:''Freeway redirects here. For other meanings, see Freeway (disambiguation).'' A controlled-access highway, known by various terms worldwide, including ''Autobahn'', ''autopista'', ''autoroute'', ''autostrada'', ''snelweg'', freeway, motorway, and sometimes less precise terms such as expressway, parkway, or turnpike, is a highway designed and built specifically for high-speed vehicular traffic. Its primary purpose is to provide an unhindered flow of traffic, with no traffic signals, intersections or property access. Access is provided by slip roads or ramps, which allow for acceleration and deceleration between the highway and arterial thoroughfares and collector roads. The opposing directions of travel are separated in some form, either by a median of grass or boulders, or by a wooden, metal or concrete barrier, referred to as a median or central reservation. They are free of any at-grade crossings with other roads, railways, or pedestrian paths, which are carried by overpasses and underpasses across the highway.

Germany pioneered the controlled-access highway (then referred to as a ''Dual Highway'') following the First World War and rapidly assembled the sprawling ''Reichsautobahn'' network in anticipation of their use in the war effort. Italy followed shortly thereafter, opening its first ''Autostrada'' in 1925. In North America, a similar concept, known as a ''parkway'', was developed on Long Island. These parkways did not perform the same function as a modern highway, but were divided and designed specifically for automobiles. Ontario and Pennsylvania opened the first North American ''freeways'' in 1940. Britain, heavily influenced by the railway, did not build its first ''motorway'' until the mid-1950s.

Today, most industrialized nations feature an extensive network of freeways or motorways. Many have a national-level system of route numbering. The highway has brought with it the ability to access almost any part of the world with comfort and speed, but has mired controversy over the pollution, degradation to farmland and urban sprawl with which it has been associated.

History

Modern controlled-access highways originated in the early 1920s in response to the rapidly increasing use of the automobile, the demand for faster movement between cities and as a consequence of improvements in paving processes, techniques and materials. These original high-speed roads were referred to as "dual highways" and, while divided, bore little resemblance to the highways of today. The first dual highway in the world opened in 1921 between Milan and Varese and now forms parts of the A8 and A9 motorways. This highway, while divided, featured only one lane in each direction and no interchanges. Shortly thereafter, in 1924, the Bronx River Parkway was opened to traffic. The Bronx River Parkway was the first road in North America to utilize a median strip to separate the opposing lanes, to be constructed through a park and where intersecting streets crossed over bridges.

Definition

{|class=wikitable !scope="row" width="33%"|ITE !scope="row" width="33%"|OECD !scope="row" width="33%"|British Standards |- | # Freeway: This is a divided major roadway with full control of access and with no crossings at grade. This definition applies to toll as well as nontoll roads. ##Freeway A: This designated roadways with greater visual complexity and high traffic volumes. Usually this type of freeway will be found in metropolitan areas in or near the central core and will operate through much of the early evening hours of darkness at or near design capacity. ##Freeway B: This designates all other divided roadways with full control of access where lighting is needed. |''Road, specially designed and built for motor traffic, which does not serve properties bordering on it, and which:'' ::''(a) is provided, except at special points or temporarily, with separate carriageways for the two directions of traffic, separated from each other, either by a dividing strip not intended for traffic, or exceptionally by other means;'' ::''(b) does not cross at level with any road, railway or tramway track, or footpath;'' ::''(c) is specially sign-posted as a motorway and is reserved for specific categories of road motor vehicles.'' :''Entry and exit lanes of motorways are included irrespectively of the location of the sign-posts. Urban motorways are also included.'' |

motorway Limited access ''dual carriageway road'' not crossed on the same level by other ''traffic lanes'', for the exclusive use of certain classes of motor vehicles.

|}

Design

Freeways, by definition, have no at-grade intersections with other roads, railroads or multi-use trails. Movable bridges, such as the Interstate Bridge on Interstate 5 between Oregon and Washington, do require drivers to stop for ship traffic.

The crossing of freeways by other routes is typically achieved with grade separation either in the form of underpasses or overpasses. In addition to sidewalks (footpaths) attached to roads that cross a freeway, specialized pedestrian footbridges or tunnels may also be provided. These structures enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross the freeway at that point without a detour to the nearest road crossing.

Access to freeways is typically provided only at grade-separated interchanges, though lower-standard right-in/right-out access can be used for direct connections to side roads. In many cases, sophisticated interchanges allow for smooth, uninterrupted transitions between intersecting freeways and busy arterial roads. However, sometimes it is necessary to exit onto a surface road to transfer from one freeway to another. An example of this would be Interstate 70 in the town of Breezewood, Pennsylvania.

Speed limits are generally higher on freeways and are occasionally nonexistent (as on much of Germany's Autobahn network). Because higher speeds reduce decision time, freeways are usually equipped with a larger number of guide signs than other roads, and the signs themselves are physically larger. Guide signs are often mounted on overpasses or overhead gantries so that drivers can see where each lane goes. Exit numbers are commonly derived from the exit's distance in miles or kilometers from the start of the freeway. In some areas, there are public rest areas or service areas on freeways, as well as emergency phones on the shoulder at regular intervals.

In the United States, mileposts start at the southern or westernmost point on the freeway (either its terminus or the state line). California, Ohio, and Nevada use milepost systems in which the markers indicate mileage through the state's individual counties. However, in Nevada and Ohio, and freeways that pass through Kern County, California, also use the standard milepost system concurrently with their respective postmile systems.

Cross sections

Two-lane freeways, often undivided, are sometimes built when traffic volumes are low or right-of-way is limited; they may be designed for easy conversion to one side of a four-lane freeway. Otherwise, freeways typically have at least two lanes in each direction; some busy ones can have as many as 16 or more lanes in total.

In Mississauga, Ontario, Highway 401 uses collector-express lanes for a total of 18 lanes through its intersection with 403/410 and 427. In San Diego, California, Interstate 5 has a similar system of express and local lanes for a maximum width of 21 lanes on a two-mile segment between Interstate 805 and California State Route 56.

These wide freeways may use separate collector and express lanes to separate through traffic from local traffic, or special high-occupancy vehicle lanes, either as a special restriction on the innermost lane or a separate roadway, to encourage carpooling. These HOV lanes, or roadways open to all traffic, can be reversible lanes, providing more capacity in the direction of heavy traffic, and reversing direction before traffic switches. Sometimes a collector/distributor road, a shorter version of a local lane, shifts weaving between closely-spaced interchanges to a separate roadway or altogether eliminates it.

In some parts of the world, notably parts of the U.S., frontage roads form an integral part of the freeway system. These parallel surface roads provide a transition between high-speed "through" traffic and local traffic. Frequent slip-ramps provide access between the freeway and the frontage road, which in turn provides direct access to local roads and businesses.

Except on some two-lane freeways (and very rarely on wider freeways), a median separates the opposite directions of traffic. This strip may be as simple as a grassy area, or may include a crash barrier such as a "Jersey barrier" or an "Ontario Tall Wall" to prevent head-on collisions. On some freeways, the two carriageways are built on different alignments; this may be done to make use of available corridors in a mountainous area or to provide narrower corridors through dense urban areas.

Some roads in Ohio that conform to freeway criteria use at-grade intersections in lieu of over/under-passes, with occasional interchanges to avoid signalized traffic interruption (i.e., traffic lights are omitted). Examples include US 23 between OH-15's eastern terminus and Delaware, Ohio, along with Highway 15 between its eastern terminus and I-75, US-30, OH-29/US-33, and US-35 in western and central Ohio. These highways are fundamentally expressways, but expressways tend to have lower design speeds, and signalized at-grade intersections.

Control of access

Control of access is a legal status which prohibits the types of vehicles which use a highway and the points at which they can access it.

Freeways are usually limited to motor vehicles of a minimum power or weight; signs may prohibit bicyclists, pedestrians and equestrians and impose a minimum speed. It is possible for non-motorized traffic to use facilities within the same right-of-way, such as sidewalks constructed along freeway-standard bridges and multi-use paths next to freeways such as the Suncoast Trail along the Suncoast Parkway in Florida.

In some US jurisdictions, especially where freeways replace existing roads, non-motorized access on freeways is permitted. Different states of the United States have different laws. Cycling on freeways in Arizona may be prohibited only where there is an alternative route judged equal or better for cycling. Wyoming, the least populated state, allows cycling on all freeways. Oregon allows bicycles except on specific urban freeways in Portland and Medford.

In countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany, the difference between a normal road and a freeway-class road (motorway/autobahn) is the restriction of low-speed traffic. Many roads are built to freeway standards but are not legally a freeway-class road for this reason. Indeed, some freeway-class roads are downgraded for short stretches where no alternative exists, to allow low-speed traffic; examples in the UK include the Dartford Crossing (the furthest downstream public crossing of the Thames), and the former Cumberland Gap, as well as sections of the A1 not yet designated A1(M), various lengths of the A5, and the entirety of other important and near-motorway-standard links such as the A14, A34, A38, A42, A50, A55... long stretches of which carry speed limits. The reasons for such designation vary – physical lack of space (A55), restricted budget (e.g. A42 – a full-standard motorway would have been more expensive than an A-road; a motorway with additional service roads further still), or because of legistlative or political wrangling (easier to have A-road construction or upgrade authorised and accepted than a more emotionally-charged "motorway scheme", and does not require issuing of Special Road orders). Continental European non-motorway dual carriageways can have limits as high as . U.S. Route 23 in Ohio has a speed limit as high as but isn't legally a freeway-class road since it has no disclaimers saying that low-speed vehicles are prohibited; it also has at-grade intersections like expressway-class roadways.

Research shows 85 percent of motor vehicle-bicycle crashes follow turning or crossing at intersections. Freeway travel eliminates almost all those conflicts save at entrance and exit ramps – which, at least on those freeways where cycling has not been banned, have sufficient room and sight for cyclists and motorists. An analysis of crashes in Arizona showed no safety problems with cycling on freeways. Fewer than one motor vehicle-bicycle crash a year was recorded on nearly 2000 shoulder-miles open to cyclists in Arizona.

