Curated playlist
American businesspeople in fashion
- MadonnaMadonna arrived in New York in 1978 with thirty-five dollars. It was her first plane ride and first taxi.
- Kanye WestKanye West recorded "Through the Wire" with his jaw still wired shut. A 2002 car accident had shattered it.
- Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
- Janet JacksonJanet Jackson was seen at the 1983 American Music Awards wearing a hoop earring with a key attached to it. She has worn variations of that earring in music videos and live shows ever since. The pair she wore between 1987 and 1990 is now on…
- BeyoncéOn the 13th of December 2013, Beyoncé released a complete album on the iTunes Store with no warning and no promotion. Within six days it had sold one million digital copies, a record for any album on iTunes at the time. The artist behind…
- Elizabeth TaylorAfter Rock Hudson said he was dying of AIDS, Elizabeth Taylor helped found a research foundation in 1985.
- Pharrell WilliamsPharrell Williams, the American musician, songwriter, record producer and fashion designer, was once behind a startling share of the songs on the radio. An August 2003 survey cited by The Age found that his production duo, the Neptunes,…
- Queen LatifahQueen Latifah picked her name from a book of Arabic names at age eight. She added the title "Queen" herself.
- Sean CombsSean Combs founded Bad Boy Records, which launched the Notorious B.I.G. He was later sentenced to four years in prison.
- Kim KardashianIn November 2025, Kim Kardashian announced that she had failed her first attempt at the California Bar Exam. The news travelled quickly, because she is the eighth-most-followed individual on Instagram and the thirteenth-most-followed on…
- Hilary DuffHilary Duff was a child actor cast in the pilot of the NBC comedy Daddio, and producers removed her from the cast before it aired. A week later she won the title role in a new Disney Channel series. Years after that, in 2026, Time named…
- SelenaSelena Quintanilla-Pérez was 23 years old when she died on the 31st of March 1995, and major television networks interrupted their regular programming to announce it. She was a singer from Texas who performed Tejano music, a…
- 50 Cent50 Cent was shot nine times in 2000, then blacklisted by the music industry. He built his comeback on mixtapes.
- Usher (musician)Usher, the American singer, songwriter, dancer and actor, drew 123 million viewers within the United States to his Super Bowl LVIII halftime show in 2024. Very few performers ever stand in front of a crowd that size. Fewer still get there…
- Lupe FiascoLupe Fiasco finished an album in 2010, but his record label refused to release it.
- Jennifer LopezJennifer Lopez wore a plunging green Versace silk chiffon dress to the Grammy Awards in February 2000, and a single outfit changed how people used the internet. The dress became the most popular search query in Google's history. That flood…
- Kid CudiKid Cudi was born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi in Cleveland on the 30th of January 1984. One day, while he was working at the BAPE store in New York, Kanye West came in and bought a few jackets. Cudi had forgotten to remove a security sensor…
- Russell SimmonsRussell Simmons said a 1977 Harlem rap show was "the invention of the wheel." He went on to build Def Jam and Phat Farm.