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Christopher Dooley Jr is an American rapper known to the world as Hurricane Chris. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on March 7, 1989. Dooley had always expressed an interest in becoming a renowned rapper and credits his mother as his inspiration. She is often mentioned in his song and she at one time hoped to be in the music industry when she was young. At the age of 8 Hurricane Chris wrote his own rhymes and despite his youth, often got into local clubs in Shreveport.
April 10, 2007, Hurricane Chris released his first single “A Bay Bay” produced by Shreveport rapper Phunk Dawg. The song became a hit peaking at number 2 on the Billboard HipHop-Rap chart and number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also peaked at number 3 on the New Zealand singles chart making it an international hit and was certified platinum after selling more than one million copies. “A Bay Bay” resulted in Hurricane Chris receiving four BET Hip-Hop awards, including Track of the Year, Ringtone of the Year, Rookie Artist of the Year, and the Alltel People’s Choice (Viewer’s Choice).
The music video for “A Bay Bay” was included in the 2007 film Cedar Grove, resulting in peaking at number 1 on BET’s 106 & Park video music show and it peaked at number 3 on BET’s Top 100 Videos of 2007.
Hurricane Chris has made guest appearances on other artists’ albums, as well as mixtapes. In 2009, his song, “A Bay Bay” was performed on the floor of the Louisiana House of Representative. The performance was arranged by State Representative Barbara Norton who was his godmother.
Despite “A Bay Bay’s” enormous popularity, Hurricane Chris never recorded another song that charted.
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R. Moloney, C. Guen, C.J. Simonson, & T. Davis, XXL 2008: The freshman class that could have been – merry-go-round. Merry-Go-Round Magazine, February 18, 2021, https://merrygoroundmagazine.com/xxl-2008-the-freshman-class-that-could-have-been/; D. Spund, “Rapper causes controversy at La Capitol,” WAFB.com, 2009, https://www.wafb.com/story/10598578/rapper-causes-controversy-at-la-capitol/; “Hurricane Chris added to BET hip hop awards,” antimusic news (n.d.), https://www.antimusic.com/news/07/oct/09Hurricane_Chris_Added_To_BET_Hip_Hop_Awards.shtml.
