¡¡¡ HIP HOP!!!

ArTiStS

oRiGiNs

hIstOry

viDeOS

T.I

T.I. was born Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. on September 25, 1980, in Riverdale, Atlanta, Georgia, to the son of the late Clifford "Buddy" Harris Sr. and Violeta Morgan. Raised by his grandparents in Bankhead, Atlanta, Georgia. His father lived in New York and he would often go up there to visit him. He beganrapping at age seven. He attended Douglass High School. Going against his mother's wishes for wanting him to stay in school, he would often cut class and hung out with other crowds. As a teenager, he was a drug dealer. He was once known as Rubber Band Man, a reference to the custom of wearing rubber bands around the wrist to denote wealth in terms of drugs or money. By age 14, he had been arrested several times. He was nicknamed "Tip" after his paternal great-grandfather. Kawan "KP" Prather, a record executive, discovered and signed T.I. when he was a teenager. Upon signing with Arista Records subsidiary LaFace Records in 2001, he shortened his name to T.I. out of respect for label mate Q-Tip.

• BeyOnCe!!!

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981), known as Beyoncé (pronounced /biˈjɒn.seɪ/ bee-YON-say), is an American R&B recording artist, actress and model. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child. Knowles rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the R&B girl group Destiny's Child. According to Sony, Knowles' record sales, combined with those of the group's, have surpassed 100 million.

During the hiatus of Destiny's Child in 2003 Knowles released her debut solo album Dangerously in Love, which spawned the hits "Crazy in Love" and "Baby Boy", and became one of the most successful albums of that year, earning her a then record-tying five Grammy awards. Following the group's disbandment in 2005, Knowles released B'Day in 2006, which debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and included the hits "Déjà Vu" and "Irreplaceable". Her third solo album I Am... Sasha Fierce, released in November 2008, included the anthemic "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", and earned her six Grammy Awards, breaking the record for most Grammy awards won by a female artist in one night. Knowles is one of the most-honored artists by the Grammys, with 16 awards: 13 as a solo artist, and three as a member of Destiny's Child.

Knowles began her acting career in 2001, appearing in the musical film Carmen: A Hip Hopera. In 2006, she starred in the lead role in the film adaptation of the 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls, for which she earned two Golden Globe nominations. Knowles launched her family's fashion line, House of Deréon, in 2004, and has endorsed such brands as Pepsi, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani and L'Oréal. In 2009, Forbes listed Knowles fourth on its list of the 100 Most Powerful and Influential Celebrities in the world, third on its list of the top-grossing musicians, and number one on the list of top Best-Paid Celebs Under 30 with over $87 million dollars in earnings between 2008 and 2009

• ThE bLaCK eYeD peAs!!!

The Black Eyed Peas is a Grammy Award winning hip hop group that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1995. The group is composed of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Will.I.Am and vocalists Apl.De.Ap, Taboo, and Fergie. Since their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group's hip hop/dance-oriented style has sold an estimated 35 million albums worldwide and 41 million singles. They scored their first worldwide hit with "Where Is the Love?" in 2003, which topped over ten charts worldwide. Another single was the European hit "Shut Up". Their next album Monkey Business was another worldwide hit, certified 3x Platinum in the U.S., spawning two hit singles "My Humps"and "Don't Phunk With My Heart".

In 2009, the group became one of only eleven artists to have ever held the number one and two spots on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time with their singles "Boom Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling", from the album The E.N.D., and the singles also topped the chart for an unprecedented 26 consecutive weeks combined in 2009. The album later produced a third Hot 100 number one with "Imma Be", making them one of the few groups to ever place three number ones on the chart from the same album. The album also includes singles such as "Meet Me Halfway" and "Rock That Body".

OrIgInS

CuLTurAl OrIgIns

African Americans

United States

Funk music

Hip-hop music

Latino Americans

South Bronx

New York City

California