Rolling Stone's Artists to Watch: The Rockers and Rappers Who Will Dominate 2007

Long before he was a smooth-voiced rhymer, Marece "Rich Boy" Richards got a musical education in his Mobile, Alabama, church. "My mother said I had to sing," says the twenty-three-year-old, "but I chose to play drums — I thought singing was gay." Richards was also exposed to Mobile's less godly side — notably the "crackheads and alcoholics" he saw around his father's liquor store. These experiences inform the lyrics on his debut, Rich Boy, which already has a hit single, "Throw Some D's." "I was surprised," Richards says of his success. "But it was a good surprise."

THE FORMULA Young Jeezy + Academic Skills = Rich Boy

SOUND Rich Boy is a big, brawling Southern hip-hop record, with Richards setting his hook-filled drawls over killer beats — with help from guests like Andre 3000 and John Legend and producers like Lil Jon. He also got key assistance from Interscope producer Polow da Don, who discovered Richards and helped get him signed. "I know for a fact this record will be the new hot thing," Richards says.

MUST-HAVE TRACK "Throw Some D's"
The rapper drops rhymes about tricking out his Cadillac on this blazing hit.

HIGHER ED Richards' rap career began at Alabama's Tuskegee University, where he studied mechanical engineering. But after hearing homemade beats in his dorm, he decided to become a hip-hop producer. Armed with cash he earned selling weed, Richards made a CD of beats; on a lark, he rapped on one of the songs, "Cold as Ice." After he passed along the CD to a DJ, "Cold as Ice" became a local hit. "I thought people would ask, 'Who did that beat?' " he says. "Instead, people were like, 'Who is that rapping?'" CHRISTIAN HOARD

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