Its Bigger Than Hip Hop. Influential Artists

He owns the record label 'Bad Boy Records', the clothing lines 'Sean John' and 'Sean by Sean Combs', a movie production company, and a restaurant chain called 'Justin's'. He is currently rumoured to be worth of nearly $315 million, which keeps on growing.

Style

‘My music doesn't have a political approach, but selling it results in economic power, and economic power is the basis of political power’. P Diddy.
 
Achievement

• In 1994 P Diddy created Bad Boy Records and signed and developed artists like ‘Notorious B.I.G’,  ‘Craig Mack’, ‘Father MC’, ‘Faith Evans’, ‘Mase’,  ‘Jodeci’, ‘Mary J. Blige’, ‘Carl Thomas’, ‘112’, ‘Boyz N Da Hood’, ‘Total’ and ‘The Lox’. He has produced for many artists, including ‘Mariah Carey’, ‘Aretha Franklin’, ‘Boyz II Men’, ‘Lil' Kim’, ‘TLC’ and ‘SWV’.

• He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2005 by Time magazine. In 2002, he was featured on Fortune magazine's ‘40 richest people under 40’ list.
  
  
• In 2003, P Diddy ran in the New York City Marathon and raised $2,000,000 for the educational system for the children of New York. He completed the marathon in 4 hours 14 minutes and 54 seconds.

• His restaurant chain 'Justin's' is named after his oldest son and has branches in New York and Atlanta. The restaurants make around $8 million every year. P Diddy is currently selling franchises; this will give him the opportunity to develop more Justin's restaurants.

• His clothing line ‘Sean John’ is very successful and sells more than $200 million worth of merchandise every year. It is sold in department stores like ‘Bloomingdale's’, ‘Macy's’, ‘Belk's’ and ‘Fred Segal’. P Diddy also has a Fragrance called ‘Unforgivable’.

Living the dream and keeping it real
P Diddy is giving back to the community in numerous ways. One of the main ways that he has chosen to do this is by establishing ‘Daddy's House Social Programs, Inc’. This was set up in 1995 to create educational programmess and initiatives for inner-city youth.

• P Diddy offers Bad Boy internships, which he supervises himself.

• In 2000 he donated $500,000 to hid old university to help it to continue their commitment to educating African-American youth. He has partnered up with Hookt.com to donate more than 100 computers to 500 New York City public schools in the Harlem public school districts.

• He sponsors the annual ‘Hosea's Feed the Hungry and Homeless Thanksgiving Day dinner’ for more than 30,000 people in Atlanta. He has played Santa over the past few Christmas’s to more than 3,000 children by delivering gifts to various hospitals and foster care homes in New York's Westchester, Harlem, Brooklyn and Bronx areas.

• He educates young people about HIV and AIDS by hosting various programmes and initiatives to bring awareness to the epidemic. In November 2002, he visited South Africa to meet and visit HIV/AIDS patients and performed for MTV's ‘World AIDS Day’ special.

• In 2004, P Diddy ran the campaign ‘Vote or Die’ for the 2004 Presidential Election. This Citizen Change campaign was meant to be a wake up call to young and minority voters. It encouraged 18-29 year old voters to vote, the number of young voters increased by 4.6 million or 9.3% according to the Centre for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).
  
  

‘Now I'm learning that I have the ability to be so strong in both negative and positive ways, but I want to give off only positive vibes and to motivate our youth. I've tried to motivate young people in the music industry to be responsible Black executives, take control and get their own production companies and record labels.’ P Diddy.

‘God is on your side. We already at the finish line. Anything you put your mind to, anything you want to accomplish, you put your faith in God's hands you can do it.’ P Diddy.

• The seminars discuss the influence of Hip-hop music lyrics and videos on young people and try to empower them to make positive choices. Additionally, the workshops offer young people hands-on experience in creating a video of their own.

• His record label was formed to promote gifted artists with ‘social problems’ that other labels might not give a chance.
  
