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• 
  

• 
  Las Vegas Strip
  The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately 4.2-mile (6.8 km) stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada. The Strip is not located within the city of Las Vegas proper— it passes through the unincorporated towns of Paradise and Winchester, which are south of the Las Vegas city limits. Most of the Strip has been designated an All-American Road.
  Many of the largest hotel, casino and resort properties in the world are located on the Las Vegas Strip. Fifteen of the world's 25 largest hotels by room count are on the Strip, with a total of over 62,000 rooms.
  One of the most visible aspects of Las Vegas' cityscape is its use of dramatic architecture. The modernization of hotels, casinos, restaurants, and residential high-rises on the Strip has established the city as one of the most popular destinations for tourists.
  Historically, the casinos that were not in Downtown Las Vegas along Fremont Street were restricted to outside of the city limits on Las Vegas Boulevard. In 1959 the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign was constructed exactly 4.5 miles (7.2 km) outside of the city limits. The sign is today about 0.4 miles (0.64 km) south of the southernmost entrance to Mandalay Bay (the southernmost casino).
  
  wn.com/Las_Vegas_Strip
• 
  Louisiana
  Louisiana (ⁱ/luːˌiːziˈænə/ or ⁱ/ˌluːziˈænə/; French: État de Louisiane, [lwizjan] ( listen); Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish.
  Much of the state was formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp. These contain a rich southern biota; typical examples include birds such as ibis and egrets. There are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape, and has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas. These support an exceptionally large number of plant species including many species of orchids and carnivorus plants.
  
  wn.com/Louisiana
• 
  Pasadena, California
  Pasadena ( /ˌpæsəˈdiːnə/) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is also the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena City College (PCC), Fuller Theological Seminary, Art Center College of Design, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Norton Simon Museum of Art and the Pacific Asia Museum.
  As of 2010 United States Census, the population of Pasadena was 137,122, making it the 180th-largest city in the United States, down from 168th place in 2009. Pasadena is the ninth-largest city in Los Angeles County, and on June 19, 1886, became the fourth to be incorporated in Los Angeles County, after Anaheim (March 18, 1876) and Santa Ana (June 1, 1886), which were part of Los Angeles County until Orange County was formed in 1889. It is one of the primary cultural centers of the San Gabriel Valley.
  
  wn.com/Pasadena,_California
• 
  Santa Monica College
  Coordinates: 34°01′00″N 118°28′15″W / 34.0168°N 118.4707°W / 34.0168; -118.4707
  Santa Monica College is a two-year, public, junior college located in Santa Monica, California, United States.
  Santa Monica College was first opened in 1929 as Santa Monica Junior College. Current enrollment is over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. The college also has the largest international student population of any junior college in the US, with approximately 3,000 students from more than 100 countries, Japan and Sweden contributing heavily.
  Santa Monica College is ranked number one among California's junior colleges in transfers to the University of California,University of Southern California, and Loyola Marymount University. Transfer courses are offered in such fields as business administration, journalism, fine arts, health sciences, computer science, engineering, and the liberal arts.
  The Santa Monica College Arts Mentor Program provides certain students in the fine and applied arts with graduate-level training by professionals in their specialized fields. The program was designed for select individuals whose talents exceed the scope of the traditional curriculum at the College.
  
  wn.com/Santa_Monica_College
• 
  Venice, Los Angeles
  Venice is a beachfront district on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is known for its canals, beaches and circus-like Ocean Front Walk, a two-and-a-half mile pedestrian-only promenade that features performers, fortune-tellers, artists, and vendors. Venice was home to some of Los Angeles' early beat poets and artists and has served as an important cultural center of the city.
  Venice is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the southwest, by the unincorporated Marina del Rey on the southeast, by Culver City on the south and east, by the Los Angeles neighborhood of Mar Vista on the northeast, and by the city of Santa Monica on the north.
  Venice of America was founded by tobacco millionaire Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a beach resort town, 14 miles (23 km) west of Los Angeles. He and his partner Francis Ryan had bought two miles (3.24 km) of oceanfront property south of Santa Monica in 1891. They built a resort town on the north end of the property called Ocean Park, which was soon annexed to Santa Monica. After Ryan died, Kinney and his new partners continued building south of Navy Street in the unincorporated territory. After the partnership dissolved in 1904, Kinney built on the marshy land on the south end of the property, intending to create a seaside resort like its namesake in Italy.
  
  wn.com/Venice,_Los_Angeles

• 
  2 Pistols
  Jeremy Lemont Saunders (born June 11, 1983), better known by his stage name 2 Pistols, is an American rapper from Tarpon Springs, Florida.
  Saunders' first success in rapping had come with an independent record called "Dirty Foot," which he wrote while still in high school and distributed in the Tarpon Springs area, at the urging of his cousin. After hearing it played in a local dance club and then witnessing another rapper's performance, 2 Pistols had his first chance to perform on-stage. After taking the stage and performing his own single ("Dirty Foot"), 2 Pistols' confidence in his abilities grew to a point that he began to take his chances at making a career of music seriously.
  His debut album, Death Before Dishonor, was released on June 17, 2008 and featured production from the Grammy-winning J.U.S.T.I.C.E League, Da Honorable C.N.O.T.E, Bolo "Da" Producer, and other up and coming producers. Other tracks from the album included "You Know Me feat. Ray J" & "Thats My Word feat.Trey Songz"," in addition to "She Got It." The album peaked at #32 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, and rose to #10 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop album chart. 2 Pistols currently resides in Tampa, Florida and is currently signed to Blood Money Union/SIMM Entertainment, Inc..
  
  wn.com/2_Pistols
• Ace Hood
  Antoine McColister, (born May 11, 1988), better known by his stage name Ace Hood, is an American rapper. Originating from Broward County, Florida, he is signed to DJ Khaled's label We the Best Music Group and Cash Money Records. he is formerly signed to Def Jam Recordings. His song "Top of the World", from his debut studio album Gutta, was also featured in the basketball simulation game, NBA 2K10.
  In 2007, he met DJ Khaled outside the offices of WEDR 99 Jamz, a South Florida radio station that mainly plays hip hop and contemporary R&B music. After Ace gave him an autobiography and demo tape, Khaled asked Ace to rap over the instrumental of "I'm So Hood" and later signed Hood to his label, We the Best. Ace was named with several others to the Freshmen of 09 by XXL magazine.
  His first album, Gutta, was released in 2008. Singles included "Cash Flow" featuring T-Pain and Rick Ross, and "Ride" featuring Trey Songz. Hood also released mixtapes called Ace Won't Fold and All Bets On Ace. He made a guest performance among several rappers on DJ Khaled's single "Out Here Grindin'", also featuring Akon, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Lil Boosie, Trick Daddy and Plies, which peaked at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Ace Hood's biggest hit. It is from Khaled's third studio album We Global, and was eventually certified gold by the RIAA. Ace Hood appeared on Wildstyle Radio with Rome and Hoss on WUAG 103.1FM in Greensboro, North Carolina, on September 7, 2008, to promote his album, Gutta, along with DJ Khaled. The album debuted at #36 on the Billboard 200, selling 25,000 copies its first week.
  
  wn.com/Ace_Hood
• Al Bell
  Al Bell (born Alvertis Isbell on March 15, 1940 in Brinkley, Arkansas, USA ) is an American record producer, songwriter, and record executive. Bell is best known as one of the key figures behind and a co-owner of Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records during the later half of the label's nineteen-year existence. A former disc jockey in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, Bell was vital to the careers of Stax's soul stars such as The Staples Singers and Isaac Hayes, The Emotions, The Dramatics, and Mel and Tim. Bell's promotional efforts drove the “Memphis Sound” internationally, and made Stax the second-largest African American-owned business in the 1970s. In 2009, the BBC profiled Bell as "one of the icons of soul music" and "the driving force behind Stax Records"
  Following his career at Stax, Bell became President of Motown Records Group during its restructuring for sale to MCA and Boston Ventures Group, and later started his own label, Bellmark, whose releases included Tag Team's single “Whoomp! (There It Is)” (1993). Today, Bell works in the independent music scene in Memphis, as well as maintaining an online music website and radio show at AlBellPresents.com
  
  wn.com/Al_Bell
• 
  Al Green
  Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together". In 2005, Rolling Stone named him #66 in their list of the '100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. The nomination stated that "people are born to do certain things, and Al was born to make us smile." The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Green in 1995, referring to him as "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music." Green has sold more than 20 million records.
  Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was the sixth of ten children born to Robert and Cora Greene. The son of a sharecropper, he started performing at age ten in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "E" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. His father kicked him out of the group because he caught Green listening to Jackie Wilson.
  
  wn.com/Al_Green
• Al Jackson, Jr.
  Al Jackson, Jr. (November 27, 1935 – October 1, 1975) was a drummer, producer, and songwriter. He is best known as a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, a group of session musicians who worked for Stax Records and produced their own instrumentals. Jackson was called "The Human Timekeeper" for his drumming ability.
  Jackson's father, Al Jackson Sr., led a jazz/swing dance band in Memphis, Tennessee. The young Jackson started drumming at an early age and began playing on stage with his father's band in 1940 at the age of five. He later played in producer/trumpeter Willie Mitchell's band and at the same time was holding down a chair in the popular Ben Branch Band. Future band mates Steve Cropper and Donald "Duck" Dunn first saw Jackson playing in Mitchell's band at the all-white Manhattan Club.
  In an interview with DRUM! Magazine, Mitchell says,
  "Al Junior was about 14 years old then. I said to his father, 'Hey, let’s use your son!' He said, 'Oh, man, he can’t play this sh*t!' But he did make the gig. He set up his kit – a cymbal, a snare drum, and a bass drum – and I kicked the thing off. And, man, that thing went off at 20 tempos! But that was around 7:00 o'clock. And by the time Al Senior came in an hour later, at 8:00 o'clock, Al Jackson Jr. was swinging that damn band like a pro."
  
  wn.com/Al_Jackson,_Jr.
• 
  Albert King
  Albert King (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992) was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.
  One of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with B.B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) (some reports say 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)) and weighed 250 pounds (110 kg) and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. Although unrelated, Albert occasionally referred to himself as "B.B. King's half brother". During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas, where the family moved when he was eight.
  He began his professional work as a musician with a group called In The Groove Boys in Osceola, Arkansas. Moving north to Gary, Indiana and later St. Louis, Missouri, he briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed's band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, but also, interestingly enough, Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V which he named "Lucy". King earned his nickname "The Velvet Bulldozer" during this period as he drove one of them and also worked as a mechanic to make a living.
  
  wn.com/Albert_King
• 
  Angie Stone
  Angie Stone (born Angela Laverne Brown on December 18, 1961) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. She has been most successful on the R&B charts, with four Top 10 albums, including a number one album, and ten singles, including a Top 10. She has sold over 1.4 millions albums in the U.S. and over 5 millions albums worldwide.
  Stone was born in Columbia, South Carolina, where she began singing gospel music at First Nazareth Baptist Church, under the leadership of Reverend Blakely N. Scott.
  She has a daughter and son. Her daughter Diamond (born 1984) is from her marriage to Rodney Stone (also known as Lil' Rodney C!, from the hip hop group Funky Four Plus One). Diamond contributed background vocals to her 2007 song "Baby", and gave birth to Stone's grandson in 2008. During the 1990s Stone dated neo soul singer D'Angelo. Their son Michael was born in 1998. Stone lives in Atlanta, Georgia with Michael and fiancé Ashanti, an airline auditor who has two children of his own.
  
