Curated category
20th-century African-American musicians
- Keef CowboyRobert Keith Wiggins was born on the 20th of September 1960. He died on the 8th of September 1989, and he is widely credited as having invented the term…
- Spoonie GeeSpoonie Gee is one of the earliest rap artists in history, and one of the very few to have released rap records in the 1970s.
- Disco King MarioDisco King Mario was born on the 1st of July, 1956, in Edenton, North Carolina, and he died on the 21st of May, 1994 - a man who never released a single…
- Jocko HendersonJocko Henderson was born on the 8th of March 1918 in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of two teachers. By the time he died on the 15th of July 2000, after a long…
- FabolousFabolous almost wasn't called Fabolous at all. John David Jackson, born in Brooklyn on the 18th of November 1977, intended to name himself simply "Fabulous"…
- Coke La RockCoke La Rock rapped at the earliest parties in The Bronx without anyone in the crowd knowing he was there. He performed out of sight from the audience.
- Large ProfessorLarge Professor was born William Paul Mitchell on the 21st of March, 1972, in Harlem, Manhattan, then raised in Flushing, Queens.
- Jeru the DamajaJeru the Damaja was born Kendrick Jeru Davis on the 14th of February, 1971, in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in the East New York neighborhood, where as a…
- Sha-RockSha-Rock, born Sharon Green on the 25th of October 1962, holds a title no one else can claim: the first female rapper. She did not grow up with hip hop…
- Dr. HepcatAlbert Lavada Durst is remembered in Austin, Texas, by a stage name he gave himself for the radio: Dr. Hepcat. Jake Pickle, who worked with him, said Durst…
- Hi-C (rapper)Crawford Wilkerson, the rapper known as Hi-C, built his name on the streets of Compton, California, and on the recordings of some of West Coast rap's most…
- Tupac ShakurTupac Amaru Shakur was born on the 16th of June 1971, in East Harlem, Manhattan, not yet carrying the name the world would know him by.
- Dallas AustinDallas Austin was seven years old when he asked his mother to buy him a keyboard. She hesitated, convinced he would lose interest and move on.
- Bo DiddleyBo Diddley stepped onto The Ed Sullivan Show on the 20th of November, 1955, and promptly ignored every instruction he had been given.
- Gil Scott-HeronGil Scott-Heron was born on the 1st of April, 1949, in Chicago, and by the time he died on the 27th of May, 2011, he had changed American music in ways that…
- Kurtis BlowKurtis Blow stepped into a recording studio in 1979 as a twenty-year-old from Harlem, and walked out as the first rapper ever signed by a major label.
- Lil JonLil Jon was born Jonathan H. Smith on the 17th of January, 1971, in Atlanta, Georgia, and he grew up to reshape American club music from the ground up.
- DMXDMX sold 251,000 copies of his debut album in its very first week. That number alone would be remarkable for any artist.
- Tech N9neTech N9ne, born Aaron Dontez Yates on the 8th of November 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri, built one of the most unlikely empires in American hip-hop entirely…