  ‘When I was younger I did a lot of rubbish,’ the usual dumb stuff you do on council estates that stops you going nowhere. But I woke up one day and I realized I can't do that all my life. I wasn't moving anywhere fast, but music got me out of there. Whenever there was trouble, I was in the studio. If there was a shooting on the estates, I'd hear about it but I wouldn't see it because I was in the studio. I bettered myself. You don't know me for crime. You know me for music.’ Dizzee Rascal.

• Ludacris has set up ‘The Ludacris foundation’. It is a community service that provides financial support and it also donates its time to the community. Since 2001, The Ludacris Foundation has donated $500,000 to organizations that work with young people, as well as investing more than 3,500 hours in service to young people.

• The foundation has based itself on the things that helped Ludacris, these include: self-esteem, spirituality, communication, education, leadership, goal setting, physical activity and community service.

Conatct
Address: The Ludacris Foundation
P.O. Box 768511
Roswell, GA 30076
Phone: 404.933.3031
Website:http://www.theludacrisfoundation.org/
E-mail:info@theludacrisfoundation.org

• ‘Through the Fire,’ from ‘The College Dropout’ album, was his breakthrough hit in 2004. He has produced hit singles for ‘Alicia Keys’, ‘Jay-Z’, ‘Ludacris’ ‘Brandy’, ‘Cam'ron’, ‘Janet Jackson’, ‘Talib Kweli’, ‘Dilated Peoples’, ‘Chamillionaire’, ‘Twista’, ‘Jamie Foxx’ and ‘John Legend’.

• He won an award for best collaboration with Jamie Foxx for the track, ‘Gold Digger.’ He also won a Grammy Award for the best rap album in 2005 for ‘The College Dropout’. ‘Jesus Walks’ won Best Rap Song and he shared the Best R&B Song award with Alicia Keys. In 2006, his second solo album, ‘Late Registration’ won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

• He has his own label, ‘GOOD Music’, which stands for ‘Getting Out Our Dreams’. He has released John Legend's platinum selling debut album ‘Get Lifted’ and ‘Common's’ platinum album, ‘Be’.

• Kanye will soon be bringing out his own clothing line, it will be called ‘Pastelle Clothing’. He is also planning a TV show.
  
• He has established the Kanye West Foundation, with their first programme being 'Loop Dreams.' This programme offers music production equipment to schools. It also gives young people the opportunity to learn how to write and produce music.

Contact: The Kanye West Foundation
c/o Entertainment Industry Foundation
11132 Ventura Blvd., Suite 401
Studio City, CA 91604-3156Website: http://kanyewestfoundation.org/

• Mos Def released the single ‘Katrina Clap’ In September 2005. It was a political track about President Bush’s response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

• ‘My parents have been vocal and influential in all the decisions I made in my life’ Mos Def.

Style

Nelly has a Midwest/Southern rap style. He sometimes uses a sing-a-long approach, with a combination of words and phrases and metaphors.
‘I don't sound like anyone, I've got a style that's all my own. I'm rappin' the blues. I like to think of my music as a jazz form of hip hop.’ Nelly.

Achievement

• Nelly is also a talented baseball player, he could have played professionally but decided to be a rapper instead.
  
  
• He is one of the best-selling rap artists of all-time, selling over 30 million albums worldwide. He has had five number ones in the UK- more than any other rap artist, and four number one ‘Hot 100 singles’ in the U.S.
  
  
• He has won three Grammy Awards, including one for ‘Best Male Rap Solo Performance’ in 2003 and a shared Grammy with Kelly Rowland for ‘Best Rap/Sung Collaboration’. He was also named ‘Best New Artist’ at the 1st Annual BET Awards in 2001 and he won the 2003 American Music Award for ‘Fan's Choice’.

Living the dream and keeping it real

• Nelly owns the sports energy drink, ‘Pimp Juice’. It is very controversial because of the name. He donates some of the proceeds from the sales of his drink to his nonprofit organization, ‘4Sho4Kids’, which gives away a college scholarship. He also intends to work with local colleges and students in the marketing of his sports energy drink, ‘Pimp Juice’.

• Nelly also owns two clothing lines called ‘Vo'Kal Clothing’ and ‘Apple Bottom clothing’- for women, which includes lingerie, shoes, handbags, clothing for larger people and childrenswear. He is also part owner of the NBA team ‘Charlotte Bobcats’ with BET founder Robert Johnson and Michael Jordan, and he owns a record label called ‘Derry Entertainment.’

