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With multi-platinum success straight out of the gate, R&B/pop vocalist/songwriter Ciara jumped directly into a chart-topping music career when her first single arrived in 2004, and rode that initial wave for years to come. Early connections with bigger names in the music industry worked in tandem with her burning talent for both songcraft and performance, earning the singer Grammy recognition and multi-platinum record sales from the very beginning. Ciara's time at the top of the charts lasted around five years, and she built upon that early fame by branching out into production, modeling, and acting, as well as collaborating with Missy Elliott, Ludacris, Timbaland, and many others among the biggest names of her time. Though her personal life saw many massive shifts, music always came first for Ciara as she moved from the rowdy crunk fun of her debut album, Goodies, to more nuanced and sometimes socially conscious singles such as "Like a Boy," to the vulnerable songwriting of her eponymous 2013 album. She celebrated 15 years in music in 2019 with Beauty Marks and returned in 2023 with another independent release, CiCi, an EP of largely uptempo feel-good material.

Ciara Princess Harris was born in Austin, Texas, in 1985 into a military family that moved around for the better part of her childhood. The family lived in New York, California, Germany, and multiple other locales before landing in Atlanta, Georgia. Despite early ambitions to be a lawyer, her love of music grew and she worked hard in her teen years as a member of the group Hearsay before they disbanded. While still in high school, she began writing songs for other artists and befriended producer Jazze Pha, who helped her orchestrate a record deal with LaFace Records in 2003. The next year, she began recording demos with songwriter/producer Sean Garrett, who was fresh off the success of Usher's monster hit "Yeah!," which he co-wrote. The two worked up a demo for a song called "Goodies," and when Lil Jon heard the demo he saw enormous potential and agreed to produce the song, calling on Petey Pablo to do a featured guest spot on the single.

"Goodies," Ciara's debut single, was released in June 2004 and had a staggeringly quick rise to the top of the charts around the world, hailed by some as the anthem of the summer. The song put Ciara's name on the map and paved the way for her debut album, also titled Goodies, to be released in September of that year. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart, quickly going multi-platinum. The follow-up singles "1, 2 Step" featuring Missy Elliott and "Oh" featuring Ludacris both broke the Top Five in the U.S. in 2005. By the end of the year, Ciara was featured on Elliott's own "Lose Control" and joined Gwen Stefani on tour. Moreover, Ciara was nominated for four Grammy Awards. She was up for Best New Artist, while "1, 2 Step" was among the songs nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. "Lose Control" was nominated for Best Rap Song and took the award for Best Short Form Music Video.

Her sophomore album, The Evolution, arrived in December 2006, charting immediately and going on to sell certified-platinum numbers. The record spawned the singles "Get Up" featuring Chamillionaire, "Promise," and "Like a Boy." Performances in promotion of The Evolution included multiple festival appearances, a headlining tour, and a slot as a support act for a U.K. leg of Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad world tour. The May 2009 release of Fantasy Ride, Ciara's third album, was preceded by a few delays, including a pre-release single that failed to catch fire. Fantasy Ride was, nonetheless, her most star-studded album to date. "Love Sex Magic," featuring Justin Timberlake, became her fifth headlining Top Ten pop hit and was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Continued work with the-Dream developed into the album Basic Instinct, released in December 2010 and featuring the-Dream and associate Christopher "Tricky" Stewart as executive producers. It was her first LP to peak outside the Top Ten of the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

For her self-titled fifth album, released in July 2013, she reconnected with LaFace co-founder L.A. Reid and moved to the Epic label. Thanks to the certified gold single "Body Party," it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. An engagement to collaborator Future, the birth of the couple's son, and the couple's split all occurred prior to the May 2015 release of Jackie, Ciara's sixth album, named after her mother. Shortly before the release of Jackie, Ciara began dating Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, and the two were married in July 2016. They had a daughter in the spring of 2017 as plans were underway for the recording of Ciara's then-untitled seventh studio album. In July 2018, the first evidence of that record emerged with the release of the single "Level Up," which landed at number four on the Billboard Hot R&B Songs chart. The following May, she released her seventh album, Beauty Marks, through her independent label of the same name. After a few singles during the remainder of 2018 and throughout 2019, Ciara was relatively quiet in 2021. Having struck a joint label deal with Uptown and Republic, she returned in 2022 with the uptempo Coast Contra collaboration "Jump," followed that same year by "Better Thangs" with Summer Walker. Independent again in 2023, Ciara started the year with the empowering "Da Girls," followed by the romantic Chris Brown duet "How We Roll." The latter set up and led CiCi, a lively EP that also featured appearances from Lil Baby and Big Freedia. ~ Fred Thomas

