s.

The greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001, the tragedy at Guyana also ranks among the largest mass murders/mass suicides in history. One of those who died at the nearby airstrip was Leo Ryan, who remains the only Congressman murdered in the line of duty in the history of the United States. to James Thurman Jones (May 31, 1887 – May 29, 1951), a World War I veteran, and Lynetta Putnam (April 16, 1902 – December 11, 1977). He was of Irish and Welsh descent. Economic difficulties during the Great Depression necessitated that Jones' family move to nearby Lynn, Indiana in 1934. Jim Jones and a childhood friend both claimed that Jones' father was associated with the Ku Klux Klan.

Jones was a voracious reader as a child and studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler carefully, noting each of their strengths and weaknesses. He graduated from Richmond High School early and with honors in December 1948.

Jones married nurse Marceline Baldwin in 1949, and moved to Bloomington, Indiana. Jones' sympathetic statements about communism offended Marceline's grandmother.

Building the Temple

Indiana beginnings

In 1951, Jones became a member of the Communist Party USA, and began attending meetings and rallies in Indianapolis. He became flustered with harassment he received during the McCarthy Hearings, He also became frustrated with what he perceived to be ostracism of open communists in the United States, especially during the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Jones moved away from the American Communist Party and Maoists when ACP members and Mao Zedong became critical of some of the policies of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Integrationist

In 1960, Indianapolis Democratic Mayor Charles Boswell appointed Jones director of the Human Rights Commission. Jones ignored Boswell's advice to keep a low profile, finding new outlets for his views on local radio and television programs.

During this time, Jones also helped to integrate churches, restaurants, the telephone company, the police department, a theater, an amusement park, and the Methodist Hospital. He also set up stings to catch restaurants refusing to serve African American customers When Jones was accidentally placed in the black ward of a hospital after a collapse in 1961, he refused to be moved and began to make the beds, and empty the bed pans of black patients. Political pressures resulting from Jones' actions caused hospital officials to desegregate the wards. and stated: "Integration is a more personal thing with me now. It's a question of my son's future." Jones had long been critical of the United States' opposition to communist leader Kim Il-Sung's 1950 invasion of South Korea, calling it the "war of liberation" and stating that "the south is a living example of all that socialism in the north has overcome." In 1954, he and his wife also adopted Agnes Jones, who was partly of Native American descent. Suzanne Jones was adopted at the age of six in 1959.

Two years later, in 1961, the Joneses became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child, James Warren Jones, Jr. Marceline was once spat upon while she carried Jim Jr.

On his way to Brazil, Jones made his first trip into Guyana. After arriving in Belo Horizonte, the Joneses rented a modest three bedroom home. Jones studied the local economy and receptiveness of racial minorities to his message, though language remained a barrier. Jones was careful not to portray himself as a communist in a foreign territory, and spoke of an apostolic communal lifestyle rather than of Castro or Marx.

After becoming frustrated with the lack of resources in the locale, in mid-1963, the Joneses moved to Rio de Janeiro. There, they worked with the poor in Rio's slums.

Jones was plagued by guilt for leaving behind the Indiana civil rights struggle and possibly losing what he had struggled to build there.

California Eden

After Jones' return to Indiana from Brazil, in 1965, Jones claimed that the world would be engulfed in a nuclear war on July 15, 1967, that would then create a new socialist Eden on earth, and that the Temple must move to Northern California for safety. Jones often mixed those concepts, such as preaching that "If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."

By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional Christianity as "fly away religion," rejecting the Bible as being white men’s' justification to subordinate women and subjugate people of color and stating that it spoke of a "Sky God" who was no God at all. Jones also began preaching that he was the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha, Vladimir Lenin, and Father Divine. In the documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, former Temple member Hue Fortson, Jr. quoted Jones as saying, "What you need to believe in is what you can see ... If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father, for those of you that don't have a father ... If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God." Despite the Temple's fear that the IRS was investigating its religious tax exemption, by 1977 Marceline Jones admitted to the New York Times that, as early as age 18 when he watched his then idol Mao Zedong overthrow the Chinese government, Jim Jones realized that the way to achieve social change through Marxism in the United States was to mobilize people through religion. She stated that "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion," and had slammed the Bible on the table yelling "I've got to destroy this paper idol!"

Unlike most other figures deemed as cult leaders, Jones was able to gain public support and contact with prominent local and national United States politicians. For example, Jones and Moscone met privately with vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale on his campaign plane days before the 1976 election and Mondale publicly praised the Temple. First Lady Rosalynn Carter also personally met with Jones on multiple occasions, corresponded with him about Cuba, and spoke with him at the grand opening of the San Francisco Democratic Party Headquarters where Jones garnered louder applause than Mrs. Carter.

In September 1976, Willie Brown served as master of ceremonies at a large testimonial dinner for Jones attended by Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally and other political figures. At that dinner, while introducing Jones, Willie Brown stated "Let me present to you what you should see every day when you look in the mirror in the early morning hours ... Let me present to you a combination of Martin King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein ... Chairman Mao." Harvey Milk, who spoke at political rallies at the Temple, and wrote to Jones after a visit to the Temple: "Rev Jim, It may take me many a day to come back down from the high that I reach today. I found something dear today. I found a sense of being that makes up for all the hours and energy placed in a fight. I found what you wanted me to find. I shall be back. For I can never leave."

