Curated playlist
20th-century African-American musicians
- Keef CowboyKeef Cowboy teased a friend who joined the Army by singing hip, hop, hip, hop. He is credited with the term hip hop.
- Spoonie GeeAfter his mother died, twelve-year-old Spoonie Gee moved in with his uncle, a Harlem record producer.
- Disco King MarioDisco King Mario helped launch hip-hop without ever releasing a record. He threw Bronx park jams in the early 1970s.
- Jocko HendersonRadio host Jocko Henderson sold his song publishing rights rather than risk the fate of Alan Freed.
- FabolousFabolous got his name by misspelling "Fabulous." The Brooklyn rapper freestyled on Hot 97 as a teenager.
- Coke La RockCoke La Rock quit hip-hop after DJ Kool Herc was stabbed at a party. He said murder had become part of the game.
- Large ProfessorLarge Professor turned down an executive producer credit on Nas's Illmatic. He still produced three of its ten songs.
- Jeru the DamajaRapper Jeru the Damaja answered a Fugees line on record after his album upset the group.
- Sha-RockSha-Rock began in hip hop as a breakdancer, not a rapper. She later became known as the first female rapper.
- Dr. HepcatIn 1948, Austin station KVET hired Dr. Hepcat as Texas's first black disc jockey. He chose the name himself.
- Hi-C (rapper)Compton rapper Hi-C kept turning up on DJ Quik, AMG and 2nd II None records. It lasted from 1991 to at least 2004.
- Tupac ShakurTupac Shakur wrote and recorded the album The Don Killuminati in three days. Mixing took four more.
- Dallas AustinAfter his brother threw his keyboard, Dallas Austin left Columbus, Georgia. He rode a bus to Atlanta around 1986.
- Slash (musician)Slash, the guitarist born Saul Hudson in Hampstead, London, on the 23rd of July 1965, owes his famous name to a restless child. The actor Seymour Cassel gave him the nickname because the boy was "always in a hurry, zipping around from one…
- Bo DiddleyBo Diddley ignored his orders on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1955. Asked for "Sixteen Tons", he played his own hit.
- Gil Scott-HeronGil Scott-Heron preferred the word "bluesologist" even as critics called him a rap progenitor.
- Kurtis BlowIn 1979, Harlem's Kurtis Blow became the first rapper signed by a major label.
- Lil JonLil Jon, the yelling voice of crunk, later made two albums of guided meditation.
- DMXDMX was the first artist to open five straight studio albums at number one on the Billboard 200.
- Tech N9neTech N9ne rapped the letters of his own name to remember how to spell it.