Construction techniques

The most frequent way freeways are laid out is usually by building them from the ground up after things such as forestry or buildings are cleared away. Sometimes they deplete farmland, but other methods have been developed for economic, social, and even environmental reasons.

Full freeways are sometimes made by converting at-grade expressways or by replacing at-grade intersections with overpasses; however, any at-grade intersection that ends a freeway remains. Often, when there is a two-lane undivided freeway or expressway, it is converted by constructing a twin corridor on the side by leaving a median between the two travel directions. The opposing side for the old two-way corridor becomes a passing lane.

Other techniques involve building a new carriageway on the side of a divided highway that has a lot of private access on one side and sometimes has long driveways on the other side since an easement for widening comes into place, especially in rural areas.

When a "third" carriageway is added, sometimes it can shift a directional carriageway by 50–200 ft (or maybe more depending on land availability) as a way to retain privrate access on one side that favors over the other. Other instances involve constructing a service drive that shortens the long driveways typically by less than 100 m.

Environmental effects

Controlled-access highways have been constructed both between urban centres and within them, leading to the sprawling suburban development found near most modern cities. They ideally serve to reduce travel times and accident rates, though the higher speeds have increased the severity and death rates of the collisions that do occur.

Highways have been heavily criticized by environmentalists, urbanists, and preservationists for the noise, pollution, and economic shifts they bring. Additionally, they have been criticized by the driving public for the inefficiency with which they handle peak hour traffic.

Often, rural highways open up vast areas to economic development and municipal services, generally raising property values. In contrast to this, above-grade highways in urban areas are often a source of lowered property values, contributing to urban decay. Even with overpasses and underpasses, neighbourhoods are divided — especially impoverished ones where residents are less likely to own a car, or to have the political and economic influence to resist construction efforts. Beginning in the early 1970s, the U.S. Congress identified freeways and other urban highways as responsible for most of the noise exposure of the U.S. population. Subsequently, computer models were developed to analyze freeway noise and aid in their design to help minimize noise exposure.

Some cities have implemented freeway removal policies in which freeways have even been demolished and reclaimed as boulevards or parks, notably in Portland (Harbor Drive), New York City (West Side Highway), Boston (Central Artery), San Francisco (Embarcadero Freeway) and Milwaukee (Park East Freeway).

An alternative to surface or above ground freeway construction has been the construction of underground urban freeways using tunnelling technologies. This has been extremely successful in the Australian cities of Sydney (which has five such freeways) and Melbourne (which has two such freeways). This has had the benefit of removing traffic from surface roads and in the case of Melbourne's Eastlink Motorway, has helped preserve an ecologically sensitive area from destruction.

Other Australian cities face similar problems (lack of available land, cost of home acquisition, aesthetic problems, and community opposition). Brisbane, which also has to contend with physical boundaries (the river) and heavy population increases, has embraced underground tunnel freeways. There are currently three under active development, one of which (the North-South Bypass Tunnel) is currently under construction. All of the planned tunnels include provisions for public transport, whether underground or in reclaimed space on the surface.

Freeway opponents have found that freeway expansion is often self-defeating: expansion simply generates more traffic. That is, even if traffic congestion is initially shifted from local streets to a new or widened freeway, people will begin to run errands and commute to more remote locations. Over time, the freeway and its environs become congested again as both the average number and distance of trips increases. This idea is known as induced demand. Urban planning experts such as Drusilla Van Hengel, Joseph DiMento, and Sherry Ryan argue that although properly designed and maintained freeways may be convenient and safe, at least in comparison to uncontrolled roads, they may not expand recreation, employment and education opportunities equally for different ethnic groups, or for people located in certain neighborhoods of a given city. Still, they may open new markets to some small businesses.

Construction of urban freeways for the U.S. Interstate Highway System, which began in the late 1950s, led to the demolition of thousands of city blocks, and the dislocation of many more thousands of people. The citizens of many inner city areas responded with the freeway and expressway revolts. Through the study of Washington's response, it can be shown that the most effective changes came not from executive or legislative action, but instead from policy implementation. One of the foremost rationales for the creation of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) was that an agency was needed to mediate between the conflicting interests of interstates and cities. Initially, these policies came as regulation of the state highway departments. Over time, DOT officials re-focused highway building from a national level to the local scale. With this shift of perspective came an encouragement for alternative transportation, and locally based planning agencies.

At present, freeway expansion has largely stalled in the United States, due to a multitude of factors that converged in the 1970s: higher due process requirements prior to taking of private property, increasing land values, increasing costs for construction materials, local opposition to new freeways in urban cores, the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (which imposed the requirement that each new federally funded project must have an environmental impact statement or report), and falling gas tax revenues as a result of the nature of the flat-cent tax (it is not automatically adjusted for inflation), the tax revolt movement, and growing popular support for high-speed mass transit in lieu of new freeways.

Route numbering

Great Britain

In England and Wales, the numbers of major motorways followed a numbering system separate to that of the A-road network, though based on the same principle of zones. Running clockwise from the M1 the zones were defined for Zones 1 to 4 based on the proposed M2, M3 and M4 motorways. The M5 and M6 numbers were reserved for the other two planned long distance motorways. The Preston Bypass, the UK's first motorway, should have been numbered A6(M) under the scheme decided upon, but it was decided to keep the number M6 as had already been applied. Certain portions or bypasses of A-roads may be designated as motorways, the name of these portions being given the suffix "(M)". An example is the A1(M).

In Scotland, where the Scottish Office rather than the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation had the decision, there is no zonal pattern, but rather the A-road rule is strictly enforced. It was decided to reserve the numbers 7, 8 and 9 for Scotland. The M8 follows the route of the A8, and the [[M85 motorway|M85 ]] became part of the M90 when the A90 was re-routed along the path of the A85.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland a distinct numbering system is used, which is separate from the rest of Ireland and from Britain, though the classification of roads along the lines of A, B, and C is universal throughout the UK and the Isle of Man. According to a written answer to a parliamentary question to the Northern Ireland Minister for Regional Development, there is no known reason as to how Northern Ireland's road numbering system was devised. However motorways, as in the rest of the UK and Ireland, are numbered M, with the two major motorways coming from Belfast being numbered M1 and M2. The M12 is a short spur of the M1 with the M22 being a short continuation (originally intended to be a spur) of the M2. There are two other motorways, the short M3 and a motorway section of the A8 road, known as the A8(M) (similar to how motorway sections of A-roads in Great Britain are numbered).

Republic of Ireland

In the Republic of Ireland, motorway and ''national road'' numbering is quite different to the UK convention. Since the passage of the ''Roads Act 1993'', all motorways are part of, or form, ''national primary roads''. These routes are numbered in series, (usually, radiating anti-clockwise from Dublin, starting with the N1/M1) using numbers from 1 to 33 (and, separately from the series, 50). Motorways use the number of the route of which they form part, with an M prefix rather than N for national road (or in theory, rather than R for ''regional road''). In most cases, the motorway has been built as a bypass of a road previously forming the national road (e.g. the M7 bypassing roads previously forming the N7) – the bypassed roads are reclassified as regional roads, although updated signposting may not be provided for some time, and adherence to signage colour conventions is lax (regional roads have black-on-white directional signage, national routes use white-on-green).

Under the previous legislation, the ''Local Government (Roads and Motorways) Act 1974'', motorways theoretically existed independently to national roads, however the short sections of motorway opened during this act, except for the M50, always took their number from the national road that they were bypassing. The older road was not downgraded at this point (indeed, regional roads were not legislated for at this stage). Older signage at certain junctions on the M7 and M11 can be seen reflecting this earlier scheme, where for example N11 and M11 can be seen coexisting.

The M50, an entirely new national road, is an exception to the normal inheritance process, as it does not replace a road previously carrying an N number. The M50 was nevertheless legislated in 1994 as the N50 route (it had only a short section of non-motorway section form the Junction 11 Tallaght to Junction 12 Firhouse until its extension as the Southern Cross Motorway). The M50's designation was chosen as a recognisable number. As of 2010, the N34 is the next unused national primary road designation. In theory, a motorway in Ireland could form part of a regional road.

Elsewhere

In Hungary, similar to Ireland, motorway numbers can be derived from the original national highway numbers (1–7), with an M prefix attached, e.g. M7 is on the route of the old Highway 7 from Budapest towards Lake Balaton and Croatia. New motorways not following the original Budapest-centered radial highway system get numbers M8, M9, etc., or M0 in the case of the ring road around Budapest.

Also in the Netherlands, motorway numbers can be derived from the original national highway numbers, but with an A prefix attached, like A9 .

In Germany motorways have the prefix A. If the following number is an odd number the motorway generally follows a North-South direction, even-numbered motorways generally follow an East-West direction

In New Zealand, as well as in the Scandinavian countries, and in Finland and Russia, motorway numbers are also derived from the state highway route that they form a part of, but unlike Hungary and Ireland, they are not distinguished from non motorway sections of the same state highway route. In the cases where a new motorway acts as a bypass of a state highway route, the original state highway is either stripped of that status or renumbered. A low road number means a road suitable for long distance driving.

In Australia, motorway numbering varies from state to state. Currently most states are adopting numbering systems with the prefix M for motorways.

In Pakistan, motorways are denoted with the prefix M.

Regional variation

While the design characteristics listed above are generally applicable around the globe, every jurisdiction provides its own specifications and design criteria for controlled-access highways.

