Jadakiss

Jason Terrance Phillips (born May 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Jadakiss (, JAY-də-kiss), is an American rapper who began his career in the 1990s and formed the hip hop trio the Lox alongside Styles P and Sheek Louch in 1994. The group signed with Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records, an imprint of Arista Records to release their debut studio album, Money, Power & Respect (1998); their second album, We Are the Streets (2000) was released by Ruff Ryders Entertainment, an imprint of Interscope Records. Both peaked within the top five of the Billboard 200 and yielded critical praise; their two subsequent albums, Filthy America... It's Beautiful (2016) and Living Off Xperience (2020) were both released by Jay-Z's Roc Nation and met with continued praise.

After the Lox's second album, the trio each began pursuing solo careers, and Jadakiss signed with Ruff Ryders as a solo act to release his first two solo albums, Kiss Tha Game Goodbye (2001) and Kiss of Death (2004). Both met with positive critical reception, the latter debuted atop the Billboard 200 and spawned his highest-charting single, "Why?" (featuring Anthony Hamilton). He then signed with Def Jam Recordings to release his third and fourth albums The Last Kiss (2009) and Top 5 Dead or Alive (2015), which peaked at numbers three and four on the chart, respectively. He has since released the collaborative album Friday on Elm Street (2017) with hometown rapper Fabolous, and his fifth solo album, Ignatius (2020) both to critical acclaim.