We list some of the best 2000s rappers of all time. The era was defined by popular hip hop sub-genres like crunk music or dirty south influenced beats. At the forefront were artists like Lil Wayne and Ludacris who dominated the 2000s. Then a younger crop of artists started to emerge like Soulja Boy who combined an uptempo style of hip-hop with party music. The era had plenty to offer in taking hip-hop music to the mainstream.
1. Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne is a rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana and is the found of the record label Young Money Entertainment. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Turk. Hot Boys debuted with Get It How U Live! that year. However, Lil Wayne gained most of his success when he released his Platinum debut album Tha Block Is Hot, selling over one million copies in the U.S. Wayne gained more prominence with his sixth album Tha Carter III (2008), which became his most successful album to date, with first-week sales of over one million copies in the United States. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and includes the hit singles “Lollipop”, “A Milli” and “Got Money”.
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2. Black Eyed Peas
Black Eyed Peas have become one of the American established hip-hop groups. This exceptional unique style of the group combined with out-of-the-box technique to hip-hop music has driven them to gain devoted fans worldwide. In 2003, The Black Eyed Peas released their third studio album, Elephunk. It was the first of their albums to feature the vocals of Stacy ‘Fergie’ Ferguson, who replaced Kim Hill. The original choice of singer had been Nicole Scherzinger, who went on to become a singer of Pussycat Dolls. Elephunk contained the single ‘Where Is the Love?’ which featured Justin Timberlake and was the band’s first major hit. The album blasted to the No. 1 spot Billboard’s Top 40 list, and earned them their first Billboard award, as well as three Grammy nominations. They are often compared to De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, two other positive hip-hop groups that came before them.
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3. 50 Cent
50 Cent is considered to be one of the best New York rappers of all time. A controversial yet popular figure in the Gangsta rap genre, 50 Cent’s criminal history has been a topic of discussion for many. Growing up in Queens, he had a rough childhood. He began selling drugs at a very young age. In the year 2000, he got shot nine times but managed to survive the attack. This led him to pursue a music career away from the crime life. After being signed to Eminem’s Shady Records and and Dr. Dre’s Shady/Aftermath label, 50 cent released his debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which became popular among fans and critics. The so-called “most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade” by All Music Guide satisfyingly sold 872,000 copies in its first week of release. He also helped his G-Unit crew grow into a successful franchise, spawning platinum-selling solo albums for his group members, lucrative licensing deals for the brand name, and sell-out arena tours to promote the franchise internationally. 50 cent is considered one of the best 2000s rappers out there.
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- The undeniable impact of 50 Cent’s debut ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin”
- A Guide to Some of 50 Cent’s Biggest Feuds
- 50 Cent Is Still an Ever-Present Force in Rap Without Much Rapping
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4. Eminem
Eminem is known as one of the most-controversial and best-selling artists of the early 21st century. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and worked odd jobs until finally making it as a rapper upon the release of The Slim Shady LP in early 1999. The album went multi-platinum, garnering Eminem two Grammy Awards and four MTV Video Music Awards. One of the best-selling white rappers of all time, Eminem has won numerous awards, including at least 15 Grammy Awards.
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5. Kanye West
Kanye West had a knack for creativity and poetry from a very young age. He started rapping from the age of seven and soon confessed to his mother that he wanted to take recording music more formally. By the year 2000, he had a great opportunity when he started producing for musicians on Roc-A-Fella Records. After this, West played a decisive role in the resurrection of Jay-Z’s musical career when he contributed to his album The Blueprint (2001). The work was listed as one of the best hip-hop albums. Eventually, Kanye West went from hip-hop beatmaker to worldwide superstar artist and had a wildly successful solo career that resulted in an unbroken string of chart-topping, multi-platinum albums and nearly two-dozen Grammy Awards for classic sets like 2005’s Late Registration, 2007’s Graduation, and 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
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6. Daddy Yankee
Daddy Yankee is the leading voice in Puerto Rican reggaetón, with a blend of bomba, salsa, reggae, and hip-hop . Before the fame, his father was known as a percussionist and his mother a manicurist. Under the influence of an island that often identified itself with music and a musical family, he started from a very young age and was attracted to improvisation. When he was a teenager he listened to Hip-hop in Spanish, his idol was Vico C, what he was most passionate about were his lyrics with a conscious message. His first commercially successful international album Barrio Fino, made him an international star after a decade of struggle. He won the ‘Latin Grammy Award’ for the album, which also included his best known single “Gasolina”. Daddy Yankee is considered one of the best Latino rappers of all time.
