So yes, Ludacris wrote Move B- and Freaky Thangs, but he also graduated with honors from Georgia State and built a business empire estimated at $25 million. He attended Adelphi University and majored in Graphic Design. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. 2023 College Consensus | All Rights Reserved. Theyre talented, theyre successful, theyve made fortunes and reputations for musical brilliance. While all community colleges are public, some junior colleges are private. Natalie Portman tops this list. The World's Most Entertaining Car Website. After Simon& Garfunkel's initial lukewarm reception in the music industry, Garfunkel went to Columbia. Among the alumni of the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are many celebrities, who attended the school before hitting the big time in showbiz, as well as those who enrolled after becoming a famous name. Of course the man who wrote Hard to Earn majored in business, and at Morehouse ranked one of the most entrepreneurial colleges in the nation business is no joke. Georgia State University is a public research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. He enrolled at Harvard and concentrated in History and Literature, later graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in 1985. Everyone who has been nominated is considered for the award, and you do not have to do anything to get a nod. Born: 09-15-1946 Age: 76 Birthplace: San Saba, Texas, United States of America More Tommy Lee Jones #44 of 272 on The Best (Male) Actors Working Today #23 of 643 on 5. NOTE: Ice Cube gets Honorable Mention only because the technical school he attended no longer exists. What about the rappers with college degrees? He attended the Academy at the same time as actor . Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgias four research universities. All Rights Reserved. Alicia Keys was signedby Columbia Records at only 15 years old. The list includes people like Taraji P. Henson, Sean Combs, Chadwick Boseman, Thurgood Marshall & Phylicia Rashad. Six years later, he was graduating from Harvard. After dropping out, he founded his first company, Virgin Records, which would go on to become one of the most successful record labels of all time. Furthermore, he has stated that he wants to assist others in understanding their own behavior and finding their passion. One of his Harvard roommates was future Vice-President Al Gore. While there, the Parks and Recreation star was very active in the college societies, and was a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club, Harvard Opportunes, Black Students Association and the Signet Society. A resident of Adams House, Lithgow graduated with an A.B. A straight-A student throughout high-school, Hill received a scholarship to this New York Ivy League institution. Born in 1985, Cole began rapping at 12 and making his own beats at 15, with a sampler given to him by his mother. He earned a bachelors degree in economics from the University of Southern California before moving back to Queens to work as an economics professor at Queens College. Fox Foundation at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers on November 5, 2008, in New York City. But he was also the son of hard-working, striving Jamaican immigrants, and slacking off, running the streets, and getting in trouble was not an option. As his music was blowing up he quit his job to pursue rap full-time. Lil Wayne The most prominent rapper of today that has blessed us with hit after hit for more than 20 years is also a post-secondary attendee. Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he attended Eli Whitney High School, according to author Dennis Abrams biography, Jay-Z (Hip-Hop Stars). 4. were among the celebrities who attended their childrens graduations. 1. Getty Images. This list of notable alumni is loosely sorted by popularity and has people from different domains of life, such as writers, singers, musicians, intellectuals & academics and film & theater personalities etc. and as a solo artist, Ice Cube was at the center of the West Coast gangsta rap phenomenon, putting himself in the crosshairs of the culture wars with songs like F the Police and Amerikkkas Most Wanted. Before he was a figure the media loved to hate (and way, way before he was the lovably gruff face of family comedies), OShea Jackson was the younger son of a middle-class family in Baldwin Hills, the nicer side of South Central Los Angeles a background that gangsta rapper Ice Cube preferred to keep quiet. After attending school in Kenya, training as a field biologist and backpacking across Europe, Darren Aronofsky enrolled at Harvard in 1987. In interviews, Ice Cube has attributed his systematic planning to his architectural training, and it has served him well as he has built a three-decade career that has spanned from rap to acting to movie producing. In the world of music, the. Check out this list of musicians who went to Ivy League schools. However, when Megan began posting freestyles to YouTube and Instagram, and destroying local rappers in the cypher, fame wasnt far behind. Takedown request | View complete answer on victrola.com What is the highest GPA ever? The University of Central Florida, or UCF, is an American metropolitan public research university in Orlando, Florida. Thank you for subscribing! He is best known for Genres, a hip hop neo soul pop song with 9 rows. Birdman was on hand to see his son, Bryan Birdman, Jr., graduate from American Heritage High School. OShea Jackson grew up in South Central Los Angeles, the younger of two sons of middle-class families. Each of these artists has used their platform