RL

After two albums with the trio Next, RL launched a solo career with the aid of record industry bigwig Clive Davis. The legendary record exec signed RL to his newly formed J Records label and released a debut album, RL: Ements. The album featured one or two sure-shot singles — the Snoop Dogg-Lil' Kim-Battlecat collaboration “Do You Wanna Roll” and the Jermaine Dupri-Erick Sermon collaboration “Got Me a Model” — and other tracks without big-name collaborators. ~ Jason Birchmeier