Years
back, there were best-selling music artistes in the United States who
carved a niche for themselves for decades based on certifications of
their albums. But now it seems the tide is turning as we hardly find one
cruising all the way. This piece takes a look at six artistes
in America who are making wave in the industry.
Music is known to console the soul. Whenever one is heart broken or wants to relax, the club, pubs, gardens, and sometimes the sound system at home gives one comfort.
From the 60s, there were artistes who would never be forgotten due to the impact they created from decades to decades like the Beatles, James Brown, Michael Jackson, MC Hammer, Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey Toni Braxton, Baby Face, West Life, 2pac, Dre, BIG, Ice Cube P-Diddy, Jay-Z, Kenny G, Phil Colins, and others.
Rick Ross:
William Leonard Roberts II, better known by his stage name Rick Ross, sometimes written as Rick Ro$$ is an American rapper. He took his stage name from the drug trafficker “Freeway” Ricky Ross, to whom he has no connection.
Rick Ross has also founded his own record label Maybach Music Group, on which he released his third studio album Deeper Than Rap.
Born in Coahoma County, Mississippi on January 28, 1976, he was raised in Carol City, Florida, of Miami. After graduating from Carol City Senior High School, he attended the historically black college Albany State University in Albany, Georgia.
He joined Suave House Records, former label for rap duo 8Ball & MJG. He eventually signed a deal with Slip-n-Slide Records, which has been under the Def Jam umbrella since 2006. While signed to Slip-n-Slide, Ross toured with fellow rapper Trick Daddy and made guest performances on other Slip-n-Slide rap albums. He is one of the biggest artistes now in the world featuring lots of artistes including our own Psquare, Wale and others.
Lil Wayne:
In 1996, Lil Wayne joined Southern hip hop group Hot Boys, which also included rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Young Turk. Hot Boys debuted with ‘Get It How U Live!’ that same year. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the group’s major selling album Guerrilla Warfare (1999).
Lil Wayne’s debut studio album, Tha Block Is Hot (1999), was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His next albums, Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2002), were certified gold.
He reached higher popularity with Tha Carter (2004), which included the single “Go D.J.”, also appearing on Destiny’s Child’s top ten single “Soldier” that year. The album was followed by Tha Carter II (2005) and several mixtapes and collaborations throughout 2006 and 2007.
Tha Carter III (2008) became Lil Wayne’s most successful album to date, with first-week sales of over one million copies in the United States. It included the number-one single “Lollipop”, as well as “A Milli” and “Got Money”, and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
Lil Wayne’s debut rock album, Rebirth (2010), was certified gold despite a generally negative critical response. In March 2010, Lil Wayne began serving an 8-month prison sentence in New York after being convicted of criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an incident in July 2007. I Am Not a Human Being (2010) was released during his prison sentence.
His ninth album and first since his release, Tha Carter IV (2011), sold 964,000 copies in its first week of availability in the U.S. It featured “6 Foot 7 Foot”, “How to Love”, and “She Will”. On September 27, 2012, Lil Wayne passed Elvis Presley as the male with the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 109 songs. And he is loved by a lot of Nigerians.
Katy Perry:
Katheryn Elizabeth “Katy” Hudson known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American recording artiste, songwriter, and actress. Perry was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. Having had very little exposure to mainstream pop music in her childhood, she pursued a career in gospel music as a teen and released her debut self-titled studio album. She also recorded a second solo album which never received release.
In 2007, she signed with Capitol Records and adopted her current stage name. Perry’s commercial breakthrough came when she released her first mainstream studio album One of the Boys (2008). This was preceded by the release of her single “I Kissed a Girl”. Other singles included “Hot n Cold”, “Thinking of You” and “Waking Up in Vegas”.
Perry embarked on the Hello Katy Tour in support of the album. She followed this up with her second studio effort Teenage Dream which was an instant commercial success, topping the album charts in several countries. It spawned five number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100—”California Gurls”, “Teenage Dream”, “Firework”, “E.T.” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”; it became the first album in history recorded by a female artiste to achieve this, and the second album after Michael Jackson’s Bad (1987). In support of the album, she embarked on the California Dreams Tour. Teenage Dream was re-released in March 2012 as Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection which spawned an additional number one, “Part of Me”.
