Happy Birthday, Bone Crusher!

With Atlanta's current reign of hip-hop dominance, it's understandable if some fans forget some of ATL's known figures during the last decade. One of them was the heavy and ready Bone Crusher, who celebrates his 44th birthday today.

Bone Crusher, whose real name is Born Wayne Hardnett, Jr., was another rapper who made huge waves while an artist on Jermaine Dupri's So So Def label. He only had one hit - but it was a big one - "Never Scared."

The anthemic song, which boasts muscular production and Crusher's barks ("Ahh-ten-shun!"), landed on Madden NFL 2004 and was played at college football stadiums everywhere. It's also notable for featuring T.I. before his rise in rap and Killer Mike before he became the emotional core of Run the Jewels.

Bone Crusher was popular enough to land on Mariah Carey remixes and guest on songs from T-Pain and Young Jeezy. But Bone Crusher was well out of relevance by the time Gucci Mane became a star and Future's rise. In fact, the last time he made headlines was when he criticized Atlanta's hip-hop scene.

“I think it’s garbage really," Bone Crusher said in an interview with VladTV. "What happened is that the children -- it’s like right now it’s [fine]."

"When we did it it was no Atlanta scene. It wasn’t none of that," he continues. "We had OutKast and Organized [Noize]. They were great, man. They did wonderful things for this city. But it wasn’t a movement until Tip and me and [Lil Jon] and Ying Yang. And we came in and made it of the street."