Pavel Hovar

Dominique Armani Jones (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Lil Baby, is an American rapper. He rose to mainstream fame in 2017 following the release of his mixtape Perfect Timing.

Lil Baby's debut studio album Harder Than Ever (2018) was certified RIAA Platinum and included the song "Yes Indeed" (with Drake), which peaked at six on the Billboard Hot 100. He went on to release two more mixtapes in 2018, Drip Harder and Street Gossip, the former containing his most popular song "Drip Too Hard" (with Gunna), which peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and the latter peaking at number two on the US Billboard 200. Lil Baby's second studio album, My Turn (2020), peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and is certified three times platinum by the RIAA. The song "We Paid" (with 42 Dugg) charted at number ten on the Hot 100. In June 2020, he released the single "The Bigger Picture", which peaked at number three on the Hot 100, becoming the highest-charting song as a lead artist of his career. In 2021, Lil Baby and Chicago rapper Lil Durk released the collaborative album The Voice of the Heroes, which became his second number one project on the Billboard 200.

Throughout his career, Lil Baby has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and seven BET Awards. He was crowned as the biggest all-genre 'Artist of the Year' at the Apple Music Awards 2020.

Dominique Jones was born in Atlanta, Georgia in the Oakland City neighborhood.[9] He was two years old when his father left the family, leaving his single mother to raise him and his two sisters. While he was not struggling academically, Jones would repeatedly get in trouble, resulting in him dropping out of Booker T. Washington High School in the ninth grade.

In early 2012, he was charged for possession with intent to sell among other charges. His original lawyer urged him to take a two-year plea deal, but Jones refused, and acquired a new lawyer. This new lawyer placed Jones in a special program that would only hold him for a year. While in this program, he got into an altercation with a white prisoner over racial comments. After, Jones' sentencing was replaced with the original 2-year deal. Later in 2013, he had a charge of possession of marijuana for less than an ounce. In 2014, he was arrested again and charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell among other things. After being incarcerated for two years, he began his rap career with 4PF (4 Pockets Full) and Quality Control Music.

Jones was a common presence in Quality Control's studios in the early 2010's as a drug dealer. Quality Control's Coach K encouraged him to rap since Jones already had a story that most rappers speak of in their lyrics. Shortly after his two year stint in prison, Jones released his mixtape Perfect Timing, with features from Young Thug, Lil Yachty, and others. He released his second mixtape entitled Harder Than Hard on July 18, 2017. On October 9, 2017, Jones released a collaboration mixtape with close friend and fellow Atlanta rapper Marlo, 2 The Hard Way. This mixtape did not create as big an impact as the two former tapes, but still garnered some attention. Jones finally started to break through to the masses with his December 2017 mixtape Too Hard, led by his hit single "Freestyle", which was released as a music video on November 5 to promote the upcoming mixtape. As of September 1, 2021, the video has over 400 million views on YouTube. Through the success of the single, Jones attracted much attention towards his mixtape. When the mixtape was finally released, it featured the single "All of a Sudden" with featuring American rapper and friend Moneybagg Yo. This mixtape was defining for much of Jones' current career. In May 2018, Baby released his debut studio album, Harder Than Ever, which debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album was supported by the singles, "Southside" and "Yes Indeed" (with Drake), the latter peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. "Life Goes On" featuring Lil Uzi Vert and Gunna charted at 74 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After Lil Baby released Harder Than Ever, he released his collaborative mixtape Drip Harder with labelmate and close friend, Gunna on October 5, 2018. The lead single, "Drip Too Hard" went on to become certified 9x Platinum by the RIAA. and MC Platinum, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and being nominated for Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. The mixtape was released under the labels Quality Control, YSL Records and Motown/Capitol.

In September 2018, Baby appeared on the Adult Swim television series FishCenter Live. In November 2018, he released his mixtape Street Gossip. In December 2018, Baby collaborated with Yung Gravy on the latter's single, "Alley Oop".

