Drake

The gleefully obtuse verbal acrobatics of Lil Wayne and the pop sensibilities of Will Smith merge in Drake, an actor-turned-rapper who built tremendous, sustained buzz in the late 2000s before ever signing to a label. Canadian-born Audrey Drake Graham first garnered notice as a teenage paraplegic basketballer on Canadian high school soap opera DEGRASSI HIGH: THE NEXT GENERATION. By the mid-'00s, Drake turned his attention towards music, and between keen YouTube marketing savvy, a zest for showmanship, and a twisted world view, he earned a spot among the young lions of hip-hop. His fabled skills and free agent status led to a glut of unauthorized recordings (and subsequent lawsuits)--and, ironically, one such sued bootleg snuck onto iTunes, and led to the rapper's first hit, the smash "Best I Ever Had."