House of Pain was an American hip-hop trio who released three albums in the 1990s before lead rapper Everlast left to pursue a solo career. The group's name is a reference to the H. G. Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, a reference carried further by the naming of their 2011 tour He Who Breaks the Law. The group is best known for its 1992 hit single "Jump Around", which reached number 3 in their native United States of America, number 6 in Ireland and number 8 in the United Kingdom. The group broke up in 1996 but returned in 2010, after the trio had been members of supergroup La Coka Nostra for several years.
Dragon Ash is a Japanese rap rock group founded in 1996 by Kenji "KJ" Furuya and Sakurai Makoto. They were one of the first groups to popularize hip hop in Japan. Dragon Ash is a member of Mob Squad, which is an affiliation with the bands Source and Endive. Dragon Ash uses the French fleur-de-lis as their band logo/symbol.
Salt-N-Pepa is an American hip-hop group formed in Queens, New York in 1985. Group members included Salt, Pepa, and DJ Spinderella. They were signed to Next Plateau Records and released their single "Push It" in 1987, which hit number one in three countries and became a top 10 or top 20 hit in various countries. Their debut album Hot, Cool & Vicious sold more than 1 million copies in the US, making them the first female rap act to achieve gold and platinum status. Their fourth album Very Necessary sold over 7 million copies worldwide, making it the highest-selling album by a female rap act in history at the time.
N.E.R.D. is a hip hop and rock band, formed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1999. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were signed by Teddy Riley to Virgin Records as a duo, The Neptunes. After producing songs for several artists throughout the late 1990s, the production duo formed the band with Shay Haley as a side project of The Neptunes in 1999. N.E.R.D.'s debut album, In Search Of..., sold 603,000 copies in the United States and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It was also awarded the second annual Shortlist Music Prize. The band's second album, Fly or Die, sold 412,000 copies in the United States, but shipped at least 500,000 units, certifying it Gold.
Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, better known by his stage name Q-Tip, is an American rapper, record producer, singer, actor and DJ. Nicknamed The Abstract, he is noted for his innovative jazz-influenced style of hip hop production and his philosophical, esoteric and introspective lyrical themes. He embarked on his music career in the late 1980s, as an MC and main producer of the influential alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. In the mid-1990s, he co-founded the production team The Ummah, followed by the release of his gold-certified solo debut Amplified in 1999. In the 2000s, he released the Grammy Award-nominated album The Renaissance and the experimental album Kamaal the Abstract.
Hilltop Hoods are an Australian hip hop group that formed in 1991 in Blackwood, Adelaide, South Australia. They are regarded as pioneers of the "larrikin-like" style of Australian hip hop. The group was founded by Suffa and Pressure, who were joined by DJ Debris after fellow founder, DJ Next, left in 1999. The group released its first extended play, Back Once Again, in 1997 and have subsequently released eight studio albums, two "restrung" albums and three DVDs.
Irish hip hop is the response to the hip hop cultural movement that originated in New York City in the 1970s which, at that time, was most popular in the borough of The Bronx. In the 1980s, breakdancing and graffiti were the first elements of hip hop culture to preface the Irish hip hop movement, which had started to emerge in Ireland.
Doomtree is an American hip hop collective and record label based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The collective has seven members: Dessa, Cecil Otter, P.O.S, Sims, Mike Mictlan, Paper Tiger, and Lazerbeak. The collective is known for incorporating a wide range of musical influences into their work with lyrical complexity and wordplay, and their annual "Doomtree Blowout" events held in Minneapolis venues to showcase their group performances and the Twin Cities music scene.
Chester French was an American indie pop band consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter David-Andrew 'D.A.' Wallach and multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Maxwell Drummey. They met as college students at Harvard University, naming their band after sculptor Daniel Chester French, who designed the statue at the Lincoln Memorial, the John Harvard statue, as well as the Minuteman statue at the Lexington/Concord battlegrounds in Massachusetts. Milwaukee-raised Wallach and Boston native Drummey quickly found a lot of shared ground in musical tastes and philosophies and before long formed a band with three other classmates, playing various campus functions, eventually moving in a direction heavily influenced by classic British Northern Soul. Over the summer both stayed in Cambridge, working hard at songwriting. But when school resumed, they realized that the material went way beyond the basic guitar-bass-drums-piano format of the band, and the duo continued the work themselves, Wallach handling most of the vocals, Drummey performing much of the music on multiple instruments, supplemented with the occasional special guest – and both taking production and engineering duties for recordings.
Flobots is an experimental rap rock band from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2005 by Jamie Laurie. The band's origins date back 5 years earlier to a similar project by Laurie. Flobots found mainstream success with their major label debut Fight with Tools (2007), featuring the single "Handlebars", which became a popular hit on Modern Rock radio in April 2008. The band has released four studio albums and one EP, with their latest Noenemies being released in May 2017.
