Lil' Jon

Love him or hate him for launching the catch phrases "Yeaaaah!" and "What? Okaaaay!" onto the pop culture radar; there's still no denying the Top 40 rap prowess of Lil Jon as a producer and hype man/MC. "Shake That Monkey" sounds like an X-rated Saturday morning cartoon score, "Bia' Bia'" and "What You Gonna Do" are as confrontational as a classic hardcore punk cut, "Damn!" plasters handclaps and synthetic high notes together for a nice wobbly hook, and "Yeah!" is [i]the[/i] single that transported the robotic R&B of Usher from the bedroom to mega-clubs.

As flashy and in-your-face as he is, Lil John isn't clowning around when it comes to hit-making. Even his lesser-known tracks sizzle like Arizona pavement in August, from the synth sheen and adrenaline-shot tempo changes of his "Lean Back Remix" to the surprisingly slow-roasted R&B of "Nothins Free." And then there's the instant party factor that accompanies such rowdy tracks as "Where Dem Girls At," "Throw It Up," and "Bitch."

Few hip-hop heads can get a dance floor bumping to the point of a near brawl like Lil Jon. Atlanta's kingpin of crunk is a modern-day Dirty South icon on par with OutKast, Ludacris, and Cee-Lo, with an unparalleled creative voice far removed from his beat-cranking, rhyme-spitting peers. In his case, that voice is a loud one, relying on high-pitched synths rather than samples and a flow that's more like a window-shattering shout than a standard rhyme scheme. With his mouth always wide open and flashing a grill of golden teeth, Lil Jon has done more than enough to deserve his overflowing pimp cup.