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When Monica arrived in the wake of the new jack swing era with the multi-platinum Miss Thang (1995), the singer was among a class of teenaged pop-R&B newcomers with the likes of Usher, Brandy, and Aaliyah. She stood out with distinctly Southern grit and boldness, as well as unmatched maturity and versatility that belied her age. Like those peers, Monica proved to be no mere shooting star. Her follow-up, The Boy Is Mine (1998), also went multi-platinum, powered by the Brandy duet of the same title, which for three months topped the Hot 100 before it took that year's Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Just as she and early supporter Dallas Austin were key to the emergence of the Atlanta music scene in the '90s, Monica was a major factor in the city's dominance across the next two decades. She put together four straight Top Ten albums, including the chart-topping After the Storm (2003), and each one involved established and emergent Georgians as producers, fellow songwriters, and featured artists. By the time Monica ended her major-label affiliation, following eighth album Code Red (2015), her catalog was deep and deceptively vast, ranging from Diane Warren-penned adult contemporary ballads to Millie Jackson-like broadsides, and from vintage-sounding slow jams produced by Missy Elliott to booming tracks straight from the streets of ATL. She has since gone independent with singles issued in anticipation of Trenches (2020), her ninth full-length.

Monica Denise Arnold was born and raised outside Atlanta in College Park. She started singing in church as a toddler and soon diversified by competing in talent shows. When she was 11 years old, a winning performance of "The Greatest Love of All," patterned after Whitney Houston's version, impressed a talent scout and led to connections with Dallas Austin and Queen Latifah. Signed to the former's Arista-affiliated Rowdy label, and managed by the latter, Monica debuted at the age of 14 with "Don't Take It Personal (Just One of Dem Days)." The Austin-produced single entered Billboard charts in April 1995, eventually crowned Hot R&B Singles, and missed the top of the Hot 100 by one spot. Recorded over a period of three years, parent album Miss Thang arrived that July and was further boosted by "Before You Walk Out of My Life"/"Like This and Like That" and "Why I Love You So Much"/"Ain't Nobody," highly successful double A-sides made with the likes of Austin, Soulshock & Karlin, and Daryl Simmons. Monica also showed uncommon maturity on the Usher duet "Let's Straighten It Out," a vintage ballad that preceded the neo-soul movement by a couple years, and in a few collaborations with Tim & Bob, such as a cover of the S.O.S. Band hit "Tell Me If You Still Care." Miss Thang later attained triple-platinum status.

Having appeared on the soundtracks for Panther (featured on "Freedom") and The Nutty Professor ("Ain't Nobody"), Monica made her biggest contribution to a film yet in 1996 with the Space Jam cut "For You I Will." Written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, the ballad became Monica's fourth consecutive Top Ten hit on the R&B and pop charts. The following May, the singer returned beside Brandy with "The Boy Is Mine," which topped the R&B and pop charts. During the duet's three-month reign on the Hot 100 -- more specifically all of June, July, and August -- Monica issued the like-titled album on Arista proper. It entered the Billboard 200 at number eight and boasted additional number one pop hits with "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine," produced respectively by Jermaine Dupri and Rodney Jerkins. Appeal across genres and generations was reinforced with another Warren/Foster number, as well as a Foster-helmed cover of Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting" (featuring 112), and an appearance from OutKast. The Boy Is Mine was certified platinum -- on its way to triple platinum -- by the time the title song won a Grammy award for Best R&B Performance. "The Boy Is Mine" was also a Record of the Year nominee.

As an occasional actor with appearances in episodes of television series such as New York Undercover and Living Single, Monica branched into movies between albums with roles in Boys and Girls and Love Song. She also contributed to the soundtracks of Down to Earth and Big Momma's House before she completed All Eyez on Me, much of which she co-wrote. This was her first recording as one of the core artists on J, the Sony-distributed upstart venture of Arista founder Clive Davis, but it was delayed repeatedly -- even after the feel-good title song was issued as a single -- and ultimately released only in Japan, landing there in October 2002. Monica quickly rebounded in the studio with Missy Elliott heavily involved as a producer and writing partner. The first result of their work together, "So Gone," followed in April 2003. It topped Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles, went Top Ten pop, and became the lead single off After the Storm, an album of mostly new material that went straight to number one upon its June release. All Eyez on Me holdover "U Should've Known Better" later peaked on the Hot 100 at number 19.