Australia

Most of Australia's capital cities feature a motorway network within their urban areas. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth each feature freeway and motorway systems, while Canberra, Adelaide, Hobart and the regional centres of Newcastle, Geelong, Gold Coast, and Wollongong feature a selection of limited-access routes. Outside these areas traffic volumes do not generally demand motorway-standard access, although heavily-trafficked regional corridors such as Sydney-Newcastle (M1 Sydney-Newcastle Freeway), Brisbane-Gold Coast (M1 Pacific Motorway), Melbourne-Geelong (M1 Princes Freeway) and that form part of major long-distance routes feature high-standard motorway links.

While Sydney and Canberra (NH23 Federal Highway (Australia)) are the only two Australian capitals connected by a continuous dual-highway, upgrades to full dual-highway of the heavy-use Sydney-Melbourne (A31/M31 Hume Highway/Freeway) and Sydney-Brisbane (M1 Pacific Highway) interstate routes, a total length of more than , are underway. As of mid-2011 the NH23 was not a true controlled-access highway as many country settlements had at-level access to the highway with a large (20 m) central reservation providing a refuge for traffic that had to cross one carriageway to get to the other.

Unlike many other countries, Australia's motorways are being opened to cyclists. As the respective state governments upgrade their state's motorways bicycle lanes are being added and/or shoulders widened alongside the motorways.

China

The National Trunk Highway System (NTHS) expressway network of the People's Republic of China is the second longest in the world, just 1000 miles short of the U.S. interstate system as of 2010. The total length of China's expressways was by the end of 2010, the world's second longest only after the United States and roughly equal to Canada, Germany, France and Japan combined. In 2009, of expressways were added to this network.

Expressways in China are a fairly recent addition to a complicated network of roads. According to Chinese government sources, China did not have any expressways before 1988. One of the earliest expressways nationwide was the Jingshi Expressway between Beijing and Shijiazhuang in Hebei province. This expressway now forms part of the Jingzhu Expressway, currently one of the longest expressways nationwide at over .

Germany

Germany's ''autobahn'' network has a total length of about 12,800 km, or 7,950 miles (in 2010), which ranks as the third-longest in the world behind the Interstate Highway System of the United States and the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS) of the People's Republic of China. German autobahns have no general speed limit (though about 47% of the total length is subject to local and/or conditional limits), but the advisory speed limit ''Richtgeschwindigkeit'') is .

Great Britain

A map ''Shewing Future Pattern of Principal National Routes'' was issued by the Ministry of War Transport in 1946 shortly before the law that allowed roads to be restricted to specified classes of vehicle (the Special Roads Act 1949) was passed. The first section of motorway, the M6 Preston Bypass, opened in 1958 followed by the first major section of motorway (the M1 between Crick and Berrygrove), which opened in 1959. From then onwards, motorways opened on a regular basis right into the 1980s; by 1972 the first of motorway had been built.

Whilst roads outside of urban areas continued to be built throughout the 1970s, opposition to urban routes became more pronounced. Most notably, plans by the Greater London Council for a series of ringways were cancelled following extensive road protests and a rise in costs. In 1986 the compromised, single-ring, M25 motorway was completed. In 1996 the total length of motorways reached .

India

Expressways in India make up more than of the Indian National Highway System on which they are the highest class of road. The National Highways Development Project is underway to add an additional of expressways to the network by the year 2022.

Ireland

Northern Ireland

Legal authority existed in the Special Roads Act (Northern Ireland) 1963 similar to that in the 1949 Act. The first motorway to open was the M1 motorway, though it did so under temporary powers until the Special Roads Act had been passed. Work on the motorways continued until the 1970s when the oil crisis and The Troubles both intervened causing the abandonment of many schemes.

Republic of Ireland

In the Republic of Ireland the ''Local Government (Roads and Motorways) Act 1974'' made motorways possible, although the first section, the M7 Naas Bypass, did not open until 1983. The first section of the M50 opened in 1990, a part of which was Ireland's first toll motorway, the West-Link. However it would be the 1990s before substantial sections of motorway were opened in Ireland, with the first completed motorway – the 83 km (52 mi) M1 motorway – being finished in 2005.

Under the Transport 21 infrastructural plan, motorways or high quality dual carriageways were built between Dublin and the major cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford by the end of 2010. Other shorter sections of motorway either have been or will be built on some other main routes. In 2007 legislation (the ''Roads Bill 2007'') was proposed to allow existing roads be designated motorways by order because legislation allows for only newly-built roads to be designated motorways.

It is now intended that all the HQDCs on the major inter-urbans (other than some sections near Dublin on the N4 and N7, which do not fully meet motorway standards) will be reclassified as motorways. The first stage in this process occurred when all the HQDC schemes open or under construction on the N7 and N8, and between Kinnegad and Athlone on the N6 and Kilcullen and south of Carlow on the N9, were reclassified motorway on 24 September 2008. Further sections of dual carriageway are proposed to be reclassified as motorway.

Italy

The first motorway ever built in the world was the ''Autostrada dei laghi'', inaugurated on 21 September 1924 in Milan. It linked Milan to Varese; it was then extended to Como, near the border with Switzerland, inaugurated on 28 June 1925. Piero Puricelli, the engineer who designed this new type of road, decided to cover the expenses by introducing a toll.

Other motorways built before World War II in Italy were Naples-Pompeii, Padua-Venice, Milan-Turin, Milan-Bergamo-Brescia and Rome-Ostia.

Type B highway (or strada extraurbana principale), commonly but unofficially known as superstrada, is a divided highway with at least two lanes for each direction, paved shoulder on the right, no cross-traffic and no at-grade intersections. Access restrictions on such highways are exactly the same of autostrade, as well as signage at the beginning and the end of the highway (with the only difference being the background color, blue instead of green).

Japan

make up the majority of controlled-access highways in Japan. The network boasts an uninterrupted link between Aomori Prefecture at the northern part of Honshū and Kagoshima Prefecture at the southern part of Kyūshū, linking Shikoku as well. Additional expressways serve travellers in Hokkaidō and on Okinawa Island, although those are not connected to the Honshū-Kyūshū-Shikoku grid. Expressways have a combined length of 8,730 km as of March 2005.

New Zealand

left|80px The term ''Motorway'' in New Zealand encompasses multilane divided freeways as well as narrower 2-4-lane undivided expressways with varying degrees of grade separation; the term ''Motorway'' describes the legal traffic restrictions rathjer than the type of road.

New Zealand's motorway network is small due to the nation's low population density and low traffic volumes making it uneconomical to build controlled-access highways outside the major urban centres.

New Zealand's first motorway opened in December 1950 near Wellington, running from Johnsonville to Tawa. This motorway now forms the southern part of the Johnsonville-Porirua Motorway and part of State Highway 1. Auckland's first stretch of motorway was opened in 1953 between Ellerslie and Mount Wellington (between present-day Exit 435 and Exit 438), and now forms part of the Southern Motorway.

Most major urban areas in New Zealand feature limited-access highways. Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin contain motorways, with only Auckland having a substantial motorway network.

Pakistan

Pakistan has a network of high-quality, international-standard limited access (or access-controlled) motorways, which are maintained and operated by the National Highway Authority. In August 2009, operational motorways in Pakistan had a combined length of with another under construction and further planned.

Pakistan's motorways are part of Pakistan's National Trade Corridor project that aims to link Pakistan's three Arabian Sea ports of Karachi, Port Qasim and Gwadar to the rest of the country and further on with Afghanistan, Central Asia and China.

Pakistan's first motorway, the M2, was inaugurated in November 1997 and was the first motorway to be built in South Asia. The M2 is a long, six-lane motorway that links Pakistan's federal capital, Islamabad, with Punjab's provincial capital, Lahore. Since the completion of the M2, two additional motorways have become operational. These are the four-lane (with capacity to increase to six lanes) M3 (Pindi Bhattian-Faisalabad), which links the M2 to Faisalabad and the six-lane M1 (Peshawar-Islamabad). One additional motorway is currently under-construction, the four-lane (with capacity to increase to six lanes) M4 (Faisalabad-Multan).

Philippines

In the Philippines, there are six controlled-access highways, locally called ''tollway'' or ''expressway'', all located on the island of Luzon.

South Africa

In South Africa, the term ''freeway'' differs from most parts of the world. A freeway is a road where certain restrictions apply. The following are forbidden from using a freeway:

a vehicle drawn by an animal;

a pedal cycle (such as a bicycle);

a motor cycle having an engine with a cylinder capacity not exceeding 50 cm³ or that is propelled by electrical power;

a motor tricycle or motor quadrucycle;

pedestrians

Drivers may not use hand signals on a freeway (except in emergencies) and the minimum speed on a freeway is . Drivers in the rightmost lane of multi-carriageway freeways must move to the left if a faster vehicle approaches from behind to overtake.

Despite popular opinion that "freeway" means a road with at least two lanes, single carriageway freeways exist, as is evidenced by the statement that "the roads include 1,400 km of dual carriageway freeway, of single carriageway freeway and of single carriage main road with unlimited access." The Afrikaans translation of ''freeway'' is ''snelweg'' (literally ''fast road'' or ''expressway'').

Spain

Spain has one of the largest motorway networks in the world. ''Autopistas'' are specifically reserved for automobile travel, so all vehicles not able to sustain at least are banned from them. General speed limits are mandated by the Spanish Traffic Law as . Specific limits may be imposed based on road, meteorologic or traffic conditions. Spanish legislation requires an alternate route to be provided for slower vehicles. Many, but not all, autopistas are toll roads, which also mandates an alternate toll-free route under the Spanish laws.

Thailand

The Thai motorway network is an intercity motorway network that spans . It is to be extended to over according to the master plan.

Thailand's motorway network is considered to be separate from Thailand's expressway network, which is the system of usually elevated expressways within Greater Bangkok. Thailand also has a provincial highway network.