He starred in How High 2, the sequel to the 2001 stoner film How High, which premiered on April 20, 2019, on MTV. On June 21, 2019, Baby and Future released a single titled "Out the Mud". On July 17, 2019, Lil Baby appeared alongside DaBaby on the single "Baby", released on Quality Control's second studio album, Control the Streets, Volume 2. The song peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. On November 8, 2019, Baby released his single "Woah" as the lead single for his second studio album My Turn. The song peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. On November 9, 2019, Baby who was featured in YouTuber KSI's song "Down Like That" along with fellow rapper Rick Ross and British producer S-X, performed it for KSI's ringwalk at Staples Center for his fight against YouTuber Logan Paul. On November 15, 2019, Baby released a song from the film Queen & Slim, titled "Catch the Sun", which subsequently appeared on My Turn.

On January 10, 2020, Lil Baby released the second single, "Sum 2 Prove", for his album, and it reached number 16 on the Hot 100. The album, My Turn, was released on February 28, 2020, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200.It features guest appearances from Gunna, 42 Dugg, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, Moneybagg Yo, Young Thug and Rylo Rodriguez. My Turn produced 12 songs that appeared the Billboard Hot 100 chart, giving him a career total of 47 songs on the chart, putting him at a tie with Prince and Paul McCartney. Following the release of the album's deluxe version on May 1, My Turn returned to the top spot on the Billboard 200. On June 12, 2020, Lil Baby released the political song "The Bigger Picture", amid the George Floyd protests. The song also debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Lil Baby's highest-charting song as a lead artist. His song "We Paid" featuring 42 Dugg from the My Turn deluxe also peaked in the top 10 of the Hot 100. In July 2020, Lil Baby was featured on Pop Smoke's "For the Night", from his posthumous debut album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. The track reached number six on the Hot 100. In September 2020, My Turn became the first album of the year to be certified double platinum by the RIAA. "The Bigger Picture" received two nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.

On March 14, 2021, Lil Baby performed "The Bigger Picture" at the Grammys in 2021 to mostly positive reviews. The following day, another collaboration with Drake, "Wants and Needs", debuted at number two on the Hot 100. Passing a previous peak and debut with "The Bigger Picture" for Jones, becoming his highest-charting song overall.

On June 4, 2021, Lil Baby released his collaborative studio album with Lil Durk, The Voice of the Heroes. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

In September 2021, Lil Baby was featured on the song "Girls Want Girls" from Drake's sixth studio album, Certified Lover Boy. The song also debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, tying their previous collaboration "Wants and Needs" as Baby's highest-charting song overall.

On February 4, 2022, "Do We Have a Problem?" – a Nicki Minaj song featuring Lil Baby – was released, along with a music video starring the two.

4 Pockets Full (initialized 4PF) is an American record label founded by Lil Baby in 2017. Lil Baby has signed artists like 42 Dugg and Rylo Rodriguez.

Jones has a son, Jason, from a previous relationship with former girlfriend, Ayesha. Sometime in 2016, Jones started dating model and entrepreneur Jayda Cheaves. She appeared in the music video for his song "Close Friends". On February 18, 2019, Jayda gave birth to their son, Loyal.

In May 2021, Jones visited the White House with the family of George Floyd marking one year since Floyd's murder. Jones also met with Vice President Kamala Harris.

On July 7, 2021, Jones was arrested on a drug charge by police in the 8th arrondissement of Paris after attending Paris Fashion Week events with James Harden, who was stopped but not detained. They were soon released.

Harder Than Ever (2018)

My Turn (2020)

Drip Harder (with Gunna) (2018)

The Voice of the Heroes (with Lil Durk) (2021)

Taurus Tremani Bartlett (born January 6, 1999), known professionally as Polo G, is an American rapper. He rose to prominence with his singles "Finer Things" and "Pop Out". His debut album Die a Legend (2019) received generally positive reviews and peaked at number six on the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the RIAA.

Bartlett's second studio album, The Goat (2020), peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and charted ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His mainstream success continued with his third studio album Hall of Fame (2021), which became Bartlett's first chart topping album and included his first number-one single "Rapstar".

