Runner-up

A runner-up is a participant who finishes in second place in any of a variety of competitive endeavors, especially sporting events and beauty pageants; in the latter instance, the term is applied to more than one of the highest-ranked non-winning contestants, the second-place finisher being designated "first runner-up", the third-place finisher "second runner-up", and so on.

While loosely acceptable for describing any second-place finisher in a sporting event, the "runner-up" label is more properly appended to one that finishes in that position as the result of having lost in the final round of an elimination tournament; specifically, its most frequent use is encountered in tennis, and refers to the player (or doubles team) that loses the final match; in most tennis tournaments, a testimonial award, often in the form of a plate, is given to the runner(s)-up following the final match, with the winner(s) receiving a trophy instead.

In American team sports, the term is usually avoided in official circles, because the team losing in the final round of the postseason playoffs will have had to have won the championship of a lesser entity as a condition for reaching the finals; in basketball, American football and Ice hockey this would have been a conference championship, and in baseball a league championship, or colloquially, the league "pennant". Consequently, the losing finalist will typically be referred to as the champion of its conference (or league in the case of baseball) rather than as a runner-up. Although the team that won the finals will also be a conference (or league in baseball) champion by necessity, it is usually not referred to as such because the title of "finals champion" carries more prestige.

Royce da 5'9"

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Ryan Daniel Montgomery (born July 5, 1977), better known by his stage name Royce da 5'9", is an American rapper from Detroit, Michigan. He is best known for his longtime association with Eminem as well as his solo career, recording primarily with Carlos "6 July" Broady and DJ Premier, as well as ghostwriting for the likes of Diddy and Dr. Dre. Royce is one half of the rap duo Bad Meets Evil with Eminem, 1/4 of the hip hop group Slaughterhouse with Joe Budden, Joell Ortiz and Crooked I, and 1/2 of the hip hop group PRhyme with DJ Premier. The editors of About.com ranked him No. 30 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007).

He moved to Oak Park, Michigan when he was 10 years old, later acquiring the nickname "Royce" during high school after wearing a Turkish link chain with an R pendant resembling the Rolls Royce symbol. He started rapping at age 18, influenced mainly by Ras Kass, Redman, Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Esham, Detroit Most Wanted, and N.W.A. He signed his first deal in 1998 with Tommy Boy Records. After the label shut down, he signed a deal with Columbia where he started recording an album called Rock City, referring to Detroit's former status as home to Motown Records. When the project was heavily bootlegged, Royce left the label for Koch to re-record some of the album, eventually releasing it in 2002 as Rock City (Version 2.0). While the album did not sell very well, the DJ Premier-produced single "Boom" gained Royce some underground recognition and eventually resulted in the two working together more closely.

DJ Premier

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Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), better known by his stage name DJ Premier (also known as Preem, Premo, or Primo), is an American Record Producer and DJ, and was half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr—alongside the emcee Guru—and forms half of the hip hop duo PRhyme, together with Royce Da 5'9".

For its 20th-anniversary issue in 2008, The Source selected DJ Premier for its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazine's 20-year history. He also made the finals in Vibe magazine's 2010 search for the greatest hip hop producer of all time—he finished second after Dr. Dre received 62 percent of the votes.

DJ Premier hosts a weekly two-hour show, Live From HeadQCourterz, on Sirius Satellite Radio's Hip-Hop Nation every Friday.

On July 9, 2015, DJ Premier was chosen as one of three producers to curate the soundtrack to the forthcoming NBA 2K16, alongside DJ Khaled and DJ Mustard.