Plies

After inking a deal with Slip-N-Slide in 2004 upon laying down his debut cut "Tell Dem Krackers Dat," Ft. Myers, Florida rapper Plies stoked interest in his first proper full-length through several mixtapes and a guest spot on Trina's "So Fresh." Trouble arrived on July 2, 2006, when a dispute over performance duration at a Gainesville nightclub turned violent and shots rang out; two of his associates were later found guilty of attempted murder, while Plies and another companion faced charges for carrying concealed firearms without permits. Though initially tapped as the featured MC on Akon's "I Wanna Love You," Plies was swapped out for Snoop Dogg, an alteration widely linked to the nightclub incident. His first album, The Real Testament, arrived in August 2007 and included the single "Shawty." Two further LPs followed in 2008: Definition of Real landed in June, with Da Realist appearing in December. The December 2009 release of "Medicine," which featured Keri Hilson, signaled the approach of Goon Affiliated; Atlantic issued the project in March 2010, where it claimed the top spot on Billboard's rap chart and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. In subsequent years Plies maintained a flow of mixtapes—You Need People Like Me, Pts. 1-2, I Fuck with the DJ, Aristotle, and Da Last Real Nigga Left, Pts. 1-2—while previewing tracks intended for the long-promised fifth album Purple Heart, first mentioned in 2011 yet still unreleased by 2017. Additional mixtapes surfaced in 2015 with Ain't No Mixtape BIH and its follow-up Ain't No Mixtape BIH 2 later that same year. Singles continued to perform well, including the 2016 cuts "Ran Off on da Plug Twice," "Rich N*gga Shit," and "Racks Up to My Ear" alongside Young Dolph. Ain't No Mixtape Bih 3 closed out 2017.