In his San Francisco Temple apartment, Jones regularly hosted San Francisco radical political figures such as Angela Davis for discussions. He spoke with friend and San Francisco Sun-Reporter publisher Dr. Carlton Goodlett about Jones' remorse regarding not being able to travel to socialist countries such as China and the Soviet Union, speculating that he could be Chief Dairyman of the Soviet Union. After his criticisms caused increased tensions with the Nation of Islam, Jones spoke at a huge rally healing the rift between the two groups in the Los Angeles Convention center attended by many of Jones' closest political acquaintances.

While Jones forged media alliances with key columnists and others at the San Francisco Chronicle and other media outlets, the move to San Francisco also brought increasing media scrutiny. After Chronicle reporter Marshall Kilduff encountered resistance to publishing an expose, he brought his story to New West Magazine. In the summer of 1977, Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to the Temple's "Agricultural Project" in Guyana after they learned of the contents of Kilduff's article to be published in which former Temple members claimed they were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. Jones named the settlement Jonestown after himself.

Jonestown's formation and operation

Jones had first started building Jonestown in 1974 as a means to create both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from the media scrutiny which had started in 1972. Regarding the former goal, Jones purported to establish Jonestown as a benevolent model communist community stating, "I believe we’re the purest communists there are." In that regard, like the restrictive emigration policies of the then Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and other communist republics, Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown.

Religious scholar Mary McCormick Maaga argues that Jones' authority decreased after he moved to the isolated commune, because he was not needed for recruitment and he could not hide his drug addiction from rank and file members. In spite of the allegations prior to Jones' departure to Jonestown, the leader was still respected by some for setting up a racially mixed church which helped the disadvantaged; 68 percent of Jonestown's residents were black.

New children

Jim Jones claimed that he was the biological father of John Victor Stoen, although the birth certificate lists Grace and Timothy Stoen as the parents of the boy. The Temple repeatedly claimed that Jones fathered the child when, in 1971, Temple member Tim Stoen had requested that Jones have sex with Grace Stoen to keep her from defecting. After Grace Stoen later defected in 1976 and began divorce proceedings against Tim Stoen in 1977, in order to avoid potentially giving up the boy in a custody dispute with Grace, Jones ordered Tim to take John to Guyana in February 1977.

After purported father Tim Stoen defected from the Temple in June 1977, the Temple kept John Stoen in Jonestown. The custody dispute over John Stoen would become a linchpin of several battles between the Temple and the Concerned Relatives.

Jim Jones also fathered a son, Jim Jon (Kimo), with Carolyn Louise Moore Layton, a Temple member.

Pressure and waning political support

While most of Jones' political allies broke ties after Jones' departure, some did not. As a show of support, Willie Brown spoke out against enemies at a rally at the Peoples Temple, also attended by Harvey Milk and Art Agnos. Most importantly for Jones and the Temple, Moscone's office shortly thereafter issued a press release saying that Jones had broken no laws. In the Fall of 1977, Tim Stoen and other relatives in Jonestown formed a "Concerned Relatives" group. Stoen traveled to Washington D.C. in January 1978 to visit with Congressmen, including Leo Ryan and State Department officials, and wrote a "white paper" to Congress detailing the dispute and pressing for Congressional correspondence. Stoen's efforts aroused the curiosity of Ryan, who wrote a letter on Stoen's behalf to Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham.

Amidst growing pressure in the United States to investigate the Temple, on February 19, 1978, Harvey Milk wrote a letter of support for the Peoples Temple to President Jimmy Carter. Therein, Milk wrote that Jones was known "as a man of the highest character." In June 1978, escaped Temple member Deborah Layton provided the group with a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Peoples Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown. Jones told Lane he wanted to "pull an Eldridge Cleaver", referring to a fugitive Black Panther who was able to return to the United States after repairing his reputation. Ryan's delegation included relatives of Temple members, Don Harris, an NBC network news reporter, an NBC cameraman and reporters for various newspapers. The group arrived in Georgetown on November 15. The delegation left hurriedly the afternoon of November 18 after Temple member Don Sly attacked Ryan with a knife. The attack was thwarted, bringing the visit to an abrupt end. At that time, Jones made no attempt to prevent their departure.

Port Kaituma Airstrip shootings

As members of Ryan's delegation boarded two planes at the airstrip, Jones' "Red Brigade" armed guards arrived in a tractor-pulled trailer and began shooting at the delegation. The guards killed Congressman Ryan and four others near a twin engine Otter aircraft. At the same time, one of the supposed defectors, Larry Layton, drew a weapon and began firing on members of the party that had already boarded a small Cessna. An NBC cameraman was able to capture footage of the first few seconds of the shooting at the Otter.

Deaths in Jonestown

Later that same day, 909 inhabitants of Jonestown, 303 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning, mostly in and around a pavilion. This resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks. No video was taken during the mass suicide, though the FBI did recover a 45 minute audio recording of the suicide in progress.

On that tape, Jones tells Temple members that the Soviet Union, with whom the Temple had been negotiating a potential exodus for months, would not take them after the Temple had murdered Ryan and four others at a nearby airstrip. Mass suicide had been previously discussed in simulated events called "White Nights" on a regular basis. During at least one such prior White Night, members drank liquid that Jones falsely told them was poison. However, Jones' son Stephan believes his father may have directed someone else to shoot him. An autopsy of Jones' body also showed levels of the barbiturate Pentobarbital which may have been lethal to humans who had not developed physiological tolerance. Jones' drug usage (including LSD and marijuana) was confirmed by his son, Stephan, and Jones' doctor in San Francisco.

