Young Dro

Atlanta rapper Young Dro, a protégé of T.I., turned to rap music to escape the hardships of street hustling and urban hardship. Born D'Juan Hart in Bankhead, the gritty west-side Atlanta district, he drew initial motivation from the achievements of longtime friend Chris "Daddy Mack" Smith, half of the early-'90s duo Kris Kross. West Atlanta collective Goodie Mob, however, exerted the strongest musical influence on him. Around 2000 he launched his professional path by signing with bass specialist Raheem the Dream's Tight IV Life Records under the name Dro, issuing the regional hit "Yes Sir" and the album I Got That Dro at roughly the same moment T.I. unveiled his debut I'm Serious.

Although the two had crossed paths since the early '90s, contact had lapsed for years until early 2006, when they reunited and Young Dro joined T.I.'s Grand Hustle Entertainment roster. Supported by the self-proclaimed "King of the South" and Atlantic Records, he launched his breakthrough single "Shoulder Lean" during summer 2006. The track received extensive airplay on BET and MTV2, while its ringtone version moved more than 500,000 copies. That single anchored his major-label debut Best Thang Smokin', which arrived in late August of that year.

Subsequent mixtapes kept his name circulating, yet an official follow-up did not surface until 2013, when High Times appeared alongside the single "FDB." Da Reality Show arrived in 2015, highlighted by "We in da City," a track that gained added traction once T.I. joined for the remix. In 2016 he collaborated with Zaytoven on the mixtape Boot Me Up. The next year he appeared on B.o.B.'s Ether and issued Hydroponic via Real Curves Inc.