Music Stars Who Launched Their Careers With Scene-Stealing Features

Nas, Snoop Dogg, Foxy Brown and other superstar cameos.

Taking Yo' Shine - The say luck is what happens when preparation and opportunity meet and many of our favorite artists have done just that. From Snoop Dogg and Nas to Mary J. Blige and Ashanti, take a look at some music stars who got a jump-start to their careers after delivering scene-stealing performances as guest features on tracks by other artists.(Photos from left: Ron Galella/WireImage, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Inc, SGranitz/WireImage)
School's in Session - Nas was discovered by Main Source frontman Large Professor, who recruited him to rhyme on the classic 1991 posse cut "Live at the Barbeque." Nas' line "When I was 12, I went to hell for snuffin' Jesus," no doubt one of the illest of all time, had hip-hop abuzz about the then 18-year-old rhyme prodigy from Queens. (Photos: Adrian Sidney/PictureGroup; Al Pereira/WireImage/Getty Images)
Paid Tha Cost - Snoop spent his post-high school years in and out of legal trouble, including a six-month stint for selling cocaine. But he started to turn things around when former N.W.A producer Dr. Dre and Suge Knight signed him to Death Row after hearing a demo he recorded with long-time homies and 213 bandmates Nate Dogg and Warren G.(Photo: Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Mobb Deep, Featuring Big Noyd – 'Give Up the Goods (Just Step)' - Mobb Deep's homey Big Noyd set up his solo career after going on a lyrical stick-up with his Q.B. brothers Havoc and Prodigy on their 1995 album, The Infamous. He had spit a feature for their debut LP, Juvenile Hell, but it was this verse, he said, that led him to a $300,000 record deal. He dropped his own debut in 1996, Episodes of Hustla, while incarcerated.(Photos from left: David Corio/Redferns, Johnny Nunez/WireImage)

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Taking Yo' Shine - The say luck is what happens when preparation and opportunity meet and many of our favorite artists have done just that. From Snoop Dogg and Nas to Mary J. Blige and Ashanti, take a look at some music stars who got a jump-start to their careers after delivering scene-stealing performances as guest features on tracks by other artists.(Photos from left: Ron Galella/WireImage, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Inc, SGranitz/WireImage)

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