Ninja-Parents Blog

Who Is Vanilla Ice? Robert Van Winkle, known as Vanilla Ice, is a Dallas-born rapper who scored the first hip-hop song to top the US Billboard Hot 100 with Ice Ice Baby in 1990. His debut album To the Extreme became the best-selling rap album of 1990. His rapid cultural rejection — fuelled by accusations of fabricated biography, 3rd Bass's mockery, and a general backlash against his commercial pop-rap approach — made him one of rap's most scrutinised cautionary tales. Qui

Who Is Soulja Boy? DeAndre Cortez Way, known as Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, is an Atlanta rapper who became famous in 2007 through Crank That (Soulja Boy) — one of the first truly viral rap hits of the internet era, charting at #1 for seven weeks. He is widely credited as a pioneer of digital rap distribution and social media promotion, even as his music has been consistently criticised for minimal lyrical substance. Quick Stats Career Overview Soulja Boy independently upl

Who Is Diddy? Sean John Combs, known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy, and Love, is a New York rapper, record executive, and producer who founded Bad Boy Records in 1993 and built one of the most commercially dominant rap labels of the 1990s. His production work with The Notorious B.I.G. defined the Bad Boy sound that dominated mainstream rap from 1994 to 1998. Quick Stats Career Overview Sean Combs founded Bad Boy Records in 1993 after being fired from Uptown Records

Who Is 50 Cent? Curtis James Jackson III, known as 50 Cent, is a New York rapper and businessman who exploded into mainstream rap in 2003 with Get Rich or Die Tryin' — one of the fastest-selling debut albums in history. He subsequently built one of the most diverse entertainment and business portfolios in rap, including G-Unit Records, Vitamin Water equity, and the Power TV franchise. Quick Stats Career Overview 50 Cent was shot nine times in 2000 and dropped by Col

Who Is Lil Wayne? Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., known as Lil Wayne, is a New Orleans rapper who became the most dominant MC in American rap between 2004 and 2009. His mixtape output during that period — particularly Dedication 2 (2006) and Da Drought 3 (2007) — is considered the gold standard of the mixtape era, while Tha Carter III (2008) sold one million copies in its first week. Quick Stats Career Overview Lil Wayne was signed to Cash Money Records at age 9 by Birdm

Who Is Nas? Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, known as Nas, is a Queens rapper widely regarded as one of the greatest lyricists in hip-hop history. His 1994 debut Illmatic is universally considered one of the greatest rap albums ever made, setting a standard for New York street poetry that has defined the genre's critical standards for three decades. Quick Stats Career Overview Nas grew up in the Queensbridge Houses in Queens, New York, and first appeared on MC Serch's Retu

Who Is Drake? Aubrey Drake Graham, known simply as Drake, is a Toronto rapper, singer, and producer who became the dominant commercial force in rap from 2009 through the 2020s. He has the most Hot 100 entries of any artist in Billboard history, the most number-one albums of any rap artist, and has fundamentally shaped the sonic direction of mainstream hip-hop through his fusion of rap and R&B. Quick Stats Career Overview Drake began his career as an actor on the Can

Who Is Jay-Z? Shawn Corey Carter, known as Jay-Z, is a Brooklyn rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur who is widely regarded as one of the greatest MCs of all time. With 22 Grammy Awards, a net worth exceeding $2 billion, and a catalogue spanning three decades, Jay-Z reshaped both the artistry and business of hip-hop more than any single figure of his era. Quick Stats Career Overview Jay-Z co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 and released Reasonable Doubt (199

Who Is Eminem? Marshall Bruce Mathers III, known as Eminem and Slim Shady, is a Detroit rapper widely regarded as the greatest technical MC in hip-hop history. He is the best-selling music artist of the 2000s in the US, with 220 million+ records sold worldwide and 15 Grammy Awards. His speed, wordplay, and autobiographical storytelling shaped two decades of rap lyricism. Quick Stats Career Overview Eminem grew up in working-class Detroit, battle rapping at the Hip H

Quick Verdict Cassidy was once considered one of the best pure battle rappers in the mainstream. Hotel was a genuine 2004 crossover hit. The debut album Split Personality debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200. Then came a 2005 shooting incident, a 2006 vehicular manslaughter conviction, and time in prison. B.A.R.S. — Breathe And Rap Slowly — was his 2012 comeback album, recorded partly while incarcerated and released on a wave of goodwill from fans who had always known C

