My Chemical Romance is an New Jersey Emo rock band that was formed in 2001. It consist of the following five members, Gerard Way-singer, Ray Toro-lead guitar, Mikey Way-bass guitar, Frank Iero-rythm guitar and drummer Bob Bryar. Three months after the formation of the band they recorded their debut album; I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, which was subsequently released in 2002 on Eyeball Records. The album has sold over 300,000 records to date. In 2003, the band signed a deal with Reprise Records and after a tour with Avenged Sevenfold, the band began work on a second album. Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge was released in 2004. Four successful singles were released from this album: "Thank You for the Venom", "I’m Not Okay (I Promise)", "Helena" and "The Ghost of You". My Chemical Romance’s third album was entitled The Black Parade. The album debuted at number two on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and is also certified as platinum by the RIAA. In 2008, My Chemical Romance won a Grammy Award for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package for the album The Black Parade.
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Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, othewise known by her stage name Shakira, was born on February 2, 1977 in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her name is a feminine Arabic name that means "thankful". At the age of four she started writing poetry, which would later evolve into songs. Between the ages of ten and thirteen Shakira was invited to various events in Barranquilla Columbia and gained some recognition in the local area. It was at about this time that she met local theater producer Monica Ariza. He quickly became impressed by her talent and set up an audition in Bogotá. He arranged for Sony Colombia executives to arrive at the audition, with the idea of surprising them with Shakira’s performance. She performed three songs for the executives and impressed them enough for her to be signed to record three albums. Her first album, Magia didn’t do very well commercially. Shakira recorded this CD with Sony Colombia in 1991, at the age of 14. In 1996, Shakira went on to release Pies Descalzos which many consider her breakthrough album. It has sold over 6 million copies worldwide. Shakira has since released 4 studio albums, 3 live albums and 4 compilation albums. She has won two Grammy Awards, eight Latin Grammy Awards, and has been Golden Globe-nominated. She is also the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold more than 60 million albums worldwide.
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The Game is an American rapper that was born Jayceon Terrell Taylor on November 29, 1979 in Los Angeles, California. He grew up in the gang infested neighborhood of Compton where he would eventually end up joining the street gang, the Bloods. The Game was discovered by Dr. Dre in 2003 and was signed to Aftermath Entertainment that same year. His debut album was released in 2005 and was titled, The Documentary. It has since sold over five million copies worldwide. The Game than returned to the studio and in November of 2006 released his sophomore album, Doctor’s Advocate. The album was dedicated to his long time mentor Dr.Dre. On August 22, 2008 he released what was rumored to be his final album LAX. This album debuted at the number two spot on the Billboard Top 200 with almost a quarter million copies sold. Though The Game had repeatedly said that he would retire after the tour for this album, it has been confirmed that he is working on a new studio album entitled The R.E.D Album. It’s scheduled to be released through Interscope Records sometime in 2009. The Game has said that he didn’t retire after LAX because of pressure from Interscope Records to release another album.
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Brandy Rayana Norwood, known simply by the mononym Brandy was born on February 11, 1979 in McComb, Mississippi. In 1993 Brandy was offered a recording contract with Atlantic Records and on on September 27, 1994 she released her self titled debut album. It spawned four hit singles with "I Wanna Be Down", "Baby", "Best Friend", and a remixed version of "Brokenhearted" and it was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA for more than four million copies sold. She followed that success with the release of her second album Never Say Never. The album made Brandy a star and earned her five Grammy-nominations. It has since gone on to sell fourteen million copies, making it Brandy’s best selling album. Brandy has released three more albums since then and has sold over twenty five million records to date. She has also starred in several films such as "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Double Platinum" and several television series appearences which include Thea, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, American Dreams, House, One On One and The Hills. Brandy has won over 100 awards as a recording artist including seven Billboard Music Awards, one Grammy and one American Music Award.
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System Of A Down was formed in 1994 in Glendale, California. It’s current lineup includes Serj Tankian on lead vocals, Daron Malakian on guitar, Shavo Odadjian on bass and John Dolmayan on drums. In June of 1998, System of a Down released it’s debut album and it was certified gold by the RIAA on February 2, 2000. On September 4, 2001, they released their sophomore album Toxicity. It debuted at number one and spawned four singles, "Prison Song", "Chop Suey!", "Toxicity" and "Aerials". Steal This Album! is the third studio album by System of a Down, released on November 26, 2002, through American Recordings. Since then, System Of A Down has released two more studio albums, Mezmerize in 2005 and Hypnotize which was released six months after Mezmerize. Both albums have subsequently sold over a million copies each and they have both been certified platinum in the United States. System Of A Down has sold over 20 million records worldwide and earned four Grammy Award nominations. The band is a part of the Axis of Justice, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing together musicians, music fans, and grass roots political organizations to fight for social justice. In 2006, the group went on hiatus, and all four members are currently working on various side projects.
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Originally born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on October 17, 1972 in St. Joseph Missouri, he is better known by his stage moniker Eminem. Shortly after his birth, his father abandoned the family and they ended up bouncing around several Missouri towns until they finally settled in Warren Detroit. At the age of twelve years old he procured his first album, the Beastie Boy’s License To Ill. He was immediately drawn in and started practicing rap in his spare time. At the age of 17 he dropped out of High school and worked a string of minimum wage jobs such as a cook and a dishwasher and started rapping full time. In 1996 he released his first album Infinity. Than in 1999 he released his second album, The Slim Shady LP. It hit the charts at the number two position and has to date sold over 9 million copies. His third album, The Marshall Mathers LP became the fastest selling rap album in history moving over 1.7 million units it’s first week. In 2002, he released his fourth album, The Eminem Show which was the best selling album of that year. It eventually went on to become certified platinum eight times over. His last album, Relapse was released in May of 2009.
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