Curren$y

Shante "Curren$y" Franklin isn't your typical New Orleans emcee. He's not a bounce rapper, and he's more likely to rhyme about a love of "kush" than a talent for moving "weight." Curren$y spent a few years shuffling around local imprints, first signing with imprint Tuff Guy Entertainment as a teenager, and then moving to C-Murder's TRU Records. The latter brought him his first recorded appearance on 2005's The Truest Sh*t I Ever Wrote, C-Murder's final album before he went to prison for murder. With TRU Records' collapse, Curren$y was picked up by C-Murder's brother Master P and No Limit Records. That didn't last, so Curren$y went to Cash Money Records, where he released his first single, "Where Da Cash At?" When that didn't work out, Curren$y went independent and issued two digital albums in 2009, This Ain't No Mixtape and Jet Files. A subsequent deal with DD172, a new multimedia company headed by legendary Roc-A-Fella CEO Damon Dash, led to his third album, 2010's widely praised Pilot Talk. It opened in the Top 40 of the national album charts. He followed with a sequel later that year, Pilot Talk II.