  wn.com/Angie_Stone
• 
  B.B. King
  Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American songwriter, vocalist, and famed blues guitarist.
  Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No. 6 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. and No. 17 in in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time. According to Edward M. Komara, King "introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed." King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
  King was born in a small cabin on a cotton plantation outside of Berclair, Mississippi, to Albert King and Nora Ella Farr on September 16, 1925.
  
  wn.com/B.B._King
• B.G. (rapper)
  Christopher Dorsey (born September 3, 1980), better known by his stage name B.G. (short for "Baby Gangsta" or "B. Gizzle"'), is an American rapper and actor, from New Orleans, Louisiana. He began his music career signed to Cash Money Records in 1993 with Lil Wayne as half of the duo The B.G.'z . Both, along with rappers Juvenile and Turk collectively formed the group, the Hot Boys in 1997. In 2001, B.G. resigned from Cash Money Records, and created his own label, Chopper City Records. In 2006 he signed with G-Unit South (now Ca$hville Records), then was released from the label due to the feud between Young Buck and 50 Cent.
  Christopher Dorsey was born on September 3, 1980, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in the Uptown section.
  Dorsey's stage name B.G. or B. Gizzle is short for "Baby Gangsta". In 1995 he released a collaboration album with Lil Wayne titled True Story, released by Cash Money Records in 1995.
  Following were Chopper City in 1996, It's All on U, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 in 1997. B.G. was also part of the group Hot Boys with other local rappers Lil Wayne, Juvenile, Turk, and Baby's nephew Derrick a.k.a. Bulletproof. Soon after Derrick, the fifth member of the Hot Boys, left the group to pursue a solo career. The group's debut album, Get It How U Live!, was released in 1997.
  
  wn.com/B.G._(rapper)
• 
  Berry Gordy
  Berry Gordy, Jr. (born November 28, 1929) is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.
  Berry Gordy, Jr. (born in Detroit, Michigan) was the seventh of eight children (Fuller, Esther, Anna, Loucye, George, Gwen, Berry and Robert), born to the middle-class family of Berry Gordy II (a.k.a. Berry Gordy, Sr.) and Bertha Fuller Gordy (1899–1975), who had relocated to Detroit from Milledgeville, Georgia, in 1922. Gordy was brought up in a tight-knit family with strong morals.^{[citation needed]} Berry Gordy II (1888–1978) was the son of Berry Gordy I and a woman named Lucy Hellum. Berry Gordy I was the son of James Thomas Gordy, a white plantation owner in Georgia, and his female slave Esther Johnson. Berry Gordy, Jr. is distantly related to former president Jimmy Carter through Carter's mother, Bessie Lillian Gordy.
  Berry Gordy II was lured to Detroit by the many job opportunities for black people offered by booming automotive businesses.
  
  wn.com/Berry_Gordy
• 
  Big Star
  Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the work of British Invasion groups including The Beatles and The Kinks, as well as The Byrds, The Beach Boys, and other US acts. To the resulting power pop, Big Star added dark, nihilistic themes, and produced a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Before it broke up, Big Star created a "seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations" in the words of Rolling Stone, as the "quintessential American power pop band" and "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll".
  Big Star's first album—1972's #1 Record—was met by enthusiastic reviews, but ineffective marketing by Stax Records and limited distribution stunted its commercial success. Frustration took its toll on band relations, and by the time a second album was completed in January 1974 both Bell and Hummel had left the group. Like #1 Record, Radio City received excellent reviews, but label issues again thwarted sales—Columbia Records, which had assumed control of the Stax catalog, likewise effectively vetoed its distribution. After a third album was deemed non-commercially viable and shelved before receiving a title, the band broke up late in 1974. Four years later, the first two Big Star LPs were released together as a double album. The band's third album was finally issued soon afterward; entitled Third/Sister Lovers, it found limited commercial success. Shortly thereafter, Chris Bell was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 27.
  
  wn.com/Big_Star
• Big Tymers
  The Big Tymers were an American rap duo active from 1997 to 2005 from New Orleans, Louisiana. The Big Tymers consisted of Cash Money Records co-founder, Baby and former Cash Money in-house producer, Mannie Fresh. Baby later changed his stage name to Birdman after the group was dissolved. The Big Tymers released their debut album in 1998 entitled, How You Luv That, and a remixed version of their debut album, How You Luv That Vol. 2 which gave them an abundant amount of publicity afterwards. They recorded their first platinum selling album in 2000 entitled, I Got That Work. The lead single from I Got That Work, "Number One Stunna" peaked at #24 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. The group released its most successful album in 2002, entitled Hood Rich. The album reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 200 and spawned a major hit in "Still Fly" which reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Later in 2002, Mannie Fresh resigned from Cash Money Records because of financial dispute with Birdman, and his brother Slim. The group later reunited again in 2003 for their final album entitled, Big Money Heavyweight.
  
  wn.com/Big_Tymers
• 
  Biggie Smalls
  Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), best known as The Notorious B.I.G., was an American rapper. He was also known as Biggie Smalls (after a character in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again).
  Wallace was raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. When Wallace released his debut album Ready to Die in 1994, he became a central figure in the East Coast hip-hop scene and increased New York's visibility at a time when West Coast artists were more common in the mainstream. The following year, Wallace led his childhood friends to chart success through his protégé group, Junior M.A.F.I.A. While recording his second album, Wallace was heavily involved in the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop feud, dominating the scene at the time.
  On March 9, 1997, Wallace was killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. His double-disc set Life After Death, released 15 days later, hit #1 on the U.S. album charts and was certified Diamond in 2000 (one of the few hip hop albums to receive this certification). Wallace was noted for his "loose, easy flow", dark semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling abilities. Since his death, a further two albums have been released. MTV ranked him at #3 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time. He has certified sales of 17 million units in the United States.
  
  wn.com/Biggie_Smalls
• 
  Birdman (rapper)
  Bryan Williams (born February 15, 1969), better known by his stage name Birdman or Baby, is an American rapper, businessman, and record producer. He is the co-founder of Cash Money Records and one half of the duo Big Tymers. Along with his releases with Big Tymers and for his solo career, Birdman recorded a collaboration album and numerous tracks with his adopted son Weezy. Birdman has also made his name by contributing to the making of YMCMB (Young Money Cash Money Billionaires). According to Forbes, he grossed an estimated $15 million from May 2010 to May 2011 with a net worth estimated at $110 million in 2011.
  In 1997, he joined producer and DJ Mannie Fresh to form the duo Big Tymers. Big Tymers debuted in 1998 with the album How Ya Luv That? and went on to release I Got That Work in 2000 and Hood Rich in 2002. I Got That Work had the hit singles "Get Your Roll On" and "#1 Stunna"; Hood Rich had "Still Fly", which was nominated for a Grammy, and "Oh Yeah!" Big Money Heavyweight followed in 2003; the group disbanded in 2004. His son Bryan Williams Jr., was born in February 26, 1997; his daughter Bria Williams in March 4, 1998.
  
  wn.com/Birdman_(rapper)
• 
  Booker T. Jones
  Booker T. Jones (born November 12, 1944) is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement.
  Booker T. Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1944. He was named in honor of Booker T. Washington, but unlike Washington (whose middle name was Taliaferro), Jones was only given the middle initial "T": "Booker T. Jones" is his full name.
  Jones was a prodigy, playing the oboe, saxophone, trombone, and piano at school and serving as organist at his church. He attended Booker T. Washington High School, the alma mater of Rufus Thomas and shared the hallowed halls with future stars like Isaac Hayes's writing partner David Porter; saxophonist Andrew Love of The Memphis Horns; soul singer/songwriter William Bell and Earth, Wind, & Fire's Maurice White.
  Jones's first entry into professional music came at age sixteen, when he played baritone saxophone on Satellite (soon to be Stax) Records' first hit, "Cause I Love You", by Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas.
  
  wn.com/Booker_T._Jones
• 
  Brenda Holloway
  Brenda Holloway (born June 21, 1946) is an American singer and songwriter, who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. Her best-known recordings are the soul hits, "Every Little Bit Hurts" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy." The latter, which she co-wrote, was later widely popularized when it became a Top Ten hit for Blood, Sweat & Tears. She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s, after her recordings had become popular on the British "Northern soul" scene.
  She was born in Atascadero, California, the eldest of three children to Wade and Johnnie Mae (Fossett) Holloway. In 1948, she and her infant brother, Wade, Jr., moved with their parents to the Watts section of Los Angeles where her sister, Patrice, was born in 1951. Brenda took up violin, flute and piano and sang in her church choir, as well as developing a love of classical music. At the age of 14, Brenda began working on demonstration records and singing backup for Los Angeles-based R&B acts, and with the young Patrice.
  
  wn.com/Brenda_Holloway
• Brisco (rapper)
  British Alexander Mitchell (born June 28, 1983), who performs under the stage name Brisco, is an American rapper.
  Mitchell grew up in Opa-locka, Florida. His mother died when he was 9, and four years later; at age 13, his brother was killed in a car accident. At age 14, the troubled teen’s cousin introduced him to his best friend, E-Class, the founder of Poe Boy Entertainment.
  Mitchell met Poe Boy Entertainment founder E-Class in 1997. E-Class encouraged him to express his life hardships through rap. Mitchell signed to Poe Boy a few years later and received his first payment from his mother's life insurance check in 2001. However, he spent all $400,000 in six months.
  In 2006, Mitchell, under stage name Brisco, did guest performances on tracks from DJ Khaled's Listennn... the Album ("The Future of Dade") and Rick Ross's Port of Miami ("I'm a G", also with Lil Wayne). Lil Wayne signed Brisco to Cash Money Records in November that year. Brisco began recording an album for Poe Boy and Cash Money, Street Medicine, in 2007 which resulted in popular records such as "I'm Into Dat" and "Opa-locka". He also made his big debut with Cash Money on Lil' Wayne's mixtape Da Drought 3 on a song called New Cash Money.
  
  wn.com/Brisco_(rapper)
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  Busta Rhymes
  Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., (born May 20, 1972), better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes, is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes. Early in his career, he was known for his wild style and fashion, and today is best known for his intricate rapping technique, which involves rapping at a fast rate with lots of internal rhyme and half rhyme, and to date has received eleven Grammy nominations for his musical work. About.com included him on its list of the 50 Greatest MCs of Our Time (1987–2007), while Steve Huey of Allmusic called him one of the best and most prolific rappers of the '90s.
  Busta was born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, to Jamaican parents Geraldine Green and Trevor Smith, Sr. in 1972. Smith attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, alongside Jay-Z, DMX and The Notorious B.I.G. He went to Uniondale High School on Long Island, graduating in 1990.
  
