Jake Miller/Action Item/Air Dubai

Inspired by Eminem, rapper Jake Miller started writing rhymes in high school; he then began posting a series of music videos on YouTube that would eventually result in a record deal. "I wanted to see what kind of reaction I would get and what kind of feedback I would receive from those videos," he says. "I got such positive feedback that a hobby became a career. I wrote close to 100 songs in high school. I was in honor classes and one of my projects was to turn a poem into a song." The guy had lots of poems so coming up with songs wasn't a problem. He just released his full-length debut, Us Against Them, last month, and tracks such as "Collide" and "Me and You" are so poppy, they sound tailor-made for TV shows like Glee. "The album is completely different from anything I've done," he says. "It covers a wide range of material. There are house songs and EDM songs and acoustic songs. There are sad songs and happy songs. There's something for everybody on this album." (Niesel)