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Philly supplies the decade's hardest street rap through Roc-A-Fella, leads neo-soul from a Tuesday night in Old City, and ends it with the Roots as the house band on network television.
Philly Hip Hop History2000 to 2009
Now playingState Property
The decade's hip hop runs on two tracks that sometimes meet.
One is street rap. Beanie Sigel of South Philadelphia signs to Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella and, with Freeway, Young Gunz and others, forms State Property: a group, a film, a soundtrack and a clothing line. Their beards and their accents make Philly's look and sound nationally recognizable.
The other is the live-music world around the Roots and Okayplayer, where the Black Lily gives women in soul, hip hop and spoken word a weekly stage. Underneath both runs an independent underground selling records without a major label.
The city around them is still losing jobs. Homicides climb to 406 in 2006, the decade's peak, before falling to 302 by 2009.
Beanie Sigel's The Truth opens Roc-A-Fella's Philly era while Jill Scott and Musiq Soulchild debut.
Album
February 29, 2000
The South Philadelphia MC's Roc-A-Fella debut reaches No. 5 on the Billboard 200, and introduces producers Just Blaze and Kanye West on the label. State Property forms around him.
Listen to The Truth on Spotify (opens in a new tab)Album
July 18, 2000
The North Philadelphia poet who co-wrote "You Got Me" releases her debut. It sells more than 2.5 million copies. Musiq Soulchild's Aijuswanaseing follows in November.
Listen to Who Is Jill Scott? on Spotify (opens in a new tab)Crew
North Philadelphia · RuffNation · June 30, 2000
Gillie Da Kid and his cousin Wallo build Major Figgas out of North Philly's Erie Avenue in the late nineties, pulling in the neighborhood's sharpest MCs. Their tapes run the city before any label calls. On RuffNation, Figgas 4 Life reaches No. 115 and "Yeah That's Us" goes to No. 2 on the Hot Rap Songs chart. Prison sentences break the crew up early in the decade; Gillie and Wallo come back years later as two of the city's loudest voices.
Eve, Beanie Sigel and Bilal chart as the Sixers reach the Finals and Cassidy beats Freeway in a battle.
Record
Scorpion · March 6, 2001
Eve's single with Gwen Stefani peaks at No. 2 on the Hot 100. The next February it wins the first Grammy ever given for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
Listen to Let Me Blow Ya Mind on Spotify (opens in a new tab)Battle
Hosted by Swizz Beatz
A young North Philly battle rapper named Cassidy wins a recorded freestyle battle against Freeway by unanimous decision of the judges. Cassidy has said Jay-Z set it up.
Style
Spring 2001
Allen Iverson, the league MVP, scores 48 points in Game 1 against the Lakers. His cornrows and tattoos bring hip hop style into the NBA's mainstream.
Album
Germantown · July 27, 2001
The Germantown singer and CAPA graduate's 1st Born Second reaches No. 31.
Listen to 1st Born Second on Spotify (opens in a new tab)Roc-A-Fella's Philadelphia wing became a record group, a feature film, two soundtracks and a clothing line run under Rocawear. Its sound came from producers like Just Blaze, Kanye West and Bink!, and its look came from the block: long beards (Freeway is a devout Muslim), heavy chains and an accent the whole country learned to hear.
State Property reaches theaters, Eve wins a Grammy, Musiq hits No. 1 and the Roots release Phrenology.
Film · Soundtrack
January 2002
Damon Dash's film starring Beanie Sigel opens in theaters. Its soundtrack, performed by the State Property group, reaches No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and "Roc the Mic" reaches No. 55 on the Hot 100.
Listen to Roc the Mic on Spotify (opens in a new tab)Charts
Juslisen · May 7, 2002
Musiq Soulchild's second album reaches No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Floetry, the London duo now based in Philadelphia, release Floetic in October.
Album
The Roots · November 26, 2002
The Roots' fifth album goes gold and is nominated for the Best Rap Album Grammy. DJ Jazzy Jeff releases his first solo album, The Magnificent, the same year.
Radio
WPHI 103.9 · April 2002
Colby Colb, host of Radioactive, leaves Power 99 for New York in March, and WPHI relaunches as "The Beat" to compete with Power 99. Lady B is honored with the Philly Urban Legend Award.
Freeway's Philadelphia Freeway hits No. 5, State Property releases a second album and Eve gets a sitcom.
Album
North Philadelphia · February 25, 2003
Freeway's debut enters at No. 5 with 132,000 copies in its first week, and "What We Do," with Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel, goes gold.
Listen to What We Do on Spotify (opens in a new tab)Record
The Chain Gang Vol. 2 · August 2003
North Philly's Young Chris and Neef Buck reach No. 16 on the Hot 100 and earn a Grammy nomination.