Taurus Tremani Bartlett was born in the Old Town area of Chicago, Illinois, to Taurus Bartlett and Stacia Mac. Mac, a former property manager, serves as Bartlett's manager. He grew up in the Marshall Field Garden Apartments, which was across the Cabrini–Green Homes. He is the second of four children, having an older sister, Leilani, a younger brother, Taurean, who’s also a rapper under the stage name Trench Baby, and a younger sister, Leia. After graduating high school, Bartlett was accepted to Lincoln University with a broadcasting major, but decided not to go on his first day, opting to pursue a music career full-time. After his best friend T-Gucci was killed, Polo G started getting involved in criminal activity, and would sell drugs and rob cars to pay for studio time. He is also reputed to be a member of the Vice Lords.

2018–2019: Beginnings, record deal, and Die a Legend

Bartlett's first song ever recorded was titled "ODA", which he released to YouTube. Upon creating a SoundCloud account in 2018, he released the track "Gang with Me", which quickly racked up millions of plays. He continued gaining traction with his songs "Welcome Back" and "Neva Cared". Bartlett went on to release "Finer Things", a song he wrote while incarcerated, in the latter half of 2018 and quickly gained millions of views. In early 2019, Bartlett released "Pop Out" featuring Lil Tjay which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song's music video gained over 200 million views on YouTube and led to him signing a record deal with Columbia Records. Bartlett also released videos for his songs "Deep Wounds", "Through da Storm", "Effortless", and "Dyin' Breed" from his debut studio album Die a Legend, which was released on June 7, 2019, and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200. "Heartless", a single released later in 2019, featured production from Mustard, and was later featured on his second album.

On February 14, 2020, Bartlett released the track "Go Stupid", with rappers Stunna 4 Vegas and NLE Choppa with featured production from Mike Will Made It and co-production from Tay Keith. "Go Stupid" became his second song on the Hot 100 (after "Pop Out"), peaking at number 60.[16] Bartlett then released his second studio album, The Goat, on May 15, 2020. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and ten songs from the album hit the Hot 100, including "Flex" featuring Juice Wrld and "Be Something" featuring Lil Baby, peaking at numbers 30 and 57, respectively. The same month, he was featured alongside Lil Baby on "3 Headed Goat" by Lil Durk which peaked at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. In July, Bartlett was featured on Juice Wrld's posthumous album Legends Never Die on the song "Hate the Other Side". The song peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, his first top-ten single and highest charting overall song. On August 11, 2020, he was included on XXL's 2020 Freshman Class. Later that month, he released the music video for his single "Martin & Gina", which peaked at number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. In September, he released the single "Epidemic", which peaked at 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. On October 30, 2020, he was featured on "The Code" by King Von off his debut album Welcome to O'Block. The song peaked at number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted in Canada.

In September, Bartlett announced his own record label, Only Dreamers Achieve (ODA), with Syracuse-based artist Scorey being his first signee.

Bartlett was honored in the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 listing, under the music category.

On February 5, 2021, he released the single "GNF (OKOKOK)". On February 12, he was featured on the soundtrack for the film Judas and the Black Messiah, on the song "Last Man Standing". On March 5, Bartlett was also featured on the soundtrack for the 2021 film Boogie on the song "Fashion" by late rapper Pop Smoke. Bartlett collaborated with Lil Tjay and Fivio Foreign on the song "Headshot", released on March 19. His song "Rapstar", released on April 9, 2021, debuted at the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. On May 17, he announced that he finished recording his third studio album Hall of Fame. He released the album's fourth single "Gang Gang" with Lil Wayne on May 21, with the song peaking at 33 on the Hot 100. On June 11, Bartlett released Hall of Fame, which debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and became his first number-one album. He released Hall of Fame 2.0, a deluxe edition of the album, on December 3, 2021. The album featured fourteen new songs in addition to the previous twenty, and contained guest appearances from Lil Baby, Moneybagg Yo, YungLiV, NLE Choppa, and Lil Tjay.

Polo G was originally known for his Chicago drill sound, but eventually transitioned to a more melodic style. He has been noted for his "vivid and explicit storytelling"; his lyrics often involve tough subjects, including racism and mental health. He has stated that American rappers Lil Wayne and Tupac Shakur are his biggest influences. He also grew up listening to Gucci Mane, as well as Chicago rappers Lil Durk, he was with G Herbo in school.

Bartlett has a son, born on July 6, 2019.

Bartlett was hospitalized on August 12, 2019, due to a near-fatal drug overdose at a party. Due to his aforementioned hospitalization and the death of fellow rapper and friend Juice Wrld, he has since quit ecstasy and Xanax.