Quick Verdict A Bay Bay was one of 2007's most inescapable rap singles — a Shreveport, Louisiana snap-rap track built on an impossibly catchy hook that peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and briefly made Hurricane Chris the most talked-about new rapper from the South. The debut album Chapter 1: Hallelujah followed and gave the single a home. Unleashed arrived in 2009 as the follow-up and answered the fundamental question about Hurricane Chris: the answer was A Bay

Quick Verdict I Love College was 2009's frat-rap anthem — a Weezer-sampling, keg-standing, bottom-shelf-vodka-drinking celebration of higher education that charmed enough listeners to go platinum and become one of the year's most recognisable singles. Asher Roth seemed like a genuine commercial prospect. Asleep in the Bread Aisle, the debut album that accompanied it, received mixed reviews but demonstrated enough personality to generate real interest in what came next. What

Quick Verdict In 1999, at the height of his commercial success, Mase walked away from a multi-platinum rap career to become a pastor. Harlem World had gone four times platinum. He was one of the most commercially successful Bad Boy artists of the late 90s. He studied divinity, joined a church, and for four years said nothing about music. Welcome Back arrived in 2004 as his official return to rap. The reception was brutal. The album debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 w

Quick Verdict In 2005, Mike Jones introduced himself to the world by asking a question over and over again: Who? Mike Jones! The call and response was the catchphrase that launched his career. Who Is Mike Jones?, his debut album, debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum on the strength of Still Tippin' — a legitimate piece of Houston rap that placed him alongside Paul Wall and Slim Thug in the brief mainstream window the Swisha House sound opened. By 2009,

Quick Verdict Blueface became famous in late 2018 because he raps deliberately off the beat — a quirk that produced viral memes, a Cash Money Records deal, and a genuine hit in Thotiana, which peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 with Cardi B and YG remixes pushing it into the mainstream. Find the Beat, released March 13, 2020 after three separate delays, is the debut studio album. The title is either the most honest thing Blueface has ever said or an admissi

Quick Verdict The DeAndre Way is Soulja Boy's third studio album and his most personal — titled after his actual birth name, intended as his artistic statement of maturity and growth. He said he wished to collaborate with Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Eminem. None of them appeared. 50 Cent appeared instead, alongside Trey Songz and Lil B. Rap Radar ranked it number 3 on their list of the worst albums of 2010. The album sold 70,000 copies total — Soulja Boy's lowest-sell

Quick Verdict Flo Rida had the formula absolutely nailed. Low sampled T-Pain and a trap beat and went number one for ten weeks in 2007. Right Round sampled Dead or Alive's You Spin Me Round and went number one for nine weeks in 2009. The formula was: sample a recognisable hook, add electro production, deploy Flo Rida over the top, and collect platinum certifications. Only One Flo Part 1, released November 2010, represented the first time the formula visibly failed. The albu

Quick Verdict In My Defense arrives five years after The New Classic — an album we already reviewed on this list, rating it 3/10 for the exact same reasons we are giving its sequel a 2/10. In five years of public controversy, breakups, label departures, a shelved second album (Digital Distortion), a failed EP, and what was clearly a deeply difficult period personally and professionally, Iggy Azalea assembled enough material to release a second album. Metacritic scored it 39

Quick Verdict Yung Joc arrived in 2006 with two of the year's biggest Southern rap singles — It's Goin' Down and You Know What It Is — and a debut album New Joc City that debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200. Hustlenomics arrived in August 2007 as the follow-up. PopMatters called him the Good Charlotte of rap: not particularly skilled, not particularly authentic, just in-tuned enough to what's moving units to shrewdly follow suit. Rolling Stone said the album had slack

Quick Verdict Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded is a genuinely divided album that functions as two entirely separate projects stitched together and calling itself one. The first half — eight tracks of hard rap featuring Cam'ron, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Nas, and Drake — is some of Nicki Minaj's best work. The second half is a Euro-trance, dance-pop, and milquetoast R&B experiment that abandons everything that made the first half work. Pitchfork described the dance section as ranging