  wn.com/Busta_Rhymes
• Carla Thomas
  Carla Thomas (born December 21, 1942, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.
  Carla Thomas was born on December 21, 1942, in the Foote Homes Housing Project in Memphis, Tennessee. Her parents, Rufus and Lorene Thomas, brought three musically gifted children into this world: Carla, Marvell and Vaneese. Despite growing up in the projects, the Thomas family lived in close proximity to the locally celebrated Palace Theater on world-famous Beale Street, as Rufus was the theater’s emcee for their amateur shows. This access not only gave Thomas her first taste of the music world but it also provided a springboard for her transformation into the Queen of the Memphis Sound.
  In Memphis, the African American centered WDIA radio station sponsored a rotating musical group of high school students called the Teen Town Singers; notable alumni include Anita Louis and Isaac Hayes. Although the requirements to join the Teen Town Singers stated that the person should be of high school age, Thomas became a member in 1952 at the age of 10. She was able to sneak into their ranks thanks to the fact that her father Rufus was an on-air personality for the radio station. This opportunity with the Teen Town Singers did not come without its drawbacks though. As a 10 year old student, Thomas was responsible for not only attending classes and completing her schoolwork, but she also had to attend rehearsals on Wednesdays and Fridays after school and then perform at the station on Saturday. However, despite this grueling schedule, Thomas thoroughly enjoyed the experience. According to her, “It was a lot of fun, it really was.” She remained with the Teen Town Singers up until the end of her senior year.
  
  wn.com/Carla_Thomas
• Cool & Dre
  Cool & Dre are a team of hip hop producers from Miami, Florida, consisting of Marcello "Cool" Valenzano and Andre "Dre" Christopher Lyon.
  The duo started their own record label, Epidemic Records. They signed a contract with Jive Records in 2003 concerning the distribution of their first artist, Dirtbag.^{[citation needed]}
  In August 2010, the duo officially partnered with Cash Money Records. In April 2011, the duo signed a deal with Interscope Records through Cash Money (the first time Cash Money is under another Universal label), also to distribute their label Epidemic Records.
  
  wn.com/Cool_&_Dre
• Cory Gunz
  Peter Cory Pankey, Jr. (June 22, 1987) is an American rapper, better known by his stage name Cory Gunz. He is the son of rapper Peter Gunz, member of the rap duo Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz, and cousin of fellow rapper Junior.^{[disambiguation needed ]} Gunz is currently signed to Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, After Platinum Records and Universal Republic Records. He is a native of the Bronx. He was first signed by Tommy Mottola to Casablanca Records and Def Jam Recordings.
  Jay-Z shepherded him into a joint venture through The Island Def Jam Music Group. He was featured on a remix of Rihanna's "If It's Lovin' That You Want". Gunz The Apprentice 3 - Season Finale has amassed over 85,000 listens on the mixtape website Datpiff. He also contributed a verse to the original version of Lil Wayne's A Milli before it was replaced with new verses by Wayne for the album version. In early 2010 Cory Gunz inked a deal with Young Money Entertaimnent, After Platinum Records and Universal Motown. Gunz has also worked with actor and musician Nick Cannon. He is featured in Lil Wayne's single "6 Foot 7 Foot."
  
  wn.com/Cory_Gunz
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  Currensy
  Shante Scott Franklin, April 4, 1981, better known by his stage name Curren$y is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is from the 3rd Ward in New Orleans.
  In 2002, Curren$y signed to Master P's No Limit Records and was a member of the 504 Boyz. The Song "Get Back" by 504 Boyz made it to the Malibu's Most Wanted soundtrack. Curren$y appeared on 5 songs in Master P's Good Side, Bad Side album, released in 2004.^{[citation needed]} Even though he was signed with No limit he represented C-Murders TRU label. Curren$y has several songs with incarcerated friend C-Murder, and was featured on the late Soulja Slim's album, Years Later.
  Later on in 2004, Curren$y signed with Cash Money Records and Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment. He featured in Lil Wayne's Dedication 1,Dedication 2,Suffix and several unreleased songs while with Young Money. He released a mixtape entitled 'Welcome Back,' in 2004. He was featured in Lil Wayne's "Grown man" on the Carter 2 and on the "Grown man remix" with Boo. He remained in Young Money until late 2007. While still at Young Money, Curren$y created Fly Society with skateboarder Terry Kennedy, first as a clothing company, then expanding to release music. He released the song, "Where da Cash At" as the lead single for his Young Money debut, Music To Fly To, in 2006, but had to deal with several push-backs and lack of promotion. Also in 2006, he released G Series with Young Money members, Mack Maine and Lil Wayne. In 2007, another mixtape was released entitled "Life at 30,000 Feet". Curren$y decided to leave the label and venture off to do business on his own.
  
  wn.com/Currensy
• 
  Diana Ross
  Diana Ernestine Earle Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, record producer, and actress.
  Diana Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that has included successful ventures into film and Broadway. She received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972), for which she won a Golden Globe award. She has won seven American Music Awards, was honored with a 2012 Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, and won a Tony Award for her one-woman show, An Evening with Diana Ross, in 1977.
  In 1976, Billboard magazine named her the "Female Entertainer of the Century." In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Diana Ross the most successful female music artist in history due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts with a career total of 18 number one records in the United States. Diana Ross has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
  
  wn.com/Diana_Ross
• 
  DJ Khaled
  Khaled Bin Abdul Khaled (born November 26, 1975), better known by his stage name DJ Khaled, is an American record producer, radio personality, DJ, rapper & record label executive. He is a radio host for the Miami-based urban music radio station WEDR and the DJ for the hip hop group Terror Squad. In 2006, Khaled released his debut album Listennn... the Album. He went on to release We the Best (2007), We Global (2008), Victory (2010), and We the Best Forever (2011). In 2009, Khaled became the president of record label Def Jam South.
  Khaled was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is of Palestinian descent and lives in Sunny Isles, Florida. Currently, he hosts the weeknight program TakeOver on Miami-based urban music radio station WEDR with fellow host K. Foxx; Khaled states that he has worked for the station professionally since 2003. Early in his career he dj'd for a south Florida regional station Power 96.5 FM. In 1998, Khaled worked as a "sidekick" for Miami rapper Luther Campbell for Campbell's Friday night WEDR radio show The Luke Show. In his albums, Khaled usually provides "shoutouts" that assert his representation of "the ghetto" and urges people to listen. From 2004 to 2006, Khaled assisted in the production of the hip-hop albums Real Talk by Fabolous, True Story by Terror Squad, All or Nothing by Fat Joe, and Me, Myself, & I by Fat Joe. Many of DJ Khaled's songs are known to entice the listener by hip hop chanting his name before the song starts. Khaled represents the Kendall area of Miami. He is Muslim. He is currently engaged to Nicole Tuck.
  
  wn.com/DJ_Khaled
• 
  Donald "Duck" Dunn
  Donald “Duck” Dunn (November 24, 1941 – May 13, 2012) was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax Records, which specialized in blues and gospel-infused southern soul and Memphis soul music styles. Dunn also performed on recordings with The Blues Brothers, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Albert King, Levon Helm, Neil Young, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Guy Sebastian, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Roy Buchanan, Steely Dan and Arthur Conley.
  Dunn was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His father nicknamed him "Duck" while watching Disney cartoons with him one day. Dunn grew up playing sports and riding his bike with fellow future professional musician Steve Cropper. After Cropper began playing guitar with mutual friend Charlie Freeman, Dunn decided to pick up the bass guitar. Eventually, along with drummer Terry Johnson, the four became "The Royal Spades". The Messick High School group picked up keyboardist Jerry "Smoochy" Smith, singer Ronnie Angel (also known as Stoots), and a budding young horn section in baritone saxophone player Don Nix, tenor saxophone player Charles "Packy" Axton, and trumpeter (and future co-founder of The Memphis Horns) Wayne Jackson.
  
  wn.com/Donald_"Duck"_Dunn
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  Eddie Floyd
  Eddie Lee Floyd (born June 25, 1937) is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".
  Floyd was born in Montgomery, Alabama, but grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He founded The Falcons, which also featured Mack Rice. They were forerunners to future Detroit vocal groups such as The Temptations and The Four Tops. Their most successful songs included "You're So Fine" and later, when Wilson Pickett was recruited into the group as the lead singer, "I Found a Love". Pickett then embarked on a solo career, and The Falcons disbanded.
  Floyd signed on with the Memphis based Stax Records as a songwriter in 1965. He wrote a hit song, "Comfort Me" recorded by Carla Thomas. He then teamed with Stax's guitarist Steve Cropper to write songs for Wilson Pickett, now signed to Atlantic Records. Atlantic distributed Stax and Jerry Wexler brought Pickett down from New York to work with Booker T. & the MGs. The Pickett sessions were successful, yielding several pop and R&B hits, including the Floyd co-written "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)" and "634-5789 (Soulsville USA)".
  
  wn.com/Eddie_Floyd
• Estelle Axton
  Estelle Axton (September 11, 1918 – February 25, 2004) was the co-founder, with her brother Jim Stewart, of Stax Records.
  Born in Middleton, Tennessee, Estelle Stewart grew up on a farm. She moved to Memphis as a school teacher, married Everett Axton, and was working in a bank when, in 1958, her brother Jim Stewart asked for help to develop Satellite Records, which he had set up to issue recordings of local country and rockabilly artists. She convinced her husband that they should remortgage their house and, in 1959, joined Satellite as an equal partner. The following year, Axton and Stewart turned the Capitol Theatre, in a black Memphis neighbourhood, into a recording studio and record shop, and began making hit records with predominantly black artists.
  Satellite was forced to change its name after it was discovered that a Los Angeles label already owned the title, and it changed its name to Stax, taking its name from Axton and Stewart's surnames. Axton was actively involved with selecting and developing the artists on the label, who included Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, and Isaac Hayes.
  
  wn.com/Estelle_Axton
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  Eve
  Eve (Hebrew: חַוָּה‎, Ḥawwāh in Classical Hebrew, Khavah in Modern Israeli Hebrew, Arabic: حواء‎, Syriac: ܚܘܐ ) was, according to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, the first woman created by God, in the Genesis creation narrative.
  In the Bible, Eve (Hebrew: חַוָּה, Ḥawwāh; Arabic: حواء‎, Hawwa'; Ge'ez: ሕይዋን Hiywan; "living one" or "source of life", related to ḥāyâ, "to live"; ultimately from the Semitic root ḥyw; Greek: Εὕα, heúā) is Adam's wife. Her name occurs only four times; the first being Genesis 3:20: "And Adam called his wife's name Ḥawwāh; because she was the mother of all living" (a title previously held by the Babylonian creatrix Tiamat). In Vulgate she appears as "Hava" in the Old Testament, but "Eva" in the New Testament. The name may actually be derived from that of the Hurrian Goddess Kheba, who was shown in the Amarna Letters to be worshipped in Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age. It has been suggested that the name Kheba may derive from Kubau, a woman who reigned as the first king of the Third Dynasty of Kish Another name of Asherah in the first millennium BCE was Chawat, Hawwah in Aramaic, (Eve in English).
  
  wn.com/Eve
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  Faith Evans
  Faith Renée Evans (born June 10, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Evans relocated to Los Angeles during 1993 for a career in the music business. After working as a backing vocalist for Al B. Sure and Christopher Williams, she became the first female artist to be contracted with Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment recording company during 1994, for which she released three platinum-certified studio albums between the years 1995 and 2001. During 2003, she ended her relationship with the company to contract with Capitol Records.
  Other than her recording career, Evans is known as the widow of New York rapper Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, whom she married on August 4, 1994, a few weeks after meeting at a Bad Boy photoshoot. The turbulent marriage resulted in Evans' involvement in the East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud, dominating the rap music news at the time, and ended with Wallace's murder in a yet-unsolved drive-by shooting in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. A 1997 tribute single featuring Puff Daddy and the band 112, named "I'll Be Missing You", became Evans' best-selling song to date and won her a Grammy Award during 1998.
  
