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Nick Cannon

American rapper, actor, and comedian (born 1980)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ348533
Source-derived summary

Nicholas Scott Cannon (born October 8, 1980) is an American comedian, actor, and rapper. He began his career on Nickelodeon's All That before going on to host Wild 'n Out, America's Got Talent, Lip Sync Battle Shorties, and The Masked Singer.

Cannon's 2003 single "Gigolo" (featuring R. Kelly) peaked within the top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 and led his self-titled debut studio album. His second album White People Party Music (2014) was released by his NCredible Entertainment label.

Early life

Cannon was born on October 8, 1980, in San Diego, California. He was largely raised by his paternal grandfather, whom both he and his biological father called "dad". As a child, he grew up in Lincoln Park's Bay Vista Housing Projects, a gang-ridden section of Southeast San Diego. While in his teenage years, Cannon was affiliated with the Lincoln Park Bloods street gang, but stated that he left behind his affiliations after losing a close friend. In 1998, he graduated from Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, California, where he was president of the African Student Coalition and participated in track and field. Cannon received his first break doing stand-up comedy on his father's local cable public access TV program.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Nick Cannon” as american rapper, actor, and comedian (born 1980). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nick, Cannon and American.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1980, 2003, 2014, 1998—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980-10-08. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Nick, Cannon and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Nick Cannon”, the useful work is to connect “american rapper, actor, and comedian (born 1980)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q348533. VIAF identifies the subject as 56921814. The Library of Congress control number is no2003124306. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 2003, 2014 and 1998.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Nick Cannon”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Nick Cannon primary sources, Nick Cannon archive and Nick research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nick Cannon”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Nick Cannon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.