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- Daddy Yankee May Not Be One of the Originators of Reggaeton, but He Played a Major Role in Making It Mainstream
7. Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg is a veteran in the game and the very definition of a real OG, synonymous not only with West Coast hip-hop. During his youth that was after graduating from high school, Snoop Dogg was frequently in trouble with drugs and law, in and out of jail for nearly three years. Released from jail he embarked on making homemade rap tapes with his friend Warren G, who was a stepbrother of Dr. Dre of N.W.A. After all, Dr. Dre asked him for collaborations, first on the theme song of the film “Deep Cover,” and then on Dr. Dre’s debut solo album “The Chronic.” Since then his career that has spanned gangsta rap to R&B.
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8. Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams is an American music producer, singer-songwriter and rapper. He is one half of the production duo The Neptunes and is also the lead singer and drummer of the funk-rock band, N*E*R*D. He gained recognition for his Oscar-nominated hit song ‘Happy.’ Also a record producer and film producer, he produced the 2016 biographical drama film ‘Hidden Figures.’ The film, which was based on a book of the same name, turned out to be a huge hit and won several awards, such as ‘Hollywood Film Award.’ It also received three ‘Oscar’ nominations.
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9. Akon
Akon spent three years in prison for grand theft auto and during that time began working on music. After Akon was released from prison he began writing and recording tracks in a home studio. He rose to fame when he released his debut album, Trouble, in 2004. Its singles, “Locked Up,” “Lonely,” “Bananza (Belly Dancer),” “Ghetto” and “Pot of Gold,” were all huge hits, and combined West African-style vocals with East Coast and Southern beats. The singer has also released six albums, in which he managed much of his own production and he has also worked as a producer for other artists such as Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Lionel Richie, Leona Lewis, Sean Paul and Whitney Houston.
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10. Outkast
OutKast was an American hip hop duo from Atlanta, Georgia. The duo was formed in 1992 by rappers André 3000 and Big Boi. The group’s original music style was a mixture of Dirty South and G-funk, but they later used a wide range of musical influences in their songs. After forming the group as high school students in 1992, OutKast released their debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik in 1994, which gained popularity after the single “Player’s Ball” reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart. The duo The duo became one of the most successful hip-hop groups of all time, having received six Grammy Awards. Over 25 million copies have been sold of Outkast’s seven releases: six studio albums—including one double album—and a greatest hits release.
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11. Nelly
Nelly is considered one of the biggest 2000s rappers out there. Nelly’s 2000 solo debut, Country Grammar, spawned a smash single by the same name, and his unique approach to music has kept his sound fresh and the hits coming. Nelly’s next four albums all made it to the top three on the Billboard chart, with the singles routinely making the top 20 and four of them going to No. 1. The following summer Nelly returned with his second album, Nellyville (2002), and lived up to his self-proclaimed billing as “#1” (i.e., the title of his 2001 hit from the Training Day soundtrack). In 2004, his collection of Grammys was added with a Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group title that he won through a P. Diddy and Murphy Lee collaboration song called ‘Shake Ya Tailfeather’. Nelly then disappeared from the spotlight a bit but returned in 2020 with a slew of collaborations with such country artists as Jimmie Allen, Florida Georgia Line, and Kane Brown. This was the prelude to Heartland, a 2021 album that blended country-pop and rap.