  wn.com/Faith_Evans
• 
  Freeway (rapper)
  Leslie Edward Pridgen (born August 6, 1978), better known by his stage name Freeway, is an American rapper. Best known for his tenure on Roc-A-Fella Records and his affiliation with Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel, he is recognized by his high-pitched delivery (akin to that of Ghostface Killah) and for the long beard he keeps due to his Muslim faith. His moniker is derived from the name of the infamous drug trafficker "Freeway" Ricky Ross. He was a member of the rap group Ice City, is a member of the rap group State Property and recently signed to Cash Money Records but only lasted one and a half years with the label. The record labels Freeway is now with are Rhymesayers Entertainment and G-Unit Philly.
  Born Leslie Pridgen, Freeway began his career by participating in freestyle battles in his high school and met fellow Philadelphia native Beanie Sigel while rapping on stage at a hometown nightclub. Not long after being signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, Sigel put in a word for Freeway, who made his first appearance on The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, on the track "1-900-Hustler" with Beanie, Jay-Z, and Memphis Bleek. After the appearance, Jay-Z signed him to a deal; he was featured on "Think it's a Game," also alongside Jay-Z, on Beanie's second album The Reason. In 2001, he underwent a notorious freestyle battle with then-unsigned rapper Cassidy, hosted by Swizz Beatz and lost with a unanimous judges decision.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Freeway_(rapper)
• Gerald Levert
  Gerald Levert (July 13, 1966 – November 10, 2006) was an American R&B singer. Gerald Levert sang with his brother, Sean Levert, and friend Marc Gordon in the R&B trio LeVert. He was also a part of LSG, an R&B supergroup comprising Keith Sweat, Johnny Gill, and Levert. His father, Eddie Levert, is the lead singer of the 1970s soul group The O'Jays.
  Gerald Levert was born to The O'Jays frontman Eddie Levert and his wife Martha in Canton, Ohio on July 13, 1966. Levert grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and due to his father's career, Levert would travel with the band regularly. While in high school, Levert's inclination towards music became apparent when he formed the R&B trio LeVert, with his younger brother Sean Levert (deceased, March 30, 2008) and friend Marc Gordon in 1984. Four of the group's seven albums went platinum. These include, I Get Hot in 1985, Bloodline in 1986, The Big Throwdown in 1987, and Just Coolin in 1988. Among the group's memorable hits were, "(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind", "Casanova", and "ABC-123" (not to be confused with The Jackson 5 hit with a similar title).
  
  wn.com/Gerald_Levert
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  Giorgio Moroder
  Hansjörg "Giorgio" Moroder, named on record sleeves often only Giorgio (born 26 April 1940, Urtijëi, South Tyrol, Italy) is an Italian (of Ladin ethnicity) record producer, songwriter and performer based in Los Angeles. When in Munich in the 1970s, he started his own record label called Oasis Records, which several years later became a subdivision of Casablanca Records. He collaborated with Donna Summer during the era of disco (including "Love to Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love") and is the founder of the former Musicland Studios in Munich, which was used as a recording studio by artists including the Electric Light Orchestra, Led Zeppelin, Queen and Elton John.
  In addition to producing several hits with Donna Summer, Moroder also produced a number of electronic disco hits for The Three Degrees, two albums for Sparks, a handful of songs on Bonnie Tyler's album Bitterblue as well as her 1985 single "Here She Comes" and a score of songs for performers including David Bowie, Irene Cara, Madleen Kane, Melissa Manchester, Blondie, Japan, and France Joli.
  
  wn.com/Giorgio_Moroder
• Glasses Malone
  Charles Phillipivory Penniman (born December 10, 1979), better known by his stage name Glasses Malone, is an American rapper from Los Angeles, California.
  Glasses Malone grew up in the Watts and Compton neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. His mother served a 25-year sentence in prison for selling narcotics, and Malone was a Crip gang member as a teenager.
  Traditionally associated with The Black Wall Street Records despite the fact that most the artists on the record label were affiliated with the Bloods, Malone signed with the record label, but later signed with Cash Money Records in 2011, turning down offers from many labels like Def Jam Records,Interscope Records, J Records and Atlantic Records. Glasses Malone was found by the same record executive that found The Game. Along with his signing, he was also given his own imprint, Blu Division. G. Malone debuted with mixtapes The Crack Mixtape (2003) and White Lightnin...Sticks (2005).White Lightnin...Sticks sold 50,000 copies and included the popular street single "Two Hunned".
  
  wn.com/Glasses_Malone
• Hal Davis
  Harold Edward "Hal" Davis (February 8, 1933 — November 18, 1998) was an African American songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the key figure in the latter part of the Motown career of The Jackson 5.
  Davis was the co-writer and producer of Jackson 5 hits such as "I'll Be There" and "Dancing Machine," and Eddie Kendricks' "Can I." Davis also produced for Bette Midler (her Motown record of 1975, produced by Davis, was never released), Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, The Supremes, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Brenda Holloway, Thelma Houston, Joy Holden, Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Marvin Gaye, Little Stevie Wonder, Four Tops, Junior Walker, and The Miracles.
  Hal Davis was a producer and writer for Motown Records for nearly thirty years. He and Marc Gordon opened Mowest, Motown's west coast office division, in the late 1960s. He first had some regional hits with "Do The Del Viking" by Patrice Holloway and "Moment to Remember" by Jenell Hawkins on his own label.
  
  wn.com/Hal_Davis
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  Harry Belafonte
  Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. (born March 1, 1927) is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". Throughout his career he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes and was a vocal critic of the policies of the George W. Bush Administration.
  Born Harold George Bellanfanti, Jr., at Lying-in Hospital, Harlem, New York, Belafonte was the son of Melvine (née Love) – a housekeeper of Jamaican descent – and Harold George Bellanfanti, Sr., a Martiniquan who worked as a chef in the National Guard. From 1932 to 1940, he lived with his grandmother in her native country of Jamaica. When he returned to New York City, he attended George Washington High School after which he joined the Navy and served during World War II. In the 1940s, he was working as a janitor's assistant in NYC when a tenant gave him, as a gratuity, two tickets to see the American Negro Theater. He fell in love with the art form and also met Sidney Poitier. The financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play. At the end of the 1940s, he took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator alongside Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, Bea Arthur and Sidney Poitier, while performing with the American Negro Theatre. He subsequently received a Tony Award for his participation in the Broadway revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac.
  
  wn.com/Harry_Belafonte
• Hot Boys
  The Hot Boys (often styled as Hot Boy$) is a music American hip hop group active from 1996 to 2001 and reformed in 2007. The group consists of rappers formerly on the New Orleans-based record label, Cash Money Records. The members are Lil Wayne, Juvenile, B.G. and Turk.
  The members of the group were rappers, Lil Wayne, B.G., Juvenile and Turk. Bulletproof soon left the group after the formation to pursue a solo career, though he was still featured on many of the group's tracks during the year of 1997. The Hot Boys made their first official appearance together on B.G.'s third studio album, It's All on U, Vol. 1. They soon released their debut album entitled, Get It How U Live!, which sold over 400,000 copies primarily in New Orleans.^{[citation needed]} The album charted nationally as well at #37 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart.
  In 1998, Cash Money Records agreed to a $30 million pressing and distribution contract with Universal Records. This led to releases such as 400 Degreez by Juvenile, which was certified 4x Platinum by the RIAA. The Hot Boys made numerous appearances on many of the albums' tracks such as, "Back That Azz Up" featuring Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh, and "Ha", where the Hot Boys were featured in the music video. The album also contained a remix of "Ha" featuring the Hot Boys. The Hot Boys appeared on both Lil Wayne and B.G.'s albums in 1999, Tha Block Is Hot, by Lil Wayne, and, Chopper City In The Ghetto, by B.G.. Both albums were certified Platinum. The group also released singles such as, "Bling Bling" and "Cash Money Is An Army" by B.G., "Tha Block Is Hot" and "Respect Us" by Lil Wayne, and "U Understand" and "I Got That Fire" by Juvenile. Turk made his first and only solo album with Cash Money Records in 2001 entitled, Young & Thuggin'. The album was also certified Gold, and included singles such as, "It's In Me", "Untamed Guerrilla", and "Freak Dem Girls".
  
  wn.com/Hot_Boys
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  Israel Cruz
  Israel Cruz is an Australian singer-songwriter and record producer. Cruz was born in Quezon City, Philippines and at the age of 13 moved to Melbourne, Australia with his family. He currently lives in Sydney, Australia with friends and has written and performed with Australian singer Stan Walker.
  
  wn.com/Israel_Cruz
• Jazze Pha
  Phalon Anton Alexander (born 1974), also known as Jazze Pha ( /ˌdʒæzi ˈfeɪ/ JAZ-ee FAY), is an American record producer.
  He was born and raised in Memphis, and is the son of James Alexander a bassist and a member of the Bar-Kays, an R&B musical group.
  His well known trademark is hollering "Ladies and Gentlemen!" at the beginning, and sometimes at the end of the tracks he has contributed to.
  He made an early appearance on Erick Sermon's 1995 album Double or Nothing performing on a skit and collaborating with Sermon on "Man Above".
  Jazze Pha's first hit was the club anthem from Tela, "Sho Nuff", the label banner of the producer's company.
  His first production was for Gerald Levert, Keith Sweat, and Johnny Gill on supergroup LSG's first album, with the fresh "Let A Playa Get His Freak On", in 1997.
  Other artists he has collaborated with include Notorious B.I.G, Nelly, Ludacris, T.I., U.G.K., Lil Wayne, Nate Dogg, Ras Kass, Trick Daddy, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Petey Pablo, Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes, Big Boi, Ciara, Aaliyah, Girlicious and Eightball & MJG.
  
  wn.com/Jazze_Pha
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  Jerry Lewis
  Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926) is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis.
  In addition to the duo's popular nightclub work, they starred in a successful series of comedy films for Paramount Pictures. Lewis is also known for his charity fund-raising telethons and position as national chairman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).
  Lewis has won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, The Golden Camera, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and The Venice Film Festival, and he has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  In 2005, he received the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors, which is the highest Emmy Award presented. On February 22, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
  
  wn.com/Jerry_Lewis
• Jerry Wexler
  Gerald "Jerry" Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was regarded as one of the major record industry players behind music from the 1950s through the 1980s. He coined the term "rhythm and blues", and was integral in signing and/or producing many of the biggest acts of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers, Chris Connor, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Wilson Pickett, Dire Straits, Dusty Springfield and Bob Dylan. Wexler was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Jerry Wexler was one of the most highly-regarded A&R men in popular music history, a status bolstered by his accomplishments with Aretha Franklin.
  Wexler was born in The Bronx, New York City, into a Jewish family, and grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan. He graduated from George Washington High School (New York City) in Washington Heights at age 15 and dropped out after two semesters at City College of New York. In 1935, Wexler enrolled at what is now Kansas State University and dropped out several times. Following his service in the army, Wexler became a serious student, and he graduated from Kansas State, with a degree in journalism in 1946.
  
  wn.com/Jerry_Wexler
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  Jesse Jackson
  Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (born October 8, 1941) is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. In an AP-AOL "Black Voices" poll in February 2006, Jackson was voted "the most important black leader".
  Jackson was born Jesse Louis Burns in Greenville, South Carolina, to Helen Burns, a 16-year-old single mother. His biological father, Noah Louis Robinson, a former professional boxer and a prominent figure in the community, was married to another woman when Jesse was born. He was not involved in his son's life, and died January 28, 1997 in Greenville, S.C. In 1943, two years after Jesse's birth, his mother married Charles Henry Jackson, who would adopt Jesse 14 years later. Jesse went on to take the surname of his stepfather.
  