Other issues

On December 13, 1973, Jones was arrested and charged with soliciting a man for sex in a movie theater bathroom known for homosexual activity, in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. The man was an undercover Los Angeles Police Department vice officer. Jones is on record as later telling his followers that he was "the only true heterosexual", but at least one account exists of his sexual abuse of a male member of his congregation in front of the followers, ostensibly to prove the man's own homosexual tendencies. Jones, however, claimed that he detested engaging in homosexual activity and did so only for the male temple adherents' own good, purportedly to connect them symbolically with him (Jones). Jones had borrowed the term "revolutionary suicide" On the final morning of Ryan's visit, Marceline had taken reporters on a tour of Jonestown.

Found near Marceline Jones' body was a signed and witnessed will leaving all bank accounts "in my name" to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and writing that Suzanne Jones Cartmell should receive no assets.

Stephan, Jim Jr. and Tim Jones

Stephan, Jim Jr., and Tim Jones did not take part in the mass suicide because they were playing with the Peoples Temple basketball team against the Guyanese national team in Georgetown. At the time of events in Jonestown, Stephan and Tim were both nineteen and Jim Jones Jr. was eighteen. Tim's biological family, the Tuppers, which consisted of his three biological sisters, biological brother, and biological mother, all died at Jonestown. Three days before the tragedy, Stephan Jones refused, over the radio, to comply with an order by his father to return the team to Jonestown for Ryan's visit.

During the events at Jonestown, Stephan, Tim, and Jim Jones Jr. drove to the American Embassy in Guyana in an attempt to receive help. The Guyanese soldiers guarding the embassy refused to let them in after hearing about the shootings at the Port Kaituma airstrip. Later, the three returned to the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown to find the bodies of Sharon Amos and her three children. Stephan Jones is now a businessman, and married with three daughters. He appeared in the documentary Jonestown: Paradise Lost which aired on the History Channel and Discovery Channel. He stated he will not watch the documentary and has never grieved for his father. Jim Jones Jr., who lost his wife and unborn child at Jonestown, returned to San Francisco. He remarried and has three sons from this marriage,

Lew, Agnes and Suzanne Jones

Lew and Agnes Jones both died at Jonestown. Agnes Jones was thirty-five years old at the time of her death. Her husband and four children all died at Jonestown. Lew Jones, who was twenty-one years old at the time of his death, died alongside his wife Terry and son Chaeoke. Stephanie Jones had died at age five in a car accident. In a signed note found at the time of her death, Marceline Jones directed that the Jones' funds were to be given to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and specified: "I especially request that none of these are allowed to get into the hands of my adopted daughter, Suzanne Jones Cartmell." Cartmell had two children and died of colon cancer in November 2006.

John Stoen and Kimo

Specific references to Tim Stoen, the father of John Stoen, including the logistics of possibly murdering him, are made on the Temple's final "death tape," as well as a discussion over whether the Temple should include John Stoen among those committing "revolutionary suicide." At Jonestown, John Stoen was found poisoned in Jim Jones' cabin.

Both Jim Jon (Kimo) and his mother, Carolyn Layton, died during the events at Jonestown.

See also

Cult suicide

Doomsday cult

List of people who have claimed to be Jesus

List of Buddha claimants

Notes

References

Bibliography

Chidester, David, Salvation and Suicide: Jim Jones, the People's Temple and Jonestown (Religion in North America), 2nd rev.ed., Indiana University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0253216328

Klineman, George and Sherman Butler. The Cult That Died. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1980. ISBN 0-399-12540-X.

Layton, Deborah. Seductive Poison. Anchor Books, 1999. ISBN 0-385-48984-6.

Maaga, Mary McCormick. Hearing the voices of Jonestown. Syracuse University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8156-0515-3.

Naipaul, Shiva. Black & White. Hamish Hamilton, London, 1980. ISBN 0-241-10337-1.

External links

The Jonestown Institute

FBI No. Q 042 The "Jonestown Death Tape", Recorded 18 November 1978 (Internet Archive)

Transcript of Jones' final speech, just before the mass suicide

The first part of a series of articles about Jim Jones published in the San Francisco Examiner in 1972.

History Channel Video and Stills

Isaacson, Barry. From Silver Lake to Suicide: One Family's Secret History of the Jonestown Massacre

Mass Suicide at Jonestown: 30 Years Later, Time magazine

Jonestown 30 Years Later photo gallery published Friday, October 17, 2008.

, "Jonestown: The Life And Death Of Peoples Temple", shown on PBS

Jonestown: 25 Years Later How spiritual journey ended in destruction Jim Jones led his flock to death in jungle by Michael Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Published Thursday, November 12, 1998.

Utopian nightmare Jonestown: What did we learn? Larry D. Hatfield, of The Examiner staff, Gregory Lewis and Eric Brazil of The Examiner staff and Examiner Librarian Judy Canter contributed to this report. Published Sunday, November 8, 1998.

Jones Captivated S.F.'s Liberal Elite They were late to discover how cunningly he curried favor by Michael Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. And [Haunted by Memories of Hell ] by Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Published Thursday, November 12, 1998. Both stories were included in the first of a two-part series.

The End To Innocent Acceptance Of Sects Sharper scrutiny is Jonestown legacy by Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle religion writer. And Most Peoples Temple Documents Still Sealed by Michael Taylor and Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. And Surviving the Heart of Darkness Twenty years later, Jackie Speier remembers how her companions and rum helped her endure the night of the Jonestown massacre by Maitland Zane, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Published Friday, November 13, 1998. All stories were included in the second part of a two-part series.

Inside Peoples Temple Marshall Kilduff and Phil Tracy, Used by permission of authors for the San Francisco Chronicle. Published Monday, August 1, 1977.

