Beanie Sigel

Philadelphian rapper Beanie Sigel built momentum quickly after surfacing on mixtapes from underground figure DJ Clue?, followed by guest spots on Jay-Z’s Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life that secured him a solo contract with Roc-a-Fella Records. His slightly drawling yet incisive flow and sharply aggressive lyrics first appeared on the 2000 debut The Truth, which included verses from Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, Eve, and Scarface along with beats from Ruff Ryders’ Swizz Beatz and Suave House’s Tony Draper. Summer 2001 brought the follow-up The Reason, fronted by the single “Beanie (Mack B****).” Around the same period Sigel introduced his State Property clothing line, touting garments designed with concealed compartments and firearm holsters. Federal weapon and drug counts landed him in custody during 2003 after a pursuit in which authorities claimed he discarded a loaded handgun; September of that year added attempted-murder allegations tied to the shooting of a man in the stomach. By early 2005 the murder case had already been dismissed once yet remained slated for retrial while Sigel entered a guilty plea on the federal firearm counts. Anticipating incarceration, he rushed to finish a film, an album, and five accompanying videos. The resulting album The B. Coming reached stores in March 2005, with the movie State Property 2 arriving the following month. Released before year’s end, Sigel immediately turned to his fourth project, The Solution; despite shifting allegiances during the Jay-Z–Damon Dash split, he stayed aligned with Jay-Z at Roc-a-Fella, and the album appeared in December 2007. His 2009 release The Broad Street Bully came via the Siccness imprint, explicitly described as “not an official studio album” but rather a “street release.” The next proper effort, This Time, surfaced in 2012 on Ruffhouse just prior to a two-year prison term for tax evasion.