Lil' Kim with Sean Paul and Beenie Man photographed by Scott Gries during the release party for Sean Paul's album "Dutty Rock" at the Sound Factory in New York City (November 2002).
[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Daniel Powter, Sean Paul, Nelly Furtado, James Blunt, Shakira, Natasha Bedingfield, Gnarls Barkley, Chamillionaire, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé. End description]
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The sound of popular rap is still skewing down south, as seen with Chamillionaire and Slim Thug. The dirty south sound will continue to be popular throughout the decade.
With Timbaland, The Neptunes, Danger Mouse, and Swizz Beatz, we're seeing a lot of established names in the world of music production popping up in the top 10. Timbaland was already a well-known producer in the 90's, especially his work with Missy Elliot, Aaliyah, Jay-Z, and other notable names in rap and R&B (cutting a lot of artists from this list; seriously he's very prolific). In the mid-2000's, Timbaland started working with more pop acts, like Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, and The Pussycat Dolls (again, cutting a lot out), bringing more mainstream pop listeners to his sound. Like The Neptunes, Timbaland's production style is incredibly distinct and helped to shape what a lot of music in the 2000s sounded like.
This was also the year the second-generation iPod Nano was introduced. This is mostly notable to me because this was the year I upgraded to one from my Walkman, and I saw the music video for Gnarls Barkley's Crazy on that tiny screen and it blew my goddamn mind because I thought I was living in the future.
to take over the Babylon, the local Jamaican nightclub, you have to fight your way through a roster that ends with Sean Paul, and i have to confess, i don’t have a goddamn clue what he’s saying