The Thai highway network spans over across all regions of Thailand. These highways, however, are often dual carriageways with frequent u-turn lanes and intersections slowing down traffic. Coupled with the increase in the number of vehicles and the demand for a limited-access motorway, the Thai Government issued a Cabinet resolution in 1997 detailing the motorway construction master plan. Some upgraded sections of highway are being turned into a "motorway", while other motorways are being purpose-built.

United States

In the United States, a ''freeway'' is defined by the federal government's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices as a divided highway with full control of access. This means two things. First, adjoining property owners do not have a legal right of access, meaning that they cannot connect their lands to the highway by constructing driveways, although frontage roads provide access to properties adjacent to a freeway in many places. When an existing road is converted into a freeway, all existing driveways must be removed and access to adjacent private lands must be blocked with fences or walls.

Second, traffic on a freeway is "free-flowing". All cross-traffic (and left-turning traffic) is relegated to overpasses or underpasses, so that there are no traffic conflicts on the main line of the highway which must be regulated by traffic lights, stop signs, or other traffic control devices. Achieving such free flow requires the construction of many overpasses, underpasses, and ramp systems. The advantage of grade-separated interchanges is that freeway drivers can almost always maintain their speed at junctions since they do not need to yield to vehicles crossing perpendicular to mainline traffic.

In contrast, an expressway is defined as a divided highway with partial control of access. Expressways may have driveways and at-grade intersections, though these are usually less numerous than on ordinary arterial roads.

This distinction was apparently first developed in 1949 by the Special Committee on Nomenclature of what is now the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. In turn, the definitions were incorporated into AASHTO's official standards book, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which would become the national standards book of the U.S. Department of Transportation under a 1966 federal statute. The same distinction has also been codified into the statutory law of eight states: California, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

However, each state codified the federal distinction slightly differently. California expressways do not necessarily have to be divided, though they must have at least partial access control. For both terms to apply, in Wisconsin, a divided highway must be at least four lanes wide; and in Missouri, both terms apply only to divided highways at least long that are not part of the Interstate Highway System. In North Dakota and Mississippi, expressways may have "full or partial" access control and "generally" have grade separations at intersections; a freeway is then defined as an expressway with full access control. Ohio's statute is similar, but instead of the vague word ''generally'', it imposes a requirement that 50% of an expressway's intersections must be grade-separated for the term to apply. Only Minnesota enacted the exact MUTCD definitions, in May 2008.

The term ''expressway'' is also used for what the federal government calls "freeways"; Where the terms are distinguished, freeways can be characterized as expressways upgraded to full access control, while not all expressways are freeways.

Examples in the United States of roads which are technically expressways (under the federal definition), but contain the word "freeway" in their names: State Fair Freeway in Kansas, Chino Valley Freeway, Rockaway Freeway in New York, and Shenango Valley Freeway (a portion of U.S. Route 62) in Pennsylvania.

Unlike some countries not all freeways are part of a national network. In the U.S, freeways may be built and maintained by any level of government so some freeways such as California 99 and parts of US 127 in Michigan carry state highway and U.S Highway designations.

References

Category:Types of roads

als:Autobahn ar:طريق سيار az:Avtomagistral be:Аўтамагістраль bs:Autoput bg:Автомагистрала ca:Autopista cv:Автомобиль çулĕ cs:Dálnice cy:Traffordd da:Motorvej de:Autobahn et:Maantee el:Αυτοκινητόδρομος eml:Autostrè es:Autopista eo:Aŭtovojo ext:Autopista eu:Autobide fa:آزادراه fr:Autoroute fy:Autodyk ga:Mótarbhealach gl:Autoestrada ko:고속도로 hr:Autocesta id:Jalan bebas hambatan terkendali it:Autostrada he:כביש מהיר ka:ავტოსტრადა la:Autovia lb:Autobunn lt:Automagistralė hu:Autópálya ms:Lebuh raya nl:Autosnelweg ja:高速道路 nap:Autostrada no:Motorvei nn:Motorveg nrm:Motoroute oc:Autorota pms:Autostrà pl:Autostrada pt:Autoestrada ro:Autostradă ru:Автомагистраль sco:Motorwey simple:Motorway sk:Diaľnica sl:Avtocesta szl:Autobana sr:Ауто-пут sh:Autoput fi:Moottoritie sv:Motorväg th:ทางหลวงพิเศษ tr:Otoyol uk:Автомагістраль zh:高速公路

name	Corey Gunz
cover
background	solo_singer
birth name	Peter Pankey, Jr.
alias	Cory Gunny, Mr. Gunz, Gunna
born	June 22, 1987 Bronx, New York, U.S.
genre	Hip hop, Rap, Pop, R&B/Soul, East Coast Hip Hop
occupation	Rapper, songwrtiter
years active	2006–present
label	Young Money Entertainment, After Platinum Records, TM3 Records
associated acts	Peter Gunz, DJ Drama, Lil Wayne, Young Money, Square Off, Omarion, Nick Cannon, Curren$y, Smoke DZA, Asher Roth, Lloyd Banks, Mickey Factz, Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Smokey, Meek Mill (rapper), Wiz Khalifa
website	}}

Peter Pankey, Jr. (born June 22, 1987) is a rapper, better known by his stage name Cory Gunz, and the son of rapper Peter Gunz and cousin of fellow rapper Junior. Gunz is currently signed to Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records, After Platinum Records and Universal Motown. He is a native of the Bronx. He was first signed by Tommy Mottola to Casablanca Records and Def Jam Recordings.

Jay-Z shepherded him into a joint venture through The Island Def Jam Music Group. He was featured on a remix of Rihanna's "If It's Lovin' That You Want". Gunz The Apprentice 3 - Season Finale has amassed over 55,000 listens on the mixtape website Datpiff. He also contributed a verse to the original version of Lil Wayne's ''A Milli'' before it was replaced with new verses by Wayne for the album version. In early 2010 Cory Gunz inked a deal with Young Money Entertaimnent, After Platinum Records and Universal Motown. Gunz has also worked with actor and musician Nick Cannon. He is featured in Lil Wayne's single "6 Foot 7 Foot."

Cory Gunz is also the star of MTV's "Son of A Gun" - a reality show that follows Cory after he signed by Young Money. It also features Nick Cannon and Peter Gunz. He has released eight mixtapes since the start of his career.

Discography

Albums

TBA: ''TBD''

Mixtapes

''The Apprentice Mixtape Vol 1

''The Apprentice Mixtape Vol 2

''The Apprentice 3 – Season Finale

''The Militia: The Call Of Duty

2008: ''The Best Kept Secret

2009: ''Youngest in Charge(with Square Off)

2009: ''Gangsta Grillz: Heir to the Throne'' (with DJ Drama)

2011: ''Son of a Gun: The Mixtape''

Collaborative singles

"Push It" (with Emina Jahović) - 2008

"Spit Crack Music" (with Black Kent) - 2010

Featured singles

"If It's Lovin' That You Want Part 2" (Rihanna ft. Cory Gunz) - 2006 '' - From the Album ''A Girl like Me'' (Rihanna album)''

"6 Foot 7 Foot" (Lil Wayne ft. Cory Gunz) - 2010

"A Million Lights" (DJ Khaled ft. Tyga, Cory Gunz, Mack Maine, Jae Millz & Kevin Rudolf) - 2011

References

External links

Myspace

Category:1987 births Category:Cash Money Records artists Category:African American rappers Category:Rappers from New York City Category:Living people

fr:Cory Gunz pl:Cory Gunz

Name	Aretha Franklin
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Aretha Louise Franklin
Born	March 25, 1942Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, pianist
Years active	1956–present
Genre	Soul, jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, rock
Instrument	Vocals, piano
Label	ColumbiaAtlanticArista
Associated acts	Sweet Inspirations, Carolyn Franklin, Erma Franklin, Cissy Houston, George Benson, George Michael, Michael McDonald, Eurythmics }}

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All Time as well as the ninth greatest artist of all time. She has won 18 competitive Grammys and two honorary Grammys. She has 20 No.1 singles on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart and two No.1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Respect" (1967) and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1987), a duet with George Michael. Since 1961, she has scored a total of 45 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. She also has the most million-selling singles of any female artist (14). Between 1967 and 1982 she had 10 No.1 R&B albums—more than any other female artist. In 1987, Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She was the only featured singer at the 2009 presidential inauguration of Barack Obama.

Biography

Early life and career: 1942–1959

Aretha Louise Franklin (named for two aunts) was born in a two-room house in Memphis located at 406 Lucy St. She was the third of four children born to Barbara (née Siggers) and C.L. Franklin and the fifth of six overall in between past relationships by her parents. Franklin's family moved to Buffalo, when Franklin was two, and then by four, had settled in Detroit. Following the move to Detroit, Franklin's parents, who had a troubled marriage, split. Due to her father's work as a Baptist minister, Franklin was primarily raised by her grandmother, Rachel. Franklin suffered a tragedy when her mother died in Buffalo when Aretha was ten. Franklin sang in church at an early age and learned how to play piano by ear.

By her late preteens, Franklin was regularly singing solo numbers in her father's New Bethel Baptist Church. C.L. (né Clarence LaVaughn) Franklin), Aretha's father, was a respected local preacher. She grew up with local and national celebrities hanging out at her father's home including gospel greats Albertina Walker and her group The Caravans, Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward, three women who played a pivotal role in her vocal development as a child.

Early success: 1960–1966

She released her first single for Columbia in September 1960, aged 18. It reached No. 10 on ''Billboard'''s R&B chart. Her first album was released in January 1961. The label had her record mainly jazz-influenced pop music, hoping for success with this format as the label had with Billie Holiday. Columbia founder John H. Hammond later admitted in an interview years later that he felt Columbia did not really understand Franklin's background in gospel and failed to bring that aspect out in her secular recordings. After scoring two more top ten R&B hits with "Operation Heartbreak" and "Won't Be Long" in 1961, Franklin scored her first top 40 pop hit with her rendition of "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody". However later releases failed to find similar success, although Franklin had a near-Top 50 hit with "Runnin' Out of Fools" (1963).

