Shawn Corey Carter, known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. Known for his involvement in the success of other artists, he was named the greatest rapper of all time by Billboard and Vibe in 2023. He is the founder and chairman of entertainment company Roc Nation, and was the president and chief executive officer of Def Jam Recordings from 2004 to 2007.
The U.S. state of Washington has been home to many popular musicians and several major hotbeds of musical innovation throughout its history. The largest city in the state, Seattle, is known for being the birthplace of grunge as well as a major contributor to the evolution of punk rock, indie music, folk, and hip hop. Nearby Tacoma and Olympia have also been centers of influence on popular music.
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois, in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over six million records worldwide, including nearly three million in the United States. The group consists of guitarist Greg Tribbett, drummer Matthew McDonough, lead vocalist Chad Gray, and bassist Ryan Martinie. The band became popular in the late-1990s Peoria underground music scene, and they found success with the single "Dig" from their debut album L.D. 50 (2000). After releasing four more albums and touring relentlessly for nearly a decade, Mudvayne went on hiatus in 2010. They reunited in 2021 and continue to perform live.
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards.
Joshua Todd Gruber, known professionally as Josh Todd, is an American singer. He is the frontman and last remaining original member of hard rock band Buckcherry.
The Electric Soft Parade are an English psychedelic pop band from Brighton, comprising brothers Alex and Thomas White, the creative core of the band, as well as a number of other musicians with whom they record and perform live, most recently including Andrew Mitchell and Damo Waters, as well as long-standing bass/keyboard player, Matthew Twaites.
Bonfire is a German hard rock/heavy metal band, founded by Hans Ziller in Ingolstadt in 1972. In 1986, based on the advice of the record company and the management, the band changed its name to Bonfire. Original founder Ziller is still in the band and is the only one who has the rights to the Bonfire name.
16 Horsepower was an American country rock band based in Denver, Colorado, United States. Their music often invoked religious imagery dealing with conflict, redemption, punishment, and guilt through David Eugene Edwards's lyrics and the heavy use of traditional bluegrass, gospel, and Appalachian instrumentation cross-bred with rock. For the bulk of its career, the band consisted of Edwards, Jean-Yves Tola, and Pascal Humbert, the latter two formerly of the French band Passion Fodder. After releasing four studio albums and touring extensively, the group broke up in 2005, citing "mostly political and spiritual" differences. The members remain active in the groups Wovenhand and Lilium.
Jonathan James, popularly known as Hint, is a musician hailing from Sussex in the UK. His music has been released on independent record labels and his catalogue includes work which has found favour amongst DJs and fans from various underground music scenes.
Stephen Neil Edwards, better known by his stage name Steve Edwards, is an English house music singer and songwriter from Sheffield, England. He has collaborated with several house music producers.
Roll Deep are a British grime crew. They were founded in 2001 by Wiley shortly before the disbandment of UK garage crew Pay As U Go Cartel.
Pete Lesperance is a Canadian guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer best known as the lead guitarist for the Canadian hard rock band Harem Scarem. Lesperance was born October 13, 1968, in Scarborough, Ontario. Lesperance was a guitarist in the Oshawa metal band Minotaur before forming Harem Scarem with Blind Vengeance vocalist Harry Hess in 1987.
Andy Sheppard is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several prizes at the British Jazz Awards, and has worked with some notable figures in contemporary jazz, including Gil Evans, Carla Bley, George Russell and Steve Swallow. In 2019 he was presented the degree of Doctor of Music honoris causa by the University of Bristol.
Maritime is an album by Minotaur Shock, released in 2005 via 4AD. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Maritime received an average score of 76, based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Lance King is an American heavy metal music singer and songwriter specializing in melodic progressive power metal. He has sung with many groups over the last 35 years and started the record label Nightmare in 1990 to release his own music, and is currently still at the helm of the label.
Gary Hughes is an English singer. Apart from his work as a solo artist, he is the frontman and main songwriter of hard rock/melodic rock band Ten. He has also worked as a producer and songwriter on Bob Catley's first three solo albums and more recently on Serpentine's third studio album, Circle of Knives. He has also produced Hugo's first album and has appeared on Vinny Burns' The Journey solo album and on the Ayreonauts Only album by the band Ayreon.
Harem Scarem is a Canadian hard rock/melodic hard rock band from Toronto, Ontario. Harem Scarem initially achieved popularity in their native Canada and Japan. The band was active from 1987 to 2008, and again from 2013 after reforming. Throughout their career, they have released 15 studio albums, plus numerous live and compilation albums, and a re-record of Mood Swings in 2013. Totals record sales are in excess of one million worldwide.
Oliver Dene Jones, known as Skream, is an English electronic music producer based in Croydon. Skream has released records on several British record labels, such as Tempa, Tectonic, and Big Apple Records, and has performed throughout Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan, as well as the UK. Skream is considered an early and influential exponent of the dubstep genre.
Chiff-Chaffs and Willow Warblers is the debut album by Minotaur Shock, released in 2001.
Rinse is an album by Minotaur Shock, released in 2003.
