Maino

Jermaine "Maino" Coleman is an increasing rarity: a New York rapper with mainstream success. The Brooklyn artist entered the rap game in unusual fashion, learning how to rap while serving a 10-year prison stint for armed robbery. Making up for lost time upon his release in 2003, Maino began appearing on street mixtapes and eventually drew attention as a member of New York's mid-'00s "underground renaissance" (alongside other street rappers such as Saigon and Papoose). Like others who thrived during that short-lived period, Maino earned a major-label deal with Universal Records that yielded nothing. But while his peers seemed to retreat back into the mixtape world, Maino persevered and landed another deal, this time with Atlantic Records. Success came with an urban radio hit, "Hi Hater," which made judicious use of Jimmy Spicer's hip-hop classic "Money (Dollar Bill Y'all)." His 2009 debut, If Tomorrow Comes …, brought two more hits, "Million Bucks" and "All the Above," with T-Pain on the chorus. Although the album didn't sell as anticipated, it generated enough buzz to portent a 2010 EP, Unstoppable, and a second album, The Day After Tomorrow.