Saturday, February 28, 2015

Best Rappers From New York

By Olivia Cross


Anyone who is familiar with hip hop music will know about the divide between the East Coast and the West Coast rappers. Many rappers from New York are some of the world's most famous artistes to date, living or dead. Furthermore, as the history of hip hop dictates, most of them came from a life of hard knocks and struggles in order to make it in the music industry.

Shawn Carter, known to the world as Jay Z, is one of, if not the most successful rap icon today. At forty five years old, Jay Z is still creating music that tops charts around the world, often collaborating with his wife Beyonce, a music industry icon in her own right. Jay Z hails from Brooklyn and paid tribute to his home state in a single entitled 'Empire State Of Mind', in which he collaborated with R&B singer Alicia Keys.

Shawn Carter has nineteen Grammys under his belt and has been at the top of the charts consistently for years. On the Rolling Stone's list of five hundred greatest albums of all time, there are three by Jay Z. As well as his music career, he is the owner and creator of Rocawear, Roc-A-Fella Records and Roc Nation.

A real legend in hip hop, Tupac Shakur's name is well known. One of the key players in the East coast/West coast hip hop rivalry, Tupac is listed as one of the world's greatest artists ever. On record sales alone, he holds a place as an all-time bestseller in the music industry.

Tupac Shakur was an incredibly influential rapper. He was born in 1971 in East Harlem. His life ended abruptly in 1996, where he suffered multiple gunshot wounds in a drive by shooting. Many will attest to the conspiracies surrounding his tragic death.

Notorious B. I. G. Is another huge name in the industry and closely linked to Tupac Shakur as well. Other names that Christopher Wallace went by include Biggie and Biggie Smalls. Hailing from Brooklyn, Biggie was a student at the same high that Jay Z attended, and also rapper Busta Rhymes. Christopher Wallace, like Tupac Shakur, was killed in a drive by shooting in March of 1997.

Li'l Kim, Biggie's girlfriend for some time, also comes from Brooklyn. She got her start thanks to Biggie Smalls after giving him a freestyle, which impressed him immediately. After spending a lot of her younger years on the streets, Li'l Kim is the only other female rapper besides Missy Elliott with 3 albums at platinum status.

Biggie's best friend, Sean Combs, is very much a mogul and entrepreneur like his fellow rapper Jay Z. Raised in Mount Vernon, New York, Puffy - or Diddy, as he is more recently called - paid tribute to Notorious B. I. G. On a monster track entitled 'Missing You'. The single featured the voice of Biggie's wife, Faith Evans, as well. Sean Combs has been listed in Forbes Magazine as the richest man in hip hop.




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