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12. Rick Ross
Rick Ross is best known for his singles “BMF” and “Hustlin”. Despite his legal troubles and infamous rivalry with 50 Cent, Ross is a respected and prolific artist. He’s part of a well-established group of Florida rappers. He founded his own music label, Maybach Music Group, in 2009 and represented Miami with grim and glorious drug-trade tales. Ross has several Billboard hits. His debut album Port of Miami, and all nine subsequent studio albums, including the Grammy-nominated God Forgives, I Don’t (2012) and Port of Miami 2 (2019), have entered the Top Ten of the Billboard 200.
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13. The Game
The Game is considered to be a pioneer in bringing back the West Coast hip-hop scene also breaking the East Coast emcees’ dominance in the rap circuit. The Game was eventually signed to the Aftermath Entertainment label in 2003 after Dr. Dre heard his mixtape. He rose to fame in 2005 with the success of his debut album The Documentary, which was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in that same year and has since sold over five million copies worldwide.
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14. Timbaland
Timbaland became famous as a record producer making a number of hits for artists like Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, and many others. Furtado’s album Loose was an instant hit produced by his label, followed by the smashing hit FutureSex/LoveSounds with Justin Timberlake. He has delivered hit albums for his friends like ‘Supa Dupa Fly’ for Missy Elliott and Aaliyah’s double platinum album ‘One in a Million’. The hit single ‘Pony’ and the album ‘Ginuwine…the Bachelor’, produced by Timbaland, introduced a unique rhythmic style by mixing R&B and hip-hop that brought into the music scene a new trend in the 1990s. In his career, the musician has also collaborated with many outstanding rap representatives, including Swizz Beatz , Veronica, Rihanna, and Drake among others.
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15. T-Pain
T-Pain is a rapper from Tallahassee, Florida and is known for popularizing the Auto-Tune effect. Throughout his career as a singer, T-Pain has extensively used the pitch correction effect on most of his songs. Since the release of his debut album, T-Pain has produced numerous hits of his own and for other rappers and R&B singers. In 2008, he won a Grammy with rapper Kanye West for the single “Good Life”. In 2010, he won another Grammy with Jamie Foxx for the single “Blame It”.
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16. Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy loved rapping from a young age and was lucky to have a father who supported his dreams. By the time he was 17, he had one of the biggest rap songs. He is also one of the first rappers to use social media platforms to promote his tracks. In 2007 he released “Crank That” along with his first independent album and an online video tutorial of the official “Crank That” dance. Both the song and dance blew up, and a few months later, Soulja Boy was a household name. For the 50th Grammy Awards, Soulja Boy was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song with “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”. He lost to Kanye West’s and T-Pain’s “Good Life”.
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17. T.I.
T.I. released his debut album, I’m Serious, in 2001 and did moderately well as it managed to enter the top 30 of Billboard Top R&B Hip-Hop chart. The young rapper then decided to establish his own recording label, Grand Hustle. He produced his underground CD of “In Da Streets” which surprisingly sold for about 20,000 copies. He then released “Trap Muzik” on August 19, 2003 and the sophomore effort rocketed to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart and number two on Billboard Top R&B Hip-Hop chart. The album was bolstered by catchy yet gritty tunes of “24’s”, “Rubber Band Man,” and “Let’s Get Away”. Apart from that, his singles in collaboration with other rappers have also helped him achieve a cult status among the rap music fans. Out of all, his collaborative efforts with Lil Wayne have proved to be the biggest hits of his career. He received the gold certificate for his sixth studio album in 2008 titled Paper Trail and has also won three Grammy awards.
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18. DMX
DMX developed a love for hip-hop music, and met local rapper Ready Ron in 1984, who asked Simmons to become his partner. Simmons chose the name “DMX the Great,” after the Oberheim DMX drum machine Simmons used at the group home. He later interpreted the name as “Dark Man X”. His first major album, It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot was released in May 1998 and it debuted at number one on the Billboard Chart. DMX died on April 9, 2021, following a cocaine-induced heart attack. After his death in 2021, The New York Times called him a “muscular and intense” figure, known for a “remarkable and combative stage presence” and “albums that reflected his gritty past and featured a gruff and unmistakable lyrical style.”