to promote education and inspire young people to pursue their dreams. They signed Young as their first artist, but their first major success came with Tone Loc, spitting rhymes written by Young MC. That earned him the attention of the Native Tongues collective, the hyper-lyrical, Afrocentric scene that included the Jungle Brother, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and Queen Latifah. New York University is a private nonprofit research university based in New York City. Some presidents graduated from one (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy graduated from Harvard, for example) and some graduated from the. Talib Kweli studied experimental theater at New York University. He attended New York University where he studied Experimental Theater. Besides his own verses, Cube wrote for Eazy and Dre, crafting lyrics that fit their voices and personas. While Glover had DJd and made a mixtape in college, it was writing (and, later, making cameos) on 30 Rock that brought Glover into the public eye. Duff took onlineclassesfromdepartmentssuch as environmental science, government, and sociology. All Rights Reserved. has a degree in fine art, film, and video from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Jay Sean, Queen Mary, University of London. B. J. Novak attends the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 4, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California. Rick Ross Before creating a rap persona based on an actual real-life drug dealer. Despite the best efforts of A Tribe Called Quests Q-Tip to get her signed to Columbia or Def Jam, Megan made her way independently, building her reputation on her preternaturally confident flow, fearlessly explicit lyrics, and some of the most quotable punchlines since Biggie. Diddy, Remy Ma, Birdman, Lil Wayne, The Game, and Busta Rhymes are just a few of the celebrities who have done it in the past. Jay Zs first protege at his Roc Nation record label, J. Cole is a Renaissance man of the hip-hop craft, a student of the genre and a creator as adept behind the boards as he is behind the mic. However, against all odds (when Glover first announced his new persona, many wondered if it was a joke), Childish Gambino has proven to be an ideal creative outlet for a young genius with apparently unlimited potential and energy. Rashida Jones graduated from Harvard University in 1997. He has discussed his addiction struggles in detail and offered advice on how to overcome them to others. Colin Jost attends the Lincoln Center American Songbook Gala honoring Bonnie Hammer at Broadway Theatre on January 29, 2020 in New York City. Keith Elam, also known as G Guru, died in 1982. However, Lewis dropped out of the Ivy League institution to pursue a career in music. A Screen Actors Guild and Grammy Award-winning artist, Chris Bridges may have gotten famous on some less-than-intellectual party jams, but the man himself is a mogul and a business mastermind. Ryan Leslie, also known asCastor Troy, was born on September 25, 1978 in Washington D.C., and is a Harvard University (BS) graduate. Chicago State University (CSU) is a state university of the U.S. state of Illinois, located in Chicago. Damon, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, wrote an early treatment of his script for Good Will Hunting for an English assignment while at Harvard. They have also used their music to shed light on social issues and provide a voice for those who are often unheard. Harvard graduates went on to found disruptive companies, invent new technologies, discover new. A year after graduating, she achieved her first Oscar nomination for Closer. Actor Dean Norris attends the BAFTA LA TV Tea 2013 presented by BBC America and Audi held at the SLS Hotel on September 21, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. Are you surprised that so many rappers have degrees? David Banner, Southern University Source:Getty 6. Rashida Jonesthe daughter of Peggy Lipton and Quincy Joneswas voted "most likely to succeed" by her high school classmates. Her ambition and a compelling letter to the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism got her a place in one of the top communications programs in the world. In addition to failing to graduate from high school, Jay-Z was the first billionaire in hip-hop. There, he studied Architecture before changing to Art History. Nationally, freshman enrollment fell most steeply among . Her education and communications skills have been well-honed, and she has received numerous endorsements as well as a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Roosevelt and his siblings suffered from a variety of physical ailments, and as a result, were home-schooled. This didn't stop him, though, and he used pseudonyms to perform. 2 Chainz, University of Alabama State Source:Getty 2. Cheap Therapy If You're Broke. Born Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, Chuck Ds rap career began right alongside the Big Bang of hip-hop the legendary 1977 New York City blackout, when the 17 year old was inspired to write rhymes by the post-blackout burst of creativity in the city. Chuck D. received an Honorary Doctorate from Adelphi University in 2013. As a member of N.W.A. Another president of the Harvard Lampoon, Michael Schur graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. & Southfield Freeway in the Warrendale neighborhood due to his mother and father constantly being in and out of prison. Flavor Flav was born to an impoverished family in the Bronx and rose to prominence as the leader of Public Enemy, a hip-hop group. 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