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Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album Hybrid Theory (2000), which was certified diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries. Their following studio album Meteora continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200 album chart in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as the Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now by Kerrang!.

Having adapted nu metal and rap metal to a radio-friendly yet densely layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres in their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight (2007). The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third-best debut week of any album that year. The band continued to explore a wider variation of musical types in their fourth album, A Thousand Suns (2010), layering their music with more electronic sounds and beats. Their fifth album, Living Things (2012), combines musical elements from all of their previous records. Their sixth and most recent album, The Hunting Party (2014), returned to a heavier rock sound. The band has collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapper Jay Z in their mashup EP Collision Course, and many others on the remix albums Reanimation and Recharged. Linkin Park has sold over 68 million albums worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards.

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7. ^ Linkin Park Are the 'Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now' Ultimate Guitar August 28, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2014.
8. ^ Sinclair, Tom (March 28, 2003). "Meteora (2003)". Entertainment Weekly. Music Review. Retrieved October 19, 2007. 
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Michael Ebenazer Kwadjo Omari Owuo Jr. (born 26 July 1993), known professionally as Stormzy, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter. In 2014, he garnered attention on the UK underground music scene through his Wicked Skengman series of freestyles over classic grime beats.Stormzy's "Shut Up", which was initially released as a freestyle on YouTube, went viral and peaked number eight on the UK Singles Chart after Stormzy launched a campaign to reach Christmas number one. Stormzy won Best Grime Act at the 2014 and 2015 MOBO Awards and was named as an artist to look out for in the BBC's Sound of 2015 list. His debut album, Gang Signs & Prayer (2017), was the first grime album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart and won British Album of the Year at the 2018 Brit Awards. In 2019, Stormzy achieved his first UK number-one single with "Vossi Bop" and his headline appearance at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival was widely praised; he wore a Union Jack stab vest designed by Banksy, in light of the rise in knife crime in London. His second album, Heavy Is the Head, was released on 13 December 2019.Also known for his controversial and outspoken comments on UK politics, Stormzy endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2016. On 21 February 2018, he performed a freestyle at the 2018 Brit Awards, calling out Theresa May for her perceived inaction in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire the previous year. Stormzy encouraged the audience at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival to join him in chanting "Fuck the Government and fuck Boris"—the latter a reference to former London Mayor Boris Johnson's Conservative Party leadership campaign.