Curated category
American music industry executives
- MadonnaMadonna Louise Ciccone arrived in New York City in 1978 with thirty-five dollars in her pocket. It was the first time she had ever flown on a plane or ridden…
- EminemEminem walked onto the stage at the 43rd Grammy Awards in 2001 alongside Elton John, a gay icon performing with a rapper whose lyrics had drawn protests from…
- Kanye WestKanye Omari West was born on the 8th of June 1977, in Atlanta, Georgia, and by the time he was done reshaping American music, he had become one of the most…
- Jay-ZJay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on the 4th of December 1969, in Brooklyn, New York City, and grew up in the Marcy Houses, a public housing project in the…
- Dr. DreAndre Romell Young was born on the 18th of February 1965 in Compton, California, the son of Theodore and Verna Young. His middle name came from the Romells…
- Ewart AbnerEwart Abner was the man in the room when American popular music was being made. In January 1963, his label signed a little-known British group that Capitol…
- Birdman (rapper)Birdman was born Bryan Christopher Brooks on the 15th of February 1969 at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, without a given first name.
- Rick RossRick Ross was born William Leonard Roberts II on the 28th of January 1976 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and grew up in Carol City, Florida.
- 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…
- Sean CombsSean Combs was born on the 4th of November 1969, in Harlem, New York City, and by the time he reached his mid-twenties he had reshaped American popular music…
- Snoop DoggCalvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. was born on the 20th of October 1971, in Long Beach, California, to a Vietnam War veteran who walked out on the family just three…
- 50 Cent50 Cent was shot nine times at close range outside his grandmother's former home in South Jamaica, Queens, on the 24th of May 2000.
- Magic JohnsonMagic Johnson stood at the free throw line on the 7th of November 1991 and told the world he had HIV. He was 32 years old, five-time NBA champion, and…
- Suge KnightSuge Knight was born Marion Hugh Knight Jr. on the 19th of April 1965 in Compton, California, and he grew up to become one of the most feared and…
- Herb AlpertHerb Alpert is the only musician in history to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 as both a vocalist and an instrumentalist.
- 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…
- 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.
- Russell SimmonsRussell Simmons heard Eddie Cheeba perform in Harlem in 1977 and walked away convinced he had just witnessed, in his own words, "the invention of the wheel."…
- Sylvia RobinsonIn 2022, Sylvia Robinson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Ahmet Ertegun Award category, the first woman to receive that honor…
- Brown MeggsBrown Moore Meggs was born on the 20th of October 1930 in Los Angeles. His father Charles Winfield Meggs worked as an art director for Paramount Pictures and…
- 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…