Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine, drummer Matt Flynn, keyboardist PJ Morton and bassist Sam Farrar. Original members Levine, Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick first came together as Kara's Flowers in 1994, while they were in high school.
Timothy Jerome Parker, better known by his stage name Gift of Gab, was an American rapper best known for performing in the Bay Area hip hop duo Blackalicious along with DJ Chief Xcel. He was also a member of Quannum Projects, a Bay Area hip hop crew and record label, and performed and recorded as a solo artist.
Quannum Projects is an American hip hop collective based in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been active since 1992, when it was formed at UC Davis under the moniker Solesides Records. It is also the name of the independent record label that releases their records, as well as those of a number of other artists. The label continues to be 100% independently owned and operated.
Lateef Kenneth Daumont, better known by his stage name Lateef the Truthspeaker, or mononymously as Lateef, is an American hip hop artist from Oakland, California. He is a member of several hip hop groups such as Latyrx, Lateef and the Chief, and The Mighty Underdogs. He was a member of the SoleSides collective, and is a founding member of SoleSides' successor crew Quannum Projects.
Latyrx is an American alternative hip-hop duo consisting of Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born. The partnership grew from the Solesides collective at the University of California, Davis.
SoleSides was an American underground hip hop label based in Northern California, founded in 1991. It comprised various DJs and MCs, the most notable being DJ Shadow, MC–producer Lyrics Born and duo Blackalicious. The members of Solesides all met via the radio station, KDVS, the 5000-watt community radio station of the University of California at Davis. During high school, Davis-natives DJ Shadow and The 8th Wonder used to frequent the station to support Orus Washington's hip hop show. In college, journalist and then-grad student Jeff "DJ Zen" Chang, broadcast a weekly hip hop radio show that got the attention of DJ Shadow and The 8th Wonder, freshmen Xavier Mosely, Tom Shimura and Joseph Patel (Jazzbo). They all shared a like-minded passion for hip hop that pushed beyond the sounds of mainstream commercial music.
The Album is the first studio album by Latyrx, an American hip hop duo consisting of Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born. It was released on Solesides in 1997, and it was re-released on Quannum Projects in 2002.
"Wonderful Night" is a song by English big beat musician Fatboy Slim, released as a single from his album Palookaville. It features vocalist Lateef the Truthspeaker, credited mononymously as Lateef on the single release. The song is often played at Staples Center immediately after Los Angeles Clippers home wins and at Madison Square Garden during the second half of New York Knicks games. A shortened version of the song also appears on the video game Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2. The song was edited for radio due to the brief coarse language used in the middle of the song.
The Mighty Underdogs was an American hip hop supergroup from the San Francisco Bay Area. It consists of rappers Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truthspeaker and producer Headnodic.
From the Corner to the Block is the fifth studio album by the New Orleans–based jazz fusion/funk group Galactic. Unlike the group's other albums, From the Corner to the Block is a collaboration with various alternative hip hop musicians. It was produced by Count, Ben Ellman and Galactic.
Corey Scoffern, better known by his stage name The Grouch, is an American rapper and producer. He is currently based in Los Angeles and Maui, Hawaii, but was born and raised in Oakland, California. He is a founding member of Living Legends, an independent rap group currently based in Los Angeles, California.
The Jazz Mafia is a young American musical collective led by Adam Theis and performs music rooted in jazz but touching on other genres and featuring a variety of sub-groupings with various collaborators.
A hype man, typically in hip hop music, is a backing vocalist who supports the primary performer with exclamations, interjections, or ad-libs in an attempt to increase an audience's excitement or engagement.
Palookaville is the fourth studio album by English electronic music producer Fatboy Slim. It was first released on 4 October 2004 in the United Kingdom by Skint Records and a day later in the United States by Astralwerks. The album was nominated for the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album.
Firewire is the debut solo studio album by American hip hop artist Lateef the Truthspeaker. It was released via Quannum Projects on November 8, 2011. Recorded over the course of four months in Oakland, California, it includes contributions from DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Dan the Automator.
General Elektriks is the musical project of French keyboard player, composer, singer, and producer Hervé Salters. He also uses the moniker RV, a contraction of the pronunciation of his first name in French.
The Second Album is the second studio album by Latyrx, an American hip hop duo consisting of Lateef the Truthspeaker and Lyrics Born. It was released via Latyramid on November 5, 2013. It includes productions from Jel, Amp Live, and Tune-Yards, among others. The album peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart.
Droppin' Science Fiction is the first studio album by The Mighty Underdogs, an American hip hop group consisting of producer Headnodic and rappers Lateef the Truthspeaker and Gift of Gab. It was released by Definitive Jux on October 14, 2008. It peaked at number 50 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart.
Blackalicious was an American hip-hop duo from Sacramento, California, made up of rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel. They are noted for Gift of Gab's often tongue-twisting, multisyllabic, complex rhymes and Chief Xcel's soulful production. The duo released four full-length albums: Nia in 1999, Blazing Arrow in 2002, The Craft in 2005, and Imani Vol. 1 in 2015. Gift of Gab died in June 2021.
Tsutomu William "Tom" Shimura, better known by his stage name Lyrics Born, is a Japanese-American rapper, singer, and producer. He is one half of the duo Latyrx with Lateef the Truthspeaker.
