Best Of 2000s : Artists Of The Decade

Don't call it a comeback. Marshall Mathers has been here for 10 solid years. "Relapse," Eminem's 2009's effort, marked his fifth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 -- in other words, every album he released this decade went straight to the top of the charts. "Me and Dre are back in the lab like the old days," Eminem said of the set in 2008. "I don't have chemistry like that with any (other) producer, not even close. We are up to our old mischievous ways." Though many of his early-decade contemporaries have been all but forgotten by the masses, everything Eminem touches still turns to platinum.

For much of the 2000s, Usher Raymond IV was the unstoppable force in popular music. He scored a whopping eight No. 1s on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (more than any other artist this decade), plus his 2004 album "Confessions" sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. And the man with the golden pipes and fancy footwork shows no signs of slowing down. "There are tons of artists I want to work with," Usher told Billboard last year. "I'm interested in working with artists who are out of the range I'm accustomed to. I want to try new things."

No sophomore jinx befell Nelly. His 2002 album "Nellyville" became his second consecutive Billboard 200 topper, and scored two monster hits, "Hot in Herre" and "Dilemma." "I can't do (debut release) 'Country Grammar' again," the rapper said at the 2001 Billboard Music Awards. "You have a lifetime to do your first album, and 18 months for your second. It's just a matter of drawing on the talent I have inside." His talents proved to be extensive, as he placed three more albums into the Billboard top five before the end of the decade.

Billboard's Top Female Artist of the 2000s has cultivated a catalog of hits that transcend chart achievements. "Crazy in Love," "Irreplaceable," and "Single Ladies" all topped the Hot 100, but they also helped Beyonce become the queen of this decade's pop-culture pantheon. "I've always tried to pick songs and singles that were %u2026 a part of things that people are passionate about and want to talk about and debate," Beyonce said in October. "'Single Ladies' is an uptempo song that's fun. But it's also something women go through every day."

"I really know that I'm going to be here for a long time," Alicia Keys told us in 2003, "so I thought I owed it to myself to live my life and take the time I needed to develop my songs, my music and whatever vision I had to do it right." The thought process has worked well for Ms. Keys. Not only did she score one of the biggest songs of the 2000s ("No One" ranks No. 6 on our Hot 100 songs of the decade chart), her "Empire State of Mind" collaboration with Jay-Z has spent an entire month atop the charts this year.

50 Cent spent a staggering 45 weeks on top of the Rap Songs chart this decade, more than any other rapper can boast. Not only did the hits make the Queens , NY native a nationwide phenomenon, it took his rhymes across the globe. "At first, my love was just to be in the studio and make the music," he said in 2003, "but now the biggest thing is the response of the people. I've been in Tokyo where people sang word for word and when the music stopped, they couldn't speak to me. I've seen the music break the language barrier."

Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" is the top song on Billboard's decade-end Rock Songs chart. The achievement may not win the Canadian band any favor with the rock press, but they're not sweating it. "We've just accepted that we're never going to be the critics' darlings, lead singer Chad Kroeger told Billboard in 2007, "and we're OK with that."

When Britney Spears wasn't shaving her head or dropping babies this decade, she was churning out a succession of hit singles that continue to resonate with fans the world over. She scored four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and two Hot 100 chart-toppers, including "3," which debuted atop the chart in October 2009. "I want to do things that people have never seen before," she said in 2001. "I don't want to be considered a role model."

"The best thing (about being in Destiny's Child) is that I've gained two sisters who have my back," Michelle Williams told us in 2006. "I learned about love and loyalty through good and bad, thick and thin." We're sure the string of multi-platinum albums and five No.1 singles this decade didn't hurt either.

Even though Jay-Z has appeared on 14 top 10s singles this decade, it took him until 2009 to take a song from one of his own albums to No. 1 on the Hot 100. But the artist with the empire state of mind has more things on his plate than crafting hit singles. "I'm an entrepreneur, that's what I've been all my life," he told us in July. "I can't just sit here and make records and not do anything else."