  wn.com/Jesse_Jackson
• Jim Stewart (music)
  Jim Stewart (born July 29, 1930) is a former record company executive and producer who co-founded Stax Records.
  Raised on a farm in Middleton, Tennessee, Stewart moved to Memphis in 1948, after graduating from high school. He worked at Sears, at First National Bank, and then was drafted into the United States Army. After serving for two years, Stewart returned to his job as a bank clerk in Memphis in 1953.
  Stewart was a part-time fiddle player and joined a local country music group called the Canyon Cowboys. He worked days as a banker at Union Planters Bank. In 1957, Stewart launched his own record label, then called Satellite Records, which issued country music records. His sister, Estelle Axton, mortgaged her home to invest in her brother's venture by buying an Ampex 300 tape recorder. In 1959, the label moved into the former Capitol Theatre in Memphis. The auditorium was converted to studio space and the stage converted to a control room. To save money, Stewart did not level the floor. This created unique acoustics, which showed up in the recordings made there. After Stax went bankrupt in 1976, Stewart kept a low profile and intensely protected his privacy. When he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, he sent his two granddaughters to the induction ceremony to accept the award on his behalf.
  
  wn.com/Jim_Stewart_(music)
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  Johnnie Taylor
  Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5, 1934 – May 31, 2000) was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from rhythm and blues, soul, blues and gospel to pop, doo-wop and disco.
  Johnnie Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas. As a child, he grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas and performed in gospel groups as a youngster. As an adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago's Chance Records label in the 1950s, as part of the gospel group Highway QCs, which had been founded by a young Sam Cooke. His singing was strikingly close to that of Sam Cooke, and he was hired to take Cooke's place in the latter's gospel group, the Soul Stirrers, in 1957.
  A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent SAR Records, Taylor signed on as one of the label's first acts and recorded "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" in 1962. However, SAR Records quickly became defunct after Cooke's death in 1964.
  In 1966, Taylor moved to Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was dubbed "The Philosopher of Soul". Whilst there he recorded with the label's house band, Booker T. & the MGs. His hits included "I Had a Dream", "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" (both written by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter) and most notably "Who's Making Love", which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1968. "Who's Making Love" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
  
  wn.com/Johnnie_Taylor
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  Kevin Rudolf
  Kevin Rudolf (born February 17, 1983) is an American rock singer-songwriter, rapper and record producer signed to Cash Money Records. His breakthrough song was his 2008 debut single "Let It Rock" featuring Lil Wayne, which was certified Triple Platinum, and reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, #5 on the UK Singles Chart, #3 on the Australian Singles Chart, and #2 on the Canadian Hot 100. His second studio album To the Sky features the platinum hit single "I Made It" featuring Lil Wayne, Jay Sean, and Birdman which peaked at 21 on the US Hot 100 and number 11 on the Digital Singles Billboard Chart. Rudolf has won three BMI awards.
  In 2001, Rudolf got his first break with the release of self-written pop record Binocular by Maverick Records under the pseudonym Binocular. The lead track, "You", was featured on the TV series Smallville. A song not included on the album, a cover of "Maybe You're Gone" by Danny Scherr, played over the end credits of 20th Century Fox movie The Girl Next Door.
  
  wn.com/Kevin_Rudolf
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  Lady T
  Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.
  Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.
  After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.
  
  wn.com/Lady_T
• Lalah Hathaway
  Eulaulah Donyll Hathaway (born December 16, 1968) best known as Lalah Hathaway referred to as the First Daughter of Soul, is a contemporary R&B and jazz singer. She is the daughter of soul singer Donny Hathaway and a classically trained vocalist. In 1990, Lalah Hathaway released a self-titled album. The album's first single was "Heaven Knows", produced by Derek Bramble. The follow-up single was "Baby Don't Cry" produced by Angela Winbush.
  In 1991, Hathaway released her extended play, Night & Day in Japan. A Moment was released in 1994, debuting at #34 on the Top R&B albums chart. The lead single "Let Me Love You" charted on the Hot R&B charts at #37. In 1999, Lalah Hathaway collaborated with Joe Sample and released her third album The Song Lives On. After a five year hiatus, Hathaway returned with her fourth album Outrun the Sky. The single "Forever, For Always, For Love" peaked #1 on the Hot Adult R&B Airplay.
  In 2007, Hathaway signed to Stax Records and in 2008 released her fifth album Self Portrait. It was released on June 3, 2008 in the United States, debuted at #63 on the Billboard's Hot 200 and reached the top ten on the Top R&B albums chart, making this album, Hathaway's most successful album to date. She received a Best Female R&B Vocal Performance Grammy Award nomination for "That Was Then".
  
  wn.com/Lalah_Hathaway
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  Leela James
  Leela James (born June 2, 1983 in Los Angeles, California) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter. James cites singers James Brown, Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, and Stevie Wonder as her influences. Her deep, rich, gritty vocals have drawn comparisons to Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, and Tina Turner.
  James' debut album, entitled A Change Is Gonna Come, was released on June 21, 2005. The album was conceived as a throwback to an earlier era of American soul music, building upon the legacy of 1960s and 1970s soul singers while incorporating elements of contemporary R&B, funk, and gospel.
  In the lyrics to the album's lead single, entitled "Music", James laments the current state of contemporary popular music. She condemns the glorification of materialism and misogyny that has often been attributed to the lyrical content of contemporary R&B and hip hop songs while pleading for the return of the artistry, dedication, and sincerity displayed by musicians of earlier decades.
  
  wn.com/Leela_James
• Leon Ware
  Leon Ware is a soul music singer, songwriter and producer. Best known for crafting the hit album, I Want You, originally recorded for Ware, until friend and Motown icon Marvin Gaye was assigned to the album in 1976. Ware also is notable for writing the Top 5 R&B single, "I Wanna Be Where You Are", for a young Michael Jackson in 1972, and creating the Body Heat album along with Quincy Jones. He also collaborated with Maxwell on his debut album Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite.
  
  wn.com/Leon_Ware
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  Lil' Mo
  Cynthia Loving (born November 19, 1975), also known by her stage name Lil' Mo, is an American R&B singer, Washington, D.C. radio personality, songwriter & record producer. She is best known for collaborating with artists such as Ja Rule, Tamar Braxton, Angie Martinez, Sacario, Missy Elliott, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Fabolous, and for her hit single "Superwoman Pt. II".
  Born into a military family, Loving was raised primarily on Long Island, but moved about regularly as her family followed her father's military assignments. Along with her parents, Bishop Jacob and First-Lady Cynthia Loving Sr., she lived in Texas, Atlanta, Georgia, and Fayetteville, North Carolina before settling in Baltimore, Maryland. Dreams of becoming a famous singer began early and she always remained focused on this goal, performing in talent competitions wherever her family would settle.
  Signed with Elektra Records Loving entered the music industry as a protégé of then-labelmate Missy Elliott. Her debut single was entitled "5 Minutes" from the Why Do Fools Fall In Love soundtrack, co-written by Kelly Price. She appeared on tracks for Elliott's Da Real World in 1999. "Hot Boyz" became Loving's breakout appearance. She was featured in the music video for the song's remix alongside guest rappers Nas and Eve, and Elliott subsequently became a trusted adviser and friend. She was featured on rapper Jay-Z's song "Parking Lot Pimpin'" from the 2000 The Dynasty: Roc La Familia album. Not very well known, she was the female voice on the 2000 hit "Wifey" by Next. She has performed with and written songs for many artists including Blackstreet, Next, Bow Wow, Keith Sweat, Changing Faces, Canela Cox, 3LW, Nicole Wray, Mocha and ODB.
  
  wn.com/Lil'_Mo
• Linda Lyndell
  Linda Lyndell (born as Linda Rowland, November 22, 1946) is an American soul singer from Gainesville, Florida.
  Lyndell sang in gospel churches as a child; though she was white, she sang in both white and black churches, and eventually began singing with R&B groups as a teenager. In the 1960s she sang as a support act with James Brown and Ike & Tina Turner, and in 1967 Atlanta disc jockey Dave Crawford tipped her to Stax Records producers Isaac Hayes and David Porter. They recorded her first single, "Bring Your Love Back to Me", in December 1967 and released it on Volt Records, but the song did not become a hit. In 1968 she did a second session, cutting the tune "What a Man"; this song reached #50 on the Billboard R&B charts. In response to the success of her single, she received threats from white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, and retired from performance soon after. She remained out of music and lived in Gainesville for the next 25 years.
  In 1993, rap group Salt-n-Pepa sampled "What a Man" for their hit single "Whatta Man", which was a massive hit. In the wake of the single's success, Lyndell began performing again, and in 2003, at the opening of the Stax Museum, she performed "What a Man" live for the first time ever.
  
  wn.com/Linda_Lyndell
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  LisaRaye
  LisaRaye McCoy (born September 23, 1966), commonly known as LisaRaye, is an American actress and fashion designer. She is also the ex-wife of Michael Misick, a former Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands. She is best known for portraying Diana "Diamond" Armstrong in the film The Players Club and Neesee James on the CW sitcom All of Us from 2003 until 2007.
  McCoy was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1966, the daughter of a businessman and professional model and is of Native American & African American descent. She is the older half-sister of rap artist Da Brat. McCoy attended Thornridge High School and Kenwood Academy before attending Eastern Illinois University before pursuing an acting career.
  She has a daughter named Kai Morae from a previous relationship. In April 2006, McCoy married Premier Michael Misick. In August 2008, Premier Misick released a statement announcing that he and McCoy were getting a divorce.
  Before acting, McCoy began her career as a model doing fashion shows in churches and high schools in her native home Chicago. She made her acting debut as the lead in Reasons, an independent film directed by Monty Ross. She also had the lead role in another film as Diamond in The Players Club, directed and written by Ice Cube.; and has film credits in The Wood, opposite Omar Epps, Rhapsody, All About You, and Go for Broke. In 2003, McCoy starred as Neesee James in the UPN/ CW sitcom All of Us. She played Robert Sr.'s (Duane Martin) ex-wife and the mother of their 6-year-old son, Bobby, Jr. The series ended in 2007.
  
  wn.com/LisaRaye
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  Luther Vandross
  Luther Vandross (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times. He won four Grammy Awards in 2004 including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for the track "Dance with My Father", co-written with Richard Marx.
  Luther Vandross was born on April 20, 1951 at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, United States. He was the fourth child and second son to Mary Ida Vandross and Luther Vandross, Sr.
  Born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City in the NYCHA Alfred E. Smith Houses public housing development, Vandross began playing the piano at the age of three. He grew up in a musical family that moved to the Bronx when he was thirteen. His sister, Patricia, sang with the vocal group The Crests, who had a number two hit in 1958 with "16 Candles", though she left the group before the recording. Vandross's father died of diabetes when Vandross was eight years old. Luther Vandross was in a high school group, Shades of Jade, that once played at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He was also a member of a theater workshop, "Listen My Brother" who released the singles "Only Love Can Make a Better World" and "Listen My Brother", and appeared on the second and fifth episodes of Sesame Street in November 1969.
  