Lil Wayne began his career as a near novelty, a preteen delivering hardcore Southern hip-hop. Through years of maturation and prolific output, during which the delivery of his humorous and wordplay-heavy rhymes gradually changed from ringing and pugnacious to stoned and rasped, he developed into a million-unit-selling artist with a massive body of work, one so inventive and cunning that it makes his claim of being the "best rapper alive" worth considering. Wayne debuted at the age of 12, received his first platinum certification five years later as a member of the Hot Boys, and immediately thereafter became a formidable solo artist with Tha Block Is Hot (1999), his first of 12 Top Ten albums on the Billboard 200. During a period of constant output, entailing not just successful full-lengths but also reputation-building mixtapes and featured appearances on pop hits like Destiny's Child's "Soldier" (2004), he reached mainstream superstar status with Tha Carter III (2008). A triple-platinum blockbuster, it spawned the number one pop hit "Lollipop" and the number six follow-up "A Milli," and netted three Grammy awards, including Best Rap Album. Throughout the 2010s, despite numerous legal and creative battles, Wayne continued to be a regular presence on the upper reaches of the charts with albums such as Tha Carter IV (2011) and I Am Not a Human Being II (2013), additional smash singles as a headliner, and a continually lengthening list of collaborative hits, including the multi-platinum "Sucker for Pain" (for the Suicide Squad soundtrack in 2016) and "I'm the One" (headlined by DJ Khaled in 2017). Since the latter hit, Wayne has topped the Billboard 200 with the consecutive LPs Tha Carter V (2018) and Funeral (2020) and has continued to issue non-album singles and mixtapes like his 2021 Rich the Kid collaboration Trust Fund Babies, 2023's Tha Fix Before Tha VI, and the Lil Yachty- and Kyle Richh-assisted 2024 single "Can't Hold Me Down."

Born Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. and raised in the infamous New Orleans neighborhood of Hollygrove, Lil Wayne was a straight-A student but never felt his true intelligence was expressed through any kind of report card. He found music was the best way to express himself, and after taking the name Gangsta D he began writing rhymes. Combining a strong work ethic with aggressive self-promotion, the 11-year-old convinced the Cash Money label to take him on, even if it was just for odd jobs around the office. A year later, in-house producer Mannie Fresh partnered him with the 14-year-old B.G. and dubbed the duo the B.G.'z. Although only B.G.'s name appeared on the cover, the 1995 album True Story has since been accepted as the B.G.'z debut album both by fans and the Cash Money label. The 1997 album Chopper City was supposed to be the follow-up, but when Wayne accidentally shot himself in the chest with a 9mm pistol, it became a solo B.G. release.

That same year, he officially took the moniker Lil Wayne, dropping the "D" from his first name in order to separate himself from an absent father. He joined B.G., Juvenile, and Young Turk for another Fresh project, the teen hardcore rap group the Hot Boys, who released their debut album, Get It How U Live!, in 1997. Two years later, Cash Money signed a distribution deal with the major-label Universal. Mainstream distribution helped that year's Hot Boys album Guerrilla Warfare to reach the number one spot on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. In 1998, Lil Wayne appeared on Juvenile's hit single "Back That Thing Up," or "Back That Azz Up" as it appeared on Juvie's album 400 Degreez. Wayne launched his solo career a year later with the album Tha Block Is Hot, featuring the hit single title track. It went double-platinum, but the rapper was still unknown to Middle America, since his hardcore rhymes and the rough Cash Money sound had not yet crossed over. His second album, Lights Out (2000), failed to match the success of its predecessor but it did go gold, and with an appearance on the Big Tymers' hit single "#1 Stunna," his audience was certainly growing. While Fresh was primarily responsible for launching his career, Wayne was now much closer to Fresh's fellow Big Tymer and Cash Money CEO Birdman. When Juvenile left the label, Wayne -- or "Birdman Jr." as he was calling himself -- showed his allegiance to his CEO by releasing an album with a title much hotter than Juvie's breakthrough effort. 500 Degreez landed in 2002 and while it went gold, rumors began flying about Cash Money's financial troubles and possible demise. The rest of the Hot Boys had defected and Wayne's planned 2003 album was scrapped, coming out instead as an underground mixtape called Da Drought.