After recovering from the critically-panned "Glitter" album in 2001, Carey returned with a string of huge hits, including the decade's top song, "We Belong Together." "(It's not about) showing off so everybody can hear me singing at the top of my lungs," she told us in 2005. "But, truth be told, I feel that my voice is in a better place than it has been in years."

Earlier hits like "Where Is the Love?" and "My Humps" set the stage for the Peas. But the quartet made history in 2009 by remaining atop the Hot 100 for 26 consecutive weeks with the first two singles from "The E.N.D.," its first album to top the Billboard 200. "What we've gone through to get here has been... some unique-ass shit," Will.i.am mused in May. "We haven't changed conceptually from what the Peas were and wanted to be: mass appeal, not segregation. And we've stayed true to that."

A lull followed her success earlier in the decade, but a re-release of the song "U + Ur Hand" in 2007 spurred Pink's first Hot 100 top 10 in five years. Pink went on to score her very first No. 1 song in 2008 with "So What," and the colorful pop star hasn't looked back since. "I've fought for my credibility in this pop world," Pink told us in 2007. "I was never the popular kid, God dammit. But I am now."

Video made more than one radio star this decade. Not only did "American Idol" become TV's top-rated series, it also transformed how artists could gain exposure to mainstream audiences. Still, the show's first champion, who scored eight top 10 hits on the Hot 100 this decade, said that success didn't come easy. "It hasn't been overnight for me," Clarkson told us earlier this year. "I have been working on this music thing for years, and for it to explode this way feels amazing."

Kanye West's outrageous antics are so notorious, it's sometimes easy to forget that the producer-turned-rapper-turned-auto-tune-crooner has given us some of the most innovative pop songs of the past 10 years. "I want everything associated with me to be the best and push the boundary of what you think is possible," he said in 2007.

The singer/actor/record executive has masterfully balanced chart domination (three of his albums topped the Billboard 200 this decade) with the rest of his multi-tasking efforts, becoming one of hip-hop's quintessential renaissance men. "You only have one life to live and life is short," Ludacris said last year. "It's not easy juggling so many hats. But I still have a lot to prove."

In just four short years, Rihanna has gone from an endearing dancehall queen to a multi-platinum powerhouse whose music and fashion set the pace for most of her pop peers. "For me, 'bad girl' does not mean 'wild girl,'" she said of her 2007 smash "Good Girl Gone Bad." "It's more about taking chances, trying new things, visually and musically."

Creed ruled the charts early in the decade with two back-to-back Billboard 200 chart-toppers -- 1999's "Human Clay" and 2001's "Weathered." After a well-publicized break-up in 2004, the band roared back after a five-year hiatus with the Rock Albums chart No. 1 " Full Circle " in November 2009, much to the delight of their impatiently waiting fans. "Creating music together is the easy part for this band," Scott Stapp told Billboard in July. "It's all the other things involved in the business of rock and roll that can pull us all away from what we love to do most, which is write music and play live."

With six cooks in their rock 'n' roll kitchen, you'd think that the members of Linkin Park would have difficulties forging ahead in the same creative direction. But the method to their multi-platinum madness, which has earned them five Top 5 albums on the Billboard 200 this decade, is to just go with the flow. "I find that over-planning a creative project usually means you're gonna screw it up," said Chester Bennington told us in 2009. "When a song comes, I'll write it. When a song comes to Mike [Shinoda], he'll put [it] down. We just kind of roll with it spontaneously."

Many teen pop sensations don't carry their success into adulthood. But 30-year-old Aguilera has successfully segued from kid star to adult icon (and mother), fueled by her musically-diverse 2006 album "Back to Basics." "I constantly change my image," she explained to Billboard in 2008. "Luckily, from what I can tell from reading letters and conversing with them when on tour, my fans love and are always open to my love for change."