Jermaine John Coleman (born August 30, 1978), better known by his stage name Maino, is an American rapper from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York City. His debut single " Hi Hater" peaked at #16 on Billboard's

Hot Rap Songs Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by '' Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stat ...

. His follow-up, " All the Above," features American singer T-Pain and was

certified platinum Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA). To date Maino has sold just under 4 million digital singles globally.

Life and career

Early life and career beginnings

Jermaine Coleman was born in New York City. In the early 1990s, Maino was involved in a "drug related kidnapping," that led to a 5-to-15 years prison sentence: "We didn't really know what we were doing," he recalls. "We had a great idea, I guess, but we wound up getting caught." During his decade-long prison term, Maino began

rapping Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

as a result of boredom: "I'd be in the box for twenty-three hours a day, I just started rapping as something to do. I feel like hip hop kept me alive." While listening to DJ Clue mixtapes featuring some of "Brooklyn's Finest" – Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z, Lil' Kim – the vibe only got stronger. Maino adopted the "no writing" technique of emceeing: "I was never comfortable writing my raps down." Upon his release in 2003, Maino immediately launched

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

Hustle Hard Entertainment. After several mixtape releases and key guest features, in June 2005 Maino was offered a recording contract by

Universal Motown Records Universal Motown Records was an American record label that operated as a division of Universal Motown Republic Group. It was the contemporary incarnation of the legendary Motown Records label, and the "urban" half of UMG, although there were some ...

. Maino dropped from

on August 27, 2007.

2007–present: ''If Tomorrow Comes...'' and ''The Day After Tomorrow''

On August 28, 2007, Maino later signed himself and his Hustle Hard imprint to

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. He then began working on his debut album, '' If Tomorrow Comes...''. His commercial debut single, titled " Hi Hater," was released in April 2008. Maino later released the song's official

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

, featuring fellow American rappers T.I.,

Swizz Beatz Kasseem Daoud Dean (born September 13, 1978), known professionally as Swizz Beatz, is an American record producer, rapper, disc jockey (DJ) and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, Dean embarked on his musical career as a DJ. At the ag ...

, Plies,

Jadakiss Jason Terrance Phillips (born May 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Jadakiss, is an American rapper from Yonkers, New York. He began his career in the 1990s as a member of the rap trio The Lox, managed by Ruff Ryders and signed with Bad ...

and

Fabolous John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), better known by his stage name Fabolous, is an American rapper. Raised in Brooklyn, he first gained recognition while still a senior in high school, when he performed live on American music executive ...

. The album's second single was " All the Above," featuring T-Pain. "All the Above" is Maino's first song to chart on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It debuted at #54 and then rose to #39 the next week. It also peaked at #10 on the

Hot Rap Tracks Hot Rap Songs (formerly known as Hot Rap Tracks and Hot Rap Singles) is a chart released weekly by ''Billboard'' in the United States. It lists the 25 most popular hip-hop/rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio statio ...

, #59 on the

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

chart, and #46 on the

Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009. It ranked songs based on airplay on Mainstream Top 40 radio stations, singles s ...

. The single is certified platinum and is Maino's only

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

hit to date. The album's third single " Million Bucks," features vocals and production from Swizz Beatz. ''If Tomorrow Comes...'' debuted at number 25 on the ''Billboard'' 200 with first-week sales of 18,000 copies in the United States. In 2008, Maino also crafted an original song titled "Getaway Driver", for the

Grand Theft Auto IV ''Grand Theft Auto IV'' is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2004's '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', and the ...

video game. On February 2, 2010, Maino released ''Unstoppable'', exclusively through iTunes; an

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

(EP) which featured four new recordings. On July 5, 2011, Maino announced his second studio album, entitled ''

The Day After Tomorrow ''The Day After Tomorrow'' is a 2004 American science fiction disaster film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Roland Emmerich. Based on the 1999 book '' The Coming Global Superstorm'' by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, the film stars De ...

'', would still be pushed by

, but it would be distributed by

E1 Music MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch", formerly known as Koch Records and eOne Music) is a New York City-based independent record label and music management company. It was formed in 2009 from the music assets of Koch Entertainment, which had b ...

The album's lead single " Let It Fly", features

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

rapper-singer

Roscoe Dash Jeffery Lee Johnson Jr. (born April 2, 1990), better known by his stage name Roscoe Dash, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his debut single " All the Way Turnt Up" (featuring Soulja Boy), which peaked at numbe ...

. It debuted on the US Billboard

at number 57. ''

'', unlike Maino's debut album, had lower sales, debuting at number 94 on the ''Billboard'' 200. Through his label Hustle Hard, Maino formed a rap group called The Black Flag Mafia, which includes himself, Push!, Lucky Don, Twigg Martin and Hustle Hard Mouse. On October 9, 2012, they released their first mixtape, ''The Mafia''. They are currently working on their EP album for

. On February 4, 2014, Maino released a digital EP, ''King Of Brooklyn EP''. In 2018 he did a duet with

RRose RRome Jerome Warrington Harris, better known by his stage name RRose RRome, is a Brooklyn-based independent hip-hop artist and rapper. He has gained publicity for doing songs with Jadakiss, Chris Brown, and Maino. Career Harris began his music caree ...

. In 2015, Maino recorded "Crazy" with

Erika Jayne Erika Girardi (née Chahoy; born July 10, 1971), known professionally as Erika Jayne, is an American singer, television personality and former actress. Early life Erika Girardi was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 10, 1971, to single mother Re ...

which resulted in a number one dance hit in the US.

Legal issues

Maino spent 10 years in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

for robbing and kidnapping a

drug dealer A drug is any chemical substance A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by ...

.Celona, Larry; Simeone, Jessica (December 2, 2010).
Traffic rap for rapper
''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

''. Retrieved August 8, 2012. In October 2014, porn actress Mellanie Monroe alleged that Maino

assaulted An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

her. Video evidence showed that no assault occurred and Maino was cleared of all charges. In the 2016 Irving Plaza shooting, he was cleared of any responsibility in the shooting with an NYPD Chief saying "We do not believe that he (Maino) was involved in the dispute."

Discography

*'' If Tomorrow Comes...'' (2009) *''

'' (2012)

Collaborative albums

*''The Lobby Boyz'' (with

Jim Jones James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American preacher, political activist and mass murderer. He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. In what he called "revolutionary suicide", ...

) (2022)

References

External links

Official website
(archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maino 1978 births Living people African-American Christians African-American male rappers American prisoners and detainees Atlantic Records artists Rappers from Brooklyn Gangsta rappers 21st-century American rappers 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century African-American musicians 20th-century African-American people