Website:http://www.jesus4jackie.com/

The name ‘Latifah’ means ‘delicate’ and ‘sensitive’ in Arabic. It was given to her when she was eight by her cousin.

Style

Queen Latifah songs carry strong messages of empowerment to young people.

Achievement

• In 1989 ‘Tommy Boy Records’ released her first album, ‘All Hail the Queen’, she was just eighteen years old. Queen Latifah is one of only two hip-hop artists to receive an Academy Award nomination for acting. The other artist is Will Smith for ‘Ali’ in 2001. She was nominated in 2002 for Best Supporting Actress in the film Chicago.

• She won a Grammy- Best Rap Solo Performance, for her hit single, ‘U.N.I.T.Y’. She also won an ‘Image Award’ for  Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for ‘Bringing Down the House in 2004’. She has also had her own talk show, ‘The Queen Latifah Show’, from 1999 to 2001.

Living the dream and keeping it real

• Her family foundation, ‘The Lancelot H. Owens Scholarship Foundation’ was created in her brother’s memory.

• Queen Latifah made an anti-war song called 'The Evil That Men Do'.

• Queen Latifah is a spokesperson for Cover Girl cosmetics and Curvation ladies underwear. She heads up ‘The Curvation Celebration Campaign’ in partnership with the ‘Curvation’ line of lingerie.
  
  This campaign celebrates women with curves and aims to promote and honour women who have made a significant difference in another woman's life by helping them to achieve their goals and become a strong.

He was named after Túpac Amaru II, an Incan revolutionary. His last name Shakur comes from the Arabic word ‘thankful to God’.

Style

• Tupac rapped about the hardships of growing up around violence in the ghettos, poverty, racism, and his feuds with other rappers. He was political and a lot of his raps focused on economics and racial equality. His first album focused on the problems facing young black males.
  
  His album ‘Me Against the World’ was very introspective, in comparison to some later albums, which some might describe as being more ‘gangsta-ish’.
  
  

‘The penitentiary is packed and it’s filled with blacks.’ Tupac Shakur, ‘Changes.’

‘Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.’ Tupac Shakur, ‘Changes.’

‘Just cause you’re in tha ghetto doesn't mean ya can't grow.’ Tupac Shakur, ‘Brenda’s Gotta Baby.’

• He also made anti-war songs called 'Never B Peace' and 'War' and he is widely known for his inspirational anthem ‘Keep Ya Head Up’.

• His first album, ‘2Pacalypse Now’, was socially conscious and he rapped about social injustice, poverty and police brutality. This album included tracks like ‘Brenda's Got a Baby,’ ‘Trapped’ and ‘Part Time Mutha.’ This album was a big hit and gained critical recognition.

Achievement

• He is considered by fans and critics to be the greatest rapper ever. In 2004, a VIBE magazine poll rated him ‘the greatest rapper of all time’.
  
  
• He is listed in the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ as the best-selling rap/hip-hop artist ever. He has sold over 73 million albums worldwide, with 44.5 million sales in the United States alone.
  
  
• He has had 17 top ten singles in the United States. He sold 5 million records while he was alive and at least 30 million after his death.

• His first major film role was in the 1991 movie ‘Juice’. He also wrote a screenplay titled ‘Live 2 Tell’ while he was in prison. He has also starred in the movies ‘Poetic Justice’- with Janet Jackson, ‘Above the Rim’, ‘Gridlock'd’, ‘Bullet’ and ‘Gang Related’.

Living the dream and keeping it real

• If Tupac had lived he would have seen his dream of starting his film development company ‘Euphanasia’ and writing and directing films come true. Before he died he had also revealed plans to host free concerts for students who get a grade C or above. He wanted to build community centres and start baseball and football leagues for inner-city children.

• In 1997 Tupac’s mother founded ‘The Shakur Family Foundation’ in his memory. This is now called ‘The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation’- TASF.

• The TASF's stated mission is to ‘provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents.’ The sponsor essay contests, charity events, a performing arts day camp for teenagers and undergraduate scholarships.