Lil Jon

While 50 Cent and G Unit were sinisterly plotting a world takeover, an exuberant, gold-toothed industry vet had simpler ambitions in Atlanta. Lil Jon basically wanted to party. Loudly. Having worked at Jermaine Dupri's SoSo Def Records for almost ten years and made a name for himself locally with a shouty, call-and-response style of club music, Jon got with the East Side Boyz and brought his "crunk" to the masses via a contract with TVT Records and a single, "Bia' Bia'," that featured Ludacris and Too $hort. Crunk is basically heavy metal rap raucous aggressive music to which young males and females, but mostly males can jump around and break stuff. Needless to say, it became very popular. Similar fare worked for Three 6 Mafia and Project Pat in Memphis. Calling himself The King of Crunk. Lil Jon came to rule a vast Atlantan realm from 2002 to 2005 smash hits like his "Get Low," Bone Crusher's "Never Scared," Ying Yang Twins "Salt Shaker," and Lil Scrappy's "No Problem" defined the sound of the city. Crunk reached well into mainstream pop, too, with Lil Jon's production and Ludacris' raps boosting R&B singer Usher's 2004 "Yeah!" into one of the biggest hits of the decade, propelling the album Confessions to a phenomenal ten million in sales earning it the rare diamond certification plaque from the RIAA.