Dean Kelly

Dean Kelly Bio

That didn't happen -- yet. Instead, Dio and Appice left again, and
Iommi replaced them by bringing back Tony Martin and adding drummer Bob
Rondinelli. Cross Purposes (February 1994) was a modest seller, and,
with Iommi apparently maintaining a Rolodex of all former members from
which to pick and choose, the next album, Forbidden (June 1995),
featured returning musicians Cozy Powell, Geoff Nichols, and Neil
Murray, along with Iommi and Martin. The disc spent only one week in
the British charts, suggesting that Black Sabbath finally had exhausted
its commercial appeal, at least as a record seller. With that, the
group followed the lead of the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, putting the
most popular lineup of the band back together for a live album with a
couple of new studio tracks on it. Recorded in the band's hometown of
Birmingham, England, in December 1997, the two-CD set Reunion --
featuring all four of Black Sabbath's original members, Iommi,
Osbourne, Butler, and Ward -- was released in October 1998. It charted
only briefly in the U.K., but in the U.S. it just missed reaching the
Top Ten and went platinum. The track "Iron Man" won Black Sabbath its
first Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. The band toured through
the end of 1999, concluding their reunion tour on December 22, 1999,
back in Birmingham. In February 2001, Black Sabbath announced that it
would reunite once again to headline the sixth edition of Ozzfest,
Osbourne's summer concert festival, playing 29 cities in the U.S.
beginning in June. More surprisingly, the group also announced its
intention to record a studio album of all-new material, the original
lineup's first since 1978. By the end of the year, a failed recording
session with producer Rick Rubin proved what an unreasonable idea this
was, and the band laid dormant while Osbourne enjoyed scoring a hit TV
series the following spring. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

After the rise and fall of Take That, Spice Girls, and
Boyzone, the U.K. didn't hold back with churning out signature pop
artists. British acts such as A1, Westlife, and the television spoof
band, Hear'Say burned radio waves for the early part of the decade and
the dance-pop trio Atomic Kitten joined the ranks of chart battles and
tabloid hell. Fans loved it, for the story behind the group exudes a
soap opera flair similar to their idols, the Spice Girls. Founded in
1999 by Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark's Andy McCluskey, Kerry
Katona, Liz McLarnon, and Natasha Hamilton hailed from Liverpool and
were in search of an outlet to fulfill their popstar dreams. And they
were barely out of their teens when a quickie deal with Innocent
Records in summer 1999 sealed the deal for Atomic Kitten. "Right Now"
and "See Ya" were instant Top 10 hits in Europe and "Whole Again"
reached number one in winter 2001. They were mainstays on MTV although
such success did not go off without a hitch. Kerry Katona announced to
the press in September 2000 that she and Westlife's Bryan McFaden were
an item and had been for a year. They were also expecting a baby and an
engagement soon followed. Katona's dislike for traveling led her to
leave the group, a foolish move she regretted after Atomic Kitten
earned whirlwind praise with their debut Right Now. Precious' Jenny
Frost aimed to fill Katona's shoes and a cover of the Bangles' "Eternal
Flame" was buzz in spring 2001. A cover of Blondie's "The Tide Is High"
followed several months later while stateside attention began to heat
up, placing Atomic Kitten next to the likes of The Supremes and The
Spice Girls for having more than a dozen singles hit #1 on the charts.
With the success of two more singles from their 2002 album Feels So
Good -- "Be With You" and "The Last Goodbye" -- Atomic Kitten landed a
US deal with Virgin before the year's end. As the club/dance cut "Love
Doesn't Have to Hurt" burned up the UK charts, Atomic Kitten prepped
for their self-titled American debut, which was released in April 2003.
~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide

Dean Kelly Website A
pair of popular 2005 mixtapes, Dedication (with DJ Drama) and Suffix
(DJ Khaled), further established Lil Wayne as a dexterous freestyle
rapper. By the end of the year, Lil Wayne's reputation had
significantly grown, and Tha Carter, Vol. 2 debuted at number two on
Billboard's album chart upon its December release. In the wake of Tha
Carter, Vol. 2, which was a critical favorite as well as a strong
seller, Lil Wayne continued to bolster his resume and increase his fan
base via the mixtape circuit. Of the myriad mixtapes bearing his name
from 2006 onward, Dedication, Vol. 2 (DJ Drama, 2006) is a standout;
like Tha Carter, Vol. 2, it was a critical favorite, making an
appearance on many critics' end-of-year lists. The Carter, Vol. 2, Pt.
2: Like Father, Like Son (DJ Khaled, 2006) was notable, too, as some of
its material was revived for 2006's Like Father, Like Son, a
major-label collaboration with Baby, aka Birdman, that spawned the hit
"Stuntin' Like My Daddy." Lil Wayne also collaborated regularly with
Dipset member Juelz Santana during this period. After stolen tracks
from his next official album appeared on the Internet, the
download-only EP The Leak appeared in 2007. A year later, that same EP
appeared as a bonus disc on a limited-edition release of Tha Carter
III, which sold over one million copies during its first week of
release. Fueled by singles like "A Milli" and "Lollipop," the album
sold an additional million copies during the following month, making it
one of the most popular albums of 2008. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music
Guide

After two years, Aguilera moved to Japan, where she recorded
the hit duet "All I Wanna Do" with pop star Keizo Nakanishi. Returning
to the U.S. in 1998, Aguilera recorded the song "Reflection" for
Disney's Mulan; her performance helped earn her a record deal with RCA.
Her self-titled debut album was released in the summer of 1999, and
with teen-oriented dance-pop all the rage, the lead single "Genie in a
Bottle" shot to the top of the charts for five weeks; the album also
hit number one on its way to sales of over eight million copies in the
U.S. alone. The follow-up, "What a Girl Wants," was the first number
one single of the year 2000 and Aguilera consolidated her near-instant
stardom by performing at the White House Christmas gala and the Super
Bowl halftime show, and winning a Grammy for Best New Artist. Further
hits followed in "I Turn to You" and another number one, "Come on Over
Baby (All I Want Is You)."

Dean Kelly Profile

By the time ...Baby One More Time finally started to lose steam on the
singles and album charts, Spears was ready to release her follow-up.
Oops!...I Did It Again appeared in the spring of 2000, and the title
track was an instant smash, racing into the Top Ten. The album itself
entered the charts at number one and sold over a million copies in its
first week of release, setting a new record for single-week sales by a
female artist. Follow-up singles included "Lucky," the gold-selling
"Stronger," and "Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know," which was
co-written by country diva Shania Twain and her producer Mutt Lange. A
year after its release, Oops!...I Did It Again had sold over nine
million copies. Rumors that Spears was dating *N Sync heartthrob (and
fellow ex-Mouseketeer) Justin Timberlake were eventually confirmed,
which only added to the media attention lavished on her.

By this point in time, 50 Cent's fame overshadowed his music, thereby
predicating "street" credibility issues that would haunt him in the
years to follow. For instance, the marketing rollout of The Massacre
carried over into ventures such as the video game 50 Cent: Bulletproof,
the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin', and the
soundtrack to that film -- all released in 2005, along with other
product. The fallout from 50 Cent's overexposure was evident via the
singles from the film soundtrack ("Hustler's Ambition," "Window
Shopper," "Best Friend," "Have a Party"), which failed to gain much
traction in the marketplace, charting modestly relative to past
singles. The next round of G-Unit solo releases (Tony Yayo's Thoughts
of a Predicate Felon, 2005; Mobb Deep's Blood Money, 2005; Lloyd Banks'
Rotten Apple, 2006; Young Buck's Buck the World, 2007) didn't perform
commercially well, either, and it's wasn't entirely surprising when
plans for another, Olivia's Behind Closed Doors, were shelved. The grim
outlook didn't bode well for 50 Cent's next album, which was pushed
back repeatedly and retitled a couple times. The final title, Curtis,
was inspired by yet another feud, this one with Cam'ron, who taunted 50
Cent, somewhat oddly, by addressing him by his born name. After a pair
of lead singles, "Straight to the Bank" and "Amusement Park," failed to
connect in the marketplace, Curtis was reworked one last time and
pushed back from a summer release date to a fall one (i.e., the
memorable date September 11, which -- to the glee of industry observers
-- pitted the album against Kanye West's Graduation). A second round of
singles, "I Get Money" and "Ayo Technology," was released in the latter
half of the summer, while the video for a fifth single, "Follow My
Lead," was leaked to the Internet -- to the frustration of 50 Cent, who
reportedly cursed out Interscope for endangering the commercial
prospects of his album -- over a month before street date. ~ Jason
Birchmeier, All Music Guide

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