1. Die a Legend (2019)
2. The Goat (2020)
3. Hall of Fame (2021)
4. Hall of Fame 2.0 (2022)

Tione Jayden Merritt (born April 30, 2001), known professionally as Lil Tjay, is an American rapper and singer. His stage name is derived from the first letter of his first name and first three letters of his middle name.

In 2018, Lil Tjay signed to Columbia Records. Lil Tjay's debut studio album, True 2 Myself, was released in 2019. The following year, he released the mixtape State of Emergency that features only drill artists from New York City. True 2 Myself debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200, marking the album his first charted release. His second studio album, Destined 2 Win, was released in 2021 and included the single "Calling My Phone", a collaboration with American singer 6lack, his highest-charting song yet.

Merritt was born in the Bronx borough of New York City. He was raised by a single mother and had two younger siblings in what was described as a "roomy" apartment. Merritt called himself the problematic child out of the three, as he would often get himself into petty robberies and school fights. At the age of 15, Merritt was arrested for one of his robberies and was sentenced for a year to a youth detention center where he would begin to write raps; they included one of his hit songs "Resume", which he released on SoundCloud.

In 2016, Lil Tjay began releasing music on SoundCloud. "Resume", one of his first songs, was released when Lil Tjay was 16 years old, and quickly began spreading online.

On March 10, 2018, Lil Tjay competed and placed first at the Coast 2 Coast LIVE NYC All Ages Edition, where his performance gained the attention of a record label A&R who was in attendance to judge the showcase. Soon after, Lil Tjay released the single "Brothers", which became his biggest song at the time and led to him signing with Columbia Records.

Within the first ten months of Lil Tjay's music career, he had released five tracks that recorded over one million plays on SoundCloud. "Brothers", "Resume", "Goat", and "Leaked" each accumulated tens of millions of streams. In July 2018, Lil Tjay worked with producer CashMoneyAP to release "None of Your Love", which also amassed tens of millions of plays. Lil Tjay released his debut EP No Comparison at the end of 2018.

In January 2019, Lil Tjay was featured on fellow American rapper Polo G's single "Pop Out", which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. In July, he was featured on boy band PrettyMuch's "Lying". Later that year, he released an EP titled F.N; the project's lead single, "F.N", peaked at number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became his first solo charting song. Lil Tjay released his debut album True 2 Myself on October 11, 2019. It debuted and peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard 200. In December, he was featured on a remix of 24kGoldn's song "Valentino".

In early 2020, Lil Tjay reached the Billboard Hot 100 again with his single "20/20", which peaked at number 94 on the chart. On May 8, 2020, Lil Tjay released the EP State of Emergency, which focused heavily on drill music, a popular subgenre in New York City. The seven-song EP included the track "Zoo York", featuring Fivio Foreign and Pop Smoke, which peaked at number 65 on the Hot 100. In July 2020, Lil Tjay appeared on Pop Smoke's debut posthumous album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, on the track "Mood Swings", which reached number 17 on the Hot 100. On August 11, Lil Tjay was included on XXL's 2020 Freshman Class. In October, Lil Tjay hinted at a new project on Twitter.

On February 12, 2021, Lil Tjay released his single "Calling My Phone", a collaboration with American singer 6lack, which was accompanied by a music video directed by Cam Busby. The song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the highest-charting single of Lil Tjay's career. On March 19, Lil Tjay released "Headshot", a collaboration with Polo G and Fivio Foreign as the second single from his second studio album, Destined 2 Win, which was released on April 2, 2021. The album consists of twenty-one tracks.

Influenced by his upbringing in the Bronx, Lil Tjay is a melodic rapper who frequently incorporates Auto-Tune in his songs. He has drawn comparisons to fellow New York rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie In an interview with Rolling Stone, he revealed that his biggest musical influences are Drake, Meek Mill, and Usher. In the same interview, Lil Tjay described his music as having a melodic sound when singing or rapping about his past struggles. Lil Tjay also credits his success to his year spent in prison, where he claims that his ability to write songs peaked. In Pitchfork's featured article on Lil Tjay, he is referred to as a "hip-hop heartthrob". Later in the interview, Lil Tjay explained that he is often called the "Bronx Justin Bieber" because of his sampling Justin Bieber's "Baby".