Wayne became enamored with the mixtape world after Da Drought drew so much attention from the hip-hop press. He used these underground releases to drum up anticipation for his next official album, the breakthrough effort Tha Carter. Released in 2004, the album seemed familiar on one hand with Mannie Fresh's production, but the Wayne on the cover was a dreadlocked surprise, and the rhymes he laid on the tracks showed significant growth. His marketing skills had become sharper, too, and it was no mistake that the album's hit single, "Go DJ," mentioned hip-hop's greatest tastemakers right in the title. It reached number five on the singles chart, and with a guest shot on Destiny's Child's number three single "Soldier," Wayne had officially crossed over. On the flipside, his street cred was supported by a slew of mixtapes released in 2005, including the popular titles Dedication with DJ Drama and Tha Suffix with DJ Khaled. Cash Money's future was no longer in doubt and traditional music business rules no longer seemed to apply, as tracks were leaked onto the Internet and various DJs' mixtapes. "Get Something" was another bold move, as a Universal-funded video was made without the track ever seeing official release.

With his alternative marketing scheme working in overdrive, the 2005 landing of Tha Carter II was a major event, selling over a quarter-million copies the week of its release. "Fireman" and "Shooter" with Robin Thicke were released as singles, while the album -- which for the first time featured no Mannie Fresh productions -- went platinum. It also introduced his Young Money posse, with appearances from Curren$y and Nicki Minaj, and initially came with a bonus disc featuring Wayne's greatest-hits screwed and chopped by Swishahouse DJ Michael "5000" Watts. A year later he collaborated with Birdman for the Like Father, Like Son album, featuring the hit single "Stuntin' Like My Daddy." His mixtapes were still flooding the underground, including the stunning Dedication 2, which came with an iconic image of the rapper on the cover plus the much talked-about track "Georgia...Bush," a venomous response to President George W. Bush's handling of the Katrina disaster. With no official follow-up to Tha Carter II in sight, numerous collaborative tracks kept the rapper in the mainstream with "Gimme That" by Chris Brown, "Make It Rain" by Fat Joe, and "Duffle Bag Boy" by Playaz Circle becoming three of the biggest hits.

Tha Carter III was promised for 2007 but didn't arrive until a year later, setting off Wayne's reputation for delayed releases. Part of the problem was the unauthorized leaks of the album's tracks, something combatted by the official downloadable EP The Leak, released that same year. Preceded by the number one hit "Lollipop," Tha Carter III arrived in May 2008, selling more than a million copies in its first week of release. An appearance on Saturday Night Live and a handful of Grammy Awards -- including Best Rap Album -- spoke to Wayne's mainstream acceptance. He also performed at that year's Country Music Awards with Kid Rock, but rather than rap, he played guitar. The guitar playing was part of Wayne's new involvement with rock music, including his help in signing Kevin Rudolf to Cash Money plus an appearance on Rudolf's massive hit "Let It Rock." His planned rock album was previewed with the 2009 single "Prom Queen," but when the album failed to meet its promised April release, the music press began to portray the rapper as the king of missed street dates. Unconcerned, Wayne forged ahead with his Young Money crew, releasing the underground mixtape Young Money Is the Army, Better Yet the Navy, the aboveground single "Every Girl," plus the official album We Are Young Money that same year. His rock album, Rebirth, finally appeared in early 2010, and coincided with Wayne being sentenced to a nine-month prison term for criminal possession of a weapon. The rapper may have been behind bars on Riker's Island, but that didn’t stop his ten-song EP, I Am Not a Human Being, from seeing the light of day in September 2010. Tha Carter IV was finally released in 2011 along with its lead-off single "6 Foot 7 Foot." The album reached the top spot on the Billboard 200.

In 2013, unfazed by criticism that a controversial verse he contributed to Future's "Karate Chop" -- he made a reference to Emmett Till, a black teenager gruesomely murdered in 1955 by white men -- was in poor taste, Wayne released a second volume of I Am Not a Human Being. The album debuted at number two and featured the singles "No Worries" and "Love Me." A sequence of singles intended for the repeatedly delayed Tha Carter V ensued, with "Believe Me," featuring Drake, an addition to Wayne's stockpile of certified platinum hits. Another track -- "Nothing But Trouble" featuring Charlie Puth -- was released in 2015 as a contribution to the soundtrack for 808: The Movie. That same year -- to make up for fan disappointment over Tha Carter V's delays -- Wayne self-released Sorry 4 the Wait 2.

