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Yo Gotti

Rapper and songwriter Mario Mims – born on May 19, 1981, in Memphis, Tennessee – is better known by his stage name Yo Gotti. After releasing a string of moderately successful independent rap albums in the late 1990s and early 2000s – including From da Dope Game 2 da Rap Game (2000), Life (2003), and Back 2 da Basics (2006), he signed a deal with New York-based hip-hop specialists Polo Grounds Music. With an RCA distribution deal, Yo Gotti had the means to break into a wider hip-hop market, however, his first album for the label, Live from the Kitchen, was delayed for several years. The album’s first single, “5 Star”, was released two years prior to the album’s release and made it into the Top 20 on the R&B Singles chart. The long-awaited album was finally released  in 2012 and rose to Number 12 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. After this promising start, subsequent sales of the album were disappointing, which prompted Yo Gotti to sever his contract with RCA/Polo Grounds Music. In 2013, he signed a deal with Epic Records and released his sixth album I Am. His follow-up album The Art of Hustle (2016) spawned the single “Down in the DM”, which peaked at Number 13 in the Billboard Hot 100, his highest charting US single until the release of “Rake It Up” (featuring Mike Will Made It and Nicki Minaj) which climbed to number 8 in 2017, preceding his ninth studio album I Still Am, featuring collaborations with Chris Brown, Meek Mill, French Montana, and 21 Savage. The album reached sixth place on the American charts, which he followed three years later with Untrapped (2020). In 2022, the rapper made a notable comeback in the Top 5 of the Billboard charts with CM10: Free Game, which claimed the third spot. The following year saw several collaborations with Moneybagg Yo, who was featured on the joint album with DJ Drama titled I Showed U So, reaching the 39th position on the Billboard 200.