Name Drop: Match the Rapper (1)

[D] Ja Rule | Queens native tied to Murder Inc; early posse cut with DMX and Jay-Z turned heads before pop hooks took over radio.

[C] Chingy | St. Louis hitmaker behind 'Right Thurr'; toured with Ludacris era acts and slid into chart talk like a summer ringtone.

[A] Ludacris | Atlanta radio jock turned rapper; humorous punchlines and Disturbing tha Peace crew made features feel like sport.

[B] Snoop Doggy Dogg | Long Beach drawl plus Dr. Dre co-sign; Doggystyle sold fast, making laid-back threats feel like Sunday errands.

[A] MC Hammer | Oakland showman who weaponized choreography and baggy pants; 'U Can't Touch This' sampled Rick James to unstoppable effect.

[B] Fat Joe | Bronx Don linked Terror Squad; 'Lean Back' club rule book author who pivoted between street anthems and glossy hooks.

[D] Jay-Z | Brooklyn mogul from Marcy Houses; Roc-A-Fella architect whose aliases stretch from Jigga to Hov to Hall of Fame.

[C] Lil Wayne | New Orleans prodigy with mixtape avalanches; a Martian metaphor addict who mentored Drake and Nicki before 'Carter' peaks.

[A] Diddy | Harlem-bred executive-turned-hype-man; Bad Boy remixes taught rap how to dance, then how to sell shiny-suit swagger.

[C] Kool Moe Dee | Harlem battle rap pioneer; famously clashed with LL Cool J and documented hip-hop’s report-card before think pieces existed.

[B] Flo Rida | Miami export who made stadium choruses a business model; radio still hears 'Low' whenever boots hit the dance floor.

[D] Babyface | R&B titan and hit factory co-founder; pen behind countless 90s ballads, proving gentle nicknames can carry serious clout.

[A] Big Daddy Kane | Brooklyn slick talk with dancer poise; Kane’s breath control turned multisyllables into smooth weaponized patter.

[C] T.I. | Bankhead spokesman who coined 'trap music' branding; rubber band bars snapped Atlanta into a new entrepreneurial era.

[D] Nelly | St. Louis sing-rap pioneer; bandaid, grills, and country grammar shifted pop radio’s vowel sounds for a full summer.

[B] Coolio | LA storyteller whose 'Gangsta’s Paradise' borrowed choral drama; he turned cautionary tales into MTV appointment viewing.

[A] Ice Cube | N.W.A writer-architect turned solo firebrand; film career didn’t blunt the scowl that launched a thousand think pieces.

[D] 50 Cent | Queens hustler with bulletproof hooks; 'Get Rich' marketing plus G-Unit mixtapes redesigned rollout warfare.

[B] Young Jeezy | Snowman branding, ad‑lib grit; 'Thug Motivation' taught recession rap to sound like winter windshield scraping.

[C] Ol' Dirty Bastard | Wu-Tang’s wild card; off-kilter melodies and welfare-card antics made chaos sound strangely precise.