 | | Not a standard group but a rotating collective, Rich Gang features artists signed to Birdman's label Cash Money. |
 | | California pop-rap trio Drop City Yacht Club loosely assembled in 2009 when rapper A Wolf was introduced to producer Kristo. |
 | | Netherlands-based DJ/production duo Maarten Hoogstraten (aka Break Mechanic, Marchand) and Paul Christian (real last name Bäumer) started releasing commercial house singles and remixes as Bingo Players in 2006, when they debuted on the German Techtone label with the Sonic Stomp EP. |
 | | R&B singer August Alsina spent the first several years of his life in New Orleans, Louisiana, but his mother moved his family to Houston, Texas to gain distance from the troubled lives led by his crack-addicted father and stepfather. |
 | | With a pop-rap style influenced as much by John Mayer as by Macklemore, rapper Jake Miller came up in 2013 while still a student at the University of Miami. |
 | | Whether from the pages of popular magazines or from the regular folks hanging on the street corner, Papoose received countless accolades before the release of an official album. |
 | | A founding member of Harlem's A$AP Mob (Always Strive and Prosper), A$AP Ferg was initially the group's main clothing designer but after teaming with Mob member A$AP Rocky he became one of the crew's breakout rappers. |
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 | | R&B singer/songwriter B. Smyth got his start as one of millions of teenagers uploading YouTube videos of himself covering other artists' songs. |
 | | Cappadonna (b. circa 1969) was one of the last members to join the Wu-Tang Clan. He had known the members since grade school in Staten Island, and he had even decided at the age of 15 that he could write and perform lyrics. |
 | | One-half of the Queens hardcore rap duo Capone-N-Noreaga, Victor "Noreaga" Santiago met Kiam "Capone" Holley in 1992 while both were serving prison sentences. |
 | | A member of the hip-hop duo Clipse, rapper Pusha T was born Terrence Thornton in the Bronx but was raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia along with his brother Gene Thornton. |
 | | The ridiculous success of 50 Cent in early 2003 opened the floodgates for other street-level, mixtape-bred rappers, one of whom was Joe Budden, a Jersey City rapper with a distinct loose-cannon style molded from years of freestyling. |
 | | Atlanta Dirty South rapper Rocko's music career always had been a side note to his romantic relationship with R&B singer Monica until he signed with Def Jam in 2007. |
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 | | Following the success of Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, and Fedde Le Grand, Nick Van de Wall, aka Afrojack, is the latest DJ, producer, and remixer to break through from the burgeoning Dutch dance music scene. |
 | | Influenced by the Southern-style swagger of UGK and the rhymes of his hometown heroes the Diplomats, ASAP Rocky gave up slinging drugs in Harlem and moved to Elmwood Park, New Jersey, where he started rapping. |
 | | Delivering lyrics with the speed of a bullet train, Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly (aka MGK) experienced a meteoric rise in late 2011. |
 | | Together with production partner DJ Paul, Juicy J played an important role in the South's rise to prominence within the once East- and West Coast-dominated rap industry. |
 | | The RZA -- and maybe even GZA -- of Odd Future (short for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), Tyler, the Creator is the alternative hip-hop crew's main rapper, producer, and source of inspiration. |
 | | Kicking his career off at the age of 16 with the street single "I Don't Like," rapper Chief Keef was a hit on Chicago's high-school circuit before mixtapes and viral videos led to a contract with Interscope. |
 | | A rapper who built an indie empire with his Cocaine City imprint, French Montana was born in Morocco, but emigrated to the U. |
 | | Recalling the Dirty South sound of UGK and Scarface, Mississippi rapper/producer Big K.R.I.T. spent five years on the mixtape circuit honing his skills before his 2010 release took his career to another level. |
 | | Compton, California's Kendrick Lamar initially rapped as K. Dot and released a series of mixtapes under that name. |
 | | Busting out of Atlanta in 2011 with his hit street track "Tony Montana," rapper Future grew up in Atlanta's Zone 6 section. |
 | | Born Antoine McColister in Port St. Lucie, Florida, Ace Hood was raised by his mother in Deerfield Beach, twenty miles north of Miami. |
 | | Eve was one of a new breed of tough, talented, commercially viable female MCs to hit the rap scene during the late '90s. |
 | | Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill, born Robert Williams, began releasing mixtapes in 2006, debuting with The Real Me. |
