Curated playlist
American hip-hop singers
- EminemEminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards while GLAAD protested outside.
- Kanye WestKanye West recorded "Through the Wire" with his jaw still wired shut. A 2002 car accident had shattered it.
- Roddy RicchRoddy Ricch spent eighteen weeks atop the Hot 100 in 2020, more than any other artist that year.
- 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…
- Bruno MarsBruno Mars was five years old when he wet himself on a Honolulu stage in the middle of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." His parents wondered whether they were making a mistake by putting him in front of crowds. He never…
- Young ThugYoung Thug was expelled in sixth grade for breaking a teacher's arm.
- TimbalandTimbaland taught himself to DJ with his left hand after being shot at 14. A co-worker shot him at a Red Lobster.
- 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,…
- Lil WayneLil Wayne left school in tenth grade after his mother found a gun in his bag.
- Queen LatifahQueen Latifah picked her name from a book of Arabic names at age eight. She added the title "Queen" herself.
- Tyler, the CreatorAt the age of seven, Tyler Gregory Okonma, known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, was already making albums that did not exist. He pulled the covers out of CD cases and made new ones for imaginary records, each with a tracklist and…
- Will SmithWill Smith turned down the lead role in The Matrix to make Wild Wild West. He later called that choice a mistake.
- Sean CombsSean Combs founded Bad Boy Records, which launched the Notorious B.I.G. He was later sentenced to four years in prison.
- Paris HiltonParis Hilton became so inescapable in 2007 that parts of the American press tried to stop mentioning her. The Associated Press attempted to leave her out for the week of the 19th of February 2007. On the 26th of June 2007, host Mika…
- Kendrick LamarKendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, the first for a piece outside classical and jazz.
- Snoop DoggSnoop Dogg bought Death Row Records, the label that launched his career, in February 2022. It took nearly three decades.
- Brandy NorwoodBrandy Rayana Norwood, known simply as Brandy, once held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks in a row. The song was "The Boy Is Mine," a duet with the singer Monica. It is still counted as the most successful song by a…
- Kid RockKid Rock, born Robert James Ritchie in Romeo, Michigan, was 17 when he signed with Jive Records. Years later, his album Devil Without a Cause sold 14 million copies. Both facts belong to one career, and little else about that career is…
- Travis ScottTravis Scott, born Jacques Bermon Webster II, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer from Houston, Texas. Within a single twelve-month span, three of his songs entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number one. No artist…
- Juice WrldIn 2020, the rapper Juice Wrld was streamed on Spotify more than 5.9 billion times, which made him the fourth most streamed artist in the world. He had died the year before. The name is pronounced "juice world", and it belonged to a young…
- Chris BrownChris Brown, born Christopher Maurice Brown, has sold more than 140 million records worldwide. That total places him among the best-selling music artists in the world. Across his career he has collected 219 awards from 566 nominations, and…
- Lupe FiascoLupe Fiasco finished an album in 2010, but his record label refused to release it.
- Donald GloverDonald Glover was voted most likely to write for The Simpsons. At 23 he landed a writing job on 30 Rock instead.
- Nicole ScherzingerIn August 2003, Nicole Scherzinger walked into the Arista Records office in New York carrying a demo CD of songs she had written herself. She was performing under her Hawaiian family name, Nicole Kea, and she wanted a solo recording…
- XXXTentacionXXXTentacion, born Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, was shot dead on the 18th of June 2018 near a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He was 20 years old. At the time, he was a rising and deeply polarizing figure in hip-hop.…
- 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…
- Keke PalmerKeke Palmer's famous nickname has nothing to do with her real name. Lauren Keyana Palmer took it from an imaginary friend called Keke, invented by her older sister, Loreal, before Palmer was even born. In an interview with Glamour in 2022,…
- ASAP RockyASAP Rocky became a radio name in August 2011, when his single "Peso" leaked online. Within weeks, Hot 97, a high-profile New York station, was playing it. The song helped push cloud rap, a style of hip hop, into mainstream attention. The…