By 2016, Wayne had become embroiled in a legal battle with Birdman and Cash Money Records, further complicating the fate of Tha Carter V. These continued delays prompted the release of the Free Weezy Album, yet another mixtape to tide over his fans. By the end of the year, he published a memoir about his time spent at Riker's Island (Gone 'Til November) and scored another hit with "Sucker for Pain," a collaboration for the chart-topping Suicide Squad soundtrack. The all-star track topped the Billboard rap chart and rose to number three on the R&B/hip-hop chart. DJ Khaled's "I'm the One" became one of Wayne's biggest collaborations the following year, topping the pop chart on its way to quintuple-platinum status. Primarily collaborative work continued well into 2018, including a contribution to the Future-driven soundtrack for Superfly, until Wayne finally issued the oft-grim Tha Carter V, the chart-topping finale to the Carter series. After joining blink-182 in 2019 for a co-headlining tour and mashup single "What's My Age Again/A Milli," Wayne completed album 13, Funeral. Featuring a broad range of guest MCs -- Jay Rock, Lil Baby, and XXXTentacion among them -- the set was issued in January 2020 and entered the Billboard 200 at the top. In July of that year, Wayne re-released his 2015 mixtape Free Weezy Album as FWA. The project had seen an exclusive release on only one streaming service five years earlier, but the wider release was markedly different, with some tracks omitted completely and new mixes of songs that formerly included uncleared samples. 2021 saw the tracks "B.B. King Freestyle (with Drake)" and "Funeral" top the Billboard charts, and the release of the one-off single "Ain't Got Time" featuring Fousheé. In October of that year, Wayne teamed up with Rich the Kid for the ten-song mixtape Trust Fund Babies. The project included only one featured guest spot from YG. In January of 2022, Wayne's 2011 mixtape Sorry 4 the Wait arrived on streaming services for the first time. Originally a stopgap release intended to sate fans waiting for the long-delayed Carter IV, the newly refreshed version of the tape included four songs recorded around the time of its re-release and included guest spots from Lil Tecca and Allan Cubas. In February of 2023 Wayne included posthumous contributions from DMX on the single "Kant Nobody," which was later the lead-off track of the decades-spanning best-of compilation I Am Music, which materialized a month later. I Am Music included some of Wayne's best-known, best-loved, and best-performing songs from across his career, and debuted at the number 25 position on the Billboard Top 200 charts. In September of that same year, Wayne released the mixtape Tha Fix Before Tha VI, an odds and ends preamble to fill space before the release of the sixth installment of Tha Carter series. The ten-track project included guest appearances from Euro, Fousheé, and Jon Batiste, as well as production from a host of notable producers like Cool & Dre. The mixtape debuted at the number 40 position on the U.S. Billboard charts. Before the end of 2023, Lil Wayne reunited with Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz for the collaborative album Welcome to Collegrove. Released on Def Jam in November of 2023, it was a sequel to the 2016 album ColleGrove, which had been created in equal parts by both rappers but was only credited to 2 Chainz as the main artist due to record label disputes. His output in the front half of 2024 mostly consisted of high-profile features like "Lifestyle" from the second album by Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign's supergroup ¥$ and "Can't Hold Me Down" with Lil Yachty and Kyle Richh. ~ David Jeffries & Andy Kellman

One of the most prominent artists in contemporary R&B, Chris Brown is a dynamic vocalist whose longevity is attributable in part to his natural incorporation of hip-hop and his embrace of club sounds ranging from EDM to Afrobeats. Greeted with comparisons to Michael Jackson and Usher, Brown arrived in 2005 as a teen pop-R&B singer with "Run It!," the first debut single by a male artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in over a decade. While there was nowhere to go but down, at least in terms of chart positions, Brown was only getting started. Within a few years, he became a well-established star with Chris Brown (2005) and Exclusive (2007), multi-platinum albums that produced five more Top Ten singles, including "Kiss Kiss" and "Forever." As a featured artist or duettist, he added to the count with hits such as "No Air," a ballad with Jordin Sparks. By the end of the decade, Brown underwent a stylistic makeover during which his forebears shifted to the likes of Jodeci, R. Kelly, and 2Pac. This, and a more drastic change in his public image, did little to slow his commercial momentum. His streak of Top Ten albums was sustained with releases such as Graffiti (2009), the Grammy-winning F.A.M.E. (2011), and Fortune (2012). Brown's artistic scope continued to widen with Heartbreak on a Full Moon (2017) and Indigo (2019), albums as long as epic films, and with his tenth and 11th consecutive Top Ten albums, Breezy (2022) and 11:11 (2023). The latter was promoted with some of his warmest singles, including the Grammy-nominated "Summer Too Hot."

