#FreshRadio #HipHopHistory 10.17.2012 Happy Born Day to Eminem and Father Clef
17 October 2012 Fresh Radio
Happy birthday to Eminem, who turns 40 today (Wednesday).
The rapper was born Marshall Mathers The Third in St. Joseph, Missouri on October 17th, 1972. He spent the majority of his youth shuttling back and forth between St. Joseph and Detroit, and got into rap at the age of 14, forming a group called Maniz and M&M with a buddy in high school.
After placing second in the 1997 Rap Olympics, Eminem was approached by Interscope head Jimmy Iovine, who requested a copy of The Slim Shady EP. He played it for Aftermath Records chief Dr. Dre, who tracked Em down.
The Slim Shady LP was released in 1999, spurred to massive sales by “My Name Is” and the hit follow-up, “Guilty Conscience.” The Marshall Mathers LP followed in 2000, selling roughly two million copies in its first week on the strength of “The Real Slim Shady.”
In 2002, Eminem stared in the autobiographical 8 Mile, co-staring Mekhi Phifer, Kim Basinger and the late Brittany Murphy. 8 Mile’s “Lose Yourself” won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In a recent piece on the 10th anniversary of the film’s release, Vibe called 8 Mile a “hip-hop movie masterpiece.”
Wyclef Jean was born on October 17th, 1972 in Haiti but moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York when he was nine years old.
Clef rose to fame with his cousin Prakazrel “Pras” Michel and Lauryn Hill in The Fugees. The Grammy-winning trio’s 1993 debut, Blunted on Reality, did well, but 1996’s The Score made them stars. It sold more than 11-million copies and established Clef as one of hip-hop and R&B’s hottest writers and producers. He was instrumental in launching Destiny’s Child — producing their first hit, “No No No.”
His 1997 solo debut, Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival, went double-platinum on the strength of the hits “We Tryin’ to Stay Alive” and “Gone Till November.” The latter was nominated for a Best R&B Male Vocal Performance Grammy. In 2000, he released Ecleftic: Two Sides to a Book, Masquerade in 2002, and The Preacher’s Son, in November 2003.
The Fugees haver eunited for a handful of concert appearances.
On August 5th, Jean formally filed papers as a candidate for the 2010 Haitian presidential election,
In 2001, Jean established “Yéle Haiti” a charitable organization to provide scholarships, school funding, meals and other charitable benefits to citizens of Haiti in the following years especially after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The charity has since been shut down and is also the target of lawsuits in Haiti for unpaid debts.
This year, Wyclef released a book titled Purpose in which he writes about everything from his impoverished childhood in Haiti to becoming a big star and his affair with fellow Fugees member Lauryn Hill.
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