Perry has received numerous awards and nominations. She has also been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and was named by Billboard as 2012’s Woman of the Year. She has sold 11 million albums and 75 million digital tracks worldwide. Perry remains the only artiste to spend 69 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Hot 100. Perry has ventured into celebrity endorsement and released fragrances Purr and Meow. She made her film debut voicing Smurfette in The Smurfs (2011).
Perry was ranked at number fourteen on Billboard’s list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing more than $11 million. She was spotlighted in her own 3D biopic-concert film Part of Me (2012), which concentrated on her life as a touring artiste and the breakdown of her one-year marriage to English comedian Russell Brand. She is currently one of the biggest in the industry and a force to be reckoned with.
Rihanna:
Robyn Rihanna Fenty known by her stage name Rihanna is a Barbadian recording artiste, actress and fashion designer. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados , February 20, 1988, she began her career as a result of meeting record producer Evan Rogers in late 2003.
At age 16, she moved to the United States to pursue a music career and began recording demo tapes under Rogers’ guidance, subsequently signing a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for American rapper Jay-Z.
Rihanna’s debut studio album, Music of the Sun (2005), peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart and features the Billboard Hot 100 top three hit single “Pon de Replay”. Her second album, A Girl Like Me (2006), peaked at number five in the United States, and produced her first Hot 100 number one single, “SOS”.
Rihanna’s third album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), spawned the international hit singles “Umbrella”, “Don’t Stop the Music”, “Take a Bow”, and “Disturbia”. The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Umbrella”. Her fourth album, Rated R (2009), produced the top ten singles “Russian Roulette” and “Hard”, plus the number one hit “Rude Boy”.
Rihanna’s fifth album, Loud (2010), spawned the number one hit singles “Only Girl (In the World)”, “What’s My Name?”, and “S&M”. Her sixth album, Talk That Talk (2011), served the worldwide chart topper “We Found Love” and the top five single “Where Have You Been”.
Rihanna’s seventh album, Unapologetic (2012), became her first number one album on the Billboard 200 and generated her twelfth Hot 100 number one single “Diamonds” and the top five hit “Stay”. In addition to her solo music, Rihanna has collaborated with other numerous artistes, notably being featured on the worldwide hits “Live Your Life” (with T.I.) and “Love the Way You Lie” (with Eminem).
Rihanna’s work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, five American Music Awards, eighteen Billboard Music Awards and two BRIT Awards. Since the beginning of her career in 2005, Rihanna has sold 30 million albums and 120 million singles worldwide, which makes her one of the best-selling artistes of all time.
She has achieved a total of twelve number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the youngest solo artiste to achieve the feat. Billboard named Rihanna the Digital Songs Artiste of the 2000s decade, and ranked her as the seventeenth overall artiste of the same decade.
In 2012, Forbes ranked her as the fourth most powerful celebrity of 2012 with earnings of $53 million between May 2011 and May 2012. The same year, American magazine Time named Rihanna one of the most influential people in the world.
She that’s why she is on our list as one of the new crop of artiste that rocks.
Snoop Dogg now Snoop Lion:
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor, well known by his stage names Snoop Doggy Dogg, Snoop Dogg, and Snoop Lion. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. His music career began in 1992 when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on Dre’s solo debut The Chronic, and on the theme song to the film Deep Cover.
Snoop’s debut album, Doggystyle, was released in 1993 under Death Row Records, debuting at #1 on both the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. Selling almost a million copies in the first week of its release, Doggystyle became certified 4× platinum in 1994 and spawned several hit singles, including “What’s My Name” and “Gin & Juice”.
In 1994, Snoop released a soundtrack on Death Row Records for the short film Murder Was The Case, starring himself. His second album Tha Doggfather (1996), also debuted at No.1 on both charts with “Snoop’s Upside Ya Head” as the lead single. The album was certified double platinum in 1997.
After leaving Death Row, Snoop signed with No Limit Records, where he recorded his next three albums. Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told (1998), No Limit Top Dogg (1999), and Tha Last Meal (2000). Snoop then signed with Priority/Capitol/EMI Records in 2002, where he released Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss. He then signed with Geffen Records in 2004 for his next three albums R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, and Ego Trippin’. Malice ‘n Wonderland (2009) and Doggumentary (2011), were released on Priority.
Snoop Dogg has starred in motion pictures and hosted several television shows including, Doggy Fizzle Televizzle, Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood, and Dogg After Dark. He also coaches a youth football league and high school football team. In September 2009, Snoop was hired by EMI as the chairman of a reactivated Priority Records.