Throughout each successive album that arrived every few years, Monica continued to mix and match contemporary trends while drawing from traditional R&B. Jermaine Dupri and Dem Franchize Boyz helped her tap into the Atlanta snap sound with "Everytime the Beat Drop," the biggest single off her 2006 album, The Makings of Me (number one R&B/hip-hop, number eight pop). The second single off that 2006 album, "A Dozen Roses (You Remind Me)," was another misty soul throwback of sorts -- this time thanks to a sample of Curtis Mayfield's "The Makings of You," following the dusty Whispers assist on "So Gone" -- co-produced by Missy Elliott. Still Standing appeared four years later with yet another Elliott collaboration, "Everything to Me," based on Deniece Williams' "Silly" with Jazmine Sullivan on-board as a co-writer. The anthemic title song, co-produced and co-written by another frequent studio partner from this period, Bryan-Michael Cox, put a powerful feminized spin on ATL native T.I.'s "What You Know," and featured a verse from Ludacris. At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, "Everything to Me" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and Still Standing, Monica's second number one R&B/hip-hop LP (number two pop), was up for Best R&B Album. On the small screen, Monica starred during this time in the reality series Monica: The Single and Monica: Still Standing. Moreover, she landed a role in the Rockmond Dunbar film Pastor Brown, and in 2011 joined the cast of The Voice as an adviser to coach CeeLo Green.

Still Standing also capped Monica's run with J, but the singer made a natural shift to RCA, which essentially absorbed the label. New Life, a Top Five R&B/hip-hop and pop entry in April 2012, was led by "Until It's Gone," another ballad aided by Missy Elliott and Jazmine Sullivan. That and two of its other singles, including "It All Belongs to Me" -- a reunion with Brandy and one of a few tracks co-produced by Earl Hood and Eric Goudy II, aka Earl & E -- peaked in the 20s of the R&B/hip-hop chart. Toward the end of 2015, Code Red followed with the title song -- co-produced by Polow da Don, featuring Elliott, and introduced by Monica's daughter Laiyah -- a highly energized critique of urban contemporary radio. Unsurprisingly, the song wasn't on the airwaves nearly as often as "Just Right for Me," a collaboration with Polow and Lil Wayne that was more in line with Monica's past hits. Monica also worked with Timbaland on the album, her fifth straight title to simultaneously reach the R&B/hip-hop and pop Top Tens. Monica parted ways with RCA and by the end of the decade established her independent phase with the singles "BeHUMAN," "Commitment," and "Me + You." In 2020, she continued with "Trenches," a collaboration with the Neptunes and Lil Baby, and prepared her album of the same title for release that November. ~ Andy Kellman

Whether measured by sales, radio airplay, critical reception, awards, influence, or endurance, the Neptunes are one of the all-time most successful production teams. Heirs to pioneers of bare-knuckled rap and pop-flavored electronic R&B, from Larry Smith and Rick Rubin to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and peers of fellow Virginians Timbaland and Missy Elliott, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo have set themselves apart with an ever-evolving sound that has appealed to the streets, the charts, and multiple generations of listeners. Candy-coated, animatedly funky, and often powered by beats that can be replicated with fists pounding a cafeteria table, their work is instantly identifiable, and further distinguished by Williams' voice, a frequent secondary element that has often blurred the distinction between duettist and hype man with bumptious rhymes and falsetto hooks. Having tasted the Top Ten for the first time with Mase's "Lookin' at Me" (1998), the duo repeatedly hit the upper tier of the Hot 100 in the ensuing years with Nelly's "Hot in Herre" (2002), Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" (2003), Kelis' "Milkshake" (2003), and Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot" (2004) only scratching the surface of their early output. At the same time, they launched the pigeonhole-evading N.E.R.D., topped the Billboard 200 with The Neptunes Present...Clones, and won a Grammy for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. After more triumphs with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, and Madonna, they were listed at the top of Billboard's Producer of the Decade list for the 2000s. Williams and Hugo diversified and thrived separately and together in the 2010s, as a younger artists like Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, and the Internet championed and drew from their foundational recordings and sought them out for collaborations. The duo started their fourth decade in 2020 by entering the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Williams and Hugo met at seventh grade band camp in their native Virginia Beach, and continued together in marching band. Outside school, Williams recorded with DJ Timmy Tim and Melvin Barcliff, later known as Timbaland and Magoo, in the Native Tongues-inspired rap group S.B.I. (Surrounded by Idiots). Around the same time, Williams and Hugo, along with Sheldon "Shay" Haley and Mike Etheridge, formed a more R&B-oriented act called the Neptunes. They performed in a talent show held at Princess Anne High School, where three of the four members were students. (Hugo attended nearby Kempsville.) The event was sponsored by new jack swing architect and Guy member Teddy Riley, who operated a recording studio near the campus. Impressed by the Neptunes, the producer signed them to a development deal after they graduated. Williams was the first one to benefit from the convergence. He worked with Riley and Riley's brother Markell to co-write Wreckx-N-Effect's "Rump Shaker," a number two Hot 100 hit in 1992, and the next year he was heard on the Riley-produced "Human Nature" remix of SWV's "Right Here." Hugo officially entered the frame with contributions to the self-titled 1994 platinum album by Riley's Blackstreet, and with Williams co-wrote "Tonight's the Night."