20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors by Michael Taylor, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Published Monday, November 2, 1998.

20 years after Jonestown, survivors find some peace by Anastasia Hendrix, of The Examiner staff. Published Thursday, November 19, 1998.

Category:1931 births Category:1978 deaths Category:American atheists Category:American communists Category:American Disciples of Christ Category:American socialists Category:Anti-racism Category:Bisexual people Category:Butler University alumni Category:Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) clergy Category:American Christians Category:Deaths by firearm in Guyana Category:Faith healers Category:Founders of religions Category:History of Guyana Category:LGBT people from the United States Category:Members of the Communist Party USA Category:People from Randolph County, Indiana Category:People from Richmond, Indiana Category:Peoples Temple Category:Religious people who committed suicide Category:Suicides in Guyana

Name	50 Cent
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Curtis James Jackson III
Origin	South Jamaica, Queens, New York, United States
Born	July 06, 1975
Genre	Hip hop, gangsta rap
Occupation	Rapper, actor, entrepreneur, executive producer
Years active	1997–present
Label	G-Unit records/Shady Records/Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records
Associated acts	G-Unit, Game, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Sha Money XL, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo
Url

Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005). Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by the RIAA and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. His album The Massacre has been certified five times platinum by the RIAA

Born in South Jamaica, Queens, Jackson began drug dealing at the age of twelve during the 1980s crack epidemic. After leaving drug dealing to pursue a rap career, he was shot at and struck by nine bullets during an incident in 2000. After releasing his album Guess Who's Back? in 2002, Jackson was discovered by rapper Eminem and signed to Interscope Records. With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre, who produced his first major commercial successes, Jackson became one of the world's highest selling rappers. In 2003, he founded the record label G-Unit Records, which signed several successful rappers such as Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo.

Jackson has engaged in feuds with other rappers including Ja Rule, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Cam'ron, Rick Ross, and former G-Unit members The Game and Young Buck. He has also pursued an acting career, appearing in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' in 2005, the Iraq War film Home of the Brave in 2006, and Righteous Kill in 2008. 50 Cent was ranked as the 6th best artist of the 2000-2009 decade by Billboard magazine. The magazine also ranked him as the 4th Top male artist and as the 3rd Top rapper behind Eminem and Nelly. Billboard magazine also ranked him as the 6th best and most successful Hot 100 Artist of the 2000-2009 decade and as the #1 Rap Song Artist of the 2000-2009 decade. Billboard ranked his album Get Rich or Die Tryin' as the 12th best album of the 2000-2009 decade and his album The Massacre as the 37th best album of the 2000-2009 decade.

Life and music career

Early life

Curtis Jackson III grew up in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, in New York City. He grew up without a father and was raised by his mother, Sabrina, who gave birth to him at the age of fifteen. Sabrina, a cocaine dealer, raised Jackson until the age of twelve, when she was murdered in 1988. Twenty-seven at the time, she became unconscious after someone drugged her drink. She was then left for dead after the gas in her apartment was turned on and the windows shut closed. After her death, Jackson moved into his grandparents' house with his eight aunts and uncles. He recalls, "My grandmother told me, 'Your mother's not coming home. She's not gonna come back to pick you up. You're gonna stay with us now.' That's when I started adjusting to the streets a little bit".

, August 23, 1994]] Jackson began boxing around the age of eleven. At fourteen, a neighbor opened a boxing gym for local kids. "When I wasn't killing time in school, I was sparring in the gym or selling crack on the strip", he recalled. In the mid 1980s, he competed in the Junior Olympics as an amateur boxer. He recounts, "I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too... I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like they're the champ". At the age of twelve, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was at after-school programs. He also took guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School. He later stated, "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that... After I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother [openly], 'I sell drugs.'" He adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for "change". The name was derived from Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent". Jackson chose the name "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was. I provide for myself by any means".

1996–2000: Early career

Jackson started rapping in a friend's basement where he used turntables to record over instrumentals. In 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC who was organizing his label Jam Master Jay Records. Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and how to make a record. Jackson's first official appearance was on a song titled "React" with the group Onyx on their 1998 album Shut 'Em Down. He credited Jam Master Jay as an influence who helped him improve his ability to write hooks. He also started the now-defunct Hollow Point Entertainment with former G-Unit affiliate Bang 'Em Smurf.

Jackson's popularity started to increase after the successful but controversial underground single, "How to Rob", which he wrote in half an hour while in a car on the way to a studio. The track comically explains how he would rob famous artists. He explained the reasoning behind song's content as, "There's a hundred artists on that label, you gotta separate yourself from that group and make yourself relevant".

2000–01: Shooting

On April 24, 2000, Jackson was attacked by a gunman, alleged to be Darryl "Hommo" Baum, outside his grandmother's former home in South Jamaica, Queens. He went into a friend's car, but was asked to return to the house to get jewelry. His son was in the house, while his grandmother was in the front yard. The face wound resulted in a swollen tongue, the loss of a wisdom tooth, and a small slur in his voice. His friend also sustained a gunshot wound to the hand. They were driven to the hospital where Jackson spent thirteen days. Baum, the alleged shooter, was killed three weeks later. Baum was also Mike Tyson's close friend and bodyguard.

Jackson recalled the incident saying, "It happens so fast that you don't even get a chance to shoot back.... I was scared the whole time.... I was looking in the rear-view mirror like, 'Oh shit, somebody shot me in the face! It burns, burns, burns.'"

