70. Drake bought a $200 microphone on eBay that was supposedly signed by Pusha T. He was a big Star Trak fan when he was 17 and performed with it so much that the autograph rubbed off. 1
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69. M.I.A. started out as a visual artist. 2
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68. 9th Wonder was highly recommended by Questlove for Jay-Z’s Black Album. Jay wanted to sample R. Kelly’s “A Women’s Threat” and was pleased with how 9th sampled the beat.
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67. Lil’ Wayne majored in Psychology at the University of Pheonix. 3
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66. Before he was known as Ludacris, he was known as DJ “Chris Lova Lova” on Atlanta’s Hot 97.5 (now Hot 107.9). He began as intern and was discovered by Timbaland after he liked one of Luda’s radio promos. 4
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65. Jill Scott – not Erykah Badu – originally wrote and sang the hook on The Roots’ “You Got Me.” It was also where Eve got her first major feature.
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64. The film ATL featuring T.I. was shot in 45 days. 5
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63. Trina was a majorette in high school.
(9:39 mark)
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62. Redman’ s unique rhyme style can be traced to a creative writing course in his college days. His teacher encouraged him to stray from the norm. 6
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61. Aaliyah’s aunt was R&B songstress Gladys Knight. She was married to her uncle Barry Hankerson, and she even let Aaliyah perform 5 shows in Vegas at the age of 11 to gain exposure. 7
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References:
1. [MTV http://www.mtv.com/videos/when-i-was-17-ep-3-drake-jennie-finch-queen-latifah/1639165/playlist.jhtml]↩
2. [Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.I.A._(rapper)]↩
3. [http://education-portal.com/articles/Rap_and_Hip_Hop_Stars_Who_Went_to_College.html]↩
4. [Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludacris]↩
5. [IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466856/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv]↩
6. [http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Redman.aspx]↩
7. [Complex Magazine http://www.complex.com/music/2011/08/10-facts-about-aaliyah-you-might-not-know/gladys-knight]↩