In 2012, after a trip to Jamaica, Snoop announced a conversion to the Rastafari movement and a new alias, Snoop Lion. Under the new moniker, he plans to release a reggae album, Reincarnated, and a documentary film of the same name, of his Jamaican experience, in early 2013. He has a huge fan base in Nigeria , little wonder he was featured by our own D’banj and his ex-label mate Don Jazzy.
Adele:
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, better known simply as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter, musician and multi-instrumentalist. Adele was offered a recording contract from XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace in 2006. The next year she received the Brit Awards “Critics’ Choice” award and won the BBC Sound of 2008. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to much commercial and critical success.
It certified four times platinum in the UK, and double platinum in the US. Her career in the US was boosted by a Saturday Night Live appearance in late 2008. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Adele received the awards for Best New Artiste and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Adele released her second album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut, earning the singer six Grammy Awards in 2012 including Album of the Year, equalling the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artiste in one night. The album has also led to her receiving numerous other awards, including two Brit Awards and three American Music Awards.
The album has been certified 16 times platinum in the UK; in the US the album has held the top position longer than any other album since 1985, and is certified Diamond. According to IFPI, the album has sold over 26 million copies worldwide.
The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness World Records. She is the first artiste to sell more than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the UK. With her two albums and the first two singles from 21, “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You”, she became the first living artiste to achieve the feat of having two top-five hits in both the UK Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since the Beatles in 1964.
With her third release from the album, “Set Fire to the Rain”, which became her third number one single in the US, Adele became the first artiste in history to lead the Billboard 200 concurrently with three Billboard Hot 100 number-ones.
Adele is the first female in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three singles in the top 10 at the same time as a lead artiste, and the first female artiste to have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. 21 is the longest running number one album by a female solo artist on the UK and US Albums Chart. In 2011 and 2012, Billboard named Adele Artiste of the Year.
In 2012, Adele was listed at number five on VH10s 100 Greatest Women In Music, and the American magazine Time named Adele one of the most influential people in the world. In 2013, she received an Academy Award as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her song “Skyfall”, written for Skyfall, the twenty-third James Bond film. She also has lots of fan base in Africa, Nigeria in particular.
Music is known to console the soul. Whenever one is heart broken or wants to relax, the club, pubs, gardens, and sometimes the sound system at home gives one comfort.
From the 60s, there were artistes who would never be forgotten due to the impact they created from decades to decades like the Beatles, James Brown, Michael Jackson, MC Hammer, Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey Toni Braxton, Baby Face, West Life, 2pac, Dre, BIG, Ice Cube P-Diddy, Jay-Z, Kenny G, Phil Colins, and others.
Rick Ross:
William Leonard Roberts II, better known by his stage name Rick Ross, sometimes written as Rick Ro$$ is an American rapper. He took his stage name from the drug trafficker “Freeway” Ricky Ross, to whom he has no connection.
Rick Ross has also founded his own record label Maybach Music Group, on which he released his third studio album Deeper Than Rap.
Born in Coahoma County, Mississippi on January 28, 1976, he was raised in Carol City, Florida, of Miami. After graduating from Carol City Senior High School, he attended the historically black college Albany State University in Albany, Georgia.
He joined Suave House Records, former label for rap duo 8Ball & MJG. He eventually signed a deal with Slip-n-Slide Records, which has been under the Def Jam umbrella since 2006. While signed to Slip-n-Slide, Ross toured with fellow rapper Trick Daddy and made guest performances on other Slip-n-Slide rap albums. He is one of the biggest artistes now in the world featuring lots of artistes including our own Psquare, Wale and others.
Lil Wayne:
In 1996, Lil Wayne joined Southern hip hop group Hot Boys, which also included rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Young Turk. Hot Boys debuted with ‘Get It How U Live!’ that same year. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the group’s major selling album Guerrilla Warfare (1999).
Lil Wayne’s debut studio album, Tha Block Is Hot (1999), was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His next albums, Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2002), were certified gold.
He reached higher popularity with Tha Carter (2004), which included the single “Go D.J.”, also appearing on Destiny’s Child’s top ten single “Soldier” that year. The album was followed by Tha Carter II (2005) and several mixtapes and collaborations throughout 2006 and 2007.