After the release of a tribute album to Dinah Washington, Columbia drifted away from their early jazz dreams for Franklin and had the singer record renditions of girl group-oriented hits including "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)", "Every Little Bit Hurts" and "Mockingbird" but every attempt to bring her success with the material failed. However, she had garnered fame for being a multi-talented vocalist and musician. During a show in 1965, the master of ceremonies gave Franklin a tiara crown declaring her "the queen of soul". The title would prove to be prophetic. By 1966, struggling with recording for Columbia, Franklin decided not to sign a new contract with the label and settled with a deal with Atlantic. After she gained success at Atlantic, Columbia would release material from Franklin's prior recordings with the label which continued until 1969.

Superstardom: 1967–1972

Franklin began recording her first songs for Atlantic in early 1967. Initially sent to Muscle Shoals's legendary FAME studios where the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was the in-house band, Franklin cut her first song – the blues ballad "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", which finally allowed Franklin to show her gospel side. Tensions between Franklin's then-husband and then-manager Ted White and a musician led to Franklin and White hiding from public view in New York. Franklin eventually returned to the studio in New York to record the b-side, the gospel-oriented "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man". "I Never Loved a Man" soared up both the pop and R&B charts upon its release peaking at number-nine and number-one respectively.

Her second single with Atlantic would also be her biggest, most acclaimed work. "Respect", originally recorded and written by R&B singer Otis Redding, would become a bigger hit after Franklin's gospel-fueled rendition of the song. The song also started a pattern of Franklin in later songs during this period producing a call and response vocal with Franklin usually backed up by her sisters Erma and Carolyn Franklin or The Sweet Inspirations. Franklin is credited with arranging the background vocals and ad-libbing the line, "r-e-s-p-e-c-t, find out what it means to me/take care of TCB", while her sisters shouted afterwards, "sock it to me". Franklin's version peaked at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, becoming a sixties anthem. Franklin had three more top ten hits in 1967 – "Baby I Love You", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Chain of Fools". "Respect" later won Franklin her first two Grammys. She eventually won eight consecutive Grammys under the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category.

By the end of the year, Franklin not only became a superstar but she stood as one of the symbols of the civil rights movement partially due to her rendition of "Respect", which had a feminist-powered theme after Franklin recorded it. Franklin's other hits during the late sixties included "Think", her rendition of Dionne Warwick's "I Say a Little Prayer", "Ain't No Way" and "The House That Jack Built" among others. By the end of the sixties, Franklin's title as "the queen of soul" became permanent in the eyes of the media. After a few struggles in 1969, she returned with the ballad, "Call Me" in January 1970. That same year she had another hit with her gospel version of Ben E. King's "Don't Play That Song", while in 1971, Franklin was one of the first black performers to headline Fillmore West where she later released a live album. That same year she released the acclaimed ''Young, Gifted & Black'' album, which featured two top ten hits, the ballad "Daydreamin'" and the funk-oriented "Rocksteady". In 1972, she released her first gospel album in nearly two decades with ''Amazing Grace''. The album eventually became her biggest-selling release ever, selling over two million copies and becoming the best-selling gospel album of all time.

Decline and fallout with Atlantic: 1973–1979

Aretha had another number-one R&B hit in 1973 with the Carolyn Franklin and William "Sonny" Sanders-composed "Angel", however its parent album, ''Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)'', failed to repeat the success of Franklin's other albums. By 1974, after four years performing in Afrocentric-styled clothing, the singer glammed up her look and styled red hair releasing ''Let Me In Your Life''. The album yielded the smash single, "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)". While several singles would later find success on the R&B charts, Franklin was losing favor with pop audiences as soul music was starting to be overtaken by the emerging disco genre. Atlantic Records had also by this point given priority attention to Roberta Flack, leading to relations between Franklin and the company becoming estranged as a result. Franklin turned down a number of tracks giving to her by Marvin Yancy and Chuck Jackson (though eventually they would contribute to her 1975 album, ''You''). Several of the songs including "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" was later recorded by Natalie Cole. After the arrivals of Cole and Chaka Khan, Franklin's star ebbed.

She briefly returned to the top 40 in 1976 with the Curtis Mayfield production, ''Sparkle'', which spawned the number-one R&B hit, "Giving Him Something He Can Feel". Despite this, Franklin struggled to find success with subsequent releases. After the release of 1979's ''La Diva'', an attempt for Franklin to find a disco audience that flopped, selling less than 50,000 copies, Franklin's contract with Atlantic expired. Neither Atlantic nor Aretha had any interest in renewing it. While she was performing in Las Vegas on June 10, 1979, Franklin's father, C.L., was shot during an attempted robbery at his LaSalle Street home in Detroit. The incident left C.L. in a coma for the next five years. Aretha moved back to the Detroit area in late 1982 from Los Angeles (where she had lived since 1976) to help care for her father.

Comeback: 1980–1989

In 1980, Franklin among other prominent rhythm and blues and soul artists including Ray Charles and James Brown appeared on the film, ''The Blues Brothers.'' Franklin appeared as the wife of musician Matt "Guitar" Murphy, who engages in a brief war of words with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi before going into "Think". Following that performance, Clive Davis signed Franklin to his Arista Records imprint. The singles "United Together" and the George Benson-featured "Love All the Hurt Away" returned Franklin to the R&B top ten while 1982's ''Jump to It'', featuring a contemporary R&B production style by Luther Vandross, became a comeback of sorts for Franklin on the pop music chart. The album stayed at No. 1 on the R&B Albums chart for seven weeks and crossed to No. 23 on the ''Billboard'' 200 album chart, selling over 600,000 units and becoming Aretha's first gold-certified album since the ''Sparkle soundtrack''. The title track became Franklin's first number-one R&B hit in five years while also hitting No. 24 on the Hot 100. After the relative failure of her 1983 follow-up, ''Get It Right'', also produced by Vandross, Franklin took some personal time off. Following the July 1984 death of her father, she entered the United Sound Studios in Detroit to record a new album for Arista in October of that year. Inspired by the recent success of fellow artist Tina Turner and Arista's emerging star Whitney Houston, Arista paired Franklin with Narada Michael Walden.

The album released in July 1985, ''Who's Zoomin' Who?'', featured R&B, pop, dance, synthpop and rock elements and became Franklin's first platinum-certified success. The album launched several major hits including the title track and the Motown-inspired "Freeway of Love". The rock-influenced Annie Lennox duet, "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" also became a hit for Franklin on the pop charts though it failed to climb higher than No.66 on the R&B chart due to its more pop rock-leaning sound. Music Videos for each of the singles became prominent fixtures on MTV, BET and VH-1 among other video channels. In 1986, Franklin released her self-titled follow-up to ''Who's Zoomin' Who''. The album sold almost a million copies, and featured the number-one hit, "I Knew You Were Waiting for Me", a duet with George Michael. In April 1987, the song became Franklin's first single since "Respect" to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Other hits from the album included a cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and another Motown-inspired hit, "Jimmy Lee". In 1987 she returned to her gospel roots with the album, ''One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism'', which failed to repeat the success of ''Amazing Grace'' despite a powerful rendition of "Oh Happy Day", featuring Mavis Staples, but did reach the Top 10 of Billboard's gospel chart. In 1986, she sang the theme song ("Together") for the ABC television network.

Later work: 1989–2003

In 1989, Franklin returned with her first pop album in three years with ''Through the Storm'' but despite scoring a Top 20 hit with the title track featuring Elton John and the presence of Whitney Houston in their duet single, "It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Ever Gonna Be", the album tanked, as did a follow-up, 1991's new jack swing effort, ''What You See Is What You Sweat''. After singing Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free" on the ''Malcolm X soundtrack'' in 1992 and singing at then-President Bill Clinton's inauguration ceremony in 1993, Franklin returned to favor with pop audiences later in 1993 with the release of the dance single, "Deeper Love", which was featured on the soundtrack of ''Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit''. The following year, Franklin issued her Arista hits album and with Babyface released two hit singles, "Honey" and the top 40 pop ballad "Willing to Forgive". In 1995, her song "It Hurts Like Hell" appeared on the soundtrack for the movie ''Waiting to Exhale''. Four years passed until Franklin released another album. 1998's ''A Rose Is Still a Rose'' reintroduced Franklin to a new R&B audience and featured elements of neo soul and hip hop soul with production from Lauryn Hill, Jermaine Dupri and Sean "Puffy" Combs. The title track, written and produced by Hill, became Franklin's biggest hit in years reaching number 26 on the Hot 100 and reaching the R&B top five.

She later reprised her role as Matt "Guitar" Murphy's wife in the Blues Brothers remake, ''Blues Brothers 2000'' singing "Respect". She struggled to record a successful follow-up, however, and it would be five more years before a new album emerged. Franklin issued her next album, ''So Damn Happy'', in 2003.

Current work: 2004–present

In 2003, after 23 years with Arista, Franklin parted with the company and decided to go on the independent route, forming Aretha's Records two years later. Franklin released a duets compilation album, ''Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen'', in 2007. The album featured the Fantasia duet, "Put You Up on Game", which despite becoming a modest hit on Urban AC radio, stalled at No. 41 on the R&B charts. A year later, Franklin issued her first holiday album, ''This Christmas, Aretha''. After initially being released as a Borders exclusive, it was later released by the DMI label.

In 2008, Franklin was honored as MusiCares "Person of the Year", two days prior to the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, where she was awarded her 18th career Grammy. Franklin was personally asked by then newly-elected President Barack Obama to perform at his inauguration singing "My Country 'tis of Thee". The memorable hat she wore at the ceremony was donated to the Smithsonian Institution. In 2010, Franklin received an honorary music degree from Yale University.

