Jackson, Mississippi

Jackson is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is located primarily in Hinds County, serving as one of two county seats there; segments of the city overlap Madison County and Rankin County. Jackson is on the Pearl River, which drains into the Gulf of Mexico, and it is part of the Jackson Prairie region of the state. The city is named after General Andrew Jackson, who was honored for his role in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 and later served as U.S. President.

The current slogan for the city is "Jackson, Mississippi: City with Soul." It has had numerous musicians prominent in blues, gospel and jazz, and was known for decades for its illegal nightclubs on the Gold Coast; one site has been designated for the Mississippi Blues Trail.

The city is the anchor for the metro area. While its population declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census, the metropolitan region grew. The 2010 census ascribed a population of 539,057 to the five-county Jackson metropolitan area.

Mississippi

Mississippi ⁱ/ˌmɪsᵻˈsɪpi/ is a state located in the southern region of the United States.

Jackson is the state capital and largest city, with a population of around 175,000 people. The state overall has a population of around 3 million people. Mississippi is the 32nd most extensive and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States.

The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area. Its riverfront areas were cleared for slave-cultivated cotton production before the American Civil War, but after the war, the bottomlands were cleared mostly by freedmen. African Americans made up two-thirds of the property owners in the Delta by the end of the 19th century, but timber and railroad companies acquired much of the land. Clearing altered the ecology of the Delta, increasing the severity of flooding along the Mississippi. Much land is now held by agribusinesses. A largely rural state with agricultural areas dominated by industrial farms, Mississippi is ranked low or last among the states in such measures as health, educational attainment, and median household income. The state's catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States.

Kid Rock

Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor. His 1998 studio album Devil Without a Cause sold 13 million copies worldwide. He is a five-time Grammy Award nominee and has sold 25 million albums in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan. The RIAA certified him selling 23.5 million albums. He was Soundscan's number-one selling male solo musician of the 2000s, selling 17.6 million albums; he was 17th overall for the decade, and he has sold over 35 Million Records Worldwide.

Rock performed rap and hip hop with five releases between 1990 and 1997, including a reissue and an EP. After signing a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 1998, he gained commercial success in the rap rock genre behind the singles "Bawitdaba", "Cowboy" and "Only God Knows Why" (the latter foreshadowing his move into country rock). After the success of Devil Without a Cause in 2000, he released The History of Rock, a compilation of remixed and remastered versions of songs from previous albums as well as the hit rock single, "American Bad Ass".

Mark Ronson

Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is an English musician, DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Although his debut album Here Comes the Fuzz failed to make an impact on the charts, his second album Version reached number two in the UK and included three top 10 singles. This success won him a Brit Award for Best British Male Solo Artist in 2008. His third studio album, Record Collection, was released on 27 September 2010, peaking at number two in the UK.

In 2014, Ronson achieved his first UK and US number one single with the Grammy-nominated "Uptown Funk," which featured vocals from Bruno Mars. In 2015 it won Ronson the Brit Award for British Single of the Year. His fourth studio album, the Grammy-nominated Uptown Special, was released in January 2015, and became his first UK number one album. Ronson has also produced multi-platinum, Grammy-winning albums for Amy Winehouse and Adele.

Early life

Ronson was born at the Wellington Hospital, St John's Wood, London, the son of Laurence Ronson, a real-estate speculator and music manager, and Anne Dexter. His parents are both Ashkenazi Jews (their ancestors being Jewish immigrants from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania); Ronson was brought up in Masorti Judaism and had a Bar Mitzvah. The family name was originally "Aaronson," but was shortened by Mark's grandfather Henry. He is the nephew of Gerald Ronson. Through his mother, he is also related to British Conservative politicians Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Leon Lord Brittan, as well as Odeon Cinemas founder Oscar Deutsch. He is not related to the late English guitarist Mick Ronson, who coincidentally fathered a son named Mark in 1975.

Bruno Mars

Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), professionally known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and choreographer. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age and performed in various musical venues in his hometown throughout his childhood. He graduated from high school and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career. Mars produced songs for other artists, co-founding the production team The Smeezingtons.

Mars had an unsuccessful stint with Motown Records, but then signed with Atlantic in 2009. He became recognized as a solo artist after lending his vocals to the songs "Nothin' on You" by B.o.B, and "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy, which were international successes, and for which he co-wrote the hooks. His debut studio album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010), was anchored by the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles "Just the Way You Are" and "Grenade", as well as the number-five single "The Lazy Song". His second album, Unorthodox Jukebox, released in 2012, peaked at number one in the United States. The album spawned the international singles "Locked Out of Heaven", "When I Was Your Man" and "Treasure".