GreenHitz.com

R&B singer/songwriter and producer Terius Youngdell Nash, better known as the-Dream, was born in Rockingham, North Carolina, but moved to Atlanta, Georgia, with his mother at the age of three. He first learned to play trumpet in elementary school, later picking up the drums and guitar. Nash's singing career got off to a slow start once he graduated from high school, but he found success in selling song lyrics after he met R&B producer Laney Stewart in 2001. Stewart helped Nash land his first publishing contract in 2003 in light of his penning "Everything" for B2K's platinum 2002 album Pandemonium! Paired with producer Chris "Tricky" Stewart (Laney's brother), he continued to write songs for various artists over the next four years, such as the Britney Spears/Madonna duet "Me Against the Music." His watershed moment came when he and Tricky created Rihanna's 2007 international smash hit "Umbrella." Several labels began approaching him so he could churn out more hits for their artists, particularly Def Jam, Rihanna's label, which was reluctant to sign the singer/songwriter at first. Def Jam finally stopped dancing around the issue of signing Nash after he sold number one R&B single "Bed" to Capitol Records newcomer J. Holiday. In fall 2007, Nash released his first single, "Shawty Is da Sh*!" (known on radio as "Shawty Is a 10"), on Def Jam, following up with his solo debut album, Love/Hate, at the end of the year. The album peaked at number five on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, while its three singles -- including "Shawty" -- reached the Top Five of the R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. A second album, Love vs Money, followed in March 2009; though it did top the R&B chart and narrowly missed the top spot of the Billboard 200, only one song -- "Rockin' That Thang" -- received significant airplay. Nash declared that Love King would be his final solo album, but he retracted the statement prior to the disc's June 2010 release. The set debuted in the Top Five of the Billboard 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop charts, though its two charting singles were only minor hits. A sprawling "Internet album" dubbed 1977 and credited to Terius Nash surfaced as a free digital download in 2011. The following year, "Roc" and "Dope Chick" were issued as singles and charted, but their parent album -- titled Love IV MMXII -- went through a series of delays. That October, Nash was hired by Def Jam as its vice president of A&R. Just before the end of the year, as Love IV MMXII continued to be delayed, Def Jam gave 1977 an official release. Even while recording his own material at a steady rate, Nash managed to dish out songs for a wide range of popular artists, including Mary J. Blige ("Just Fine"), Mariah Carey ("Touch My Body"), Beyoncé ("Single Ladies [Put a Ring on It]," for which he won a pair of Grammy Awards), Electrik Red (the entirety of How to Be a Lady, Vol. 1), Justin Bieber ("Baby"), first wife Nivea (whom he divorced in 2007), and second wife Christina Milian (whom he divorced in 2010). Through 2012, he continued to be in demand as a songwriter and guest artist. That year alone, he appeared on 2 Chainz's Based on a T.R.U. Story and Kanye West's Cruel Summer compilation, and he penned material for Keyshia Cole and Rihanna. The following February, he collected a Grammy for his role in Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," which won the award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. IV Play, his fourth and most collaborative album as the-Dream, was released in May 2013 and featured guest appearances from Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Kelly Rowland, and Gary Clark Jr., among others. Although it went Top Five R&B, just as the three previous the-Dream albums had done, it was easily the least successful one of the four due to relatively low sales and a shortage of notable tracks. In early 2015, Nash announced that he had split from Def Jam. A few months later, after he was cleared of felony domestic assault charges filed by a former partner, he returned on the Capitol label with new material. The EP Crown was released that April. A second EP, Jewel, was planned for release that July, but Nash's relationship with Capitol fell through. Near year's end, he uploaded a set of Sam Cooke covers, IAMSAM, to his SoundCloud page. Genesis, a ten-song release with an accompanying short film, followed in January 2016. Later that summer, Nash announced via his Instragram account that he would continue his "Love" series with a new album called Love Affair. The album's first single, "Love You to Death," arrived in December of that year. ~ Cyril Cordor & Andy Kellman Follow @TheKingDream on twitter! thekingdream.com

