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JAY-Z
Emerged 1996
Influence Armed to the teeth with skill, wit, charm
and a keen business sense comparable to Warren Buffet,
the street-wise God-MC's mark on the rap game at large
is immeasurable – oh, and he's got the hottest
chick in the game rockin' his chain!
Fact! In Biggie's last interview in The Source,
he said that Hov was his favorite rapper. |
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Missy Elliott and Timbaland
Emerged 1996
Influence Both hailing from Virginia Beach, Missy Elliott and Timbaland dominated hip hop at one point with their futuristic freaky beats. Missy has since come into her own as an artist and fashion icon with her new clothing line.
Fact! Missy and Timbaland were both part of Devante
Swing's (Jodeci) controversial Da Bassment crew.
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Lil Kim
Emerged 1996
Influence Co-signed by BIG himself, the demure
Queen Bee stepped into the rap arena telling haters to
suck her dick; armed with skills for days, a tongue seasoned
with profanity, and a cute fashion sense, Kim took female
rap from its tomboyish quarters into Madonnaville – the
rap game has never been the same since!
Fact! Kim has gone on record saying that one of her biggest regrets is not keeping the baby that she bore for Biggie.
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Lauryn Hill/The Fugees
Emerged 1996
Influence While introducing us to her erudite rhymes
and soulful riffing via her successful alliance with track-master
Clef and founder Pras, L Boogie and her cohorts rewrote
the manifesto on how to make credible hip hop go pop;
two years later, she wraps the game up with The Miseducation
of Lauryn Hill – very much the What's Going On of our
times.
Fact! The reason why the Syleena Johnson-featured
album version of Kanye West's 'All Fall Down' is different
from the original version on the advance and bootleg copies
that featured Lauryn's voice, is because she refused his
request to use her vocal sample.
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D'Angelo
Emerged 1995
Influence Bringing back the original soul man tradition founded by the likes of Marvin Gaye, D'Angelo signalled the soul revival that was to become known as neo soul.
Fact! The Philly soul singer was three times Amateur
Night at the Apollo winner before his 19th birthday.
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OutKast
Emerged 1994
Influence The kings of the ATL dirty South, Big
Boi and Andre 3000 have consistently pushed musical boundaries
with their unique blend of gritty soul and Southern hip
hop. Their nonconformist attitude, and outrageous style
has done nothing but fuel their success. OutKast's recent
double album Speakerboxx/The Love Below reached
diamond sales.
Fact! Andre 3000 is in negotiations to play Jimi
Hendrix in a Hughes Brothers flick on the legendary guitarist's
life. The budding thesp has several of his own film projects
in the pipeline (including a musical entitled Speakerboxx
and the romantic drama Be Cool) and there is
also talk of negotiations with The Cartoon Network about
an adult cartoon.
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The Notorious BIG
Emerged 1994
Influence Brooklyn's finest representative transformed
ashy freestyles into classy composition.
Fact! When word got to Faith about Biggie having female company in his hotel room while he was on tour, she immediately caught a flight, went up to Big's hotel room, beat the girl shitless, ransacked the room and jetted back to New York!
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R Kelly
Emerged 1993
Influence Beyond guilty of acutely putting the
hood cat's perspective – and all the ghetto drama surrounding
it – into a gumbo of stankin' soul laced with pure hip
hop sensibility. Revolutionary without a doubt.
Fact! Amid his legal woes last year, Kelly allegedly told a reporter that Osama Bin Laden was the only person who could understand the torment of what he's going through.
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2Pac Shakur
Emerged 1993
Influence The hip hop generation's James Dean,
Malcolm X and Elvis Presley rolled in to one, Pac made
it okay to embrace your complexities and contradictions;
one minute he's smacking his bitch up, the next minute
he was telling her to keep her head up – that's
why we love him; he was real, and even in death, he's
selling more records than your favorite rapper!
Fact! Pac was in the same ballet class as Jada Pinkett at school in Baltimore.
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Mary J Blige
Emerged 1992
Influence The undisputed queen of street soul, Blige (with the help of Puffy) was the first diva to marry the worlds of R&B and hip hop.
Fact! Before she was famous, Blige was a directory
assistance operator, hence the title of her debut album,
What's The 411?
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Sean 'P Diddy' Combs
Emerged 1992
Influence From dancer, to intern, to A&R, to stylist,
to producer, to CEO, to artist, to fashion mogul, the
man formerly known as Puff has done it all and done them
well – it'd be suicidal to not give this hurricane
of an entity his heartbeat props.
Fact! Among his many ventures, Diddy has now added
another chapter: Bad Boy Books.
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Wu-Tang Clan
Emerged 1992
Influence With the RZA providing tuneful yet off-kilter basement-style bangers, the Wu stormed the rap gate with raw rhymes, mad personalities and ill concepts that firmly put New York back on the map, while ushering hip hop into its Renaissance period.
Fact! Cousins Gza and Rza created their nom-de-plumes by the sound their names (Gary and Robert) would make when scratched on a turntable.
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