In 2010 and through early 2011, Franklin had told the media she had selected actress Halle Berry to play her in the featured role of the legendary singer in a biopic loosely based on Franklin's memoirs, ''Aretha: From These Roots''. In January 2011, Berry turned down the role. Franklin said she's now setting her sights on singers Fantasia and Jennifer Hudson on getting the lucrative role.

Marking her 50th anniversary in show business, Franklin released her thirty-eighth studio album, ''A Woman Falling Out Of Love'', on May 3, 2011, through WalMart. It is the first release off Franklin's own record label, Aretha's Records, a label she formed back in the 1990s. However, Aretha's new disc peaked at a disappointing #54 on ''Billboard'''s main album chart, dropping off after only two weeks. She co-produced some of the new tracks. The first single from the album is the ballad "How Long I've Been Waiting" which failed to chart. Ronald Isley will be featured in the album doing the Barbra Streisand standard, "The Way We Were", as he and Franklin covered the Carole King classic, "You've Got a Friend", first issued on Isley's ''Mr. I'' album.

Following her exit from the stage in November, 2010 and her surgery the following month, Franklin has recently returned to the stage, rescheduling dates she was forced to cancel due to recent health problems.

In September 2011, Tony Bennett will be releasing a duet with Franklin entitled "How Do You Keep The Music Playing" off of his forthcoming album, Duets II (Tony Bennett album).

Personal life

In 1956, shortly after her 14th birthday, Franklin gave birth to her eldest child, a son she named Clarence (for her father). Around 1957 she gave birth to another son, Edward. She never identified by name the father of either child. Her grandmother, Rachel, raised the boys while Aretha pursued her singing career. Rachel lived in a guest house behind C.L. Franklin's LaSalle Street home. The Franklin family moved from their home on Boston Street in Detroit's North End section to LaSalle Street during the late 1950s.

Against her father's wishes Aretha began dating a family acquaintance named Ted White. In 1961 they were quickly married in Ohio by a judge. White became her personal manager as well as co-writer. Shortly afterward, she purchased a house on Sorrento Avenue in northwest Detroit, where she resided for the next decade. Their son Teddy (Ted White Jr.) was born in 1964. She and Ted divorced in 1969. Teddy is the musical director and guitarist of her touring band. From 1969 until 1976, she had a seven-year relationship with her road manager Ken Cunningham. (Although she and Ted White did not divorce until late 1969, Aretha conceived her fourth child in June of that year.) In the early 1970s the couple moved from Detroit to New York City, at which time Aretha's grandmother moved into her Sorrento Avenue home. Their son Kecalf (from the initials of his parents' names: Kenneth E Cunningham Aretha Louise Franklin and pronounced "kelf") was born on March 28, 1970 at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital.

On April 11, 1978, Aretha Franklin married actor Glynn Turman at her father's New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit. Franklin's father performed the marriage ceremony. The couple returned to their home in Encino, California. In late 1982, Franklin moved back to Detroit, and in 1985 she purchased a home in West Bloomfield, where she still resides. Turman and Franklin divorced in early 1984. The couple did not have children. They remained friends, and she sang the theme song for his show, ''A Different World'', in the late 1980s.

Franklin's sisters Erma and Carolyn, are both deceased, as is her brother Cecil. As of 2011, her half-brother Vaughn (born 1934) is alive as is her half-sister, Carl Ellan Kelley (née Jennings; born 1940). Kelley is C.L. Franklin's daughter by Mildred Jennings, a then 13-year-old congregant of New Salem Baptist Church of Memphis, Tennessee, where C.L. was pastor in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Aretha's sons, Ted White Jr. ("Teddy") and Kecalf Cunningham, are active in the music business. Teddy has been a guitarist in Aretha's back up band since the late 1980s, while Kecalf works as a Christian hip-hop rapper and producer.

Aretha Franklin is a registered Democrat.

In September 2010, her son Edward was attacked and severely beaten by three people while at a gas station on Joy Road in northwest Detroit.

Franklin's long friendship with Cissy Houston during Houston's time with The Sweet Inspirations led to Franklin becoming Whitney Houston's godmother. Cissy Houston sang the operatic soprano whoop in the background of Franklin's "Ain't No Way".

Awards and achievements

On June 28, 1968 she became the second African-American woman to appear on the cover of ''TIME'' magazine.

In 1985, then-Gov. James Blanchard of Michigan declared her voice “a natural resource” during a ceremony that marked her 25 years in show business.

Aretha Franklin is one of three musicians, along with Madonna & Marvin Gaye, to have singles peak at each of the top 10 positions on the US Billboard Hot 100.

On January 20, 1987, she became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

On March 29, 1987, Franklin sang "America the Beautiful" at ''WrestleMania III''.

In 1987, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Musicology degree from the University of Detroit.

In September 1999, she was awarded The National Medal of Arts by President Clinton.

In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked her No. 9 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

In 2005, she was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

In 2005, she became the second woman (Madonna being the first, a founding member) to be inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame.

In 2005, Franklin was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

On February 6, 2006, she performed, along with Aaron Neville, "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XL.

On May 13, 2006, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree by the Berklee College of Music.

On April 1, 2007 Aretha sang "America the Beautiful" at ''WrestleMania 23.''

On May 14, 2007, she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2007, Aretha Franklin's recording of "Respect" was voted a Legendary Michigan Song.

Is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority

On February 8, 2008, Franklin was honored as MusiCares "Person of the Year".

On February 14, 2008, Franklin was given the Vanguard award at the NAACP Image awards.

On May 4, 2008, Franklin was given the Key to the City of Memphis at the 2008 "Memphis in May International Music Festival" by Mayor Dr. Willie Herenton during her performance onstage.

On September 13, 2008, Franklin was ranked No .19 on the ''Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists'' list by ''Billboard''. November 2008, Franklin was named by ''Rolling Stone'' as the No. 1 all-time best singer of the rock era, according to the magazine's survey of 179 musicians, producers, Rolling Stone editors, and other music industry insiders. On January 20, 2009, Franklin performed "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" during the inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama. The distinctive hat she wore during that performance is displayed at the Smithsonian. On May 23, 2010, Franklin received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Yale University. On Feb 13, 2011, the Grammy Awards paid tribute to Franklin with a medley of her classics by fellow singers Christina Aguilera, Florence Welch, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride and Yolanda Adams Grammy.com.

Grammy Awards

Franklin has won eighteen Grammy Awards in total during her career (she first charted in 1961) and holds the record for most Best Female R&B Vocal Performance awards with eleven to her name (including eight consecutive awards from 1968 to 1975 – the first eight awarded in that category).

{|class="wikitable" |- !colspan="5"|Aretha Franklin's 18 Grammy Award Wins |- !# !Year !Category !Genre !Title |- | 1 || style="text-align:center;"| 1968 || Best Rhythm & Blues Recording || R&B ||Respect |- | 2 || style="text-align:center;"| 1968 || |Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Respect |- | 3 || style="text-align:center;"| 1969 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Chain Of Fools |- | 4 || style="text-align:center;"| 1970 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Share Your Love With Me |- | 5 || style="text-align:center;"| 1971 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Don't Play That Song For Me |- | 6 || style="text-align:center;"| 1972 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Bridge Over Troubled Water |- | 7 || style="text-align:center;"| 1973 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Young, Gifted and Black (album) |- | 8 || style="text-align:center;"| 1973 || Best Soul Gospel Performance || Gospel || Amazing Grace (album) |- | 9 || style="text-align:center;"| 1974 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Master Of Eyes |- |10 || style="text-align:center;"| 1975 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing |- |11 || style="text-align:center;"| 1982 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Hold On...I'm Comin' (album track) |- |12 || style="text-align:center;"| 1986 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Freeway Of Love |- |13 || style="text-align:center;"| 1988 || Best Female R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Aretha (album) |- |14 || style="text-align:center;"| 1988 || Best R&B Performance – Duo Or Group with Vocals || R&B || I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) (with George Michael) |- |15 || style="text-align:center;"| 1989 || Best Soul Gospel Performance – Female || Gospel || One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism (album) |- |*|| style="text-align:center;"| 1991 || Living Legend Award || Special | |- |*|| style="text-align:center;"| 1994 || Lifetime Achievement Award || Special | |- |16 || style="text-align:center;"| 2004 || Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || Wonderful |- |17|| style="text-align:center;"| 2006 || Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance || R&B || A House Is Not A Home |- |18|| style="text-align:center;"| 2008 || Best Gospel-Soul Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group || Gospel |Never Gonna Break My Faith (with Mary J. Blige) |} *According to NARAS Rules: 'Special' Grammy Awards (such as Lifetime Achievement) are not counted in a performer's tally.

