Curated playlist
East Coast hip-hop musicians
- Keef CowboyKeef Cowboy teased a friend who joined the Army by singing hip, hop, hip, hop. He is credited with the term hip hop.
- Spoonie GeeAfter his mother died, twelve-year-old Spoonie Gee moved in with his uncle, a Harlem record producer.
- Disco King MarioDisco King Mario helped launch hip-hop without ever releasing a record. He threw Bronx park jams in the early 1970s.
- FabolousFabolous got his name by misspelling "Fabulous." The Brooklyn rapper freestyled on Hot 97 as a teenager.
- Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
- Coke La RockCoke La Rock quit hip-hop after DJ Kool Herc was stabbed at a party. He said murder had become part of the game.
- RaekwonRaekwon was accidentally shot four times in a crossfire. He later called it an "important eye opener."
- Marley MarlMarley Marl's studio mistake with a snare drum changed how hip-hop beats were built.
- Large ProfessorLarge Professor turned down an executive producer credit on Nas's Illmatic. He still produced three of its ten songs.
- The Notorious B.I.G.The Notorious B.I.G.'s second album hit number one sixteen days after he was shot dead. He was twenty-four.
- Queen LatifahQueen Latifah picked her name from a book of Arabic names at age eight. She added the title "Queen" herself.
- 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.
- Cardi BCardi B reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated the 25th of September 2017, with a song called "Bodak Yellow." No solo female rapper had topped that chart since Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" in 1998. The woman behind…
- Afrika BambaataaAfrika Bambaataa turned a street gang into a global peace movement. He wanted hip-hop to draw angry kids out of gangs.
- 50 Cent50 Cent was shot nine times in 2000, then blacklisted by the music industry. He built his comeback on mixtapes.
- Shaquille O'NealShaquille O'Neal twice broke steel backboard supports with his dunks. The NBA then redesigned its equipment.
- NasNas was born Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, and every piece of that name carries a meaning. Nasir is an Arabic name for a helper and protector, and bin means son of. The American rapper, entrepreneur and record producer first recorded in 1989…
- LL Cool JLL Cool J became the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017.
- Sean PriceSean Price performed as Ruck in the Brooklyn duo Heltah Skeltah. Their 1996 debut album Nocturnal won acclaim.
- Nicki MinajNicki Minaj turned down a record deal because it required a ghostwriter.
- MF DoomMF Doom died on October 31, 2020, but no one outside his family knew for two months. His wife then announced it.
- Mac MillerBlue Slide Park, an album released on the 8th of November 2011, sold 144,000 copies in its first week and landed at the top of the US Billboard 200. No debut album distributed outside the major label system had done that since Tha Dogg…
- 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…
- DMXDMX was the first artist to open five straight studio albums at number one on the Billboard 200.