While in the hospital, Jackson signed a publishing deal with Columbia Records. However, he was dropped from the label and "blacklisted" in the recording industry because of his song "Ghetto Qu'ran". Unable to find a studio to work with in the U.S, he traveled to Canada. Along with his business partner Sha Money XL, he recorded over thirty songs for mixtapes, with the purpose of building a reputation. According to Shady Records A&R; Marc Labelle in an interview with HitQuarters, Jackson shrewdly used the mixtape circuit to his own advantage saying, "He took all the hottest beats from every artist and flipped them with better hooks. They then got into all the markets on the mixtapes and all the mixtape DJs were messing with them." Jackson's popularity rose and in 2002, he released material independently on the mixtape, Guess Who's Back?. Beginning to attract interest, and now backed by G-Unit, Jackson continued to release music including 50 Cent Is the Future. The mixtape revisited material by Jay-Z and Raphael Saadiq. Rolling Stone noted the album for its "dark synth grooves, buzzy keyboards and a persistently funky bounce" with Jackson complementing the production in "an unflappable, laid-back flow". It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 872,000 copies in the first four days. The lead single, "In da Club", which The Source noted for its "blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps", broke a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week. Interscope granted Jackson his own label, G-Unit Records in 2003. He signed Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Young Buck as the established members of G-Unit. The Game was later signed under a joint venture with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. In March 2005, Jackson's second commercial album, The Massacre, sold 1.14 million copies in the first four days-the highest in an abbreviated sales cycle He became the first solo artist to have three singles on the Billboard top five in the same week with "Candy Shop", "Disco Inferno", and "How We Do". Rolling Stone noted that "50's secret weapon is his singing voice - the deceptively amateur-sounding tenor croon that he deploys on almost every chorus".

, Lloyd Banks, and Young Buck in Bangkok, Thailand, February 2006]] After The Game's departure, Jackson signed singer Olivia and rap veterans Mobb Deep to G-Unit Records. Spider Loc, M.O.P., 40 Glocc and Young Hot Rod later joined the label. Jackson expressed interest in working with rappers outside of G-Unit, such as Lil' Scrappy of BME, LL Cool J from Def Jam, Mase from Bad Boy, and Freeway of Roc-A-Fella, some of whom he recorded with. In September 2007, he released his third album Curtis, which was inspired by his life before Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 691,000 units in the first week, behind Kanye West's Graduation, whom he had a sales competition with, as both albums were released on the same day. He confirmed on TRL on September 10, 2008 that his fourth studio album, Before I Self Destruct, will be "done and released in November". On May 18, 2009, Jackson released a song entitled "Ok, You're Right". The song was produced by Dr. Dre and will be included in Before I Self Destruct. In Fall 2009, 50 Cent appeared in the new season of VH1's Behind The Music. On September 3, 2009 months upon the release of his "Before I Self Destruct" album 50 Cent posted a video for the Soundkillers' Phoenix produced track "Flight 187" which introduced his mixtape, the 50th LAW, and was also featured as a bonus track on his iTunes release of Before I Self Destruct. The song ignited speculation that there was tension between rapper 50 Cent and Jay Z for Jackson's comments in the song.

2010–present: New direction

In an interview with the British entertainment website ContactMusic, 50 Cent announced that he was working on a dance (primarily Eurodance) album named Black Magic. 50 Cent said he was inspired by the European nightclubs. "First they played hip-hop which suddenly changed to uptempo songs, known as Eurodance". Later however, he confirmed that he had shelved Black Magic in favor of writing new material that did not fit the concept of Black Magic. He did confirm that he is working on his yet-to-be-titled fifth studio album.

He went on The Invitation Tour in the summer of 2010, in support of Before I Self Destruct album, and the shelved Black Magic album. On September 3, 50 Cent showed support to longtime mentor Eminem, and appeared on his and Jay-Z's Home & Home Tour, performing hit songs such as "Crack A Bottle," alongside his longtime mentors Eminem and Dr. Dre, amidst rumors that 50 was no longer working with Dre.

50 Cent appeared on Michael Jackson's posthumous album Michael. He co-wrote and rapped on the song "Monster."

50 Cent recently discussed his next album while on the set of Jeremih's new music video. Referring to recent leaks as "ideas," the G-Unit leader says the new project is his "Detox Album" and it "may take ten years." He also says that he "recorded 20 songs to a whole different album concept" before he put those to the side and did something different. Planning to record and write until it feels perfect, 50 says that "its important to put out the right sound for that moment." 50 Cent finished up with a little self-confidence saying simply, "there is no one in Hip Hop that possesses the ability to do what I do."

Non-musical projects

Jackson has established himself in a variety of fields. In November 2003, he signed a five year deal with Reebok to distribute a "G-Unit Sneakers" line as part of his G-Unit Clothing Company. He provided the voice-over as the protagonist in the video game, , which was released for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and the PlayStation Portable. Its sequel, , was released in early 2009. He worked with Glacéau to create a Vitamin Water drink called Formula 50. In 2007, Coca-Cola purchased Glacéau for US$4.1 billion. Forbes estimated Jackson, who owns a stake in the company, earned $100 million from the deal after taxes. He has teamed up with Right Guard to launched a body spray called Pure 50 RGX Body Spray and a condom line called Magic Stick Condoms, in which he planned to donate part of the proceeds to HIV awareness. Jackson has signed a multi-year deal with Steiner Sports to sell his memorabilia.

