Curated category
East Coast hip-hop musicians
- Keef CowboyRobert Keith Wiggins was born on the 20th of September 1960. He died on the 8th of September 1989, and he is widely credited as having invented the term…
- Spoonie GeeSpoonie Gee is one of the earliest rap artists in history, and one of the very few to have released rap records in the 1970s.
- Disco King MarioDisco King Mario was born on the 1st of July, 1956, in Edenton, North Carolina, and he died on the 21st of May, 1994 - a man who never released a single…
- 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"…
- 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…
- Coke La RockCoke La Rock rapped at the earliest parties in The Bronx without anyone in the crowd knowing he was there. He performed out of sight from the audience.
- RaekwonRaekwon was accidentally shot four times in a crossfire, and he later called it an "important eye opener." That near-death moment pushed Corey Woods, born on…
- Marley MarlMarley Marl was the first producer who inspired Madlib to make beats. That single fact, drawn from an interview Madlib gave about his own origins, tells you…
- Large ProfessorLarge Professor was born William Paul Mitchell on the 21st of March, 1972, in Harlem, Manhattan, then raised in Flushing, Queens.
- The Notorious B.I.G.The Notorious B.I.G. was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles on the 9th of March 1997. He was twenty-four years old.
- 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…
- Will SmithWill Smith was born on the 25th of September 1968 in Philadelphia, and before he turned thirty, he had already won Grammy Awards as a rapper, anchored a hit…
- 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…
- Afrika BambaataaAfrika Bambaataa was born Lance Taylor on the 17th of April, 1957, in the Bronx River Projects of New York City, to Jamaican and Barbadian immigrants.
- 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.
- Shaquille O'NealShaquille Rashaun O'Neal was born on the 6th of March, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey, to a mother named Lucille and a biological father, Joe Toney, who would…
- LL Cool JLL Cool J was four years old when he walked in on his father's act of violence. James Todd Smith found his mother and grandfather shot and bleeding inside…
- Sean PriceSean Price, born Sean Duval Price on the 17th of March 1972, spent decades building a name in underground hip-hop. Then, one Saturday morning in 2015, his…
- Nicki MinajNicki Minaj was born Onika Tanya Maraj on the 8th of December 1982, in the Saint James district of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
- 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.