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hip hop

Cee-Lo

Cee Lo Green (born Thomas Calloway on May 30, 1974) is an American hip-hop/funk/soul and R&B musician. He is a singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer, best known as a member of Gnarls Barkley, Goodie Mob, and Dungeon Family. He has also recorded two successful solo LPs, Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections, (2002) Cee-Lo Green... Is The Soul Machine, (2004) and is completing a follow-up album Lady Killer, due for release in fall 2010. Among Cee-Lo's solo hits are the singles "Closet Freak" (2002) and "I'll Be Around" (2003), produced by and featuring Timbaland.

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MF DOOM

Daniel Dumile ("doom-uh-lay") is a British born American hip-hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most famously MF DOOM (standing for metal fingers/metal face doom). He has also been known as Zev Love X, King Geedorah, Metal Fingers, Viktor Vaughn, DOOM, and has appeared in several collaborative projects such as DANGERDOOM (with Danger Mouse) and Madvillain (with Madlib). Little is known about his personal life though he did reveal in a 2006 interview on his MySpace page that he is married with two children, one of them teenage.

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Mayer Hawthorne & The County

Mayer Hawthorne grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and vividly remembers, as a child, driving with his father and tuning the car radio in to the rich soul and jazz history the region provided. “Most of the best music ever made came out of Detroit,” claims the singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, who counts Isaac Hayes, Leroy Hutson, Mike Terry, and Barry White among his influences, but draws the most inspiration from the music of Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, and the legendary songwriting and production trio of Lamont Dozier...

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Black Milk

There are multiple artists with this name: Black Milk, is a hip hop producer and MC Curtis Cross from Detroit, Michigan. In 2004 he formed B.R. Gunna with Young RJ, and Fat Ray, and together they released Dirty District: Vol. 2, a follow up to a compilation released in 2001 by Slum Village, which he had contributed production to. Black Milk released a solo album, Sound of the City, the following year and in 2006 he signed a record contract with Fat Beats Records. In the fall of 2006, he released an EP, entitled Broken Wax. March 13, 2007 he released a second album, Popular Demand.

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The Beatnuts

There are currently two groups: The Beatnuts; a hip-hop group and BeatNuts; a Japanese instrumental latin jazz-fusion group. The Beatnuts are a hip hop crew from Queens, New York City. The members are Ju-Ju (Jerry Tineo), of Dominican descent, and Psycho Les (Lester Fernandez), of Colombian descent. Early on in their career they produced whole albums for Posse members Common and Chi-Ali. Their production is noted as some of the finest and most accomplished, if unheralded, in all of hip-hop...

Fitz & the Tantrums

Fitz & the Tantrums are an American soul group from Los Angeles, California. The group was founded by Michael Fitzpatrick, who had begun writing soul music for a solo project on an old church organ he had purchased. He added friend James King to the group as an arranger and soon after expanded the band to a seven-piece, including several horns. Fitzpatrick shares the vocal duties with Noelle Scaggs. Other members include Joseph Karnes, Jeremy Ruzumna, and John Wicks.

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New Boyz

The New Boyz are a hip hop group and jerkin' crew from Hesperia, California comprised of rappers Earl "Ben J" Benjamin and Dominic "Legacy" Thomas. After meeting as freshmen at Hesperia High School they released their debut single You're a Jerk, which was based on the local dance style of jerkin'. It became a national hit and paved the way for them to release their debut album Skinny Jeanz and a Mic in September 2009 and release another successful single, Tie Me Down featuring Ray J.

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D12

D12 (aka The Dirty Dozen and D-Twizzy) was initially formed in 1991 by Proof who invited local Detroit rappers such as Bizarre, Eminem and other members who would leave the crew before it achieved success including Eye Kyu, Killa Hawk and FuzZ. The group was a loose collective in the vein of Wu-Tang Clan. Several members began making names for themselves in hip hop during the late 1990s. Bizarre was named Inner City Entertainment's "Flava of the Week". He would also release an album entitled Attack Of The Weirdos and become a member of Tha Outsidaz with Eminem and Rah Digga.

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Chino XL

Chino XL (born Derek Barbosa, April 8, 1971, in The Bronx, New York but raised in East Orange, New Jersey) is a rapper well respected among hip hop enthusiasts for his battling abilities. He is notorious for his usage of self-consciously over-the-top punchlines (which usually take the form of puns or similes) and for his exaggerated egotism. He is also well known to many for a brief feud with Tupac Shakur.

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