50 Cent

Hailing from Queens, New York, rapper 50 Cent had already garnered a grass-roots reputation as one of the hottest MCs around when he was tapped in the early 2000s by hip-hop golden boy Eminem for inclusion on the soundtrack to his film 8 MILE and a place of his own on the Detroit rapper's Shady label. The combination of 50 Cent's hard-edged rhyming skills, infamy due to high-profile trouble with the law, and Eminem's sponsorship gave 50 Cent all the exposure a rapper could ask for, resulting in a huge single ("Wanksta") in 2002 and a Number One album the following year.

• hip hop/rap