Curated category
21st-century African-American rappers
- 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.
- 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 RicchRodrick Wayne Moore Jr. arrived in Compton, California on the 22nd of October 1998. He grew up within a Christian household that shaped his early years.
- 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.
- Young ThugJeffery Lamar Williams was born on the 16th of August 1991, in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in the Jonesboro South projects near Cleveland Avenue as the…
- 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…
- Queen LatifahQueen Latifah chose her name at age eight, pulling it from a book of Arabic names. The word latifah means "delicate" and "very kind", but Dana Elaine Owens…
- 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…
- 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…
- Megan Thee StallionMegan Jovon Ruth Pete arrived in the world on the 15th of February 1995, inside a hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Her mother Holly Thomas moved the family to…
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…