In 2005, Jackson made a cameo appearance on The Simpsons episode "Pranksta Rap", in which he makes light of his legal troubles. The same year, he starred alongside Terrence Howard in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin'. He starred in the 2006 film, Home of the Brave, as a soldier returning home from the Iraq War, traumatized after killing an Iraqi woman. Jackson is working on a role as a fighter in an Angola State Prison in Spectacular Regret alongside Nicolas Cage, and starred opposite Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in 2008's Righteous Kill, a movie regarding a police death. He also started the film production companies G-Unit Films in 2007 and Cheetah Vision in 2008. In August 2007, Jackson announced plans to launch a dietary supplement company in conjunction with his movie Spectacular Regret. at the AMAs 2009]] In August, 2005, shortly before appearing in Get Rich or Die Tryin', Jackson published an autobiography entitled From Pieces to Weight: Once upon a Time in Southside Queens. In it Jackson explores the cultural and economic forces that led him to sell cocaine and crack, details his entrepreneurship as a drug-dealer and then as a rapper, and reflects on his own ethos and on society. On January 4, 2007, Jackson launched his G-Unit Books imprint at the Time Warner Building. He also co-wrote The Ski Mask Way, a novel about a small-time drug dealer who attempts to rob his employers, which is to be turned into a film. In May 2008, Jackson met billionaire Patrice Motsepe to forge a joint venture selling 50 Cent-branded platinum.

In 2008, Jackson started a reality television show on MTV titled ; the winning contestant, Ryan Mayberry, won a $100,000 investment from Jackson.

In 2010, Jackson's film company Cheetah Vision landed $200 million in funding.

Personal life

On October 13, 1997, Jackson's then-girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins gave birth to a son, Marquise Jackson. Tompkins later sued Jackson for $50 million dollars, claiming that he said that he would take care of her for life; the suit, which includes 15 claims was later dismissed by a judge, calling it "an unfortunate tale of a love relationship gone sour." As of February 2009, Tompkins' and her lawyer are considering an appeal.

The birth of his son changed Jackson's outlook on life: "When my son came into my life, my priorities changed, because I wanted to have the relationship with him, that I didn't have with my father." He credited his son for inspiring his career and being "motivation to go in a different direction".

Jackson has a tattoo of "Marquise" with an axe on his right biceps. "The axe is 'cause I'm a warrior. I don't want him to be one, though,"

In 2005, Jackson expressed support for President George W. Bush after rapper Kanye West criticized him for the slow response in assisting the Hurricane Katrina victims. If his felony convictions did not prevent him from voting, he claimed he would have voted for Bush. He later stated that Bush "has less compassion than the average human. By all means, I don't aspire to be like George Bush."

In 2007, Forbes recognized Jackson for his wealth, placing him second behind Jay-Z in the rap industry. He resides in Farmington, Connecticut, in the former mansion of ex-boxer Mike Tyson. He put the mansion for sale at $18.5 million to move closer to his son who lives in Long Island with his ex-girlfriend. On October 12, 2007, the Mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut declared it "50 Cent Curtis Jackson Day". He was honored with a key to the city and an official proclamation. One of his homes in New York purchased for 2.4 million dollars in January 2007 and at the center of a lawsuit between Jackson and ex-girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins caught fire on May 31, 2008 while he was out of town filming for a movie in Louisiana.

In December 2008 50 told the Canadian press that he had been affected by the recession, losing several million dollars on the stock market. He also went on to say that he had been unable to sell his Connecticut mansion and pushed Before I Self-Destruct back because of the recent economic downturn.

In November 2009, 50 Cent won in a lawsuit against Taco Bell over the fast food chain using his name to promote the brand without his permission.

Feuds

How To Rob

50 Cent said that he intended the single to be a joke, and not meant to disrespect anybody. Nevertheless, a number of rappers mentioned on the song responded on record. The comments made towards the Wu-Tang Clan were responded to on the Ghostface Killah album Supreme Clientele on a track called "Ghost Deini" and even more directly on a skit called "Clyde Smith" which included one of the Wu-Tang Clan members talking about how they intended to harm the rapper, which is identifiable as Raekwon when the track is sped up. A supposed diss song, "Who the Fuck Is 50 Cent", which circulated the web in the beginning of 2001 was rumored to be by the Clan, but was proven to be recorded by Polite of American Cream Team (Raekwon's then-side project).

Jay-Z also reacted to the comments in the track called "It's Hot (Some Like It Hot)", off the album :

"Go against Jigga yo' ass is dense I'm about a dollar, what the fuck is 50 Cents?"

Sticky Fingaz responded to the diss with the track "Jackin' for Beats."

"The real 50 from Brooklyn god bless he got outed You just a fake clown who front and rout about it."

Big Pun responds to this track on his album Yeeeah Baby, in the song "My Turn."

"And to the 50 Cent Rapper, very funny -- get your nut off, 'cuz in real life, we all know I'd blow your motherfucking head off...If I'm gonna write a song, it'll be about how I had to beat your mothafuckin' ass. And that'll be the name of the motherfucker: 'That's Why I Had To Beat Your Motherfucking Ass', featuring Tony Sunshine."

Kurupt responded on the diss track "Callin' Out Names."

"Now it's 50 mc's that ain't worth shit Get ya ass kicked 50 times, beat to 10 cent"

Wyclef Jean responded on the song "Low Income", from his 2000 album, The Ecleftic.

"I stay so hungry that if 50 Cent came to rob me he'd be part of my charity."

Murder Inc.

Before signing with Interscope, Jackson engaged in a well-publicized dispute with rapper Ja Rule and his label The Inc. Records. Jackson claims that a friend robbed Ja Rule of his jewelry and that Ja Rule accused him of setting it up. In March 2000, while at The Hit Factory studio in New York, Jackson had an altercation with Murder Inc. associates. He was treated for three stitches after receiving a stab wound. Rapper Black Child claimed responsibility for the stabbing, saying he acted in self-defense because he thought someone reached for a gun.

