Death isn't nearly the career hindrance it used to be in hip-hop. Witness Tupac Shakur. He's spoken from beyond the grave on seven albums since his 1996 murder, most recently on Until the End of Time, the offspring of the unholy alliance between mother Afeni Shakur's Amaru Records and Suge Knight's Death Row Records. Built partially upon...

Early in his fledgling career, the joke on hefty Bronx, New York, rapper Big Punisher was his penchant for taking huge breaths between never-ending stanzas of rhymes. But with performances like this past winter's ribald mack anthem "I'm Not a Player," the 400-pound Latin king established himself as a heavyweight of an entirely different nature – a lyrical giant with a Chris Rock-like knack...