Lil' Wayne:

One of Southern rap's most enduring and talented emcees, New Orleans' Lil' Wayne began rapping at the tender age of 11. By the time he was 15, he'd linked up with Juvenile, Turk and B.G. and formed the immensely popular Hot Boys group on Cash Money Records. Though the emcees showed promise, many listeners focused on the post-Bounce production of Mannie Fresh, and regarded Wayne as a fresh-faced vehicle for the producer. But Wayne went solo in 1999 with Tha Block is Hot. His raps focus on youthful rebellion, New Orleans style -- crack, girls and turf supremacy are paramount. He would go on to release two additional solo CDs 2000's Lights Out and 2002's 500 Degreez. Those albums were commercially successful and established Wayne true force. With 2004's Tha Carter and its 2005 follow-up, Tha Carter II, he made a case for himself as the South's preeminent rapper, with a supple flow, witty lyrics and ample charisma. When he boasted in a 2006 interview that he was the greatest rapper in the world, few disagreed. - Sam Chennault


Leona Lewis:

The age when televised talent contests were popular kingmakers has no better poster child than Leona Lewis, an English neo-soul singer and songwriter who won the third series of a British TV talent show called The X Factor and became a huge international pop star nearly overnight. Lewis began writing songs at 12 and winning local talent contests around London a few years later. Her big pipes earned her an instant following in the UK (here toothsome good looks probably didn't hurt either) before she even released her first single, "A Moment Like This," in December of 2006. That single set records by being downloaded over 50,000 times in 30 minutes and was followed the next year by her debut LP, Spirit, which had its songs and producers selected jointly by record moguls Simon Cowell and Clive Davis. - Nate Cavalieri
 

Natasha Bedingfield:

Natasha Bedingfield is straight out of the U.K. school of "pop" pop star: antipodean, Anglophile and enviably attractive. Lay that alongside the fact that her career took off after brother Daniel's "Gotta Get Thru This" had shot its way to legendary status in the U.K.'s burgeoning 2-step scene (not to mention the top of the charts), and it's easy to see how the London-bred New Zealander struggled to be taken seriously at the outset, despite her debut release "Single" making it to No. 3 in the U.K. in May 2004. But then "These Words" hit the airwaves and any residual doubts about Natasha's staying power evaporated as she stormed to the top of the British charts. Her debut album Unwritten embraced a diverse number of genres and is held together by Bedingfield's evident interest in pop songwriting (and much vaunted studies of psychology). 2008's Pocketful of Sunshine features a radio-friendly duet with the lovable Sean Kingston, and is Bedingfield's reentry back onto the American pop music radar. - Jamie Dolling