D12, an initialism for The Dirty Dozen, is an American hip hop group from Detroit, Michigan. D12 has had chart-topping albums in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. D12 was formed in 1996, and achieved mainstream success after Eminem rose to international fame. D12 released the album Devil's Night in 2001 and D12 World in 2004, spawning numerous hits such as "Fight Music", "Purple Pills", "My Band", "How Come" and "Shit on You" throughout that period. Since 2006, Eminem's hiatus and the death of the member Proof resulted in them being less active in subsequent years.
In order to make up the dozen, it was decided the six members at the time would each create an alter-ego. Proof's was Dirty Harry, Bizarre's was Peter S. Bizarre, Kuniva's was Hannz G. (which later became Rondell Beene), Kon Artis's was Mr. Porter, Bugz' was Robert Beck and Eminem created the famous character Slim Shady.
In 1997, they released their debut album, The Underground EP, which was recorded between 1996 and 1997. In 1997 and through 1998, its members began establishing reputations locally. Bizarre was named Inner City Entertainment's "Flava of the Week" and went on to release an album called Attack of the Weirdos. Along with Eminem, Rah Digga and Young Zee, he became an honorary member of The Outsidaz. Proof won a freestyling competition run by The Source. In 1999, Bugz released an EP called These Streets EP, and made several appearances on other rapper's songs.
Swift (Shen Li-Min) is a fictional comic book superhero in the Wildstorm universe, published by DC Comics. Swift first appeared in Stormwatch #28 and was created by Jeff Mariotte and Ron Lim. She is currently a member of The Authority.
When a comet passed by Earth, it activated a genetic quirk in some people that would manifest into superpowers either naturally or through special Seedlings called Activators. Swift was one such Seedling. Swift was brought into Stormwatch as a rookie, with her powers only partially activated. Weatherman Henry Bendix later reconfigured the Stormwatch teams, assigning her to Stormwatch Black, Stormwatch's black ops team, alongside Jenny Sparks (with whom she had a brief romance) and Jack Hawksmoor. It was then that Christine Trelane offered to fully activate Swift's powers, bringing out their full potential, and she accepted.
After Stormwatch disbanded, Swift joined former teammates in The Authority. Formerly a pacifist, she has put aside those beliefs to fight for a better world regardless of the cost. She has fought all over the world, from Moscow to Mexico to Gamora Island. During the Transfer of Power storyline, Swift was replaced by Rush from Canada after being taken out of a fight by radioactive feces. Swift was brainwashed into becoming the obedient trophy wife of a television mogul who had been part of the conspiracy to replace her and her team. She was insulted at every opportunity, from having her cooking ignored to the implications she could not remember large words. Eventually she overheard the "off-button" code of the monster Three-Willied Seth and proceeded to free herself. She literally took the heads of the television mogul and his software billionaire co-conspirator. She also saved her friend Angela Spica, the Engineer, and killed the man who had been abusing Angela.
Pure may refer to:
Pure is a compilation album by pop band The Lightning Seeds, released in 1996 and reaching #27 in the UK Albums Chart.
The first of what would turn out to be five compilations Ian Broudie released from 1996 to 2006, Pure, The Lightning Seeds' first release by Virgin, is almost a reissue rather than a compilation, since it consists of all but three of the songs released by Epic on the first two albums, Cloudcuckooland from 1990 and Sense from 1992; the only songs missing are one song from the first album ("Control the Flame") and two from Sense: ("Where Flowers Fade" and "Marooned").
All songs written and composed by Ian Broudie; except where indicated.
Pure is the first internationally published album by Christchurch, New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra. Her previous albums were released only in New Zealand and nearby Australia. This album also received professional consultation from the legendary Sir George Martin who helped to create its "unique appeal". In 2004, it was the highest selling New Zealand Album and so it privileged Hayley with an award from the New Zealand Music Awards of 2004. It was published by the Decca Music Group label in 2003. It was distributed in the United States by Universal Classics in 2004. During its first week of sales it sold 19,068 copies. As of 2007, Pure is the best selling classical album for the 21st century in the UK.
Pure gives a new freshness to well known classical repertoire, as well as exploring the world of pop and traditional Maori choral singing, including renditions of "Who Painted the Moon Black?", "Hine e Hine" (a song of the Māori, the natives of New Zealand), "In Trutina", from Orff's Carmina Burana, "Wuthering Heights" (a cover of the Kate Bush hit), and the perennial spiritual classic "Amazing Grace". Sir George Martin co-wrote the track "Beat of Your Heart" just for the album. Also on the album is "Pokarekare Ana", a New Zealand love song which has enduring popularity, and has become Hayley's signature song.