Tha Carter III (2008) became Lil Wayne’s most successful album to date, with first-week sales of over one million copies in the United States. It included the number-one single “Lollipop”, as well as “A Milli” and “Got Money”, and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
Lil Wayne’s debut rock album, Rebirth (2010), was certified gold despite a generally negative critical response. In March 2010, Lil Wayne began serving an 8-month prison sentence in New York after being convicted of criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an incident in July 2007. I Am Not a Human Being (2010) was released during his prison sentence.
His ninth album and first since his release, Tha Carter IV (2011), sold 964,000 copies in its first week of availability in the U.S. It featured “6 Foot 7 Foot”, “How to Love”, and “She Will”. On September 27, 2012, Lil Wayne passed Elvis Presley as the male with the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with 109 songs. And he is loved by a lot of Nigerians.
Katy Perry:
Katheryn Elizabeth “Katy” Hudson known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American recording artiste, songwriter, and actress. Perry was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. Having had very little exposure to mainstream pop music in her childhood, she pursued a career in gospel music as a teen and released her debut self-titled studio album. She also recorded a second solo album which never received release.
In 2007, she signed with Capitol Records and adopted her current stage name. Perry’s commercial breakthrough came when she released her first mainstream studio album One of the Boys (2008). This was preceded by the release of her single “I Kissed a Girl”. Other singles included “Hot n Cold”, “Thinking of You” and “Waking Up in Vegas”.
Perry embarked on the Hello Katy Tour in support of the album. She followed this up with her second studio effort Teenage Dream which was an instant commercial success, topping the album charts in several countries. It spawned five number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100—”California Gurls”, “Teenage Dream”, “Firework”, “E.T.” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”; it became the first album in history recorded by a female artiste to achieve this, and the second album after Michael Jackson’s Bad (1987). In support of the album, she embarked on the California Dreams Tour. Teenage Dream was re-released in March 2012 as Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection which spawned an additional number one, “Part of Me”.
Perry has received numerous awards and nominations. She has also been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and was named by Billboard as 2012’s Woman of the Year. She has sold 11 million albums and 75 million digital tracks worldwide. Perry remains the only artiste to spend 69 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Hot 100. Perry has ventured into celebrity endorsement and released fragrances Purr and Meow. She made her film debut voicing Smurfette in The Smurfs (2011).
Perry was ranked at number fourteen on Billboard’s list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing more than $11 million. She was spotlighted in her own 3D biopic-concert film Part of Me (2012), which concentrated on her life as a touring artiste and the breakdown of her one-year marriage to English comedian Russell Brand. She is currently one of the biggest in the industry and a force to be reckoned with.
Rihanna:
Robyn Rihanna Fenty known by her stage name Rihanna is a Barbadian recording artiste, actress and fashion designer. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados , February 20, 1988, she began her career as a result of meeting record producer Evan Rogers in late 2003.
At age 16, she moved to the United States to pursue a music career and began recording demo tapes under Rogers’ guidance, subsequently signing a contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for American rapper Jay-Z.
Rihanna’s debut studio album, Music of the Sun (2005), peaked at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart and features the Billboard Hot 100 top three hit single “Pon de Replay”. Her second album, A Girl Like Me (2006), peaked at number five in the United States, and produced her first Hot 100 number one single, “SOS”.
Rihanna’s third album, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), spawned the international hit singles “Umbrella”, “Don’t Stop the Music”, “Take a Bow”, and “Disturbia”. The album was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Umbrella”. Her fourth album, Rated R (2009), produced the top ten singles “Russian Roulette” and “Hard”, plus the number one hit “Rude Boy”.
Rihanna’s fifth album, Loud (2010), spawned the number one hit singles “Only Girl (In the World)”, “What’s My Name?”, and “S&M”. Her sixth album, Talk That Talk (2011), served the worldwide chart topper “We Found Love” and the top five single “Where Have You Been”.
Rihanna’s seventh album, Unapologetic (2012), became her first number one album on the Billboard 200 and generated her twelfth Hot 100 number one single “Diamonds” and the top five hit “Stay”. In addition to her solo music, Rihanna has collaborated with other numerous artistes, notably being featured on the worldwide hits “Live Your Life” (with T.I.) and “Love the Way You Lie” (with Eminem).
Rihanna’s work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, five American Music Awards, eighteen Billboard Music Awards and two BRIT Awards. Since the beginning of her career in 2005, Rihanna has sold 30 million albums and 120 million singles worldwide, which makes her one of the best-selling artistes of all time.
