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Straight out of Hollis, Queens, Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl McDaniels (backed by Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell) turned the entire world on its ear with their literate rhymes, hard-edged delivery and social consciousness, paving the way for Public Enemy, N.W.A and everything that followed. The group’s signature sound—booming beats hitched to heavy-metal guitars—ignited hip-hop’s explosive chart domination.

At 17 she won an amateur-night competition at the Apollo Theater, and for the next six decades Fitzgerald was the voice of American jazz—first as a swing goddess, then as a bebop scat queen and finally as the smoothest interpreter of gold standards. Her classic albums devoted to such tunesmiths as George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Harold Arlen prove that the Great American Songbook is still required reading: Listening has never been easier.