Mike Etheridge, aka Mike E., branched out with his own work for Blackstreet and later recorded Riley-produced solo material for Capitol. Shay Haley would eventually reconnect with Williams and Hugo, who continued under the Neptunes name. It wasn't until 1996, in the liner notes for albums by Total and SWV, that Williams and Hugo were formally credited as such. "Use Your Heart," a tender slow jam off SWV's New Beginning, became the Neptunes' first true hit as a production team, reaching number 22 on the Hot 100 and number six on the R&B/hip-hop chart. The distinct Neptunes sound reached full bloom two years later with Mase's "Lookin' at Me" and N.O.R.E. (aka Noreaga)'s "Superthug," singles that peaked respectively within the Top Ten and Top 40. Williams stepped to the fore on the latter by providing the amusing intro and secondary vocal. "Superthug" also featured vocals from Kelis, who assisted the Neptunes' next Top 40 hit in 1999, Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Got Your Money," and took the spotlight toward the end of the year with Kelis' Kaleidoscope, produced exclusively by the Neptunes and featuring "Caught Out There," a Top Ten R&B/hip-hop single.

As they honed a flexible and distinct style that was identifiable and as mimicked as that of the prominent Timbaland and Missy Elliott -- the latter yet another Virginian -- the Neptunes were now among the most prolific and desired producers in R&B, rap, and pop. Williams and Hugo were particularly hot during the first few years of the 2000s, during which they conducted a bombardment on the Top 40. Mystikal's "Shake Ya Ass" (number 13), Ludacris' "Southern Hospitality" (number 23), Jay-Z's "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" (number 11), Ray J's "Wait a Minute" (number 30), *NSYNC's "Girlfriend" (number five), Britney Spears' "I'm a Slave 4 U" (number 27), and Usher's "U Don't Have to Call" (number three) all landed in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, the Neptunes topped the Hot 100 for the first time with Nelly's "Hot in Here," and regularly crossed the Top 40 and cracked the Top Ten during the rest of 2002 and 2003 with N.O.R.E.'s "Nothin'" (number ten), Clipse's "Grindin'" (number 30), Snoop Dogg's "Beautiful" (number six), Jay-Z's "Excuse Me Miss" (number eight) and "Change Clothes" (number ten), LL Cool J's "Luv U Better" (number four), Justin Timberlake's "Rock Your Body" (number five), and Kelis' "Milkshake" (number three). These hits account for a small percentage of the Neptunes' handiwork from the period. And while they were responsible for some unavoidable smashes, their admirers ranged across the musical firmament, exemplified in part by their remix clients, a select crop that included Sade, Garbage, Daft Punk, and Air.