Nuh Rush Records Presents the 'Future Riddim' featuring Busy Signal, Lia Caribe, Mr. Diamond, Kananga, Monifa Goss, Tallgad, Paco General and 2 Gudda. Follow @busysignal_turf on twitter! http://www.instagram.com/busysignal_turf http://www.facebook.com/OneBusySignal http://www.twitter.com/liacaribemusic http://www.instagram.com/liacaribemusic http://www.facebook.com/liacaribe http://www.twitter.com/mrdiamondreggae http://www.instagram.com/mrdiamondreggae http://www.facebook.com/OneMrDiamond http://www.instagram.com/1tallgadturf https://twitter.com/2Gudda_Guddaent http://www.instagram.com/2_gudda https://www.facebook.com/2Gudda.GuddaEnt http://www.twitter.com/nuhrushrecords http://www.instagram.com/nuhrushrecords http://www.facebook.com/NuhrushRecords

Atlanta-based rapper and trap pioneer Gucci Mane made his mainstream debut in 2005 with his first national hit, "Icy." However, he became involved in a quarrel with that song's collaborator, Young Jeezy, and found himself facing murder charges in the Georgia courts. The skirmish would kick off a storied narrative that defined his career. Before the dramatic arc, Gucci Mane (born Radric Davis) loved to compose rhymes, writing poetry as a child in elementary school in his native Birmingham, Alabama. During the fourth grade, he moved to Atlanta with his single mother. By the time high school started, Gucci Mane had already spent time in a recording studio. The glamour and fashion sense of rappers like Big Daddy Kane motivated him to put words to music. His debut single, "Black Tee," was a hit on the local scene and earned him a contract with Big Cat Records. In May 2005, the label released his debut album, Trap House, which peaked at the number one spot on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. The beef with Young Jeezy originated from a fight over the rights to the album's "Icy" hit single, which spawned a number of diss tracks traded between the two. Within the same month of the LP's release, Gucci Mane was arrested for murder following an altercation in which he shot at a group of five men who burst into his friend's house, threatening to kill the rapper. As it turned out, the murdered attacker was an associate of Young Jeezy, who denied any involvement with the incident. Gucci Mane declared in court that it was self-defense, and by January 2006, Georgia prosecutors dropped all charges, citing lack of evidence. However, the legal issues would only continue for the next decade. After being released from jail (on charges unrelated to the murder) that same month, he quickly went back into the studio to make his second album, Hard to Kill, which was released in October. He took the song "Go Head" from his first album and made it the lead single for the second in order to make up for the time taken away from promoting Trap House. The State vs. Radric Davis, his second official album, was released in December 2009 following a dizzying array of dozens of mixtapes. The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted followed in 2010 with guest shots from Estelle, Nicki Minaj, and Wyclef. Featuring the single "Mouth Full of Gold" with special guest Birdman, the "street album" The Return of Mr. Zone 6 followed in 2011, along with two collaborative albums, 1017 Bricksquad Presents...Ferrari Boyz with Waka Flocka Flame and Baytl with V-Nasty. A second volume of Gucci Mane's The State vs. Radric Davis mixtape would drop in 2013. Entitled The State vs. Radric Davis II: The Caged Bird Sings, it featured appearances from Migos, Young Scooter, Peewee Longway, Verse Simmonds, Young Dolph, Rocko, and Young Thug. In late 2013, his scraps with the law finally came to a head. He agreed to a plea deal over a firearms possession charge and would not emerge from prison until May 2016. During his two years of incarceration, Gucci Mane would release close to 30 mixtapes. The rapper would have a landmark year in 2016. His ninth studio album, Everybody Looking, arrived mere months after his release from prison. Issued on his own label, Guwop Enterprises, the LP debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and boasted high-profile guest appearances such as Drake, Kanye West, and Young Thug. Keeping up with his prolific reputation, Gucci Mane released his tenth album just five months later. Woptober featured Rick Ross, Travis Scott, and Young Dolph. Guwop also scored his first Billboard number one single with the Rae Sremmurd hit "Black Beatles." To close out his busy 2016, he dropped his third album of the year, Return of the East Atlanta Santa, which debuted in the Billboard Top 20. ~ Cyril Cordor & Neil Z. Yeung Follow @gucci1017 on twitter! atlantic.lnk.to/ToneItDown

