Memphis Bleek is a rapper from Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects, best known as Jay Z’s earliest protégé. His 1999 debut album Coming Of Age shares its name with the first song he’d appeared on, from Hov’s Reasonable Doubt LP. His name is a backronym for “Making Easy Money, Pimping Hoes In Style.”

On Bleek’s second album, 2000’s The Understanding, he updated Jay Z’s shelved single “Is That Your Chick,” which features Missy Elliott, Twista, and Jay himself. The song reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart, his highest appearance.

Around this time, Bleek was a pivotal figure in Jay Z and Nas' epic battle. After Nas took a shot at Bleek on his song “Nastradamus,” Memph responded on “My Mind Right,” adding fuel to what would become one of hip-hop’s greatest rivalries.

But perhaps it was friendly fire that led to the demise of Memphis Bleek’s recording career. On Kanye West’s 2005 song “Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix),” Jay Z rhymes: “Bleek can be one hit away his whole career / As long as I’m alive he’s a millionaire,” unintentionally infantilizing a talented rapper who’s lived in Hov’s shadow for his entire career.

Bleek began teasing his fifth album, The Process, in ‘05—it has yet to be released. He released his The Movement 2 mixtape in March 2014.

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