Concurrent with their rise, Williams and Hugo established the major-label joint venture Star Trak, a boutique outlet for N.E.R.D., their categorization-defying side project with Shay Haley, and a sequence of signees including Clipse, Kelis, Slim Thug, and Robin Thicke. After debuting N.E.R.D. with versions of In Search Of... released in 2001 and 2002, the duo topped the Billboard 200 in 2003 with a production showcase entitled The Neptunes Present...Clones, featuring tracks headlined by assorted Star Trak artists and the likes of Busta Rhymes and Ol' Dirty Bastard. The compilation's number five pop hit "Frontin'," featuring Jay-Z, effectively launched Williams as a solo act. As producers of "Hot in Herre," the Neptunes had been acknowledged by the Recording Academy when Nellyville, its parent LP, was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Album of the Year, but the duo were showered with accolades at the next ceremony, the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, in early 2004. They were behind recordings nominated for Best Rap Song ("Beautiful" and "Excuse Me Miss") and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration ("Frontin'"). Timberlake's Justified, over half of which was produced by Williams and Hugo, was up for Album of the Year and took the award for Best Pop Vocal Album. Most significantly, the Neptunes rose above a field of candidates that included major inspirations Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to win Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

The Neptunes continued to ride high as they juggled sessions with a mix of established associates, pop stars, and developing acts, and still found time for personal and less commercially minded pursuits like N.E.R.D. and deep involvement with left-field musicians such as Kenna. Moreover, the artists with whom they scored number one pop hits in 2004 and 2005 -- one an Eastside Long Beach gangsta rapper, the other an Orange County singer known for ska-pop -- could not have been more different. Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot," lean and booming, and Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl," informed by Williams and Hugo's marching band background, also led to more Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year for the latter, amid additional nominations for N.E.R.D.'s "She Wants to Move" (from second album Fly or Die) and Mariah Carey's Neptunes-assisted The Emancipation of Mimi. The Neptunes were just as active in 2006 and 2007, credited with highlights such as Ludacris' Grammy-winning "Monkey Maker" (another number one pop hit), Stefani's "Wind It Up" (number six), the entirety of Clipse's critically praised Hell Hath No Fury (number 14 on the Billboard 200), and Jay-Z's "I Know," off the rapper's chart-topping American Gangster. Williams also hit the Top Five during this period with In My Mind, his first solo album. Amid involvement with dozens of other sessions, the Neptunes closed out the decade with a Best Dance Recording Grammy nomination as co-producers of Madonna's "Give It 2 Me," made a third N.E.R.D. album, Seeing Sounds, and put in some extensive cross-cultural work with Teriyaki Boyz, the Star Trak-issued Fast & Furious soundtrack (featuring Tego Calderón and Pitbull), and Shakira (including "Did It Again," a number one hit on the dance chart).

Following the 2010 release of the Despicable Me soundtrack (featuring Williams) and N.E.R.D.'s Nothing, Williams and Hugo worked separately with increased frequency. Still early in the decade, Hugo formed Missile Command, a DJ team with Daniel Biltmore, and worked with Interpol's Paul Banks on a short-lived project called No Planes in Space. Up through 2014, Williams and Hugo factored in scattered tracks by Jay-Z and Kanye West, Pusha T, Kendrick Lamar (the title track from the landmark Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City), and Earl Sweatshirt, the latter a member of Odd Future, the L.A.-based misfit collective who had grown up devouring Neptunes and N.E.R.D. recordings. Another OF affiliate, Frank Ocean, sought out Williams to co-write and co-produce "Sweet Life" for his Grammy-winning 2012 album Channel Orange. Hugo himself contributed to another Odd Future offshoot, the Internet, co-producing the Feel Good highlight "Dontcha," and assisted one of that album's featured artists, Yuna, on the album Nocturnal. Meanwhile, Williams racked up hits with Robin Thicke, Daft Punk, and his own "Happy" (from Despicable Me 2). At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014, he took Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, and with Daft Punk was a winner in three additional categories. G I R L, his second solo album, followed later that year.

