From Kendrick Lamar to Missy Elliot, The Best Rags To Riches Stories in Hip-Hop

Everyone knows him as the biggest troll in hip-hop, but there haven’t been many things 50 Cent hasn’t experienced. His mother, who was a drug dealer, died when he was only eight years old. Jackson also grew up to be a drug dealer and in 1994, he was arrested when police found heroin, crack cocaine, drug packaging material, and a gun. He was sentenced to three to nine years in prison.

Even when he was starting to make waves as a rapper, 50 Cent was shot nine times in front of his grandmother’s house in 2000. It makes it all the more impressive that he survived and went on to drop one of the best-selling rap albums of all time in 2003 with “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.”

While it’s hard to imagine Kendrick Lamar as something other than a superstar rapper, he was once just a kid living in Section 8 housing in Compton, California. Despite having both of his parents in his life, they lived in poverty and were even homeless for a time.

Thankfully, when he got into high school, and started to battle rap in his neighborhood. Local record producer Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith noticed Lamar’s talents and signed him to Top Dawg Entertainment.

Tupac Shakur’s biological father left when he was young and his stepfather spent several years in prison after being convicted of robbery in 1981. Although he eventually found success, the difficulties in Pac’s life never stopped as he was shot several times before being sentenced to prison in 1995.

Christopher Wallace was raised by a single mother, Voletta Wallace. Like others on this list, Big became a drug dealer before being discovered by Sean “Puff” Combs, who turned the Brooklyn MC into one of rap’s biggest stars.

Bizzy Bone is blessed that he was even able to survive his childhood. While he was still a child, he and his two sisters were abducted by their mother’s ex-husband. He was only four. For years he and his siblings were tortured and sexually assaulted. He did not return to his mother until two years after he was kidnapped.

DMX dealt with many difficulties growing up. He was physically abused by his mother for several years which resulted in him being sent to live with other family relatives in Yonkers, New York. He also spent time living in a group home. It’s amazing that despite going through all that, DMX still achieved the heights that he did.

Some people may scoff at this pick. But going from a stripper to one of the biggest rappers in the world is something few people could fathom. Ever since she released “Bodak Yellow,” the Bronx rapper’s career has only gone up.

Although she grew up with both of her parents in her life, Missy Elliot has recalled her mother suffering domestic abuse at the hands of her father. She even came to her mother’s defense and pointed a gun at her father to halt the abuse. She was also sexually assaulted by her cousin when she was only eight. She became a Grammy-winning artist and one of the most influential female rappers in history.

Lil Baby’s come-up is well-documented. The first time he went to jail was at 12 years old. He later dropped out of high school to become a full-time drug dealer, which led to him being arrested and charged several times for possession with intent to sell. After catching so many cases and constantly being sent to jail, he was sent to prison for two years at 19 for violating his probation. When he got out of prison, he focused strictly on music, which turned out to be the right decision.

Unlike several others on this list, Conway the Machine did not achieve major success as a rapper until way later in life. In 2012, he was shot in the head and neck area. Despite the doctor’s initial thoughts that it would paralyze him from the neck down, Conway overcame the injury and is only partially paralyzed in his face. He didn’t achieve major success until 2017 when he was signed by Eminem’s Shady Records.