Top 10 Hip Hop Artist of the Decade

10. Number 10 is Young Jeezy. He glorified selling cocaine prior to becoming a rapper. His nickname, "Snowman", has become his trademark symbol. He had sold millions of mixtapes before making it to the big league to sell millions of records. He raps with a slow unique style and his trademark adlibs.

9. Nelly is number 9. Nelly brought the country to hip hop with his debut album "Country Grammar". This album sold over 11 million records worldwide. he has since signed his childhood group, Lunatics, and dropped and produced numerous albums.

8. Kanye West is number 8. He is very different from most rappers. He started as just a producer, then after Producing hits for Jay-Z, he decided to come from behind the scenes and drop his platinum debut album "College Dropout". He dropped 2 platinum albums after that.

7. Number 7 is Plies. Plies came into the game as a street hardened "goon". He controlled the mixtape game for years before catching ears of A&R's at Slip-N-Slide Records and Atlantic. He has a very unique rap style and has never featured a rapper on his albums. He has sold millions of records.

6. Number is Nas. He doesn't have the best of album sales, but his music has declared the best of New York by some. His beef with Jay-Z has been squashed, and he even signed onto Jay-Z's label.

5.Number 5 is T.I. His latest album, Paper Trail, went platinum very fast and easily. He is currently serving time in federal prison on weapons charges. he has starred in box office hit, ATL. he first declared himself as The King of the South, and now everybody considers him worthy of being the king of the south,

4.Number 4 is 50 Cent. His career started off of a record called "How To Rob". This record was just 1 of his records about beefing with other artist, and taking it to extremes that no other artists have went and survived. his most publicized battle was with his rival Ja Rule. 50's debut album, Get Rich or Die Trying, sold over 11 million records worldwide.

3. Number 3 is Eminem. Eminem comes from the initials of his name, Marshall Mathers. His debut album, The Slim Shady LP, went multi-platinum. He has multiple number 1 hits, and had a success at the box office with his movie, 8 Mile. He has been at the center of controversy since he first came on the scene, which just triggers success for him.

2. The number 2 artist is Jay-Z. He has sold over 30 million records on 15 albums. He owns his own record label, and is the ceo of another. He has collaborated with the biggest artists in the game, and off various different genres of music. Born Shawn Carter in Bed Stuy, this giant has definitely picked up where Biggie left off.

1. Number one is none other than Lil Wayne. Born in New Orleans, Dwayne Carter was only 12 years old when he met and surprised Brian "Baby" Williams, who was the ceo of Cash Money Records, and the rest is history. His latest album, The Carter 3, was pronounced its first week of release. He was featured on over 200 songs by other artists, from many different genres of music. Some genres include rap, r&b, country, rock and heavy metal. To top it all off, he doesn't even write his raps. It is clear to see why Lil Wayne is THE artist of the decade.