Kurtis Walker, professionally known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record/film producer, b-boy, DJ, public speaker and minister. He is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major record label. "The Breaks", a single from his 1980 self-titled debut album, is the first certified gold record rap song. Throughout his career he has released 17 albums and is currently an ordained minister.
Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, producer, writer, and actor. With projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music, and recording industries, he is regarded by some as a contemporary example of an auteur for his style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, design, and musical components of all his work. He is the most commercially successful Australian director, with four of his films in the top ten highest worldwide grossing Australian films of all time.
The Universal Zulu Nation is an international hip hop awareness group formed by and formerly led by hip hop artist Afrika Bambaataa.
Machine was an American funk, disco and rock group, formed in New York City and originally active from 1977 to 1981. The band reached its biggest success with the single "There but for the Grace of God Go I", which became a disco hit in 1979.
Catherine Martin is an Australian costume designer, production designer and set designer. She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over three decades, including four Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards, and a Tony Award. Martin is best known for frequent collaborations with her husband, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, including Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Australia (2008), The Great Gatsby (2013), and Elvis (2022).
Estevan Oriol is a photographer and director from Los Angeles, of Mexican-Italian descent. Best known for his distinct, gritty 35mm black and white work, documenting chicano, cholo culture, as well as celebrities within film and hip-hop, and lingerie work, his images have been featured in magazines, on album covers and in exhibitions across the world. Oriol is also known for directing several music videos for the likes of Blink 182, D12, Cypress Hill and more, as well as for his partnerships with life-long friend and collaborator, Mister Cartoon for Joker Brand Clothing and Soul Assassins Studios, the latter of which the two opened together by way of Cypress Hill's producer, DJ Muggs.
Disco King Mario In the 1970s, Mario was a prominent African American DJ and pioneer of Hip Hop, known as a “Founding Father of Hip Hop” in the Bronx, New York. At the time, he lived in the Bronxdale Housing projects, where his parties made him well-known locally. Mario’s family hailed from Edenton, NC, which was the place of his birth.
Luis Cedeño, more commonly known as DJ Disco Wiz is an American DJ.
Clive Campbell, better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican American DJ who is credited with being one of the founders of hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in 1973. Nicknamed the Father of Hip-Hop, Campbell began playing hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown.
Hip hop or hip-hop, also known as rap, and formerly known as disco rap, is a genre of popular music that originated in the early 1970s by black African Americans and Caribbean Americans immigrants in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. It existed for several years prior to mainstream discovery. Hip-hop music originated as an anti-drug and anti-violence genre consisting of stylized rhythmic music that often accompanies rapping, a rhythmic delivery of poetic speech. According to the professor Asante of African American studies at Temple University, "hip hop is something that blacks can unequivocally claim as their own". The music developed as part of the broader hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, break dancing, and graffiti art. While often used to refer solely to rapping and rap music, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of the culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.
Lance Taylor, also known as Afrika Bambaataa, is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip hop culture. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the originators of breakbeat DJing.
Joseph Robert Saddler, popularly known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is a Barbadian DJ and producer. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by elongating the drum breaks through the use of duplicate copies of vinyl. This technique gave birth to cutting and scratching. It also gave rappers better music with a seamless elongated bed of beats to speak on. He also invented the slipmat.
"Dirtee Disco" is the fifth single from English rapper Dizzee Rascal's fourth studio album Tongue n' Cheek, although the song only appears in the deluxe edition of the album. It features background vocals from former One True Voice member Daniel Pearce and samples The Staple Singers' 1972 track, "I'll Take You There". It was released on 23 May 2010 by digital download.
Curtis Brown, better known by the stage name Grandmaster Caz or Casanova Fly, is an American rapper, songwriter, and DJ. He was a member of the hip hop group The Cold Crush Brothers from 1979 to the mid-1980s. He is best known as the (uncredited) main writer of Big Bank Hank's raps on the seminal 1979 hip hop single by The Sugarhill Gang, "Rapper's Delight".
Justice Elio Smith is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, All the Bright Places, and the video game The Quarry.
Skylan Brooks is an American actor, best known for playing Mister in The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Black Manta in the superhero films Aquaman (2018) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023), Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and Morpheus / Agent Smith in The Matrix Resurrections (2021). For his portrayal of Cal Abar / Doctor Manhattan in the HBO limited series Watchmen (2019), he won a Primetime Emmy Award. He also starred in episodes of The Handmaid's Tale (2018) and Black Mirror (2019).
"Telepathy" is a song by American singer and songwriter Christina Aguilera featuring American musician Nile Rodgers, recorded for the 2016 Netflix musical drama series The Get Down and included on the accompanying soundtrack of the same name. It was co-written by Sia in collaboration with Mikkel Storleer Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen. The track was produced by Elliott Wheeler and The Get Down director, Baz Luhrmann. While it was available to download from the soundtrack upon its release, it was promoted in Italy to contemporary hit radio as a single on August 23, 2016. Various remixes were also released throughout the following month.
Herizen F. Guardiola is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her breakout role as Mylene Cruz on the Netflix original series, The Get Down. Inspired by her reggae musician father, Johnny Dread, Herizen has also been featured on numerous musical projects, including Absofacto's "ThousandPeaces" EP, the soundtrack for The Get Down, and the official soundtrack for the Major Lazer documentary "Give Me Future." By October 2018, she released her first EP, Come Over To My House. Three months later, she was featured on What So Not's single, "We Can Be Friends." Most recently in April 2019, she released her latest single, "Focus."
Hip-Hop Evolution is a Canadian music documentary series that originally aired on HBO Canada in 2016. Hosted by Juno Award-winning artist Shad, the series profiles the history of hip-hop music through interviews with many of the genre's leading cultural figures. The series is produced by Darby Wheeler, Rodrigo Bascuñán, Russell Peters, Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn and Nelson George. It won the 2016 Peabody Award, and the 2017 International Emmy Award for Best Arts Programming.