Lil Tjay accompanied Seattle rapper Lil Mosey on his nationwide tour throughout 2019. He also has performed at the three-day Rolling Loud Miami music festival, along with Migos, Travis Scott, and Kid Cudi in Miami Gardens, Florida in May 2019and at the Los Angeles festival in December. He frequently appears and performs on concerts with close friend Jay Gwuapo.

True 2 Myself (2019)

Destined 2 Win (2021)

Justin Irvin Rivera (born September 23, 2001), better known by his stage name J.I the Prince of N.Y or more recently simply J.I., is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his 2019 breakout single "Need Me", which has over 100 million streams on Spotify.

Rivera grew up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and is of Puerto Rican descent. At a young age he was introduced by his parents to music like old-school hip hop and reggaeton, and would make rudimentary beats on a miniature keyboard. In school, English was his favorite subject and he would write short stories. He began writing raps and freestyling with his brothers in middle school, influenced by New York City rappers like Biggie, Nas, DMX, Jay-Z and Big Pun.

In 2016 he appeared on the second season of The Rap Game, a reality show competition hosted by Jermaine Dupri on Lifetime. The then fifteen-year-old secured his place on the show after Dupri found his freestyles on Instagram. In one of the challenges, Rivera placed in first, earning a spot on the cover of Hip Hop Weekly magazine. Although he did not win the overall competition, his impressive performance gained him a substantial following, and he released his debut single "No Static" soon thereafter. By the end of the year he had received more than 500,000 views on his YouTube channel.

He released his first project in 2017, a three-track extended play called Barely Famous. After his clout from the show died down, he went through a period where he admits he lost his motivation and stopped focusing on his music. He blew all of his money from The Rap Game on marijuana and was considering a job in construction. After getting kicked out of his mom's house he made the decision to give music one last try and connected with his future manager Gabi Acevedo to restart his career.

In October 2019 he released his mixtape Hood Life Krisis, Vol. 1, which included his breakout single "Need Me", a "melodic, punch-line laden" track sampling the 2000 song "Best of Me, Part 2" by Mýa featuring Jay-Z. In November, with the song at over 3 million streams on Spotify, it was announced he had signed a deal with Interscope Records via G*Starr Entertainment. He also put out his fifth and final music video for the album, this time for "Love Won't Change". As of 2022, "Need Me" remains his most-viewed with over 115 million YouTube views.

He released Hood Life Krisis, Vol. 2 that December and embarked on his first headlining national tour the following month. Holding the final shows in his hometown of New York, he became the first artist in history to sell out the legendary SOB's venue on three consecutive nights. Notably, in April, Drake paid him homage by playing and singing along to his songs "Used To" and "On Me" during an Instagram Live session with OVO Mark. A week later he released a new single, "Proud of Me", along with an accompanying music video. After appearing on Lil Tjay's State of Emergency EP, he further collaborated with him in June on the single "Hood Scars 2", which served as a followup to J.I.'s original song which had by then amassed 15 million streams across all platforms.

In July 2020 he came out with the single "Spanglish" with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers, with both artists mixing English and Spanish in their verses. It served as the lead single to his next EP, Welcome to GStarr Vol. 1, which he released on July 17 and also featured Lil Durk. In the first 20 minutes, it garnered 1.3 million streams on Spotify. A few days prior, Spotify announced a partnership with J.I. as a part of its recently launched RADAR program meant to promote "world-class talent through [their] global marketing and editorial teams" with placement in their official playlists, a mini-documentary, third-party partnerships, a Spotify Singles recording and support on the EP release.

On November 30, 2020, his single "Need Me" was certified gold by the RIAA, his first career plaque.

On December 18, 2020, J.I released Hood Life Krisis, Vol. 3, the third installment in his Hood Life Krisis series. The EP includes a sole guest appearance from A Boogie wit da Hoodie on the track "R&B Shit".

He has been described as having a "penchant for syrupy melodies." His melodic rap-sung style and distinctive New York accent have resulted in comparisons to A Boogie wit da Hoodie and Lil Tjay.