Chris Brown is originally from Tappahannock, Virginia. Like a lot of kids born in the mid- to late '80s, he got into his parents' favorite music but eventually fell under the spell of hip-hop. Around the time his voice changed, he discovered his singing ability and switched his focus away from MC'ing. A move to New York led to being discovered by Tina Davis, a Def Jam A&R executive who became the singer's manager shortly after losing her position in the Sony-BMG merger. The Jive label, due in part to its track record with younger artists who had established longevity (like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake), won the bidding war for Brown and lined up several production and songwriting heavy weights, including Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox, Sean Garrett, and Scott Storch, for his self-titled first album. An immediate Top Ten hit when it was released in 2005, Chris Brown not only featured the number one "Run It!" but two other Top Ten singles in "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)" and "Say Goodbye." Brown was subsequently nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best New Artist. Exclusive, released in 2007 and a bit of a departure from the wholesome image presented throughout his debut, was even more successful, featuring the number one single "Kiss Kiss" and two other Top Five hits. Yet another Top Five hit came with "No Air," a duet with Jordin Sparks that appeared on Sparks' own self-titled album. Brown also co-wrote "Disturbia," a number one hit for Rihanna.

In March 2009, Brown was charged with felonious assault of Rihanna, an altercation that had prevented his then-partner from taking the stage at the Grammy Awards. Brown was scheduled to perform as well, but he did not appear and maintained a low profile for several months. A fairly substantial backlash resulted in Brown's songs being pulled from rotation on several radio stations. Ultimately, however, it had little bearing on the progress of his music career and side acting gigs. The week before the December release of his third album, Graffiti, the single "I Can Transform Ya" was well on its way to reaching the Top 20 of the Hot 100, and his acting roles -- which had already included spots in Stomp the Yard and a recurring role on The O.C. -- hadn't shown any sign of drying up. Graffiti fell considerably short of gold-selling status, but it was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Contemporary R&B Album, and a Tank collaboration, "Take My Time," was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Weeks after the 2011 Grammy Awards ceremony, Brown released his fourth album, F.A.M.E., which already had four singles on the charts. That record topped the Billboard 200 and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts, and it took the 2012 Grammy for Best R&B Album. During the ceremony, he performed a medley of "Beautiful People" and "Turn Up the Music," the latter of which previewed Fortune, his fifth album, released in May 2012 and an immediate chart-topper in the U.S. A sequence of several singles that began with "Fine China" preceded X, released in September 2014. Less inspired by European dance-pop and more R&B-oriented than his previous release, the album included contributions from R. Kelly, Usher, and Lil Wayne, among many others. Four of its singles peaked within the R&B Top Ten. X was only five months old when Brown and Tyga, who had previously worked together on one of those hits -- "Loyal," as well as the earlier "Deuces" -- teamed up for Fan of a Fan: The Album. By the end of 2015, Brown released Royalty, his seventh proper album, which was propped up by the Top 20 pop hit "Back to Sleep."

Brown cranked out material in larger volumes and made more featured appearances through the end of the 2010s. Heartbreak on a Full Moon arrived in October 2017 with 45 songs on its deluxe edition. It entered the Billboard 200 at number three, making it the artist's eighth consecutive Top Ten album. The following year, Brown appeared on a few high-profile collaborative singles, highlighted by Lil Dicky's "Freaky Friday," another Top Ten hit.

In June 2019, Brown delivered his ninth solo album, the chart-topping double-length Indigo. A track from the LP, "No Guidance," was nominated for a Grammy for Best R&B Song. The commercial mixtape Slime & B, a collaboration with Young Thug, followed in May 2020 and hit number 24 on the Billboard 200.

Brown returned in June 2022 with the number four hit Breezy. Aiming to relate more directly to the women in his audience with an emphasis on slow jams and ballads, he also added the likes of Ella Mai and H.E.R. to a supporting cast that included WizKid, Jack Harlow, and Lil Durk. Despite the LP's many guests, the unassisted "Iffy" and "WE (Warm Embrace)" were its two first singles to hit the Hot 100.

Brown stayed busy in 2023, teaming up with Fridayy on the R&B anthem "Don't Give It Away," appearing on Chlöe Bailey's "How Does It Feel," and giving fans a sneak peek at his forthcoming 11th long-player with "Summer Too Hot" and the Ciara collaboration "How We Roll." 11:11, including additional collaborations with Davido, Lojay, and Future, entered the Billboard 200 at number nine upon release that November, earning a Grammy nomination for its lead single. A deluxe version of the album spawned the 2024 Hot 100 hit "Residuals." ~ Andy Kellman