Animate Objects is a United States-based live hip hop band originally formed in Champaign, Illinois in 2003. The founding members of the band, then students at the University of Illinois, were MC CZAR Absolute, drummer Farsheed Hamidi-Toosi, DJ Spinnerty, keyboardist Artur Wnorowski, guitarist Steven Dobias and bassist Prashant Vallury. In July 2004 DJ Spinnerty and Hamidi-Toosi left the band and were replaced by Michael "DJ Mabbo" Mabborang and Brian Derstine.
Antoine Franklin McColister, better known by his stage name Ace Hood, is an American rapper. He was born in Port St. Lucie, Florida and raised in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He was signed to record producer DJ Khaled's label We the Best Music Group in 2008, in a joint-venture with Def Jam Recordings. He has released four studio albums with his most successful of which being Blood, Sweat & Tears (2011) and Trials & Tribulations (2013). The albums contained his highest charting singles, "Hustle Hard" and "Bugatti", respectively. In 2016, McColister announced his departure from We the Best Music and is currently working as an independent artist.
Christopher Steele, better known by his stage name Time, is an American indie hip hop artist from Denver, Colorado. He is one of the original members of Dirty Laboratory Productions. He is also one half of the hip hop group Calm. Aside from music, Steele is also an investigative journalist.
Heavyweight Dub Champion is a music and art collective founded in Gold Hill, Colorado in 1997 by Resurrector & Patch. Heavyweight Dub Champion, also known as HDC, is rooted in electronic music, but they create their unique style by using real and acoustic instruments fused with synthetic and electronic elements. In 2005, they relocated to San Francisco, but the members of their constantly rotating lineup also come from New York, Australia and the UK. Denver's Westword Magazine describes their music as "a shamanistic wall of hip hop dubtronica" and the magazine awarded their debut album Survival Guide for the End of Time with the editors pick for Best Local Recording in 2003. HDC is perhaps best known for their live performance, in which they use a massive amount of vintage and electronic gear to perform what they call "Sonic Shamanistic Alchemy". The LA Weekly says, "The main HDC aesthetic is a cooled-out groove ... Their genius is the great virtue of '70s dub: never overdoing it."
Lawrence "Kris" Parker, better known by his stage names KRS-One, an abbreviation of Knowledge Reigning Supreme Over Nearly Everyone, and Teacha, is an American rapper and occasional producer from Bronx, New York. He rose to prominence as part of the hip hop music group Boogie Down Productions, which he formed with DJ Scott La Rock in the mid-1980s. KRS-One is best known for his top hits, "Sound of da Police", "Love's Gonna Get'cha ", and "My Philosophy", among others. Boogie Down Productions received numerous awards and critical acclaim in their early years. Following the release of the group's debut album, Criminal Minded, fellow artist Scott La Rock was shot and killed, but KRS-One continued the group, effectively as a solo project. He began releasing records under his own name in 1993. He is politically active, having started the Stop the Violence Movement after Scott's death. He's also a vegan activist, expressed in songs such as "Beef". He is widely considered an influence to many hip hop artists, including 2Pac and Eminem.
A Shoreline Dream is an American indie rock band from the Barnum neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. Their sound has been described as being “a moody blend of psych ... and post-rock," as sounding "like a band out of time," and possessing a sound quality unique enough that it "outruns" the shoegaze moniker which bands of this kind are often labeled. The band currently consists of the two original members, vocalist/guitarist/producer Ryan Policky and guitarist Erik Jeffries, who record in their own Barnum-based Shoreline Studios.
Travis Egedy, better known by his stage name Pictureplane, is an American electronic musician, visual artist and fashion designer based in Brooklyn, New York. He first appeared in the music scene of Denver, Colorado, making a name for himself at Rhinoceropolis, the DIY space where he also lived. He has been credited for coining the term "witch house". He is also a founder of the fashion brand Alien Body.
Air Dubai is an American six-piece hip hop band from Denver, Colorado, United States. The band is composed of vocalists Julian Church and Jon Shockness, with Lawrence Grivich (guitar), Michael Ray (keyboards/synth), Taylor Tait (bass), and Nick Spreigl (drums). The band is known for their highly energetic live performances and their sound has been characterized as a mixture of R&B, jazz, and alternative rock. The band was voted Westword Magazine's best Hip Hop band in their 2010, 2011 and 2012 award showcases. In December 2012 the band announced via their social media pages they had been signed to Hopeless Records and released their major label debut album Be Calm in 2014. In August 2015, the band announced that they would be going on an "indefinite hiatus".
The Movement is an American reggae band originally formed in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2003. The two founding members, Josh Swain and Jordan Miller, then relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they acquired a live rhythm section in the form of local Philadelphia musicians Jay Schmidt and Gary Jackson. The band has released six studio albums. Their music is commonly described as a fusion of rock, reggae, hip hop and acoustic music.
Marlanna Evans, better known by her stage name Rapsody, is an American rapper from Snow Hill, North Carolina. Her album Laila's Wisdom received two Grammy Award nominations, for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song.
