Keny Arkana History

Keny Arkana (born 1983 in Marseille, France) is a French rap artist. She is active in the alter-globalization movement with "La Rage Du Peuple", a music collective created in 2004 in the neighborhood of Noailles in Marseilles.

Biography

Raised in Marseilles of Argentine heritage, Arkana began rapping in 1996, with her first texts at the age of 12. She formed the collectives Mars Patrie and later Etat-Major, gaining performance experience in the Marseilles underground scene, culminating in the 2003 release of Etat Major's first mixtape.

After several solo appearances on various projects, Arkana released her first EP Le missile est lancé (The rocket is launched) in 2004. Her first album Entre ciment et belle étoile (Between concrete and stars) was released in October 2006. Her first single, La rage, released in 2006, pointedly references the 2005 civil unrest in France.

Keny Arkana also launched a series of local social fora through the association Appel aux sans voix (Call to the voiceless). "Désobéissance" is her latest Street album, released in 2008.

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Missy Elliot History

Born in Portsmouth, VA, in 1971 as Melissa Elliott, Missy's professional music career began when Jodeci member/producer Devante Swing signed her and her group, Sista, to his Swing Mob record label. Unfortunately, Swing Mob Records fell through and along with it the plans for Sista's debut album. Determined to move forward, Missy turned to longtime acquaintance Timbaland, who happened to be producing some tracks for Aaliyah's One in a Million (1996) album. It proved to be a key move for Missy, as the album racked up enormous sales. Soon record execs were knocking on her door. Missy began working with a number of artists as either a songwriter or a vocalist/rapper before finally signing herself a deal with Elektra in 1996. A year later, Supa Dupa Fly hit the streets and soon after went platinum thanks to "The Rain." Besides the sales numbers, the album also proved critically successful, impressing nearly everyone who heard it. It had not only radio-ready singles ("Sock It 2 Me," "Beep Me 911," "Hit 'Em Wit da Hee") but also an astounding array of album tracks that showcases just how multi-talented Missy indeed was, singing on some, rapping on others.

In 1999, she returned with her much-awaited follow-up album, Da Real World, an even more ambitious album that featured two mammoth hits -- "She's a Bitch" and "Hot Boyz" -- along with an array of often daring collaborations with such unlikely candidates as Eminem. Around this same time, she began appearing in TV ads for the Gap and Sprite, proving that not only was she a musical talent but also an important icon for the era. The cycle repeated itself in 2001 when she released Miss E...So Addictive, again powered by two huge hits: "Get Ur Freak On" and "One Minute Man." Her remarkable popularity continued a year later with her next album, Under Construction, and its hit singles, "Work It" and "Gossip Folks." Missy's music machine continued pummeling the charts, with Timbaland & Magoo's follow-up Under Construction, Pt. II appearing in mid-November and the new Elliott LP This Is Not a Test! released a week later. Ciara, Slick Rick, Mary J. Blige, and American Idol winner Fantasia were some of the guests on Missy's 2005 album The Cookbook. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide.
A one-woman hip-hop media machine, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot first made her mark in the music business as a writer, penning songs in the 1990s for artists such as Aaliyah, Mariah Carey and Puff Daddy. She released her own album, Supa Dupa Fly, in 1997 to popular and critical success; she's been writing, performing and producing chart-topping singles and albums ever since. Elliott has won numerous awards for her videos and has collaborated with a variety of pop and hip-hop stars, including Mya, Pink, Busta Rhymes and Lil Kim. Her albums include Da Real World (1999), Miss E...So Addictive (2001), Under Construction (2002), This Is Not A Test (2003) and The Cookbook (2005). She's recorded many dancehall favorites over the years, including "Get Ur Freak On," "Work It," "Lose Control," and, with Ciara, "1,2 Step." One of the top-selling female rappers and producers in the business, she is a multiple Grammy winner and a familiar face on music television and magazine ads.

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Lauryn Hill History

Lauryn Noel Hill (born May 25, 1975) is a Grammy Award-winning American singer, rapper, musician, songwriter, producer, and film actress. Early in her career, she established her reputation in the hip-hop world as the lone female member of The Fugees. On August 25, 1998 she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, an album which helped to spur the neo-soul genre to a wider commercial platform. After a four year hiatus, she released MTV Unplugged No. 2.0; a live recording taped on July 21, 2001 at MTV Studios in Times Square. She has won eight Grammy Awards and is the mother of five children with Rohan Marley, the fourth son of reggae legend Bob Marley.

Biography
Early Life
Lauryn Hill was born in South Orange, New Jersey. Hill was the second of two children born to high school English teacher Valerie Hill and computer programmer Mal Hill. As a child, Hill incessantly listened to her parents' Motown and 1960s soul records. Music was a central part of the Hill home. Mal Hill sang at weddings, Valerie played the piano, and Lauryn's older brother Melaney played the saxophone, guitar, drums, harmonica, violin, and piano.
Hill graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. Hill was an active student, cheerleader, and performer. She began her acting career at a young age. In 1988, 13-year old Hill appeared as an Amateur Night contestant on It's Showtime at the Apollo. Hill sang her own version of William "Smokey" Robinson's song "Who's Lovin' You?".
Hill was childhood friends with actor Zach Braff and they both graduated from Columbia High School in 1993. Braff mentioned inviting Hill to his bar Mitzvah in 1988.

Hill appeared on the soap opera As the World Turns as Kira Johnson. In December 1993, she starred in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit as Rita Louise Watson. In the film, she performed the songs "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" (a duet with Tanya Blount) and "Joyful, Joyful". It was in this role, as Rita, that she first came to national prominence, with Roger Ebert calling her "the girl with the big joyful voice".
Her other acting work includes the play Club XII with MC Lyte, and the motion pictures King of the Hill (as Arletta the Elevator Operator), Hav Plenty (1997), and Restaurant (1998). She appeared on the soundtrack to Conspiracy Theory in 1996 with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and on Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood in 2002 with the track "Selah".

Personal life
Since 1996, Hill has been a in a relationship with Rohan Marley, son of the late reggae music icon Bob Marley. Though she refers to Marley as her husband, it has not been confirmed publicly that they are legally married. According to an October 2003 Rolling Stone article by Touré, Marley never divorced his first wife Geraldine Khawly, whom the article stated he married in 1993 and had two children; daughter Eden Marley, and son Nicolas Marley. However, in the summer of 2005, Trace magazine interviewed Lauryn Hill and Rohan Marley; Marley said none of this was true and that many lies had been written about them.
Together they have four children: son Zion David Hill-Marley (August 3, 1997); daughter Selah Louise Marley (November 12, 1998); son Joshua Marley (January 2002) and son John Marley (summer 2003). As of October 2007, the couple were expecting their fifth child.
She has written a song about her eldest son, titled "To Zion", which can be found on her first solo effort, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. A song titled "Selah", is featured on the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood soundtrack.
Hill is noted as a humanitarian, and in 1996 she received an Essence Award for work which has included the 1996 founding of the Refugee Project, an outreach organization that supports a two-week overnight camp for at-risk youth, and for supporting well-building projects in Kenya and Uganda, as well as for staging a rap concert in Harlem to promote voter registration. In 1999 Hill received three awards at the 30th Annual NAACP Image Awards. In 1999 Ebony named her one of "100+ Most Influential Black Americans". She was named with Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. and others among the "10 For Tomorrow," in the EBONY 2000: Special Millennium Issue.

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