Listen (explicit lyrics) to Can't Stop, Won't Stop on Spotify (opens in a new tab)From the Lily
Surrender to Love · Hidden Beach
Jill Scott brings Kindred the Family Soul to her label after seeing them at the Black Lily. A 15-year-old Jazmine Sullivan sings on their debut. Jill Scott also starts the Blues Babe Foundation to pay college costs for students from Philadelphia and Camden.
Television
UPN · September 15, 2003
Eve's sitcom runs until 2006.
Every Tuesday from about 2000 to 2005, Tracey Moore and Mercedes Martinez of the Jazzyfatnastees ran a women-in-music showcase at the Five Spot in Old City. It gave women in soul, hip hop and spoken word a weekly stage, and launched or sustained national careers. In 2007 it came back as the Black Lily Film & Music Festival, ending in a sold-out concert at World Cafe Live backed by Questlove and James Poyser.
Cassidy and Young Gunz debut near the top, Live 8 fills the Parkway, and two careers go through the courts.
Album
March 16, 2004
The battle rapper's debut peaks at No. 2 and goes gold, carried by "Hotel," a No. 4 Hot 100 single produced by Swizz Beatz.
Album
The Roots · July 13, 2004
The Roots' album on Okayplayer/Geffen peaks at No. 4, and Questlove launches Okayplayer Records. Jill Scott's Beautifully Human reaches No. 1 on the R&B chart in August, and wins her first Grammy in February.
Album
March 2005
Convicted on a federal weapons charge in 2004, Beanie Sigel is sentenced to a year and a day. His album comes out while he is in prison and sells 131,000 copies in its first week; "Feel It in the Air" becomes his signature song.
Listen to Feel It in the Air on Spotify (opens in a new tab)The courts
West Oak Lane · 2005–06
After Desmond Hawkins is killed in a shooting in April 2005, a murder warrant is issued for Cassidy, who surrenders in June. I'm a Hustla debuts at No. 5 while he is held. In January 2006 he is convicted of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault and serves about eight months.
The city
July 2, 2005
The only U.S. Live 8 concert draws hundreds of thousands to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Will Smith presents, and Jay-Z and Kanye West perform.
A violent year in the city, the underground organizes, and the Black Lily comes back as a festival.
Album
The Roots · August 29, 2006
The Roots' first Def Jam album is dark and political, and debuts at No. 9.
Listen to Don't Feel Right on Spotify (opens in a new tab)Underground
Jedi Mind Tricks, Army of the Pharaohs
Vinnie Paz and Stoupe's Jedi Mind Tricks and the Army of the Pharaohs collective, which Bahamadia was part of early on, show an independent Philly underground can sell hundreds of thousands of records without a major label. Battle MC Reef the Lost Cauze builds his name the same way.
Festival
World Cafe Live · May 6, 2007
The first Black Lily Film & Music Festival ends with a sold-out concert featuring Jill Scott, Ursula Rucker and Amy Winehouse. Musiq Soulchild's Luvanmusiq reaches No. 1 that year.
Label
Late 2007
Freeway's Free at Last and Beanie Sigel's The Solution are their last Roc-A-Fella releases, and each State Property member is dropped from the label.
Listen to Roc-A-Fella Billionaires on Spotify (opens in a new tab)The first Roots Picnic, Jazmine Sullivan's debut, the Roots on network TV, and love letters on the El.
Festival
Festival Pier, Penn's Landing · June 7, 2008
The Roots start a hometown festival with Gnarls Barkley, Santigold, Diplo, Esperanza Spalding and DJ Jazzy Jeff. A year later it grows to two stages, and DJ Cash Money plays.
Album
Strawberry Mansion · September 23, 2008
The CAPA graduate who sang at the Black Lily as a teenager debuts at No. 6, and "Need U Bad" reaches No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Listen to Need U Bad on Spotify (opens in a new tab)Television
March 2, 2009
The band from the South Street sidewalk becomes the house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Mixtapes
North Philadelphia · 2008–09
A teenage battle rapper raised on Berks Street, Meek Mill is jailed in 2008 on drug paraphernalia and gun charges and released early in 2009. He signs with T.I.'s Grand Hustle and puts out Flamers 2.
Listen to Wassup on Spotify (opens in a new tab)In 2009 Steve Powers, the writer who once ran On the Go as ESPO, came home with Mural Arts and painted 50 rooftop and wall murals along the Market-Frankford El in West Philadelphia: A Love Letter for You. Writing culture, on public walls, written to the neighborhood. Between 2001 and 2004 Mural Arts had painted more than 600 murals, many of them with former writers.
More of the MCs who made the city loud. From the founder's own list of Philly names. Know someone we missed? Tell us.
The Roots are on network TV and a kid from Berks Street is home with a mixtape. The 2010s belong to Meek Mill, to Lil Uzi Vert, and to a city that claims its own.
Next2010s · Dream ChasersOut now
Compiled from published histories, press, discographies and interviews, listed below. History told by the culture is argued about by the culture: if you remember it differently, or you have the flyer, the tape or the photo, tell us or add it to the archive.
Photo credits for this chapter are on the credits page.
