 | | Mixing Shwayze-like beats, the caustic attitude of Kesha, and a tough version of suburban rap, Boston’s Sam Adams caused quite a stir in 2010 when his debut album topped the iTunes hip-hop charts the week of its release. |
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 | | Asher Roth is a white suburban rapper who broke through to mainstream success in 2009 with his commercial debut single, "I Love College. |
 | | Philadelphia's clever alt-hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang burst on the scene in early 2010 with their MGMT-sampling track "The Opposite of Adults. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Although the Jamie Kennedy movie Malibu's Most Wanted posited that the beachside Los Angeles suburb is so upper class and lily white that the only rappers it can produce are rich teenagers fronting gangsta poses, real-life Malibu resident Shwayze begs to differ. |
 | | Part of the mid-2000s hip-hop movement that found kids in all-over prints rapping about their shoes and their favorite forms of transportation (which often weren't cars), the Cool Kids proved to be both an Internet and live show phenomenon. |
 | | Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, a ten-member cult rap collective from L.A., bring to mind a younger, crazier Wu-Tang Clan -- if the Clan had skateboarded and rhymed about drugs and gore instead of chess and kung-fu. |
 | | Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, a ten-member cult rap collective from L.A., bring to mind a younger, crazier Wu-Tang Clan -- if the Clan had skateboarded and rhymed about drugs and gore instead of chess and kung-fu. |
 | | Born Natassia Zolot, the San Francisco, California-based rapper and director is better known by her stage name, Kreayshawn. |
 | | When he’s not busy writing for television, performing with his sketch group Derrick Comedy, or acting on the NBC comedy Community, Donald Glover somehow finds the time to make beats and rap as his alter ego, Childish Gambino. |
 | | Thanks to his smart lyrics, the Louisiana-based Curren$y landed a label deal in 2003, but it took three labels and seven years of underground releases before the rapper made his official debut. |
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 | | Part of the strange and underground universe that is Odd Future, MellowHype are a splinter group featuring members Hodgy Beats and Left Brain. |
 | | Yelawolf is an underground rapper from a small town in the South who found major-label success in 2011. |
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 | | Delivering lyrics with the speed of a bullet train, Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly (aka MGK) experienced a meteoric rise in late 2011. |
 | | Born Thebe Kgositsile, Earl Sweatshirt is a Los Angeles-based rapper and member of the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA) crew. |
 | | MGK, or Machine Gun Kelly, is a Cleveland rapper born Richard Colson Baker. Taking his stage name from the notorious mobster and applying it to himself for his rapid-fire lyrical flow, MGK started rapping while still in high school and quickly gained a large local following through the release of several mixtapes, 2006's Stamp of Approval, 2008's Homecoming, and 100 Words and Running and Lace Up, both released in 2010. |
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 | | Equally inspired by Prince and 2Pac, Lil B is an eccentric, ambitious rapper who came up with the Bay Area's the Pack, a group that had a hit with the sneaker-loving track "Vans. |
 | | Mixing bud smoker's anthems with socially conscious numbers, rapper ScHoolboy Q spent three years in the mixtape underground before launching his career properly in 2011. |
 | | Kid Cudi is a Brooklyn-based rapper from Cleveland whose debut single, "Day 'n' Nite," became an online favorite in 2008. |
 | | Before rising to the forefront of late-'90s punk-pop with blink-182, drummer Travis Barker honed his chops with the Suicide Machines and the Aquabats. |
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 | | When Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, and Royce da 5'9" joined Joe Budden on his 2008 mixtape Halfway House, the chemistry on their collaborative track meant "Slaughterhouse" the song would quickly become Slaughterhouse the hip-hop supergroup. |
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 | | At first, Hopsin was famous for his falling out with the pioneering label Ruthless, but that became a footnote when the rapper, producer, and actor released the hit track "Sag My Pants" on his own in late 2010. |
 | | After building up a sizable base of "ninjas" (what the rapper calls his fans) with giveaway mixtapes stocked full of accessible party raps, Connecticut's Chris Webby finally went aboveground with this debut 2001 EP, There Goes the Neighborhood. |
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 | | Whenever anyone mentions the name of Detroit rapper Royce da 5'9", a whole list of other names surround it. |
 | | A producer, songwriter, and singer from Southfield, Michigan, Bei Maejor (Brandon Green) broke into the music industry in 2005. |
 | | With an origin going back to their time spent living in a “Students of Color for Social Justice”-themed dorm, Das Racist’s meeting seems like destiny. |
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 | | Nipsey Hussle, name adapted from the odd source of Nipsey Russell, iconic comic and actor of many decades, may have a pun-happy name. |
 | | Mowii (a onetime touring dancer for Madonna), Pee W33, and Bounc3 broke out as the Rej3ctz, a Los Angeles-based rap group, in late 2010, when the video for their low-slung single “Cat Daddy” -- also a dance -- was uploaded to YouTube. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
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 | | Born in Watts, CA, hardcore rapper Jay Rock was raised in the city's Nickerson Gardens Projects. With most neighborhood teens joining a gang, it was a no-win situation for Rock since hanging with any of his childhood friends meant he has engaging in "anti-social behavior" according to the law. |
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 | | YC, aka Yung Chris (not to be confused with Young Chris of Young Gunz), is a rapper who hails from Decatur, Georgia. |
 | | When the quick-rapping, crunk to the core Lil Wyte first came to the attention of the Three 6 Mafia it was with an all-white group of which Wyte was a member. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Born Felipe Coronel in a military hospital in Lima, Peru, in 1978, Immortal Technique moved to Harlem with his parents when he was two years old. |
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 | | 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. |
 | | Like many underground rappers in the Midwest, Tech N9ne specialized in bizarre hardcore rap and stood as one of the few recognized rappers based in Kansas City when he debuted in the late '90s. |
 | | Chicago-based MC Lupe Fiasco (born Wasalu Muhammad Jaco) began rapping in junior high school and joined a group called da Pak several years later. |
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![Blue Slide Park [Clean Version] Album Cover](http://images.slacker.com/isv1/album/v1/2117954/aol/1/center/5,0/70.jpg "Blue Slide Park [Clean Version] Album Cover")