 | | Coming up somewhere between Wiz Khalifa (loose flow, hedonistic lyrics) and Lil B (free spirit, love of alternative-flavored beats), Atlanta's Trinidad James went from viral to Def Jam signee, and all in his rookie season. |
 | | Known as Tity Boi in the Atlanta-based Playaz Circle, rapper 2 Chainz launched his solo career while he was still a member of the crew, in 2007, with the mixtape Me Against the World. |
 | | MC and producer Kid Ink -- born Brian Todd Collins in Los Angeles, California, and formerly known as Rockstar -- rose steadily by releasing a series of four mixtapes during 2010 and 2011. |
 | | Producer and MC J. Cole was the first artist to signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label. Born in Germany but raised in North Carolina, Cole grew up with a mother who loved rock and folk while his father was a fan of hardcore hip-hop artists like 2Pac and Ice Cube. |
 | | The self-proclaimed "Ambassador of Rap for the Capital," Wale (pronounced "wah-lay") was able to transcend his local sensation status and become a national rap contender using go-go-inspired hip-hop as the vehicle for his clever wordplay and music. |
 | | Yo Gotti is among the many hardcore rappers who came out of hip-hop's Dirty South school in the late '90s. |
 | | Fabolous scored a bit hit, "Can't Deny It," right out of the gate in 2001, instantly establishing himself as a rising East Coast rap star, the song's combination of street-savvy toughness and pop crossover appeal representative of the rapper himself. |
 | | With a rangy set of friends from Fall Out Boy to Lil Wayne, it was obvious from the start that Tyga was not your everyday rapper from Compton. |
 | | Atlanta-based Young Jeezy originally planned on having a background role in the music industry -- as a businessman, not as a rapper. |
 | | Though he would later struggle with the nature of his fame as well as market expectations, 50 Cent endured substantial obstacles throughout his young yet remarkably dramatic life before becoming the most discussed figure in rap, if not pop music in general, circa 2003. |
 | | The work of rapper and producer will.i.am helped make Black Eyed Peas one of the most intriguing acts in hip-hop, and later made them one of the most popular acts on the charts when the albums Elephunk (2003) and Monkey Business (2005) started ascending the charts. |
 | | Kid Cudi is a Brooklyn-based rapper from Cleveland whose debut single, "Day 'n' Nite," became an online favorite in 2008. |
 | | With a series of hits that bundled gangster rhymes, weed talk, pop hooks, and slick production, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania rapper Wiz Khalifa went from breakthrough single ("Black and Yellow") to feature film star (Mac and Devin Go to High School) in the short span of two years. |
 | | When the Dirty South movement broke nationwide at the turn of the century, Ludacris rode it to immediate widespread popularity, becoming arguably the most commercially successful Southern rapper of the time. |
 | | Tattooed with pictures of AK-47s, Miami's six-foot, 300-pound rap figure known as Rick Ross embraced his city's reputation for drug trafficking on his debut single, "Hustlin'," in 2006. |
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 | | A game-changing artist and an impervious celebrity, Lil Wayne began as his career as a near-novelty -- a preteen delivering hardcore hip-hop -- but through years of maturation and reinventing the mixtape game, he developed into a million-selling rapper with a massive body of work, one so inventive and cunning that it makes his famous claim of being the "best rapper alive" worth considering. |
 | | Of all the rap artists who emerged from Atlanta during the late 2000s, B.o.B -- who was only 17 when he signed his first major-label record deal -- was one of the most unique. |
 | | Once dubbed "the Jay-Z of the South" by Pharrell Williams, T.I. gradually came into his own and established himself as one of rap's most successful MCs during the early 2000s. |
 | | In November 2005, Chris Brown’s Scott Storch-produced “Run It!” -- a rewrite of Usher’s “Yeah!” -- topped the Billboard Hot 100, making the 16-year-old singer the first male artist in over a decade to top the chart with a debut single. |
 | | The year 2005 was like yin and yang for Atlanta bling rapper Gucci Mane. He enjoyed success entering the charts with his first national hit, "Icy," became involved in a quarrel with that song's collaborator, Young Jeezy, and found himself facing murder charges in the Georgia courts. |
 | | Known initially for his role as Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation, Toronto, Ontario, native Drake (born Aubrey Drake Graham) stepped out as a rapper and singer with pop appeal in 2006, when he initiated a series of mixtapes. |