Discography

Top 10 US Hot 100 singles

Year	Title	Peak
1967	"I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)"
1967
1967
1967	"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"
1967
1968	"(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone"
1968
1968	"The House That Jack Built"
1968	"I Say a Little Prayer"
1971
1971
1971
1972
1973	"Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)"
1985	"Freeway of Love"
1985	"Who's Zoomin' Who"
1987	"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (with George Michael)

Source:

All no. 1 hits in US R&B 100 singles

Year	Title	Peak
1967	"I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)"
1967
1967
1967
1968	"(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone"
1968
1969	"Share Your Love with Me"
1970
1970	"Don't Play That Song (You Lied)"
1971
1971
1972
1973
1973	"Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)"
1974
1976	"Something He Can Feel"
1977
1982
1983
1985	"Freeway of Love"

Source:

Filmography

Movies

''Cooley High'' (1975)

''The Blues Brothers'' (1980)

''Motown 40: The Music Is Forever'' (1998) (ABC-TV documentary)

''Blues Brothers 2000'' (1998)

''DIVAS LIVE'' (1998)

''Immaculate Funk'' (2000) (documentary)

''Rhythm, Love and Soul'' (2002)

''Tom Dowd & the Language of Music'' (2003) (documentary)

''Singing in the Shadow: The Children of Rock Royalty'' (2003) (documentary)

''From The Heart / The Four Tops 50th Anniversary and Celebration'' (2004)

''Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built'' (2007) (documentary)

Television

''The Mike Douglas Show

In 1972, she had a role in the TV show Room 222

''Solid Gold'' (numerous appearances with the last in 1982 performing "Jump To It")

''Kelly & Company'' (Marilyn Turner and John Kelly, Detroit)

''Dayna'' (Dayna Eubanks, fomer Detroit newscaster)

''Rolonda Show'' (Rolonda Watts)

''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' (numerous appearances including Oprah's 40th birthday, with Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight)

''Live with Regis and Kelly'' (numerous appearances)

''The View''

References

External links

Aretha Franklin at Legacy Recordings

Aretha Franklin at NPR Music

Category:1942 births Category:African American female singers Category:African American pianists Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:American child singers Category:American gospel singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American soul singers Category:Arista Records artists Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Baptists from the United States Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Feminist musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Tennessee Category:Musicians from Detroit, Michigan Category:People with cancer Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Rhythm and blues pianists Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Songwriters from Michigan Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

ar:أريثا فرانكلين an:Aretha Franklin ast:Aretha Franklin be:Арэта Франклін bg:Арета Франклин ca:Aretha Franklin cs:Aretha Franklinová da:Aretha Franklin de:Aretha Franklin el:Αρίθα Φράνκλιν es:Aretha Franklin eo:Aretha Franklin eu:Aretha Franklin fa:آرتا فرانکلین fr:Aretha Franklin ga:Aretha Franklin ko:어리사 프랭클린 hr:Aretha Franklin io:Aretha Franklin id:Aretha Franklin is:Aretha Franklin it:Aretha Franklin he:אריתה פרנקלין ka:არეთა ფრანკლინი sw:Aretha Franklin la:Aretha Franklin lv:Areta Franklina lt:Aretha Franklin hu:Aretha Franklin ms:Aretha Franklin nl:Aretha Franklin new:आरेथा फ्र्यान्क्लिन ja:アレサ・フランクリン no:Aretha Franklin nn:Aretha Franklin pl:Aretha Franklin pt:Aretha Franklin ru:Франклин, Арета se:Aretha Franklin sc:Aretha Franklin sq:Aretha Franklin simple:Aretha Franklin sk:Aretha Franklinová sr:Арета Френклин sh:Aretha Franklin fi:Aretha Franklin sv:Aretha Franklin th:อารีธา แฟรงคลิน tr:Aretha Franklin uk:Арета Франклін vi:Aretha Franklin war:Aretha Franklin yo:Aretha Franklin zh:艾瑞莎·弗蘭克林

Name	Jake One
Background	non_performing_personnel
Origin	Seattle, Washington
Genre	Hip hop
Occupation	Producer
Years active	1992–present
Label	G-Unit Records, Rhymesayers Entertainment
Associated acts	50 Cent, G-Unit, Young Buck, M.O.P., Freeway, De La Soul, Strange Fruit Project, DOOM, E-40, John Cena, Planet Asia, One Be Lo, Brother Ali, Kardinal Offishall
Past members	}}

Jacob Dutton, better known as Jake One, is an American hip hop record producer from Seattle, Washington.

Biography

Dutton grew up in Capitol Hill and moved to the North End of Seattle when he was 15. He started making music on a Casio keyboard in 1992. He attended the University of Washington and gave a tape of his music to a friend who worked in a local record store. One of the store's other employees, the DJ Mr. Supreme heard the tape, and when he set up his Conception Records label, he used Dutton to create backing tracks. The first record he produced was Eclipse's "World Premier". His early influences included Pete Rock, Dr. Dre, DJ Premier, and Marley Marl.

He was a part of the G-Unit production team, The Money Management Group. His first album credited to Jake One, ''White Van Music'', was released on October 7, 2008 on Rhymesayers Entertainment, which features contributions from Brother Ali, Young Buck, De La Soul, M.O.P., Freeway, DOOM, Slug, D.Black and Keak da Sneak.

He has had tracks included on the soundtracks to films such as ''Get Rich or Die Tryin''' (50 Cent's "I Don't Know Officer"), ''The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' ("Jake Alert"), and ''Gone Baby Gone''.

In 2010, Jake One released two collaborative albums, ''The Stimulus Package'' with Freeway and ''Patience'' with Truthlive.

Discography

Albums

! Album information
''White Van Music''	*Released: October 7, 2008	*Certification:	*Billboard 200: -	*R&B/Hip-Hop: -	*U.S. Sales: 10,200	*Singles: "The Truth"
	*Released: February 16, 2010	*Certification:	*Billboard 200: 63	*R&B/Hip-Hop: -	*U.S. Sales: 15,000	*Singles: "Know What I Mean", "She Makes Me Feel Alright"
''Patience'' (with Truthlive)	*Released: April 20, 2010	*Certification:	*Billboard 200: -	*R&B/Hip-Hop: -	*U.S. Sales: Unknown	*Single: "Catalyst for Change"

Production credits

(Not including the three albums listed above.)

1998

"World Premier", "No Introduction", "No Introdeezy", "Neva Scared", "Essay on Pseudo-ism", "Thoughts I Generate" (from the Conception Records compilation ''Walkman Rotation'')

1999

"Eyez on the Prize", "Game Trump Tight" (from the Trump Tight Records compilation ''Eyez on the Prize'')

2001

"Ice Age" (from the Mix Master Mike compilation album ''Spin Psycle'')

"Writers Guild", "Odds on Favorite", "All Stars", "The Trade", "Net Worth", "All I Have Left" (from the Boom Bap Project album ''Circumstance Dictates'')

2002

"The Reckoning" (from the Musab album ''Respect the Life'')

2003

"Ends to Means" (from the DJ Babu album ''Duck Season Vol. 2'')

"The Sweet Science", "Put Your Hands Up", "We Get Live" (from the Rasco album ''Escape from Alcatraz'')

"Betta Ask Somebody" (from the G-Unit album ''Beg for Mercy'')

"Fatal Mistake", "Walk With My Dogs", "Sashay" (from the Sly Boogy album ''Judgement Day'')

"Super Education Part 2" (from the compilation ''West Coast Lyricist Lounge'')

2004

"The Ride of Your Life", "Rat Race", "Flashback", "Up", "To Know You", "Hold On", "In a Minute Doe", "Evolution", "Moonshine" (from the Gift of Gab album ''4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up'')

"Days of Our Lives", "Rock Co.Kane Flow" (from the De La Soul album ''The Grind Date'')

"Fallback" (from the Kardinal Offishall mixtape ''Kill Bloodclott Bill'')

"As Long As I'm Alive" (from the Planet Asia album ''The Grand Opening'')

"Layover", "Step It Up Or Wrap It Up", "Zigga Zigga", "The Schizm", "My Way Home" feat. DJ Topspin (from the Encore album ''Layover'')

"Viewtiful Flow" (from the Vast Aire album ''Look Mom...No Hands'')

"Hoe Cakes (Jake One Remix)" (from the MF Doom bonus disc ''MM..LeftOvers'')

2005

"Kaysarasara" (from the Kardinal Offishall album ''Fire and Glory'')

"This Is It", "Ice Cold", "Everyday Shit" (from the I Self Devine album ''Self Destruction'')

2006

"Wasn't for You" (from the De La Soul album ''The Impossible: Mission TV Series – Pt. 1'')

"Moonlight Melodic Pt. 2" (from the Planet Asia mixtape ''The Sickness Part One'')

"Memories" (from the Deep Routed album ''The Second Coming'')

2007

"Down In New York City" (from the Evidence album ''The Weatherman LP'')

"Clean Up Man", "Buck The World" feat. Lyfe Jennings (from the Young Buck album ''Buck the World'')

"Movin on Up", "All of Me" (from the 50 Cent album ''Curtis'')

"Initiated (Nu-Mixx)" feat. Boot Camp Click (from the posthumous 2Pac album ''Nu-Mixx Klazzics Vol. 2'')

"Don't Kill Me", "Fukk Kramer Radio (Interlude)" (from the Bishop Lamont & DJ Skee mixtape ''N*gger Noize'')

"It's Over" (from the Freeway album ''Free at Last'')

"Beast" (from the Guilty Simpson mixtape ''Stray Bullets'')

2008

"Digital Motown" (from the Kardinal Offishall album ''Not 4 Sale'')

"4 All My Niggaz" feat. Planet Asia, Mistah F.A.B. & Ya Boy (from the Black Milk & Bishop Lamont album ''Caltroit'')

"Ready or Not" (from the G-Unit album ''T.O.S: Terminate on Sight'')

"Shed Thy Blood", "Damn Daddy" (from the Prodigy album ''Product of the 80's'')

"High Note" (from the Scarface album ''Emeritus'')

"Differences", "I Can't Decide (Everywhere at Once)" (from the Lyrics Born album ''Everywhere at Once'')

"Where I Been" (from the Skillz album ''The Million Dollar Backpack'')

2009

"Ballskin", "Rap Ambush", "Microwave Mayo", "More Rhymin'" (from the DOOM album ''Born Like This'')

"Won't Be Long" (from the Rakim album ''The Seventh Seal'')

"Dream" (from Elzhi mixtape ''The Leftovers Unmixedtape'')

"The Return", "Wake Up", "Yah Have Mercy" (from the D.Black album ''Ali'Yah'')

"Get Right" feat. Mistah F.A.B. & Baba Zumbi, "Seasoned" feat. Nightclubber Lang & "Cali" feat. Spank Pops & J Billion (from the Jern Eye album ''Vision'')

"No Substitute", "Life Line" feat. One Be Lo (from the Supastition album ''Splitting Image'')

2010

"Rock Star" (performed by Freeway on the ''UeRadioLive.com Mixtape'')