She has achieved a total of twelve number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the youngest solo artiste to achieve the feat. Billboard named Rihanna the Digital Songs Artiste of the 2000s decade, and ranked her as the seventeenth overall artiste of the same decade.
In 2012, Forbes ranked her as the fourth most powerful celebrity of 2012 with earnings of $53 million between May 2011 and May 2012. The same year, American magazine Time named Rihanna one of the most influential people in the world.
She that’s why she is on our list as one of the new crop of artiste that rocks.
Snoop Dogg now Snoop Lion:
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor, well known by his stage names Snoop Doggy Dogg, Snoop Dogg, and Snoop Lion. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. His music career began in 1992 when he was discovered by Dr. Dre. He collaborated on Dre’s solo debut The Chronic, and on the theme song to the film Deep Cover.
Snoop’s debut album, Doggystyle, was released in 1993 under Death Row Records, debuting at #1 on both the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. Selling almost a million copies in the first week of its release, Doggystyle became certified 4× platinum in 1994 and spawned several hit singles, including “What’s My Name” and “Gin & Juice”.
In 1994, Snoop released a soundtrack on Death Row Records for the short film Murder Was The Case, starring himself. His second album Tha Doggfather (1996), also debuted at No.1 on both charts with “Snoop’s Upside Ya Head” as the lead single. The album was certified double platinum in 1997.
After leaving Death Row, Snoop signed with No Limit Records, where he recorded his next three albums. Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told (1998), No Limit Top Dogg (1999), and Tha Last Meal (2000). Snoop then signed with Priority/Capitol/EMI Records in 2002, where he released Paid tha Cost to Be da Boss. He then signed with Geffen Records in 2004 for his next three albums R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece, Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, and Ego Trippin’. Malice ‘n Wonderland (2009) and Doggumentary (2011), were released on Priority.
Snoop Dogg has starred in motion pictures and hosted several television shows including, Doggy Fizzle Televizzle, Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood, and Dogg After Dark. He also coaches a youth football league and high school football team. In September 2009, Snoop was hired by EMI as the chairman of a reactivated Priority Records.
In 2012, after a trip to Jamaica, Snoop announced a conversion to the Rastafari movement and a new alias, Snoop Lion. Under the new moniker, he plans to release a reggae album, Reincarnated, and a documentary film of the same name, of his Jamaican experience, in early 2013. He has a huge fan base in Nigeria , little wonder he was featured by our own D’banj and his ex-label mate Don Jazzy.
Adele:
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, better known simply as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter, musician and multi-instrumentalist. Adele was offered a recording contract from XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace in 2006. The next year she received the Brit Awards “Critics’ Choice” award and won the BBC Sound of 2008. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to much commercial and critical success.
It certified four times platinum in the UK, and double platinum in the US. Her career in the US was boosted by a Saturday Night Live appearance in late 2008. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Adele received the awards for Best New Artiste and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Adele released her second album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut, earning the singer six Grammy Awards in 2012 including Album of the Year, equalling the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artiste in one night. The album has also led to her receiving numerous other awards, including two Brit Awards and three American Music Awards.
The album has been certified 16 times platinum in the UK; in the US the album has held the top position longer than any other album since 1985, and is certified Diamond. According to IFPI, the album has sold over 26 million copies worldwide.
The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness World Records. She is the first artiste to sell more than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the UK. With her two albums and the first two singles from 21, “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You”, she became the first living artiste to achieve the feat of having two top-five hits in both the UK Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since the Beatles in 1964.
With her third release from the album, “Set Fire to the Rain”, which became her third number one single in the US, Adele became the first artiste in history to lead the Billboard 200 concurrently with three Billboard Hot 100 number-ones.
Adele is the first female in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three singles in the top 10 at the same time as a lead artiste, and the first female artiste to have two albums in the top five of the Billboard 200 and two singles in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. 21 is the longest running number one album by a female solo artist on the UK and US Albums Chart. In 2011 and 2012, Billboard named Adele Artiste of the Year.
In 2012, Adele was listed at number five on VH10s 100 Greatest Women In Music, and the American magazine Time named Adele one of the most influential people in the world. In 2013, she received an Academy Award as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her song “Skyfall”, written for Skyfall, the twenty-third James Bond film. She also has lots of fan base in Africa, Nigeria in particular.
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