Top 10 Musicians from Brooklyn

Read Brooklyn Cloth Blog: Top 10 Musicians from Brooklyn. It was a hard decision to only pick 10 but we feel pretty good about who's on the list! 

Top 10 Brooklyn Musicians

Jay-Z

 

Shawn Corey Carter or better known by Jay-Z, is one of the today’s most famous and successful rappers in the world. In 1998, his album ranked No.1 on the Billboard 200. Since 1999, he received more than 20 music awards, including MTV Video Music Awards, Grammy Awards, and People’s Choice Award.. Approximately over 50 million copies of his album sold globally. His songs usually speaks about his hard work and ruthlessness. He is not only successful in his music career, but also in his entrepreneur life. He owns Roc Nation, Roc Nation Sports, 40/40 Club, Def Jam Records, Roc-A-Fella, and also a qualified NBA sports representatives. 

Adam Yauch 

An American rapper and filmmaker, born in Brooklyn, New York City, and was a member of a hip hop trio group, Beastie Boys. The group released their first album, Licensed to III, in 1986 with Def Jam Records, and had sold 40 million copies across the world by 2010 after releasing 7 album. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Adam Yauch is also known as a feminist. The song named “Sure Shot”, his rap verse saying “I want to say a little something that’s long overdue / The disrespect to women has to got to be through / To all the mothers and sisters and the wives and friends / I want to offer my love and respect till the end". He died in 2012 due to his illness from parotid cancer. 

 

Big Daddy Kane 

 

Antonio Hardy or Big Daddy Kane, an American rapper and actor who is also a Grammy Award winner for Best Rap Performance by Duo or Group for the performance on the Quincy Jones collaborative track “Back on the Block”. He started his career as a member of Juice Crew, the rap collective group in 1986. His song “Ain’t No Half-Steppin” was ranked 25th on The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine. He is skilled and known for his ability in syncopation over faster beats, and also being one of the pioneers of fast rhyming despite his condition of asthmatic. 

Fabolous 

John David Jackson AKA Fabolous is a rapper was originally from Brooklyn, New York. His first album, Ghetto Fabolous, was released in 2001 after signing with Elektra Records. After began this career, he made many hit singles, for instance, "Can't Deny It", "Young'n (Holla Back)", "Trade It All, Pt. 2", "Breathe", "Make Me Better", "Baby Don't Go", "Throw It in the Bag" and "You Be Killin' Em". He also appeared in several R&B singles with other artists such as Lil’ Mo, Jamie Foxx, and Trey Songz. In 2008, “Make Me Better” won ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Music Awards. A year later, “Throw It in the Bag” featured with The Dream awarded Viewer’s Choice from BET Hip Hop Awards. 

Mos Def 

Mos Def is an American  rapper, singer, actor and activist, born in Brooklyn, New York, and is best known for his music. Prior his career in music industry, he played roles in television films, sitcoms, and theater, as a child actor.  

GZA

Gary E. Grice, better known as GZA and The Genius. GZA is an American rapper and songwriter who was a  founding member of the hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan. GZA was the oldest and the first in the group to receive a record deal, an analysis of GZA's lyrics found that he has the fourth largest vocabulary out of all music in hip hop. He has recently teamed up with an education group to teach and provide a stronger science education in NYC through hip hop.

Talib Kweli

Born and raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn Talib Kweli started rapping in 1997 and took off when he collaborated with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def when they formed their band Black Star. From there his musical career kicked off and later collaborated with producers and rappers such as Kayne West, Just Blaze, and Pharrell Williams.

Lil' Kim

Kimberly Denise Jones, more commonly known as Lil' Kim was born in BedStuy and lived much of her childhood on the streets after being kicked out of her home. She started rapping throughout her teenage years and was soon discovered by The Notorious B.I.G. who invited her into his group known as Junior M.A.F.I.A. From there she's went double platinum on several albums and has ranked on the Billboard Hot 100's.

Foxy Brown

Inga Fung Marchand also known professionally as Foxy Brown, is an American rapper, model, and actress. She is best known for her solo work, as well as collaborations in her hip hop group The Firm. Foxy was raised in Brooklyn, where her father, Winston Marchand abandoned her family at a young age to pursue his career at ERAC records. Her albums such as III Na Na in 1996, followed by Chyna Doll in 1999 and had a Grammy-nominated album titled Broken Silence in 2001.

Steve Stevens

Steve Stevens is an American guitarist and songwriter who was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the Grammy award winning song, Top Gun Anthem in 1987. As a guitarist, he has played for huge stars such as Michael Jackson, Rick Ocasek and Robert Palmer. Stevens was then introduced into Vince Neil's band in 1993, toured and recorded on his album Exposed which came out in April of 1993.