Curated category
21st-century African-American male rappers
- 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.
- 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"…
- Roddy RicchAt twelve years old, Roddy Ricch freestyled for Kendrick Lamar in their shared hometown of Compton, California. Lamar was already a rising name and fellow…
- 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.
- Young ThugYoung Thug was born Jeffery Lamar Williams on the 16th of August 1991, the tenth of eleven children raised in the Jonesboro South projects near Cleveland…
- Lil WayneLil Wayne left school in tenth grade because his mother found a gun in his school bag. He was fifteen years old, already signed to a major label, already…
- Kendrick LamarKendrick Lamar Duckworth was five years old when he watched a teenage drug dealer get killed in a drive-by shooting outside his apartment in Compton…
- Lupe FiascoLupe Fiasco was born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco on the 16th of February 1982, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in a household where one day the music was N.W.A…
- Donald GloverDonald McKinley Glover Jr. was voted "Most Likely to Write for The Simpsons" in his high school yearbook at Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
- 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.
- 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.
- MF DoomMF Doom died on the 31st of October 2020, in a Leeds hospital, from an adverse reaction to blood pressure medication. His wife, Jasmine, was not permitted to…
- 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…