"Salute" (from the T.I. album ''No Mercy'')

"Armed & Dangerous" (from the Cypress Hill album ''Rise Up'')

"Escalators", "Beautiful Music" (from the upcoming Freeway album ''Diamonds in the Ruff'')

"Troublemakers" (from the Ghostface Killah album ''Apollo Kids'')

"C Scrolls" (from the Canibus album ''C of Tranquility'')

"One Of These Kids", "High School Sweet Heart" (from the JFK of Grayskul album ''Building Wings On The Way Down'')

"All That Fire" (from the J.Pinder ''Code Red EP'')

"Cry For Help" (by Fatal Lucciauno)

"This Is That Fire", "L's Up!" (from the Spaceman mixtape ''Earthlings Greatings - The Mixtape'')

2011

"Toyz N Da Hood" feat. Bootsy Collins, "Gangbang Rookie" feat. Pilot (from the Snoop Dogg album ''Doggumentary'')

"I Ain't Gonna Say Nothing" (by Slim da Mobster)

"No Evidence" (from the upcoming Evidence album ''Cats & Dogs'')

"Snappa Pow feat. Peedi Peedi" (from the upcoming Freeway album ''Diamonds in the Ruff'')

"Against the Wall" (by Ca$his)

"Armor Of God", "Armorgeddon (Shit On You)" & "Proof" (from the upcoming Vakill album ''Armor Of God'')

"Undergods Roll" (from the upcoming Undergods (Canibus & Keith Murray) album ''In Gods We Trust - Crush Microphones To Dust'')

"Lockjaw" (from the Elemental Zazen album ''Nothing to loose but change'')

"Lookin' Back feat. Devin the Dude" (from the E-40 album ''Revenue Retrievin': Overtime Shift'')

References

External links

Jake One at MySpace

Jake One's blog

Jake One at Discogs

Jacob Dutton - Swiss charts

Jake One discography at UndergroundHipHop.com

Category:1976 births Category:Living people Category:American hip hop record producers Category:People from Seattle, Washington

Name	Beanie Sigel
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Dwight Grant
Alias
Born	March 06, 1974
Origin	South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genre	Hip hop
Years active	1994–present
Associated acts	Scarface, Freeway, Raekwon, Young Gunz, The Roots, State Property, The Lox, 50 Cent, G-Unit
Label	Roc-A-Fella Records (1998–2009)G-Unit Records(2009–2010,2011–present)G-Unit Philly(2011–present) }}

Dwight Grant (born on March 6, 1974), also known as Beanie Sigel, is a American rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,most recently he was in talks with 50 Cent to sign with G-Unit Records and is a former member/artist of Dame Dash Music Group and Roc-A-Fella Records where he had formed a close association with rappers Jay-Z, Freeway and other former and current artists on the Roc-A-Fella roster. His stage name comes from a street in South Philadelphia, the rapper's former stomping grounds where he worked alongside Senior Durham in the projects. He has sold more than two million albums worldwide. He decided to end his career in middle 2010 when he made his last song, "I Go Off" with 50 Cent who had signed Grant to his G-Unit Records label in 2009, in early 2011 Grant appeared in Travis Barker album Give the Drummer Some, saying that it was the end of his career. In May 31, 2011 Grant apologized to his former boss Jay-Z. But in an interview with DJ Green Lantern, he said that he had never "apologized" to Jay-Z, and that he was still making music.

Music career

''State Property'' (2002-2003)

In 2002, Sigel and much of the Roc roster starred in a Dame Dash-produced movie entitled ''State Property''. Its release coincided with the creation and promotion of State Property, a group of artists signed to Roc-A-Fella that hailed from Philadelphia and organized by Sigel and Freeway. Its members included Peedi Crakk, the Young Gunz Chris,Neef, Oschino and Omilio Sparks. Their first collaboration was for the movie's soundtrack, an eponymous release that featured the original "Roc the Mic" by Sigel and Freeway. They followed up with 2003's ''The Chain Gang Vol. 2'', featuring the single "Can't Stop, Won't Stop" by the Young Gunz; the record was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group.

The B. Coming (2005)

In 2005 Sigel finished his 3rd album, ''The B. Coming'', and shot multiple videos, directed by Joe Briscella, before he had to start he got arrested. During this time, Jay-Z ascended to the Presidency of Def Jam Records, causing former business partners Damon Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke to split off and form the Dame Dash Music Group. Sigel's ''B. Coming'' was released on DDMG and Def Jam rather than Roc-A-Fella, but contained production from a slew of Roc/Jay-Z-affiliated producers including Chad West, The Neptunes, Just Blaze, Boola and Buckwild. Artists from both sides of the split were present on the record, from State Property members to Cam'ron and Jay-Z; the record spawned Sigel a hit with "Feel it in the Air," sold 131,000 copies in its first week.

Advertising his friendship with the incarcerated Beanie, Dash publicly claimed the artist was leaving the roster with him; during the sentence, State Property was thrown into turmoil, eventually choosing to remain at Roc-A-Fella—apparently against Sigel's wishes. Upon his release, Beanie called the loyalty of his group into question and stated that he was signing with Dame and Biggs courtesy of a stronger casual relationship with the pair than with Jay-Z:

Soon after, he clarified his comments, saying he simply didn't want to be involved in the conflict and electing to re-open talks with Roc-A-Fella instead of moving to DDMG.

The Solution (2006-2007)

In 2006 Sigel resigned with Roc-A-Fella Records & started to recording for his fourth studio album ''The Solution''. On October 29, 2007 Sigel released the first single off ''The Solution'' entitled "All The Above" which featured R. Kelly it debuted on the U.S. R&B charts at #83. On May 22, 2007 Sigel released ''The Solution'' it debuted on the Billboard charts at #37.

The Classic (2009-Present)

In 2009 after finally getting out of his contracts with Roc-A-Fella & Def Jam. Beanie Sigel released his first Independent album ''The Broad Street Bully''. In 2010 Sigel announced he was working on his fifth studio album entitled ''The Closure'' which was to be released from Universal Republic and G-Unit Records. But on May 31, 2011 Sigel cancelled the album & retired from the music industry. But just after two weeks he later returned and started working on the album again. He then also renamed the album as ''The Classic''.In 2011 Sigel signed with 50 Cent's subsidary label G-Unit Philly and renewed his contract with G-Unit Records from 2009. On July 13, 2011 Sigel released his first single from the album entitled "B-Boy Stance".

Other ventures

Acting career

Beanie Sigel first appeared in the documentary "Backstage" but his first main role was in the hood movie ''State Property'' which spawned a sequel "State Property 2". Sigel released a DVD shortly after his third solo release "The B. Coming" entitled "The B. Coming of Beanie Sigel"in the year of 2005. Sigel also auditioned for the lead role of the 2009 film "Notorious"

Beanie Sigel also appeared in the 2011 film ''Rhyme and Punishment'' a documentary about Hip-Hop artist who have served time in county jail or state/federal prison. The film features an interview with Beanie Sigel where he discusses his conviction and life in prison.

Controversy

Jadakiss

The new millennium also saw various Roc artists, including Sigel, engage in a conflict with artists from ''Ruff Ryders''. Beanie was a forerunner of the beef, publicly decrying Jadakiss, the rest of the L.O.X. and DMX. While Sigel and Jadakiss both denied any violent intent, they continued to send shots back and forth until Beanie put out a freestyle over Jada's hit "Put Ya Hands Up".

Personal life

Religion

Beanie Sigel practices the Islamic faith along with Freeway.

Friendship with Scarface

Conversely, Sigel cultivated a friendship with southern rapper Scarface. Having first appeared together on "This Can't Be Life" with Jay-Z from ''Dynasty'', the two would go on to collaborate on Sigel's first two records, Scarface's ''The Fix'', and later on Sigel's 2007 album ''The Solution.''

Legal issues

In 2004, Sigel was found guilty of federal weapons charges and sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison. In 2010, Sigel was charged with three counts of failing to file income tax returns between 2003-2005 on earnings of over $9.2 million.

Discography

;Studio albums

2000: ''The Truth''

2001: ''The Reason''

2005: ''The B. Coming''

2007: ''The Solution''

TBA: ''The Classic''

;Independent albums

2009: ''The Broad Street Bully''

;Collaboration albums

2002: ''State Property OST'' (with State Property)

2003: ''The Chain Gang Vol. 2'' (with State Property)

2010: ''The Roc Boys'' (with Freeway)

Fimography

;Films 2000 ''Brown Sugar (2002 film) ''Death of a Dynasty'' ''Fade to Black (2004 film) ''State Property 2'' ''Beef IV'' ''Rhyme and Punishment''

Year
	|	Backstage (2000 film)>Backstage''	As himself	Cameo/Documentary
rowspan="3">2002	Brown Sugar'' ||	As himself	Cameo
''State Property (film)	State Property''	Beans
''Paper Soldiers''	Stu
	2003	|	Charles "Sandman" Patterson	Support Role
	2004	Fade to Black'' ||	As himself	Cameo/Documentary
	2005	|	Beans	Main Role
	2007	|	As himself	Cameo/Documentary
	2011	|	As himself	Cameo/Documentary

References

External links

Beanie Sigel page at Roc-A-Fella Records

Official The Playpen Myspace

Official Beanie Sigel Myspace

MTV News

Category:African American musicians Category:Culture of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:American rappers Category:African American rappers Category:Living people Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:1974 births Category:American shooting survivors Category:State Property members Category:Def Jam Recordings artists Category:Rappers from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:American Sunni Muslims Category:African American Muslims Category:American prisoners and detainees

de:Beanie Sigel es:Beanie Sigel fr:Beanie Sigel ko:비니 시겔 no:Beanie Sigel pl:Beanie Sigel pt:Beanie Sigel fi:Beanie Sigel tr:Beanie Sigel uk:Beanie Sigel