An affidavit by an IRS agent suggested that Murder Inc. had ties to Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, a New York drug lord who was suspected of being involved in the murder of Jam Master Jay and the shooting of Jackson. An excerpt of the affidavit read:

The exchange of insultive tracks released from both parties culminated into Ja Rule releasing Blood in My Eye, which was an album that mostly insulted Jackson and Eminem. Ja Rule eventually tried to squash the feud with Jackson by using minister Louis Farrakhan in a televised interview. However, the attempt at peace lost credibility as the interview was scheduled a day before Blood in My Eye was released. As a result, most fans, along with Jackson, dismissed the interview as a blatant publicity stunt.

Ja Rule later released R.U.L.E. with the successful single, "New York", featuring Jadakiss and Fat Joe in which Ja Rule took subliminal shots at Jackson. This single prompted Jackson to enter a feud with the two featured artists. The feud died down in late 2004, when Eminem released "Like Toy Soldiers" which explains the recent feuding with Ja Rule and Benzino, to which Eminem ends the song offering a truce to his enemies. Although the feud was later resurrected in early 2005.

New York rappers

Before releasing The Massacre, Jackson recorded a song "Piggy Bank", a response to Ja Rule's song "New York", which was leaked before the album's release. The song takes aim at rappers including Fat Joe, Nas, and Jadakiss. Fat Joe responded with a song, "My Fofo", accusing Jackson of taking steroids, hiding in his home, and being jealous of The Game. Jadakiss also responded with a song, "Checkmate", and said that Jackson was trying to "create a buzz for his new album". The "Piggy Bank" music video portrays animated caricatures of Jadakiss (as a Ninja turtle), Fat Joe (as an overweight boxer who receives a knockout), Nas (as a kid chasing a "milkshake" truck in a Superman costume), and The Game (as Mr. Potato Head). He also disses all of them on the beef version of his single "Window Shopper" Kelis, Nas's wife, responded to the song on her single "Bossy". Nas later responded with "Don't Body Ya Self (MC Burial)." Nas later dissed 50 on the song "Street Ridaz" on Game's mixtape "Brake Lights".

Jackson spoke negatively about Bad Boy Entertainment mogul Sean Combs and recorded a song, "Hip-Hop", revealing the reasons behind his negative feelings: primarily, a contract dispute over Mase. In the song, he implied that Diddy knew about The Notorious B.I.G.'s murder and threatened to expose him through former associates. The feud was resolved, with both rappers appearing on MTV's TRL and Sucker Free, respectively, stating that there were no longer problems. The feud reignited in 2010 with 50 Cent dissing Diddy, saying his music "sucks".

On February 1, 2007, Cam'ron and Jackson had a live argument on The Angie Martinez Show on Hot 97 radio. Jackson commented that Koch Entertainment was a "graveyard", meaning major record labels would not work with their artists. Cam'ron then ridiculed the record sales of G-Unit members Lloyd Banks and Mobb Deep by stating that Jim Jones outsold their albums despite being signed to an independent label and that his group, The Diplomats, had a distribution deal from several labels. Jackson responded by releasing "Hold On" with Young Buck.

The Game

Although he was close with The Game, before The Game released his debut album The Documentary, they soon became at odds. After its release, Jackson felt The Game was disloyal for saying he did not want to participate in G-Unit's feuds with other rappers and even wanting to work with artists they were feuding with. He also claimed that he wrote six songs on the album and was not receiving proper credit for his work, which The Game denied.

Jackson later dismissed The Game from G-Unit on Hot 97 radio. After the announcement, The Game, who was a guest earlier in the evening, attempted to enter the building with his entourage. After being denied entry, one of his associates was shot in the leg during a confrontation with a group of men leaving the building. When the situation escalated, both rappers held a press conference to announce their reconciliation. Fans had mixed feelings as to whether the rappers created a publicity stunt to boost the sales of the albums they had just released. Nevertheless, even after the situation deflated, G-Unit criticized The Game's . The group denounced The Game and announced that they will not be featured on his albums. During a Summer Jam performance, The Game launched a boycott of G-Unit called "G-Unot".

After the performance at Summer Jam, The Game responded with "300 Bars and Runnin'", an extended "diss" aimed at G-Unit as well as members of Roc-A-Fella Records on the mixtape You Know What It Is Vol. 3. Jackson responded through his "Piggy Bank" music video, which features The Game as a Mr. Potato Head doll and also parodies other rivals. Since then both groups continued to attack each other. The Game released two more mixtapes, Ghost Unit and a mixtape/DVD called Stop Snitchin, Stop Lyin.

Jackson posted a cover of The Game's head on the body of a male stripper for "Hate It or Love It (G-Unit Radio Part 21)" mixtape, as a response to The Game displaying pictures of G-Unit dressed as Village People. Although he was signed to Aftermath Entertainment, The Game left the label and signed with Geffen Records to terminate his contractual obligations with G-Unit (although others claim Jackson pressured Dr. Dre to kick him off). G-Unit member Spider Loc had also began to insult The Game on various songs. In addition, The Game released "240 Bars (Spider Joke)" and "100 Bars (The Funeral)" both attacking G-Unit, Spider Loc and others. Jackson's response was "Not Rich, Still Lyin'" where he mocks The Game. Lloyd Banks replied to the Game on a Rap City freestyle booth session. The Game quickly released a "diss" record called "SoundScan" where The Game pokes fun at Lloyd Banks' album Rotten Apple falling thirteen spots on the Billboard 200 chart and disappointing second week sales. Lloyd Banks replied on his mixtape Mo' Money In The Bank Pt. 5: Gang Green Season Continues with a song called "Showtime (The Game's Over)". Lloyd Banks states that Jackson wrote half of The Game's first album The Documentary and pokes fun at The Game's suicidal thoughts.

