New Artist: Madcon Norwegian Black Eyed Peas

Norwegian hip-hop/rap duo Madcon comprised ofTshawe Baqwa (aka Kapricon; born in Germany of South African heritage) and Yosef Wolde-Mariam (aka Critical; born in Norway of Ethiopian and Eritrean heritage), the duo, whose name is short for "Mad Conspiracy," first made a name for themselves as featured guests of award-winning Norwegian rap duo the Paperboys on the Top Ten hit single "Barcelona" in 2002. In the wake of this breakthrough success, Madcon signed a recording contract with the Paperboys' label, Bonnier Amigo, and proceeded to release their full-length album debut, It's All a Madcon (2004). The album spawned a series of singles, most notably the Top 20 hits "Doo-Wop" and "Infidelity," and established Madcon as one of Norway's leading rap acts. In 2007 the duo scored an international smash hit with "Beggin," a song originally performed in 1967 by the Four Seasonsand Frankie Valli; not only did the song hit number one on the Norwegian singles chart, but it also charted in Austria (number seven), Sweden (number 11), and Switzerland (number 33). An accompanying album, So Dark the Con of Man (2007), followed shortly thereafter and debuted at number three on the Norwegian albums chart. Around this same time, Madcon also enjoyed the limelight of television: they hosted their own show, The Voice of Madcon, and one of them, Baqwa, appeared on the Dancing with the Stars-style show Skal vi Danse?, ultimately winning the season's competition. The success of Madcon continued in 2008 with the Top Ten hit "Back on the Road," a Paperboys single on which they were featured.

Madcon has similarites to the likes of Outkast,  Gnarls Barkley and in my opinion sound are the European Black Eyed Peas.  There CD "So Dark the Con of Man" was a CD that brought a lot of different sounds.  Starting off with there hit single "Begggin", which sounds a lot like a Black Eyed Peas' song.  The rest of the CD includes songs that range from raggaeton to meaningful songs that talk about the hardships of life, reminisint of older Outkast songs, and songs that I could see the likes of Gnarls Barkley , less unique, making.  Madcon is a group that should not be slept on and there CD "So Dark the Con of Man" is very good track to track.  They have a newer CD that I won't comment on i am going to let you check it out for yourself.  

-Tremel

Some Info from allmusic.com.

The A's Own: Bobby Creekwater

Bobby Creekwater, real name Antione Rogers, was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended Clark Atlanta University for one year before leaving to pursue his music career. He and Charlie Hustle formed the hip hop duo Jatis, which was signed to Columbia Records and then Loud Records, but Loud was shut down before Jatis could release an album.

As an unsigned artist in 2004, Creekwater appeared with Aasim on the song "Anyway", from P-Money's album Magic City. Creekwater was noticed by Shady Records when label executives heard him rapping on a demo by Aasim. Shady Records president Eminem was more interested in Creekwater than Aasim and, in July of 2005, signed him to his label. 

In late 2005, Creekwater released a mixtape, Anthem to the Streets, which was hosted by DJ Don Cannon of the Aphiliates. With more than 250,000 copies distributed worldwide, it has easily become one of the greatest mixtapes numbers-wise of all time. Newsweek described the recording in positive terms, saying it "delivers drug-peddling tales over the cheeriest possible tracks. Sesame Street sings crack rap." 

In March 2006, he was one of the celebrity panelists at the Detroit Hip-Hop Summit on Financial Empowerment, joined by the likes of Russell Simmons, Eminem, 50 Cent, among others. 

On December 5, 2006, Eminem released "Eminem Presents the Re-Up", a mixtape-turned-album created to promote Shady Records' newest members: Stat Quo, Creekwater, and Cashis. The album has gone on to sell more than 2.8 million copies worldwide. Creekwater appears on five tracks, including remixes of Eminem and Nate Dogg's "Shake That" and Eminem and Akon's "Smack That". The album received mixed reviews. The Los Angeles Times wrote that Creekwater "sounds like a demonic André 3000", and the New York Daily News said he "has a deep tone and a smooth enough flow, revealed best on the jazz-funk 'There He Is'." The Sunday Mercury wrote that Creekwater is "easily the best of the three" new signings.

In 2007 he released two mixtapes, "Anthem 2 Da Streetz II", which was hosted by DJ Cannon of the Aphilliates and "Back to Briefcase", which was hosted by DJ Infamous of The Aphilliates. Collectively, the two mixtapes have been distributed more than 350,000 times worldwide. The Washington Post's critic, in writing about the single "Acid Reign", said Creekwater "threatens to usurp T.I.'s throne as King of the South with effortless rhymes and slow-burning brio." 

On Halloween of 2008, "The B.C. Era", Creek's new EP was released solely online. In its first week, The B.C. Era, was downloaded over 50,000 times and is standing at over 120,000 downloads to date. 

Creek is currently working on his debut album, "A Brilliant Mistake", which will be executive produced by Eminem. Tracks will be produced by D'Focis, Mr. Porter, The Alchemist, Don Cannon, and Bobby Creekwater himself.