No overnight success, Khaled Mohamed Khaled toiled as a DJ for years prior to becoming an immensely successful, larger-than-life figure in rap music. During the latter half of the 2000s and throughout the following decade, surrounded by an ever-shifting cast of high-profile associates, Khaled factored into several of the rowdiest and most triumphant crossover rap hits. His first nine albums, released from 2006 through 2016, peaked within the Top Five of Billboard's rap chart, supported by singles that often seemed like events. Many of the genre's biggest names, including Rick Ross, Drake, and Jay-Z, eagerly took part. Cynics noted that Khaled rarely produced or wrote material and wondered if he did more than yell, self-promote, and flaunt. Meanwhile, others were having too good a time to care, charmed by Khaled's fun-loving spirit and/or the well-placed talent that flanked him. The son of Palestinian immigrants, Khaled spent the first years of his life in New Orleans, Louisiana. His family moved to Orlando, Florida, where, at the age of 13, he started to learn how to DJ in his supportive parents' garage. Due to financial hardship, Khaled's family returned to New Orleans. While still a teenager, Khaled briefly worked at the city's Odyssey record store, networking with rising rap artists like Birdman and Lil Wayne and, to the dismay of his boss, running up the phone bill by placing long-distance calls to record labels. Khaled went back Orlando, then headed south to Miami and struggled to establish himself as a DJ in the reggae soundclash circuit. At Miami pirate radio station Mixx 93, Khaled approached the on-air DJs and asked for a portion of their time slot. Marcello Valenzano and Andre Lyon, who were on the brink of leaving town and becoming known as production duo Cool & Dre, obliged. Khaled made the studio his home and became an exuberant force on the city's airwaves. His reach extended with mixtapes and club gigs. He received a boost from Luther Campbell, who brought him on as a regular DJ for WEDR's The Luke Show, and was eventually granted a station slot of his own, shortly after he received his first production credits. Emboldened by his increasing popularity and number of connections, as well as his status as the DJ for Terror Squad, Khaled put together his first official mixtape, which led to a long streak of commercially successful proper albums. Debut full-length Listennn: The Album (2006), released through Koch, was a modest success due to the Afrika Bambaataa-sampling Cool & Dre production "Holla at Me." It hit the Top 20 of Billboard's rap chart and, like all Khaled hits that followed, involved several rappers. Khaled remained with Koch/E1 for three additional albums that placed a total of four singles in the pop Top 40: "We Takin' Over," "I'm So Hood," "Out Here Grindin'," and "All I Do Is Win." Made with a combined total of 14 rappers and seven producers, these anthems earned Khaled several gold and platinum certifications. Birdman, who was among the crew heard on the first of the big hits, added Khaled to the Cash Money roster for a period that entailed three additional albums: We the Best Forever (2011), Kiss the Ring (2012), and Suffering from Success (2013). Only "I'm on One" and "No New Friends" were added to Khaled's stack of Top 40 hits, but the parent albums either reached or nearly missed the top of the Billboard rap chart. After a one-album stint with Sony's RED division, which yielded I Changed a Lot (2015) and its "Hold You Down," Khaled moved to major label Epic for Major Key (2016). Prefaced with "For Free" and "I Got the Keys," his seventh and eighth Top 40 singles, the album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. Only nine months later, Khaled released the Beyoncé and Jay-Z collaboration "Shining" as the first single off Grateful (2017). The album's second single, "I'm the One," put Khaled at the top of the Hot 100 beside guest stars Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne. ~ Andy Kellman Follow @djkhaled on twitter! smarturl.it/GRATEFUL_iTunes

Atlanta hip-hop artist Playboi Carti raps with a repetitive and catchy flow like contemporaries Lil Uzi Vert and Young Thug. Born Jordan Carter in the south side of the city, Carti grew up listening to Prince, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly, Lil Jon, Gucci Mane, and Jeezy, starting his music career in high school under the name Sir Cartier. His early work was produced by Awful Records' in-house man Ethereal. Tracks like the narcotic "YUNGXANHOE" and "Lost" helped garner a local following, promoted on the Internet and notching millions of streams. After graduating, he moved to the Bronx, where he became acquainted with members of A$AP Mob. In early 2015 at a show at SXSW, Carti met A$AP main man A$AP Rocky, who took Carti under his wing. A month later, Carti issued the singles "Broke Boi" and "Fetti," which became viral hits. Tours with Lil Uzi Vert and A$AP Ferg followed before Carti signed a deal with Interscope Records. Backed by A$AP Rocky, Carti appeared on A$AP Mob's Cozy Tapes tracks "Telephone Calls" and "London Town." After years of generating interest with singles, Carti released his debut mixtape, Playboi Carti, in the spring of 2017. The collection featured appearances by Lil Uzi Vert, A$AP Rocky, and singer Leven Kali. ~ Neil Z. Yeung Follow @playboicarti on twitter! smarturl.it/PlayboiCartiIT