Shad's music contains a secret weapon as unlikely as his upbringing: heart. The rapper, who was born in Kenya and raised in Ontario, might never have had the chance to turn his hobby into a career if not for a talent competition held by a local radio station. Winning the competition allowed Shad to record a debut album in 2005 and since then, he has recorded three more full-length albums and won Rap Recording of the Year at the 2011 Juno Awards, beating out Drake.

If you're not familiar with the 1988 album Vivid by Living Colour, you're either a hermit living in the wilds of Appalachia, or simply too young to remember. Vivid not only hit No. 6 on the Billboard 200 that year, it also went double platinum.

Since 1999, Killswitch Engage has been widely recognized as one of the bands that helped propel metalcore into the mainstream with its 2002 album, Alive or Just Breathing. That very same year, however, lead vocalist Jesse Leach decided to part ways with the group rather unexpectedly, leaving the rest of the band scratching their heads.

If you want to break out, you have to hustle, at least according to hip-hop artist Grieves. Before signing with independent hip-hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment in 2010, Grieves (real name Benjamin Laub) was simultaneously writing new music, playing gigs and trying to get his material heard by as many people as possible.