Eminem
The average rapper wouldn’t be able to grace the pages of Rap Pages, VIBE, Rolling Stone, Spin, The Source, URB and Stress and go on a national tour months before their major-label debut album is released. All accomplished after undergoing addiction and mental health treatment programs. Then again, Eminem isn’t an average rapper. He’s phenomenal.
The impending release of the The Slim Shady LP, his first set on Aftermath/Interscope Records, already has underground hip-hop heads fiending for Eminem. Chock full of dazzling lyrical escapades that delve into the mind of a violently warped and vulgar yet extremely talented wordsmith, the 14-cut collection contains some of the most memorable and demented lyrics ever recorded.
D12
“We all knew each other growing up in Detroit,” Proof remembers. “I used to sneak Em into my school lunchroom just so he could battle. Later, when we started battling once a month at Maurice Malone’s Hip-Hop Shop, everybody had a crew. So, we decided to form our own. That’s how D12 was born. Before we even thought about making records, our only goal was to be like verbal ninjas and kick ass.”
Although the Detroit hip-hop scene might not be on the scale of New York or Cali, those who are down take rap very seriously. Having known each other since the days when they were rapping just to be heard, head nodding on stage inside Detroit’s infamous Hip-Hop Shop (where Proof was also the host), these brothers from different mothers have always had a special bond. “We were the All-Star Team of battle rappers,” Kuniva recalls. “And when somebody like Bizarre got in front of the mic, we never knew what he might say. Bizarre is wicked ’cause he’ll say shit that others won’t.”
50 Cent
50 Cent’s new album, Curtis, takes hip-hop to the bank.
Superstar Rapper’s Third Album Includes Production from Dr. Dre, Eminem and Timbaland; Guests Include Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Justin Timberlake, Akon and More
On Curtis, his third major label album, rapper 50 Cent gives no quarter. As hard and brutally honest, yet musical and entertaining, as his first two albums–each of them #1 Pop, #1 R&B/Hip-hop and at least seven times platinum–50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) tells it like it is on Curtis and makes the resulting controversy pay as he heads “Straight to the Bank,” the title of the album’s first street track.
Slaughterhouse
The group formed in late 2008 after Crooked I, Joell Ortiz, Royce Da 5’9″, and Nino Bless appeared on the song “Slaughterhouse” from Joe Budden’s album Halfway House. They decided to form a group, minus Nino Bless, and named the group after the song. The members of Slaughterhouse all share some degree of controversy from their past in the music industry. All four men address these issues in the Slaughterhouse song “Move On”, informing any interviewers out there that their pasts are behind them and that questions pertaining to these events are not relevant.[2] A video for the song was released in March 2009..
Yelawolf
Envision a humid world of slow-rolling Monte Carlos and slaughter houses; meth labs and rusting Mossberg’s, inked up arms and haircuts that look like they’ve been chopped by hatchets. Trunk muzik. Southern Pine trees, smoking pine, and pine boxes. Call him Catfish Billy or Yelawolf, just don’t go make him go pop the trunk on you.
Enter Yelawolf’s Alabama—a backwoods badlands of sinners and salvation. He claims Gadsden, but he’s from everywhere. Born Michael Wayne Atha to an absentee father and a bartender mother, he attended over 15 schools while soaking up slang and spiritualism in Baton Rouge, Antioch, Tennessee, and Atlanta. While trying to stay afloat in a turbulent home life addled by drug and alcohol abuse, he discovered rap music in Tennesee and it soon became an obsession, along with the classic rock (Lynard Skynard, Pink Floyd, The Allman Brothers) that he was raised on.