  wn.com/Luther_Vandross
• Mack 10
  Dedrick Rolison, (born August 9, 1971), better known by his stage name Mack 10 is an American rapper and actor. He was a member of hip hop trio Westside Connection, along with Ice Cube and WC. He is of African American and Mexican descent. He gets his nickname from the MAC-10 submachine gun.
  Mack 10 made his first appearance on Ice Cube's "Bootlegs & B-Sides" compilation on the track "What Can I Do? (Remix.)"
  Rolison married Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, from R&B trio TLC in 2000. They have one daughter name Chase Rolison, born on October 20, 2000. In 2004, T-Boz filed for divorce and a restraining order against him.
  Rolison is also the founder of independent record label Hoo-Bangin Records.
  
  wn.com/Mack_10
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  Mack Maine
  Jermaine Preyan, (born July 28, 1983), known by his stage name Mack Maine, is an American rapper and singer. Mack Maine is signed to Young Money Entertainment, an imprint of Birdman's Universal Motown-distributed Cash Money Records, and is currently the president of the label. He is the co-founder of Kush Entertainment and has also founded his own label, Soothe Your Soul Records.
  Jermaine Preyan was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He formed a friendship with Dwayne Carter aka Lil Wayne at the age of eleven. In 2003, he placed 16th out of a thousand contestants in a freestyle battle hosted by MTV; this, combined with a backstage performance at the 2004 BET Awards with Cassidy,led him to becoming a founding member of Young Money Entertainment with Lil Wayne in 2005. In 2008, Mack Maine appeared on the official remix of Lil Wayne's third single from Tha Carter III, "Got Money," and performed the song with Wayne on Saturday Night Live on September 14. At the 2008 Ozone Awards, he won the "Patiently Waiting: Louisiana" award.
  
  wn.com/Mack_Maine
• Mannie Fresh
  Byron O. Thomas, (born March 20, 1969) better known by his stage name Mannie Fresh, is currently an artist and hip-hop producer who records for Def Jam South and his own division Chubby Boy Records. He is probably most famous for his time producing tracks for Cash Money Records from 1993 to 2005, and one half of the hip-hop duo Big Tymers with Birdman.
  Thomas began loving music at the age of nine as a local New Orleans DJ, playing songs at parties and clubs. In the late 1980s he began a partnership with New Orleans rapper MC Gregory D. They released their first album together Throwdown in 1987, with Mannie Fresh producing and MC Gregory D rapping. They would release two more records together in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After their last album together, in 1993 Thomas met Bryan "Baby" Williams who gave him an opportunity to become the in-house producer of his record label Cash Money Records. With Williams's help, Thomas made chart-topping albums for the Hot Boys, which was composed of Lil Wayne, B.G., Juvenile, and Turk, producing all of the group’s singles. He also produced all tracks on the members’ solo works as well. Later, Thomas formed the Big Tymers along with Williams, as Mannie Fresh and Birdman respectively, and released five albums. In 2004, he released his own debut solo album The Mind of Mannie Fresh, which consisted of 30 tracks and featured the single “Real Big,” which peaked at #72 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2005, he split from Cash Money for financial reasons, and later joined Def Jam South, to which he is currently signed. On October 27, 2009, Mannie Fresh released his second solo album, Return of the Ballin'. The album was entirely produced by Fresh himself and featured prominent guests Rick Ross and Lil Jon.
  
  wn.com/Mannie_Fresh
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  Marvin Gaye
  Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.
  Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.
  His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.
  
  wn.com/Marvin_Gaye
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  Maya Angelou
  Maya Angelou ( /ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/; born Marguerite Ann Johnson; April 4, 1928) is an American author and poet. She has published six autobiographies, five books of essays, numerous books of poetry, and is credited with a long list of plays, movies, and television shows. She is one of the most decorated writers of her generation, with dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her first seventeen years, and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
  Angelou's long list of occupations has included pimp, prostitute, night-club dancer and performer, castmember of the musical Porgy and Bess, coordinator for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, author, journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization, and actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. Since 1991, she has taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she holds the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Since the 1990s she has made around eighty appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.
  
  wn.com/Maya_Angelou
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  Maya Rudolph
  Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American actress, comedienne and singer who was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007, and has appeared in films such as Away We Go, Bridesmaids, Grown Ups, A Prairie Home Companion and MacGruber. She is the daughter of R&B and soul singer Minnie Riperton and music producer/composer Richard Rudolph. Since 2011, she has co-starred in the NBC sitcom Up All Night.
  Rudolph was born in Gainesville, Florida. She is the daughter of soul singer Minnie Riperton and composer/songwriter/producer Richard Rudolph. Her father is Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother was African-American. Her paternal grandfather was Sidney Rudolph, a philanthropist who once owned all of the Wendy's and Rudy's restaurants in Dade County, FL. Her parents moved to Los Angeles when she and her brother Marc were very young, and they grew up primarily in the Westwood section.
  Rudolph was in the studio with her mother on the day Riperton recorded "Lovin' You",^{[citation needed]} Near the end of the track, Riperton can be heard singing "Maya, Maya, Maya" to Rudolph. Riperton incorporated this into her performance of the song on The Midnight Special. Riperton died on July 12, 1979, at age 31, from breast cancer, just shy of Rudolph's seventh birthday. Rudolph's godmother was R&B singer Teena Marie.
  
  wn.com/Maya_Rudolph
• Mel and Tim
  Mel and Tim were an American soul music duo active in the 1960s and early 1970s, and best known for the hit, "Backfield in Motion" (1969). They are also well known for: "Hope, Life's Goal" and "Starting All Over Again" (1972).
  Melvin McArthur Hardin and Hubert Timothy McPherson were cousins from Holly Springs, Mississippi, who traveled to Chicago where they were discovered by Gene Chandler. Hardin's mother and McPherson's aunt, Yolanda Hardin, cousin Walita, Catha, Donny and Darris Maxwell helped the duo with their writing and publicity, as she was once a singer herself. She signed them to a recording contract with her Bamboo Records record label, and they recorded their own song, "Backfield in Motion". It was immediately successful, reaching #3 on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart and #10 in the pop equivalent in 1969. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Their follow-up song was "Good Guys Only Win in the Movies", which was also the name of their first album.
  Hardin and McPherson subsequently moved to the Stax label, where they recorded a second Top 5 R&B hit with the ballad "Starting All Over Again". Released in the U.S. in June 1972, the record climbed to #19 on the Hot 100 and stayed on that chart for 20 weeks. It was their second million seller, taking five months to shift that number of gramophone records. This was also the title track of their second album in 1972, recorded in Muscle Shoals and produced by Phillip Mitchell. They performed at the Wattstax charity concert that year, but later recordings could not repeat their earlier successes.
  
  wn.com/Mel_and_Tim
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  Minnie Riperton
  Minnie Jean Riperton (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter best known for her vocal range of five-and-a-half octaves, and her 1975 single "Lovin' You". She was married to songwriter and music producer Richard Rudolph from 1972 until her death in the summer of 1979. They had two children—music engineer Marc Rudolph and actress/comedienne Maya Rudolph.
  Riperton grew up on Chicago's South Side. As a child, she studied music, drama, and dance at Chicago's Lincoln Center. In her teen years, she sang lead vocals for the Chicago-based girl group, The Gems. Her early affiliation with the legendary Chicago-based Chess Records afforded her the opportunity to sing backup for various established artists such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Ramsey Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and Muddy Waters. While at Chess, Riperton also sang lead for the experimental rock/soul group Rotary Connection, from 1967 to 1971. In 1969 Riperton, along with Rotary Connection, played in the first Catholic Rock Mass at the Liturgical Conference National Convention, Milwaukee Arena, Milwaukee, WI, produced by James F. Colaianni. Riperton reached the apex of her career with her number-one hit single, "Lovin' You," on April 4, 1975. The single was the last release from her 1974 gold album entitled Perfect Angel.
  
  wn.com/Minnie_Riperton
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  N'dambi
  'N'dambi is an American soul/jazz singer.
  N'dambi (born Chonita Gilbert) is the ninth of eleven children born to a Baptist minister and missionary. Her father was a minister and singer in a quartet group. She got her professional start singing with Gaye Arbuckle, a local gospel singer, touring with Arbuckle for two years (from the ages of 18 to 20). Shortly thereafter she sang as background singer and collaborator with Erykah Badu.
  She released three independent albums: Little Lost Girls Blues, Tunin' Up & Cosignin' and A Weird Kind of Wonderful. As a result of her success as an independent artist, she was signed to the re-activated Stax Records (Concord Music Group) in 2006 and released her 2011 Grammy-nominated album, Pink Elephant in 2009.
  Her name, "N'dambi" was taken from a Central African language. It means "Most beautiful", N'dambi told RNation.com. "NDambi" is not uncommon as a name in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. As a model, N'dambi has posed for fashion photographer Marc Baptiste.
  
  wn.com/N'dambi
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  Nicki Minaj
  Onika Tanya Maraj (born December 8, 1982), known by her stage name Nicki Minaj ( /mɪˈnɑːʒ/), is a Trinidadian-born American rapper and singer-songwriter. She was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago and when she was 5 years of age she moved to the New York City borough of Queens, where she grew up.
  After releasing three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009 and being signed to Young Money Entertainment in August 2009, Minaj released her debut album, Pink Friday, in November 2010. It quickly became a commercial success, peaking at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and being certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a month after its release. She became the first female solo artist to have seven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. Her second single, "Your Love", reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart, making Minaj the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002. She also became the first female artist to be included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List. Minaj was named the 2011 Rising Star by Billboard. Her second studio album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded was released on April 3, 2012.
  
  wn.com/Nicki_Minaj
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  Nikki Giovanni
  Nikki Giovanni (born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni; June 7, 1943) is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Her primary focus is on the individual and the power one has to make a difference in oneself and in the lives of others. Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride, respect for family, and her own experiences as a daughter, a civil rights activist, and a mother. She is currently a distinguished professor of English at Virginia Tech.
  Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Yolande Cornelia, Sr. and Jones "Gus" Giovanni. She grew up in Lincoln Heights, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1960 began her studies at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, her grandfather's alma mater. She graduated in 1967 with honors, receiving a B.A. in history. Afterward she went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. In 1969 Giovanni began teaching at Livingston College of Rutgers University, and since 1987, she has taught writing and literature at Virginia Tech, where she is a University Distinguished Professor. She has received nineteen honorary doctorates and a myriad of other awards, including "Woman of the Year" awards from three different magazines as well as the key to several different cities. She is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star (PHA), and an Honorary Member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
  
  wn.com/Nikki_Giovanni
• Nona Gaye
  Nona Marvisa Gaye (born September 4, 1974) is an American singer, former fashion model, and screen actress. The daughter of soul music legend Marvin Gaye and granddaughter of jazz great Slim Gaillard, she began her career as a vocalist in the early 1990s. As an actress, she is best known for her portrayal of Zee in the science fiction films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
  Gaye is the only daughter of singer Marvin Gaye and wife Janis Gaye. She is Marvin's second child – her brother Marvin III (sometimes referred to as Marvin Gaye, Jr.) was from Gaye's first marriage while her younger brother Frankie was born within a year after her. As a baby, Nona was brought out on stage by her father during a concert. At eight, she formally introduced her father on Soul Train during a tribute episode to the singer.
  Gaye released her first album, Love for the Future, on Atlantic Records in 1992, a month after her 18th birthday. The album featured the top 20 hit "I'm Overjoyed" as well as "The Things That We All Do For Love". The following year, Gaye was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. She signed to Ford Modeling Agency in 1994, and became the new face of Armani.
  
