8Ball & MJG

One of the pioneers of Southern rap, 8ball & Mjg emerged from Memphis, TN, in the early '90s and, aligned with the Houston, TX-based independent label Suave Records, quickly garnered a tremendous regional following while proving highly influential to a generation of aspiring, independent-minded rap artists and entrepreneurs. The pioneering duo enjoyed increasing recognition as the years passed, releasing a couple albums, namely Comin' Out Hard (1994) and In Our Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1999), that would become Southern rap milestones, along with classic singles like "Space Age Pimpin'." 8ball & Mjg eventually left Suave for a major label, JCOR/Interscope, in 2000, and then were signed by Diddy to Bad Boy Records, resulting in their most commercially successful album to date, Living Legends (2004). In addition, 8ball & Mjg recorded individually, the former by far the more prolific of the two. Despite never crossing over into the mainstream -- none of their singles ever broke into the Billboard Hot 100, for example, not even once they signed to Bad Boy -- and despite occasionally infrequent output, 8ball & Mjg persevered over the decades. There were no acrimonious incidents, no run-ins with the law, no "retirements," no hangups whatsoever -- if anything, 8ball & Mjg were respectably reliable over the course of their career, always comin' out hard and always representing the South.

Read More