Monica Denise Arnold is an American singer, rapper, songwriter, and actress. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, she began performing as a child and joined a traveling gospel choir by the age of ten. Monica signed with record producer Dallas Austin through his label Rowdy Records in 1993, and gained prominence following the release of her debut studio album, Miss Thang (1995). Her follow-up albums were met with continued success; her second, The Boy Is Mine (1998) remains her best-selling album and spawned three Billboard Hot 100-number one singles: "The Boy Is Mine", "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine".
Benjamin Earl King was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer. He rose to prominence as one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group the Drifters, notably singing the lead vocals on three of their biggest hit singles "There Goes My Baby", "This Magic Moment", and "Save the Last Dance for Me".
Lisa Jane Stansfield is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. Her career began in 1980 when she won the singing competition Search for a Star. After appearances in various television shows and releasing her first singles, Stansfield, along with Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, formed Blue Zone in 1983. The band released several singles and one album, but after the success of Coldcut's "People Hold On" in 1989, on which Stansfield was featured, the focus was placed on her solo career.
Dionne Yvette Farris is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New Jersey, she began singing in elementary school and competed in pageants as a teenager. In the early 1990s, she was featured on the hip hop group Arrested Development (1992) hit single "Tennessee".
Joseph Lewis Thomas, known mononymously as Joe, is an American R&B singer. He signed to Polygram Records in 1992, and rose to prominence after releasing his debut album Everything the following year. He followed it with a series of successful albums under Jive Records, including All That I Am (1997), the international bestseller My Name Is Joe (2000) as well as the multi-certified albums Better Days (2001) and And Then... (2003). Several songs from these albums became hit singles on the pop and R&B record charts, including the number-one hit "Stutter", the top ten entries "All the Things ", "Don't Wanna Be a Player", and "I Wanna Know" as well as his collaborations "Faded Pictures", "Thank God I Found You" and "Still Not a Player".
Sade are an English band, formed in London in 1982 and named after their lead singer, Sade Adu. The band consists of Adu alongside bassist Paul Denman, saxophonist and guitarist Stuart Matthewman, and keyboardist Andrew Hale. Founding drummer Paul Anthony Cooke left the band in 1984, while Dave Early, Cooke's replacement, left in 1985. Since Early's departure in 1985, the band has employed numerous session and touring drummers in absence of an official drummer. The band's music features elements of soul, quiet storm, smooth jazz and sophisti-pop. All of the band's albums, including compilations and a live album, have charted in the US Top Ten.
St. Lunatics were an American hip hop group formed in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1993. The group consisted of childhood friends Nelly, Ali, Murphy Lee, Kyjuan, City Spud, and Slo Down.
Marshall Julius Jefferson is an American musician, working in the house music subgenres of Chicago house and deep house.
Maurice White was an American musician, best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter and chief producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, also serving as the band's co-lead singer with Philip Bailey.
Byron Stingily is an American R&B and house-music singer born in Chicago, Illinois, known for his falsetto voice. He is now a part-time principal at a school in Chicago while still performing.
Jamey Johnson is an American country music singer and songwriter.
Jeffrey H. Lorber is an American keyboardist, composer, and record producer. After six previous nominations, Lorber won his first Grammy Award on January 28, 2018 for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for Prototype by his band the Jeff Lorber Fusion.
"Hypnotize" is a song by American rapper the Notorious B.I.G. featuring uncredited vocals by Pamela Long, released as the first single from his album Life After Death by Bad Boy and Arista Records on March 4, 1997. The last song released before his death in a drive-by shooting a week later, it was the fifth song by a credited artist to peak the Billboard Hot 100 posthumously since "(Just Like) Starting Over" by John Lennon in 1980. Rolling Stone ranked the song as number 30 on their list of the "100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time".
"Tennessee" a song by American hip hop group Arrested Development, released in March 1992 by Chrysalis and Cooltempo as the first single from their debut album, 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... (1992). The song was produced by group member Speech and contains a sample of Prince's 1988 hit "Alphabet St.". "Tennessee" peaked at number six in the United States and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1993. The accompanying music video was directed by Milcho Manchevski. A 2007 poll of VH1 viewers placed the song at number 71 on the list of the "Greatest Songs of the 90s" and is listed as one of the "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was also ranked number 78 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop".
"Rise" is an instrumental written by Andy Armer and Randy 'Badazz' Alpert, first recorded in 1979 by trumpeter Herb Alpert. Released as a single from Alpert's solo album Rise, the song reached #1 on the Billboard charts. It is the instrumental sample for The Notorious B.I.G. hit "Hypnotize".
Byron E. Burke, also known as Popâ Ur-Mää is an American record producer/DJ, who has worked in the music industry for over thirty years. He served as the Co-Executive Vice President of the music division for Prelude Music & Film Works that released the 1998 motion picture Lost In Space for New Line Cinema, as well as co-writing and producing music for artists on Atlantic Records, East West Records, MAW Records, Nervous Records, Strictly Rhythm Records, Capitol Records, Universal Records and Columbia Records.
"You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" is a song by American disco/R&B singer Sylvester. It was written by James Wirrick and Sylvester, and released by Fantasy Records as the second single from the singer's fourth album, Step II (1978). The song was already a largely popular dance club hit in late 1978, as the B-side of his previous single "Dance (Disco Heat)", before it was officially being released in December. It rose to the number one position on the US Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. Music critic Robert Christgau has said the song is "one of those surges of sustained, stylized energy that is disco's great gift to pop music".
"That's the Way Love Is" is a song by Chicago-based dance trio Ten City, released in 1989 by Atlantic Records as a single from their debut album, Foundation (1989). The song was written by the trio and produced by them with Marshall Jefferson. It reached number eight in the UK and number eighteen in West Germany, and was also the group's highest charting single on both the Billboard R&B and dance charts in the US. The song peaked at number twelve on the Hot R&B Singles chart, and number one on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. Rolling Stone ranked "That's the Way Love Is" number 165 in their list of "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" in 2022.
Khalid Donnel Robinson is an American singer and songwriter from El Paso, Texas. He signed with Courtney Stewart's Right Hand Music Group, an imprint of RCA Records to release his 2016 debut single, "Location" and its 2017 follow-up, "Young Dumb & Broke". Both songs peaked within the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, received diamond certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and preceded the release of his debut studio album, American Teen (2017). Met with critical and commercial success, it received quadruple platinum certification by the RIAA and was nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
"Get Up" (also known as "Get Up (Everybody)") is a song by American house music singer-songwriter Byron Stingily, formerly of the band Ten City. A massive hit in the clubs, it was released in 1996 by Nervous Records and Manifesto Records, and samples Sylvester's 1978 song "Dance (Disco Heat)". "Get Up" was written by Stingily with the producers, Paul Simpson and Zack Toms. It reached number-one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1997 and was a top 20 hit in the UK, peaking at number 14, while going right up to number-one on the UK Dance Singles Chart in January 1997. The single has sold 300.000 units worldwide, and in 1998, it was included on Stingily's debut solo album, The Purist. In 2007, new remixes were released.
