Curated playlist
Record producers from New York (state)
- MadonnaMadonna arrived in New York in 1978 with thirty-five dollars. It was her first plane ride and first taxi.
- Lady GagaLady Gaga's name may have come from a phone typo. Producer Rob Fusari said autocorrect turned "Radio Ga Ga" into "Lady".
- Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
- 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.
- Paul SimonPaul Simon, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, nearly gave one of his best-known songs the wrong name. While writing music for the film The Graduate, he toyed with calling a new song "Mrs. Roosevelt." Art Garfunkel passed the…
- Mariah CareyMariah Carey handed her demo tape to a record boss at a party in December 1988. He turned his car around.
- Sean CombsSean Combs founded Bad Boy Records, which launched the Notorious B.I.G. He was later sentenced to four years in prison.
- Phil SpectorPhil Spector's first number one song came from his father's gravestone.
- Christina AguileraChristina Aguilera sang "A Sunday Kind of Love" on the television contest Star Search in 1990 and was eliminated in the semi-final round. That loss decided nothing. She would go on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide, and…
- 50 Cent50 Cent was shot nine times in 2000, then blacklisted by the music industry. He built his comeback on mixtapes.
- Alicia KeysAlicia Keys was fifteen years old when Columbia Records tried to win her signature with a $26,000 white baby grand piano. She took the deal. It began a long struggle over who would decide what her music sounded like. Years later she summed…
- LL Cool JLL Cool J became the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017.
- Rick RubinRick Rubin once received a thank-you speech that sounded like an insult. In 2010, the British band Muse won UK Single of the Year at the Music Producers Guild Awards for "Uprising." Frontman Matt Bellamy took the stage and said: "I'd like…
- Gene SimmonsGene Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel, on the 25th of August 1949. He grew up to become the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss, where he plays a stage character called the Demon. Rock stardom has a reputation…
- Lenny KravitzLenny Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance four years in a row, from 1999 to 2002. That run broke the record for wins in the category. It also set a record for consecutive wins in one category by a male…
- 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…
- David ByrneDavid Byrne was turned away from his middle school choir, which judged him "off-key and too withdrawn". That boy grew up to be an American musician, writer, visual artist and filmmaker. Over his career he has received an Academy Award, a…
- Marc AnthonyMarc Anthony sang at the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Citi Field, and the loudest reaction online had nothing to do with his voice. Some viewers wrongly decided the singer was Mexican, and a small social media controversy…
- Kurtis BlowIn 1979, Harlem's Kurtis Blow became the first rapper signed by a major label.
- MF DoomMF Doom died on October 31, 2020, but no one outside his family knew for two months. His wife then announced it.
- Sylvia RobinsonSylvia Robinson pushed Grandmaster Flash's group to record "The Message" in 1982.
- Post MalonePost Malone, born Austin Richard Post, failed an audition in 2010 for the Texas metalcore band Crown the Empire. He had gone in as a guitarist. The audition ended when his guitar strings broke, and the band turned him down. He was a…
- 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…
- Lou PearlmanIn June 2007, a tourist couple from Germany noticed a man staying at a hotel in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali. Their sighting ended a search that had stretched across several continents. On the 14th of June 2007, the man was…
- Diana RossDiana Ross got her name from a birth certificate mistake. Her mother had planned to name her Diane.