  wn.com/Nona_Gaye
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  Otis Redding
  Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul music and rhythm and blues (R&B), and one of the greatest singers in popular music. His open-throated singing was an influence on other soul singers of the 1960s, and he helped to craft the lean and powerful style of R&B that formed the basis of the Stax Sound. After appearing at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, he wrote and recorded "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", which became a number-one record on both the pop and R&B charts after his death in a plane crash.
  Redding was born and raised in the American state of Georgia. At age 15, he left school to support his family by working with Little Richard's backing band, The Upsetters, and by playing talent shows for prize money. In 1958, he joined Johnny Jenkins's band, The Pinetoppers, and toured the Southern United States while serving as driver and musician. An unscheduled appearance on a session led to a turning point in his career. He signed a contract with Stax Records and released his debut album, Pain in My Heart, in 1964. This album produced his first Stax single, "These Arms of Mine".
  
  wn.com/Otis_Redding
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  Richard Pryor
  Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer, and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of his era: Jerry Seinfeld called Pryor "The Picasso of our profession";Bob Newhart has called Pryor "the seminal comedian of the last 50 years.". This legacy can be attributed, in part, to the unusual degree of intimacy Pryor brought to bear on his comedy. As Bill Cosby reportedly once said, "Richard Pryor drew the line between comedy and tragedy as thin as one could possibly paint it."
  His body of work includes the concert movies and recordings Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' (1971), That Nigger's Crazy (1974), ...Is It Something I Said? (1975), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), and Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983). He also starred in numerous films as an actor, such as Superman III (1983) but was usually in comedies such as Silver Streak (1976), and occasionally in dramatic roles, such as Paul Schrader's film Blue Collar (1978). He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder. Another frequent collaborator was actor/comedian/writer Paul Mooney.
  
  wn.com/Richard_Pryor
• 
  Rick James
  James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. (February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004), better known by his stage name Rick James, was an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and 1980s, scoring four number-one hits on the U.S. R&B charts performing in the genres of funk and R&B. Among his well known songs are "Super Freak", "Mary Jane" and "You and I".
  In addition to his music, James gained notoriety for his wild lifestyle, which led to widely publicized legal problems, and which was famously satirized by Chappelle's Show in 2004.
  Rick James was born James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. in Buffalo, New York. He attended Orchard Park High School and Bennett High School before dropping out at the age of 15. One of eight children, his father, an autoworker, abandoned him and his siblings when Rick was a child. His mother, a former vaudeville dancer, later reportedly ran errands for a Mafia family to make ends meet.^{[citation needed]}
  James grew up singing on street corners with fellow neighborhood boys. James' early idols included Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and The Temptations (particularly his uncle, Melvin Franklin). After briefly being involved in street crime, James dropped out of high school at 15 to avoid a possible draft and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. A year later, James left the Reserve after he began to miss weekend training, because it interfered with his music career.^{[not in citation given]}
  
  wn.com/Rick_James
• 
  Rufus Thomas
  Rufus Thomas, Jr. (March 27, 1917 – December 15, 2001) was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian from Memphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the 1950s and on Stax Records in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the father of soul singer Carla Thomas and keyboard player Marvell Thomas. A third child, Vaneese, a former French teacher, has a recording studio in upstate New York and sings for television commercials.
  Born a sharecropper's son in the rural community of Cayce, Mississippi, Thomas moved to Memphis with his family at age 2. His mother was “a church woman.” Thomas made his artistic debut at the age of 6 playing a frog in a school theatrical production. Much later in life, he would impersonate all kinds of animals: screeching cats, funky chickens and penguins, and mournful dogs. By age 10, he was a tap dancer, performing in amateur productions at Memphis' Booker T. Washington High School.
  
  wn.com/Rufus_Thomas
• 
  Shakespeare
  William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
  Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
  
  wn.com/Shakespeare
• 
  Smokey Robinson
  William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is most notable for being the founder and front man of the popular Motown vocal group, The Miracles, for which he also served as the group's chief songwriter and producer. Robinson led the group from its 1955 origins as The Five Chimes until 1972 when he announced a retirement from the stage to focus on his role as Motown's vice president.
  However, Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year, later having solo hits such as "Baby That's Backatcha", "Quiet Storm", "The Agony and the Ecstasy", "Cruisin'", "Being With You" and "Just to See Her". Following the sale of Motown Records in 1988, Robinson left Motown in 1990. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
  Robinson was born in Detroit and raised in the city's North End section. At one point, he and Diana Ross were next-door neighbors; he said he has known Ross since she was eight. Robinson later told reporters when he was a child, his uncle christened him "Smokey Joe", which Robinson assumed was a "cowboy name for me" until he was later told that smokey was a pejorative term for dark-skinned Blacks. Robinson, who is mainly of African American descent and is light-skinned, remembers his uncle saying to him, "I'm doing this so you won't ever forget that you're black." Robinson grew up as a fan of Western films.
  
  wn.com/Smokey_Robinson
• Stacks (rapper)
  Yannique Barker (born January 25, 1985), better known by his stage name Stack$, is an American hip hop musician from Miami who grew up in Washington, D.C. Stack$ earned his name from a Miami rapper, Brisco, referring to his "ill" songwriting skills and multi-dimensional personality. His father managed Sly & the Family Stone and Peaches & Herb, while co-producing “Midnight Train to Georgia” with his partner Tony Camillo. Later, he founded a successful aerospace company and moved the family to Miami.
  Born and raised in Washington DC, Barker spent his school years in Bethesda, Maryland at the all-boys school, Landon. While at Landon he was a member of the tennis team. He was preparing for his 3rd year of film school at the USC School of Film and Cinematography when he decided to postpone school to pursue his lifetime passion for music.
  At the age of 17, he landed a spot in MTV’s television program "Freestyle Battles," but never got to compete on air as he was too young. Determined to make his name as an MC, Stack$ spent the next few years taking homemade CDs to local radio stations and reciting verses on mixtapes. In 2004, Barker began working on his album, “CraZee and ConfuZed” after being signed by SoBe Entertainment/Warner Bros.
  
  wn.com/Stacks_(rapper)
• 
  Steve Cropper
  Steve Cropper (born Steven Lee Cropper, October 21, 1941, Dora, Missouri), also known as Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and has backed artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla, Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor, also acting as producer on many of these records. He later gained fame as a member of the Blues Brothers band.Rolling Stone lists him 36th on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.Mojo ranks Cropper as the second-best guitarist ever.
  When he was nine years old, Cropper moved with his family to Memphis, Tennessee. At the age of ten, he strummed his brother-in-law's Gibson guitar for the first time^{[citation needed]}. Cropper received his first guitar by mail order at 14 and started playing with local musicians. His guitar heroes at the time included Lowman Pauling of the "5" Royales, as well as Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Tal Farlow, Jimmy Reed, and the guitarist of the Bill Doggett band, Billy Butler.
  
  wn.com/Steve_Cropper
• 
  Stevie Wonder
  Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century. Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for Motown to this day.
  Among Wonder's best known works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "I Wish" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You". Well known albums also include Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five.
  
  wn.com/Stevie_Wonder
• T Lopez
  Christina T Lopez (born April 18, 1981), better known by her stage name T Lopez, is a Mexican American actress and singer from Ontario, California. T Lopez was a former member of the Latina group, known as Soluna who were signed to DreamWorks Records whose musical debut album "For All Time" and debut single of the same name generated buzz in 2002. The group opened for the international tours of Enrique Iglesias and Marc Anthony.
  Now a solo artist T Lopez signed a record label deal with Cash Money Records and Universal Republic Records and is currently working on both an English album and a Spanish album. The English album is expected to feature Lil Wayne, Birdman, Daddy Yankee, T-Pain, Flo Rida, Glasses Malone and Colby O'Donis. The Spanish Album is expected to feature Abraham Quintanilla III, Jon Secada, The D.E.Y., and Kinky.
  Born to Mexican-American parents in Ontario, California, better known as the Inland Empire, T grew up singing in her church choir during Sunday school. In high school, T Lopez did not participate in early college enrollment with her peers. Instead, Lopez, who always knew she wanted to sing, attended Chaffey High School while working two jobs at the Ontario Mills Mall. That is until a car belonging to a talent scout, Nick Martinez, broke down near her father's garage and her father told Martinez about T's beautiful voice. T Lopez called Nick Martinez and he asked her to sing to him over the phone," T Lopez said she thought it was weird, but she sang to him anyways so she sanged "Amazing Grace" from her bathroom, she said that the acoustics were better in there. After she finished singing for Nick Martinez he told her When I hear about something, I'll call you. Not thinking much of it, T Lopez returned to work at Ontario Mills until Nick Martinez did indeed call her back.
  
  wn.com/T_Lopez
• Tata Vega
  Táta Vega (born Carmen Rosa Vega, October 7, 1951, Queens, New York) is an American vocalist whose career spans theater, film, and a variety of musical genres.
  Born Carmen Rosa Vega in the Queens borough of New York City on October 7, 1951, her father nicknamed her Táta, because that was the first word she uttered as a baby. Her father served in the Air Force and as a result, the family moved frequently. Before she was even a teenager, the family lived in Panama, Puerto Rico, San Antonio, and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
  Vega began her professional singing career in 1963. In California (1969–70) she was cast in the Los Angeles production of the Broadway musical Hair. From there went on to join the group Pollution, led by Dobie Gray (who also appeared in the L.A. Cast of Hair), and then became a member of the group Earthquire, which released an album in 1973 on Motown's Natural Resources label.
  With Motown Records, Vega released four solo albums on the Tamla label: Full Speed Ahead (1976), Totally Táta (1977), Try My Love (1978) and Givin' All My Love (1981). These albums featured a diverse range of genres, including classic Motown soul, country or southern soul, disco, jazz, funk, country, Latin, doo-wop, and gospel.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Tata_Vega
• Teena Marie
  Mary Christine Brockert (March 5, 1956 – December 26, 2010), better known by her stage name Teena Marie, was an American singer, songwriter and producer. She was known as Tina before taking the stage name Teena Marie, then she later acquired the nickname of Lady Tee (sometimes spelled as Lady T), given to her by collaborator and friend, Rick James.
  She was known for her distinctive soulful vocals which initially caused many listeners to believe she was African-American. Her success in R&B and soul and loyalty to these genres would earn her the title Ivory Queen of Soul. She played rhythm guitar, keyboards and congas. She also wrote, produced, sang, and arranged virtually all of her songs since her 1980 release, Irons in the Fire, which she later said was her favorite album.
  Mary Christine, or Teena as she was called, was the fourth of five children born in Santa Monica, California^{[citation needed]} to construction worker Thomas Leslie Brockert and his wife, home renovator Mary Anne. She spent her early childhood in Mission Hills. Her ethnic heritage was Portuguese, Italian, Irish and Native American.^{[citation needed]} In 2005, while visiting Louisiana, she had discovered that her paternal ancestors once lived in New Orleans. Brockert took to singing naturally, performing Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat Song by age two. She also developed a fondness for singing the songs of Motown, and her self-professed “gift from God” would become fine-tuned as the years progressed.
  
