J. Stalin, Lil Kev

Once chosen by both E-40 and Too $hort as the next big thing out of the Bay Area, West Oakland rapper J. Stalin began making serious noise in 2006 with a series of mixtapes, a debut album, and a couple singles that captured the sound and excitement of the city's "go" movement. He peaked commercially during the first half of the following decade with Giants and Elephants (2009), Memoirs of a Curb Server (2012), and S.I.D.: Shining in Darkness (2014) as part of a streak of Billboard-charting titles. Since then, the simultaneously fervent and composed MC has continued to represen...