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19. Missy Elliot 7m
Missy Elliott made a mark on the male-dominated hip-hop world with her talents for writing, rapping, singing, and music production. Involved in her local church and choir, Elliott in 1991 started Fayze, an all-female R&B group whose producer was neighborhood friend Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley. In 1996, Elliott worked with SWV, 702, Total, Destiny’s Child, and Aaliyah. Later that year she became a featured vocalist rapping on Sean “Puffy” Combs Bad Boy Records’ remixes. Her big breakthrough came when “The Rain”, a single from her debut album, Supa Dupa Fly (1997), became certified platinum.
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20. Lil Jon
Lil Jon was the frontman of the group Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, which he formed in 1997 and released several albums with until 2004. Lil Jon has also produced many hit urban singles and has made the terms “OK!”, “What?!”, and “Yeah!” a familiar calling among his friends and followers both inside and outside of the hip-hop genre. He’s provided guest verses in many hip-hop and R&B tracks by a wide variety of artists as well. But the rapper gained more prominence as the King of the early-2000s Atlanta crunk movement, and best-known for the raucous 2003 hit “Get Low.”
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- Lil Jon looks back on his career in ‘Origins of Hip Hop’
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21. Ja Rule
Ja Rule began his rap career in 1994 with the hip hop group Cash Money Click alongside members Chris Black and O-1. He took the stage name “Ja Rule”, telling MTV News that the name came from a friend who addressed him by that name; other friends simply called him “Ja”. From 2000 to 2004, Ja Rule had several hits that made the top 20 of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, including “Between Me and You” with Christina Millian, “I’m Real (Murder Remix)” with Jennifer Lopez, “Always on Time” with Ashanti, “Mesmerize” also with Ashanti, and “Wonderful” with R. Kelly and Ashanti.
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22. Ludacris
Ludacris is famous for being an American rapper, actor and record label owner and is regarded as one of the best 2000s rappers of all time. The artist has collaborated with Timbaland for a track from the latter’s album, Phat Rabbit which went on to become a big hit in several countries. He also worked in tandem with other artists during his early career and developed a style of music that was wild, fast and comedic. His debut album Back for the First Time debuted at No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and was a huge hit. Ludacris has so far won three Grammy Awards during his career and several other prestigious music awards, and also founded the record label Disturbing tha Peace.
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23. Fabolous
Fabolous began his career in 1998 when he rapped live on a Hot 97 show hosted by DJ Clue. His debut album, Ghetto Fabolous, was released in 2001 and featured the hit singles “Can’t Deny It” and “Young’n (Holla Black)”, which led him to prominence. His second album, 2003’s Street Dreams, was supported by two Top 10 singles “Can’t Let You Go” and “Into You”. The album was also a success, selling over a million copies and peaking at the third position on the US Billboard 200. Fabolous is recognized as one of the best old school rappers of his generation.
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24. Jim Jones 1.5m
Bronx born and Harlem raised rapper Jim Jones is a founding member of the hip hop collective The Diplomats, who are also known as Dipset. He hit the scene alongside Cam’ron, Freekey Zekey and Juelz Santana in 1997. The group made their first commercial appearance on Cam’ron’s album, S.D.E., which was released in 2000. In 2004, Jim Jones released his first solo album On My Way to Church. The release of his second album, Harlem: Diary of a Summer in 2005, coincided with Jones landing an executive position in A&R at E1 Music. A year later he was on his third album which spawned his biggest single to date “We Fly High”.
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25. Common
Common is a hip-hop artist, actor, and activist who became a mainstream success in the early 2000s, and is known for intelligent and positive lyrics that were performed in a spoken-word style. He was the first rapper to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and an Emmy Award. His seventh album Finding Forever also featured Kanye as producer in most of the tracks. It sold over 500,000 copies and was later certified gold. It also received three Grammy nominations in 2007, losing Best Rap Album to Kanye’s “Graduation”.
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Honorable mentions
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