  wn.com/Teena_Marie
• The B.G.'z
  The B.G.'z (short for "Baby Gangstaz") were an American teenage hip-hop duo from New Orleans, Louisiana, active from 1993 to 1997. The duo consisted of rappers Lil Wayne and B.G.. The two made up the youngest artists on Cash Money Records, Lil Wayne being 12 years old, and B.G. only 14 years old. In 1995, B.G. released his debut album entitled, True Story featuring Lil Wayne (to collectively make the B.G.'z), recorded from 1993 to 1995. Two songs from True Story entitled, "True Story" and "Fuck Big Boy" were disses towards local New Orleans rapper, Mystikal and Big Boy Records. Mystikal would later respond with his own diss songs, "Beware" and "Here I Go". True Story was re-released in 1999 when Cash Money Records affiliated with Universal Records. The duo disbanded when Cash Money Records co-owner, Baby decided to let the two have solo careers.
  
  wn.com/The_B.G.'z
• Turk (rapper)
  Tab Virgil, Jr., better known by his stage name Turk (sometimes "Young Turk" or "Lil Turk"), is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known for his time with Cash Money Records and with the Hot Boys. His debut album Young & Thuggin' became a Top 10 hit on the Billboard 200 and pushed his album to Gold sales in the United States. After the Split of the Hot Boys in 2002 he signed a multi million dollar deal with producer Ke'Noe at Laboratory Recordz and released 2 albums Raw and Uncut and Penitentiary Chances but while incarcerated Ke'Noe released 2 other albums of unreleased or recycled Turk verses called Still A Hot Boy and Convicted Felons the albums profits of the last two releases were put on Turk's prison books. He is rumored to have been signed back with Birdman and Cash Money but he has recently shown the release of his own label YNT or Young N Thuggin Entertainment. He is supposed to release his new album Untamed Gorilla in late 2011.
  In 2005, Turk was convicted on federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a fugitive from justice in possession of a firearm, and an unlawful user addicted to a controlled substance in possession of a firearm. The charges arose from the shooting of a Memphis,Tennessee police officer in early 2004. He was sentenced to 10 years of incarceration. In 2006, he entered an Alford plea in Tennessee state court to second-degree attempted murder, based on the same incident, and was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.
  
  wn.com/Turk_(rapper)
• 
  Tyga
  Michael Ray Nguyen-Stevenson (born November 19, 1989), better known by his stage name Tyga (an acronym for Thank You God Always), is an American rapper signed to Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Universal Republic Records. He is of Vietnamese and Jamaican descent. He first received recognition with his debut single "Coconut Juice", featuring his cousin Travie McCoy.
  No Introduction was the first independent album by American rapper Tyga. It was released on June 10, 2008, on Decaydance Records. One of the songs from this album, "Diamond Life", was used in the video game Need for Speed: Undercover, and on Madden 2009, as well as in the 2009 movie Fighting.
  Tyga released many mixtapes. He created Fan of a Fan with Chris Brown and producers DJ Ill Will and DJ Rockstar. It features other artists such as Bow Wow, Lil Wayne, and Kevin McCall featured in several tracks. Four tracks ("Holla at Me", "G Shit", "No Bullshit" and "Deuces") are also accompanied by a music video. The track "Deuces" was released as the debut single of the mixtape and, as of August 26, 2010, has reached number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The track has also been nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 53rd Grammy Awards. The track, among others, was on the tracklist of Chris Brown's fourth studio album, F.A.M.E.. Tyga also told MTV in an interview that the production of the mixtape took just short of a week.
  
  wn.com/Tyga
• 
  Young Buck
  David Darnell Brown (born March 15, 1981), also known as Young Buck, is an American Southern rapper. Buck is a former member of the New York City hip hop group G-Unit and is still signed to G-Unit Records. He currently resides as president of his own record label, Ca$hville Records.
  Around the age of twelve he was making rap songs and rolling up blunts with dean mclees and kyle stewart . he was mostly found around the spruce way area , Brown began rapping because he was inspired by a Miami friend named Clay Cole. Jealous of his friend's talent, he wanted to beat him no matter what he had to give up. At the same time Clay Cole moved to Tallahassee, Fla., Brown began recording in a real studio. Shortly thereafter, he was given an opportunity to perform for Brian "Baby" Williams, co-founder of Cash Money Records. After several years on and off of Cash Money Records, Brown and fellow rapper Juvenile decided to leave the label for good in 2000 and go to UTP Records, where Brown stayed until 2003. One of his early appearances was on the song "Memphis," where he was featured along with Three 6 Mafia, Project Pat, and other southern rappers. His deal with UTP later led to a meeting with New York rapper 50 Cent, who later signed him to G-Unit Records, under Interscope Records.
  
  wn.com/Young_Buck

• Can't Last a Day
• Irons in the Fire
• Dear Lover
• Opus III – The Second Movement
• My Dear Mr. Gaye
• The Once and Future Dream
• Ooo La La La
• Sunny Skies
• Just Us Two
• If I Were a Bell
• Lovergirl
• Shadow Boxing
• Casanova Brown
• Out on a Limb

• I Need Your Lovin'
• Behind the Groove
• Now That I Have You
• Irons in the Fire
• Portuguese Love
• Young Love
• It Must Be Magic
• Aladdin's Lamp
• Square Biz
• I'm a Sucker for Your Love
• Deja Vu (I've Been Here Before)
• Fire and Desire (feat. Rick James)

• The Pressure
• Can't Last A Day
• Baby I Love You
• Ear Candy 101
• Lover's Lane
• Marry Me
• You Baby
• Milk N' Honey
• What U Got 4 Me
• Rovleta's Jass
• Congo Square
• Harlem Blues
• Black Cool
• Ms. Coretta
• Soldier Boy
• The Rose N' Thorn

• God Has Created (feat. Smokey Robinson)
• Cruise Control (feat. Smokey Robinson)
• Baby, Whose Is It? (feat. Kurupt)
• Make It Hot
• Ooo Wee (feat. Kurupt)
• Sleeping With the Enemy
• A.P.B.
• Love Is a Gangsta
• Ladies' Choice (feat. Queen & Gail Gotti)
• Somebody Just Like You (feat. Gerald Albright)
• You Blow Me Away
• Simmer Down (feat. Lady Levi)
• Romantica
• The Way You Love Me
• Ecstasy
• Resilient (Sapphire) (feat. Alia Rose)

• Robbery
• Playboy
• Shadow Boxing
• Midnight Magnet
• Fix It
• Ask Your Momma
• Dear Lover
• Stop the World
• Cassanova Brown
• Playboy (12" remix)
• Midnight Magnet (instrumental version)
• Fix It (12" remix)

• La Doña (intro)
• I'm Still in Love
• Honey Call
• Baby I'm Your Fiend
• My Body's Hungry
• A Rose by Any Other Name (feat. Gerald Levert)
• Off the Chain (feat. Baby a.k.a. "The Birdman")
• Makavelli Never Lied
• Revelations 3:8 Introduction (feat. Common)
• Recycle Hate to Love (feat. Lady Levi & Alia Rose)
• The Mackin' Game (feat. MC Lyte & Medusa)
• I Love Him Too (feat. De De O'Neal)
• I Got You (feat. Rick James)
• Hit Me Where I Live
• High Yellow Girl (feat. Alia Rose)
• Black Rain
• I'm on Fire

• I Need Your Lovin'
• Young Love
• First Class Love
• Irons in the Fire
• Chains
• You Make Love Like Springtime
• Tune in Tomorrow
• You Make Love Like Springtime (reprise)

• It Must Be Magic
• Revolution
• Where's California
• 365
• Opus III (Does Anybody Care)
• Square Biz
• The Ballad of Cradle Rob and Me
• Portuguese Love
• Yes Indeed
• Square Biz (instrumental)
• Someday We'll All Be Free (live)
• Deja Vu (I've Been Here Before) (live)

• Casanova Brown
• Cupid Is a Real Straight Shooter
• Miracles Need Wings to Fly
• Ooo La La La
• If I Were a Bell
• Ivory (A Tone Poem)
• Dear Lover
• My Dear Mr. Gaye
• Opus III, Part 2
• Fire and Desire (feat. Rick James)
• Shadow Boxing
• We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This
• Shangri-La
• Sunny Skies

• Square Biz
• Behind the Groove
• If I Were a Bell
• Portuguese Love
• Lovergirl
• Fire & Desire
• My Dear Mr. Gaye
• I'm a Sucker for Your Love
• Irons in the Fire
• Young Love
• I Need Your Lovin'
• Now That I Have You
• Latin Lullaby
• It Must Be Magic
• Work It

• Just Us Two
• Ooo La La La (12" version)
• The Sugar Shack (extended club mix)
• If I Were a Bell
• Stop the World
• My Dear Mr. Gaye
• Shadow Boxing
• Light
• Out on a Limb
• Lovergirl
• Dear Lover
• Fix It
• Cassanova Brown

• Warm as Mommas Oven
• Main Squeeze
• Wild Horses
• Smooth Tip
• Hypnotized Prelude
• Hypnotized
• Parking Music
• Sweet on You
• Slow Grind
• Climb the Walls
• Breakfast in Bed
• Passion Play
• Pretty Man
• The Air I Breathe

• I Need Your Lovin'
• Behind the Groove
• Every Little Bit Hurts
• Irons in the Fire
• Portuguese Love
• It Must Be Magic
• Deja Vu (I've Been Here Before)
• Don't Turn Your Back on Me
• Square Biz
• Turnin' Me On
• Now That I Have You
• I'm a Sucker for Your Love

• I'm a Sucker for Love
• Turnin' Me On
• Don't Look Back
• De Ja Vu (I've Been Here Before)
• I'm Gonna Have My Cake (And Eat It Too)
• I Can't Love Anymore

• Behind the Groove
• Now That I Have You
• Lonely Desire
• Aladdin's Lamp
• You're All the Boogie I Need
• Can It Be Love
• Young Girl in Love
• Why Did I Have to Fall in Love With You
• Too Many Colors (Tee's interlude)
• Why Can't I Get Next to You
• Co-Pilot to Pilot

• Lovergirl
• Work It
• Ooo La La La
• If I Were a Bell
• Dear Lover
• Here's Looking at You
• Call Me (I Got Yo Number) (feat. Rick James)
• Cassonova Brown
• My Dear Mr. Gaye
• Out on a Limb

• Here's Looking at You
• The Sugar Shack Prelude
• The Sugar Shack
• If I Were a Bell
• Just Us Two
• Mr. Icecream
• Ivory (Atone Poem)
• Snap Your Fingers
• Cupid Is a Real Straight Shooter
• How Can You Resist It
• Since Day One
• Miracles Need Wings to Fly
• The Red Zone

• Trick Bag
• Call Me (I Got Yo Number)
• Ooo La La La
• Crocodile Tears
• Opus III: The Second Movement
• Surrealistic Pillow
• The Once and Future Dream
• Work It
• The Ball
• Naked to the World

• Emerald City
• Once Is Not Enough
• Lips to Find You
• You So Heavy
• Shangri-La
• Batacuda Suite
• Love Me Down Easy
• Sunny Skies

• Lovergirl
• Help Youngblood Get to the Freaky Party
• Out on a Limb
• Alibi
• Jammin'
• Starchild
• We've Got to Stop (Meeting Like This)
• My Dear Mr. Gaye
• Light

• Robbery
• Playboy
• Shadow Boxing
• Midnight Magnet
• Fix It
• Ask Your Momma
• Dear Lover
• Stop the World
• Cassanova Brown
• Playboy (12" remix)
• Midnight Magnet (instrumental version)
• Fix It (12" remix)

Born: 1956-03-05

Died: 2010-12-26