In October 2006, The Game extended a peace treaty to Jackson, which was not immediately replied to. However, a couple days later, on Power 106, he stated that the treaty was only offered for one day. On The Game's album, Doctor's Advocate, he claims that the feud is over on a few of the songs.

In July 2009, The Game stated the beef was squashed with help from Michael Jackson and Diddy, and he apologized for his actions during the beef. Tony Yayo said that neither Jackson or G-Unit would accept his apology. Since then, The Game continued his old "G-Unot" ways at live concerts. Jackson released "So Disrespectful" a diss song on Before I Self Destruct targeting Jay-Z, The Game and Young Buck. Game later responded with the song "Shake", poking fun of the music video for 50's single "Candy Shop", quote, "Me and 50 aint agreeing on shit so I had to (Shake) Aint no telling what he putting in that protein (Shake) Seen the candy shop video look at this nigga (Shake) And thats the same shit that made the nigga Young Buck (Shake)". He also takes shots at Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo, in which he says, "I'm surprised that Lloyd Banks and Yayo didn't (Shake) Wasn't selling no records Jimmy Iovine said (Shake)". Game also dissed G-Unit several times on the song "400 Bars".

Rick Ross

In January 2009, Rick Ross started a feud with 50 Cent because he supposedly looked at him the wrong way at the BET Awards. However, Jackson told news sources that he did not even remember seeing Rick Ross there. In late January, a track entitled "Mafia Music" by Rick Ross, leaked onto the Internet. There were several lines that seem to diss Jackson. Days later, Jackson released "Officer Ricky (Go Head, Try Me)" in response to Rick Ross's disparaging remarks on his "Mafia Music" song. The next day Rick Ross appeared on Shade 45, and told Jackson to come up with something better in 24 hours.

Before going to Venezuela, Jackson uploaded a video entitled "Warning Shot", where he warns Rick Ross: "I'ma fuck your life up for fun". In addition, Jackson released the first of a series of "Officer Ricky" cartoons. Early February, Jackson once again made a video which he uploaded to YouTube where he interviews "Tia", the mother of one of Rick Ross's children. She verifies his being a correctional officer and claims his whole persona is fake and fraudulent. On Thursday, February 5, 2009, The Game, who Jackson has a long-standing "beef" with, called up Seattle's KUBE 93 Radio Station. When asked about the beef between Jackson and Rick Ross, The Game sided with Jackson and said that things are not looking good for Rick Ross. However, he offered to help Rick Ross get out of this situation, stating "Rick Ross, holla at your boy, man," and "50 eating you, boy."

On his album Deeper Than Rap, Ross references Jackson in the song "In Cold Blood". A video for the song was released that portrayed Jackson's mock funeral. Upon release, Ross stated that he has ended Jackson's career.

In an interview, Jackson said: "Rick Ross is Albert From CB4. You ever seen the movie? He's Albert," he added. "It never gets worse than this. You get a guy that was a correctional officer come out and base his entire career on writing material from a drug dealer's perspective such as "Freeway" Ricky Ross."

Lil Wayne

After hearing word that Lil Wayne had prepared a song for him after 50 made some unkind remarks, 50 lashed out at Wayne first on August 17, 2007 with the song "Part Time Lover". Wayne never really responded to the song, although a 50 Cent diss track called "Louisianimal" did leak much later on November 17, 2008. Jackson responded to Lil Wayne in January 2009 in a song entitled "Play This On The Radio". As of August 14, 2009, the controversy between Jackson and Lil Wayne seems to have ended after Jackson appeared and performed at Lil Wayne's America's Most Wanted Musical Festival stop in Anaheim, California.

Young Buck

After numerous rumors of a "beef" within G-Unit, Jackson officially dismissed Young Buck from the group, in 2008. He later assured that he was still signed with the label. Numerous slander songs then arose on the internet from both camps, with Young Buck appearing in a music video of former rival The Game. Jackson then leaked a taped phone conversation between himself and Young Buck, which showed one of the true reasons for the falling out; Jackson was owed money by the Southern rapper. Young Buck later stated the conversation took place over a year before the leak. The two camps have since released a multitude of songs against each other, with the feud settling down by 2009, with Young Buck stating he's been working on his latest album, which is still to be released under the G-Unit label.

Lawsuit

On July 21, 2007, Jackson filed a $1 million lawsuit against advertising company Traffix Inc. of Pearl River, New York for using his image in a promotion which he claims threatens his safety. He became aware of the internet ad after one of his staff members saw it on a MySpace page. According to court documents, the ad features a cartoon image of the rapper and the message: "shoot the rapper and you will win $5000 or five ring tones guaranteed". Though the ad did not use his name, the image allegedly intended to resemble him, suggesting he endorsed the ad. The lawsuit calls it a "vile, tasteless and despicable" use of 50 Cent's image that "quite literally calls for violence against him". The lawsuit seeks for unspecified punitive damages and a permanent injunction against the use of his image without permission.

Discography

Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003)

The Massacre (2005)

Curtis (2007)

Before I Self Destruct (2009)

Black Magic (2011)

Awards and nominations

Filmography

References

External links

50 Cent at AOL Sessions

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