Neptunes activity started to pick up again in 2015, when N.E.R.D. provided material for the soundtrack of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, and continued to accelerate when Snoop Dogg released the Top 20 album Bush, all tracks of which were either co-produced by Williams and Hugo or executed alone by the former. N.E.R.D. enjoyed their greatest level of commercial success with the 2017 single "Lemon," a rowdy collaboration with Rihanna that crashed the Top 40 and carried their fifth album, NO ONE EVER REALLY DIES. Williams and Hugo's tight affiliation with Justin Timberlake continued as they co-produced the majority of the singer's chart-topping 2018 album Man of the Woods. In 2020, the Neptunes were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, placed two tracks on Suga, the Top Ten EP by Megan Thee Stallion, and co-headlined "Pomegranate" with Deadmau5. ~ Andy Kellman

Atlanta-bred rapper Lil Baby is charismatic, confident, and overwhelmingly popular on a worldwide level, consistently topping the charts with his rough yet accessible commercially geared sound. Following a series of mixtapes, his popularity exploded in 2018, the year he released his first proper album, Harder Than Ever (which included the Drake-featuring hit "Yes Indeed"), and Drip Harder (a collaborative mixtape with Gunna), both of which entered the Top Ten of the Billboard 200. He hit number one in 2020 with his second studio album, My Turn, and again the next year with The Voice of the Heroes, a collaborative studio effort with Lil Durk. Lil Baby made a habit of dominating the charts, debuting in the top spot once more in 2022 with his third studio album, It's Only Me. Singles such as "Go Hard" and "Crazy" followed in 2023, leading up to the 2025 release of WHAM (Who Hard as Me), which again debuted at the top of the charts.

Lil Baby was born Dominique Jones in Atlanta in 1994. He grew up hanging with friends like Young Thug, Coach K, and Pee, leaning more toward a life of petty crime and street hustling while his friends went on to thrive in the music industry. In 2015, at age 19, Lil Baby went to prison for two years for a probation violation. Upon his release in 2017, he jump-started his rap career with a mixtape called Perfect Timing, released in April of that year. The mixtape featured cameos from friends like Lil Yachty, Young Thug, and Gunna, and strong production from 808 Mafia, Brickz, and many others, highlighted by Lil Baby's woozy flows. The mixtape immediately brought the young rapper fame, in part due to his affiliations with friends in the Quality Control family of artists as well as the Four Pockets Full clique.

As his mixtape attracted more listeners, Lil Baby worked constantly on new music, releasing singles like "My Dawg" and the Young Thug collaboration "Pink Slip" in the summer of 2017. Other releases that year included Harder Than Hard, 2 the Hard Way (with Marlo), and Too Hard. Lil Baby's debut studio album, Harder Than Ever, appeared in May 2018. Featuring guest appearances from Drake, Offset, Lil Uzi Vert, and others, the release entered the Billboard 200 album chart at number three. The rapper's success continued with Drip Harder, a collaborative mixtape with Gunna that was released that October and reached number four on the Billboard 200. Yet another mixtape, Street Gossip, appeared in November 2018. The following year, Lil Baby starred in the film How High 2 and released a handful of singles including the Future collaboration "Out the Mud."

Preceded by "Woah" and "Sum 2 Prove," his second studio album, My Turn, arrived in February 2020 and went straight to number one. Later that year, Lil Baby issued a pair of singles, "On Me" and "Errbody." That June, he released "The Bigger Picture," a protest song responding to police violence and systemic racism. The track entered the Billboard singles chart at number three and was nominated for two Grammys: Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance. Lil Baby also performed the song live at the Grammy ceremonies that year. In March 2021, he appeared as a featured artist on Drake's single "Wants and Needs." The song debuted in the number two position on the Hot 100, making it Lil Baby's highest-charting track up to that point. In June of that year, he teamed up with Lil Durk for the collaborative album The Voice of the Heroes. The project featured guest appearances from Rod Wave, Meek Mill, Young Thug, and Travis Scott and debuted at number one.

In early 2022, Lil Baby paired with Nicki Minaj for the singles "Do We Have a Problem?" and "Bussin." He returned with new material of his own in October 2022 with his third effort, It's Only Me, which included appearances from Nardo Wick, Young Thug, EST Gee, and several others, and debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. Lil Baby kicked off 2023 with the booming stand-alone cut "Go Hard." This was followed by a guest appearance on DJ Khaled's "Supposed to Be Loved" and the solo singles "Merch Madness," "350," and "Crazy." The 2024 single "Band4Band" with Central Cee, reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. Following other tracks like "Roll da Dice" (with 4batz) and "5AM," Lil Baby released "Insecurities," the first single from WHAM (Who Hard as Me). The album was released in January of 2025, and included features from 21 Savage, GloRilla, Travis Scott, and others. ~ Fred Thomas