Lil Wayne

Cameo is an American soul-influenced funk group that formed in the early 1970s. Cameo was initially a 13-member group known as the New York City... Players; this name was later changed to Cameo to avoid a lawsuit from Ohio Players, another group from that era. Since then, Cameo has recorded several hits records. As of 2009, some of the original members continue to perform together, while two others were hired by the hip hop group Outkast. Influences include the humour of Parliament-Funkadelic, contemporary funk bands like the Bar-Kays, Earth, Wind and Fire, Ohio Players, The Isley Brothers etc. and singers like Marvin Gaye, Billy Paul, Prince, Isaac Hayes, Stevie Wonder and Bootsy Collins. In 1974, Cameo started out with 10 members created by Juilliard graduate and New York-area clubgoer Larry Blackmon called the New York City Players. Signed by Casablanca Records to their Chocolate City imprint in 1976, the group soon changed its name to Cameo after concerns that "New York City Players" might cause confusion between them and the funk band Ohio Players.
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Universal Records was a record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated as part of the Universal Motown Republic Group. Founded in 1995 as Rising Tide Records, the label would ultimately begin to thrive the following year when its name was changed to Universal Records to complement the... branding overhaul of the Universal Studios structure since MCA Inc. was purchased from Matsushita Electric by The Seagram Company Ltd.. The label, which is actually the second incarnation was created by current Universal Music Group chairman Doug Morris and Daniel Glass, who became its president. Universal Records had success in breaking new artists, including the multi-platinum debut of Erykah Badu, Billie Myers, Goldfinger, Akon and the Lost Boyz. Recognizing the changing landscape of the industry, Glass strategically aligned Universal Records with such independent record labels as Kedar Entertainment, home to Erykah Badu, and Mojo Records, home to platinum artist Reel Big Fish and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies.
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Cash Money Records is a record label founded by brothers Bryan "Birdman" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by Universal Republic Records as of 2011. Current CEOs are Bryan "Birdman" Williams, Ronald "Slim" Williams.... Cash Money Records was founded in 1991. Bryan Williams told HitQuarters the original motivation for starting the label: "I was hoping it would get us out of the projects and into a positive way of life. And we wanted to help other people get out of this poverty." For its first few years , Cash Money played host to a number of local releases by artists, selling hundreds of thousands of albums without ever releasing a music video or having a Billboard hit. Some of the label's releases garnered some regional success in New Orleans, Louisiana, but the label was little known to the national rap scene. Artists on the label during this period included the group U.N.L.V. , Kilo G, Lil Slim, and PxMxWx. In 1995, the label signed young rappers B.G. and Lil Wayne. The signees marked what would be the second wave of Cash Money artists. In 1997 B.G.
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Bad Boy South is a southern spin-off label of Bad Boy Records. The label was founded by Sean Combs in 2003. Bad Boy South was founded in 2003 after this signing of 8 Ball & MJG. The label was created to capitalize on the success of southern hip hop and to have one label simply focus on that... genre so that the mainstream label could go out and search for other talents. For the first year, 8 Ball and MJG were the only two artists on the label. In 2005, the label signed a deal with Russell "Block" Spencer to cross-promote artists on his label, Block Entertainment. This deal added acts Boyz n da Hood, Gorilla Zoe, Big Gee, Jody Breeze, Duke, and Young Jeezy. Jeezy would leave the label before the group could release their debut album, which sparked controversy as he would start his own label and sign with The Island Def Jam Music Group. In late 2005, the label would sign Yung Joc, who would quickly become the face of the rising label. In 2006, his debut album New Joc City would take the label to new heights as it would become the label's first Platinum release. In 2007, the label debuted Boyz n da Hood artist Gorilla Zoe, who became one of the more popular acts on the label.
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Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African-American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally... used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. The term has subsequently had a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, the term rhythm and blues was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "Contemporary R&B". Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine coined the term "rhythm and blues" in 1948 as a musical marketing term in the United States. It replaced the term "race music", which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world.
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Pop music is a genre of popular music which originated in its modern form in the 1950s, deriving from rock and roll. The terms popular music and pop... music are often used interchangeably, even though the former is a description of music which is popular , whilst the latter is a specific genre containing qualities of mass appeal. As a genre, pop music is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles including urban, dance, rock, Latin and country; nonetheless, there are core elements which define pop. Such include generally short-to-medium length songs, written in a basic format , as well as the common employment of repeated choruses, melodic tunes, and catchy hooks. So-called "pure pop" music, such as power pop, features all these elements, utilising electric guitars, drums and bass for instrumentation; in the case of such music, the main goal is usually that of being pleasurable to listen to, rather than having much artistic depth.
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