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Says Beyonce of her mother: "I've learned lots of important things from my Mama. However, there are two lessons that stand out in my mind: One is, outer beauty means nothing because it fades; and everything you do in the dark will one day come to light."

Ashanti & Tina Douglas

Ashanti's mom and co-manager Tina Douglas refers to herself as a "momager," a term reflecting her dual roles of mother and manager of hip-hop's reigning princess. Similar to the protective mother she portrays in her cameo on Ashanti's Foolish video, Douglas plays a vital role in her daughter's life, guiding her career to No. 1.

Douglas discovered her daughter's gift during a day of chores where Ashanti was instructed to have no television and no radio. "I was vacuuming and I heard the radio playing," Douglas recalls. "I said to Shani, `I told you to turn the music off,' and Shani said, `but that was me,' and I was in shock," Douglas says. From that point on, Douglas started placing Ashanti in local talent shows, helping her, training her and preparing her to showcase her talent.

But before her whirlwind rise to the top, Ashanti suffered two disappointing record deals that tested her resolve. However, with her "momager" by her side, the talented 22-year-old refused to give up.

"I asked Shani if she wanted to go to college instead of pursuing music, but she said, `I want to do the music thing,'" says Douglas of her oldest daughter who had athletic scholarships to both Hampton and Princeton. "So, I let her be a young woman.... she's a very strong-willed person and when she goes after something, she finishes it."

Nelly & Rhonda Mack

With two chart-topping and award-winning CDs (Country Grammar and Nellyville) under his belt, rapper Nelly has undoubtedly arrived. But it wasn't a solo effort for one of St. Louis' best-known residents. He counted on the love and support of his mother, Rhonda Mack.

A single parent, Mack worked two or three jobs at a time to support her only son, whom she calls "Man." She encouraged him in his dream of a baseball career and shifted gears when it became clear that he wanted to make hit records. And when the day finally came--the day she knew he arrived--it was oh, so sweet.

The story has become almost mythological. In 2000, after it became clear that his career as a rapper was viable, Nelly called his mother at her job as a restaurant manager and told her he had a birthday present for her. He told her that she didn't have to work anymore. Stunned at first she said she wasn't sure if she could do that. Nelly convinced her. She had the next day off and never went back.

Nelly has lavished Mack with gifts befitting the mother of a superstar--a luxury car, a trilevel house located minutes from her son's home, and a position working with Nelly's 4Sho4Kids Foundation. Her work as a single parent definitely got the job done.

"I knew he had it in him," Mack told one interviewer. "He worked hard to get there and he had to make sacrifices to get there. But that's how it is."