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Curated category

20th-century American rappers

  • Keef CowboyRobert Keith Wiggins stood in a Bronx hallway on the 20th of September 1960. He would later become known as Keef Cowboy, but his name was just a sound to him…
  • Spoonie GeeGabriel Jackson arrived in Harlem on the 27th of May 1963. He grew up using a spoon as his only eating utensil during early childhood years.
  • Disco King MarioDisco King Mario entered the world on the 1st of July 1956. His family originated from Edenton, North Carolina. This small town in eastern North Carolina…
  • EminemMarshall Bruce Mathers III arrived in the world on the 17th of October 1972, inside a hospital in St. Joseph, Missouri. His mother Deborah Nelson nearly died…
  • Kanye WestKanye Omari West was born on the 8th of June 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and he moved with his mother to…
  • Jay-ZShawn Corey Carter entered the world on the 4th of December 1969 within Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. He grew up inside the Marcy Houses public…
  • Coke La RockCoke La Rock was born on the 24th of April 1955 in The Bronx, New York City. His family roots traced back to North Carolina before he arrived in the city.
  • Dr. DreAndre Romell Young was born on the 18th of February 1965 in Compton, California. His parents married in 1964 and divorced four years later.
  • RaekwonCorey Woods was born on the 12th of January 1970 in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He grew up under the care of his mother while his father struggled with addiction.
  • Marley MarlMarlon Lu'Ree Williams was born on the 30th of September 1962 inside the Queensbridge housing projects in Queens, New York.
  • Large ProfessorWilliam Paul Mitchell was born in Harlem on the 21st of March 1972. He grew up in Flushing, Queens, where he attended IS 237 and John Bowne High School.
  • Birdman (rapper)Bryan Christopher Brooks was born on the 15th of February 1969 at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. His mother Gladys Brooks died when he was five…
  • Jeru the DamajaKendrick Jeru Davis was born on the 14th of February 1971 in Brooklyn, New York. He spent his early years in the borough's East New York neighborhood where…
  • Rick RossWilliam Leonard Roberts II was born on the 28th of January 1976, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He grew up in Carol City, Florida, where he attended Miami Carol…
  • TimbalandIn 1986, a fourteen-year-old Timothy Zachery Mosley sat in the parking lot of a Red Lobster restaurant in Norfolk, Virginia.
  • Lil WayneDwayne Michael Carter Jr. arrived in the world on the 27th of September 1982 within the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans.
  • The Notorious B.I.G.Christopher George Latore Wallace was born at Cumberland Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on the 21st of May 1972. He grew up in the Clinton Hill neighborhood…
  • Queen LatifahDana Elaine Owens arrived in the world on the 18th of March 1970 within the city limits of Newark, New Jersey. Her childhood unfolded primarily in nearby…
  • Will SmithWillard Carroll Smith II arrived in the world on the 25th of September 1968. He grew up in the Wynnefield neighborhood of Philadelphia with his mother…
  • Muhammad AliOn the 17th of January 1942, Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Odessa Grady Clay and Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr.
  • MC HammerStanley Kirk Burrell grew up in a three-bedroom housing project apartment in East Oakland, California. He was born on the 30th of March 1962, into a family…
  • Missy ElliottMelissa Arnette Elliott was born on the 1st of July 1971, at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her family lived in a manufactured home…
  • Sean CombsSean John Combs was born on the 4th of November 1969, in Harlem, New York City. His father Melvin Earl Combs worked at a hair salon and served in the U.S.
  • Kendrick LamarKendrick Lamar Duckworth was born on the 17th of June 1987, in Compton, California. He grew up in Section 8 housing and relied on welfare and food stamps…
  • Snoop DoggCalvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. arrived in Long Beach, California on the 20th of October 1971. His biological father left the family three months after his…
  • Tupac ShakurTupac Amaru Shakur was born on the 16th of June 1971, in East Harlem, Manhattan. His birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks until he was renamed at age one.
  • Afrika BambaataaLance Taylor grew up in the Bronx River Projects during the 1960s and 1970s. He was born on the 17th of April 1957 to Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants.
  • 50 CentCurtis James Jackson III was born on the 6th of July 1975 in Queens, New York City. He grew up in the South Jamaica neighborhood after his mother died in a…
  • Shaquille O'NealShaquille Rashaun O'Neal entered the world on the 6th of March 1972, in Newark, New Jersey. His biological father was Joe Toney, a high school basketball…
  • LL Cool JJames Todd Smith was born on the 14th of January 1968 in Bay Shore, New York. His childhood home became a crime scene when his father shot his mother and…
  • MadlibOtis Lee Jackson Jr. arrived in the world on the 24th of October 1973 within Oxnard, California. His father Otis Jackson Sr.
  • Sean PriceSean Duval Price entered the world on the 17th of March 1972. He grew up in the borough of Brooklyn during a time when hip hop was transforming from local…
  • The Lady of RageRobin Yvette Allen stood in Chung King Studios during the summer of 1988. She was twenty years old when she met Shahkim, a rapper from Queens who would later…
  • Donald GloverDonald McKinley Glover Jr. arrived at Edwards Air Force Base in California on the 25th of September 1983. His father worked as a postal worker stationed…
  • Ice-TTracy Lauren Marrow arrived in the world on the 16th of February 1958. He was born in Newark, New Jersey to Solomon and Alice Marrow.
  • Kurtis BlowKurtis Blow made history in 1979 when he became the first rapper signed to a major label. Mercury Records released his single Christmas Rappin' that same…
  • MF DoomDaniel Dumile entered the world in Hounslow, London on the 13th of July 1971. His mother was from Trinidad and his father came from Zimbabwe.
  • DMXEarl Simmons was born on the 18th of December 1970, in Mount Vernon, New York. He grew up as the middle child of a family that included two daughters and two…
  • Tech N9neAaron Dontez Yates was born on the 8th of November 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri. He began rapping at a very early age to spell out his own name letter by…