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Vincent Jamal Staples is an American rapper, singer, and actor. Staples was once a close associate of Odd Future, Mike G and Earl Sweatshirt in particular. He is currently signed to Motown and Blacksmith Records.

Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect of all human societies, a cultural universal. While scholars agree that music is defined by a few specific elements, there is no consensus on their precise definitions. The creation of music is commonly divided into musical composition, musical improvisation, and musical performance, though the topic itself extends into academic disciplines, criticism, philosophy, and psychology. Music may be performed or improvised using a vast range of instruments, including the human voice.

Michael W. Eagle II, better known by his stage name Open Mike Eagle, is an American hip hop artist and comedian. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, he is now based in Los Angeles, California, where he is a member of the hip hop collective Project Blowed. He has also been a member of Thirsty Fish, Swim Team, and Cavanaugh.

Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed in Ruston, Louisiana, by musician Jeff Mangum. They were active from 1989 to 1998, and again from 2013 to 2015. The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psychedelic folk. Mangum wrote surreal and opaque lyrics that covered a wide range of topics, including love, spirituality, nostalgia, sex, and loneliness. He and the other band members played a variety of instruments, including non-traditional rock instruments like the singing saw, uilleann pipes, and Digital Horn.

Neutral Milk Hotel began as one of Mangum's home recording projects. In 1994, he released the song "Everything Is" on Cher Doll Records. The song's exposure convinced him to record more music under this name. In 1996, he worked with childhood friend Robert Schneider to record the album On Avery Island, which received modest reviews and sold around 5,000 copies. Mangum recruited musicians Julian Koster, Jeremy Barnes, and Scott Spillane for the band's second album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Its 1998 release received mostly positive but not laudatory reviews.

Shabazz Palaces is an American hip hop group from Seattle led by Ishmael Butler a.k.a. Palaceer Lazaro. Much of the Butler's work as Shabazz Palaces has been made in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Tendai "Baba" Maraire, son of mbira master Dumisani Maraire. Active since 2009, Shabazz Palaces has released five studio albums on Sub Pop after self-releasing two EPs. Their most recent album, The Don of Diamond Dreams, was released on April 17, 2020.

Run the Jewels is the debut studio album by American hip hop duo Run the Jewels, which consists of Killer Mike and El-P. The album was released on June 26, 2013, through Fool's Gold Records.

On April 9, 2013 , Killer Mike and El-P announced they would be releasing a collaborative album under the name Run the Jewels. On May 15, 2013, El-P announced on his Twitter account that they had finished the album. On June 12, 2013, it was announced that the album would be released on June 29, 2013. On June 25, 2013, Killer Mike announced on his Twitter account that the album would be released the following day, June 26, 2013.

On April 29, 2013, the first song from the album, "Get It", was released. On May 31, 2013, the second song from the album, "Banana Clipper", featuring Big Boi, was released. On June 7, 2013, the third song from the album, "36" Chain", was released. On July 16, 2013, the music video was released for "36" Chain". The album was released in Europe on January 13, 2014, through Big Dada Recordings. On October 24, 2013, the music video was released for "Get It". On December 21, 2013, the music video was released for "A Christmas Fucking Miracle".

Rory Allen Philip Ferreira, better known by his stage name R.A.P. Ferreira, formerly Milo and Scallops Hotel, is an American rapper and producer from Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Travis Miller (born May 13, 1984) is an American rapper from Richmond, Virginia. He has recorded under multiple aliases in various genres since his first known released project in 2005, including Lil Ugly Mane, Shawn Kemp, Vudmurk and Bedwetter.

Miller rose to popularity in the early 2010s with an experimental approach to Southern hip hop. His debut album Mista Thug Isolation gained him notoriety in the underground hip hop scene. Since then, he has experimented with a number of styles within and outside the hip hop genre, most recently releasing the indie rock album Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern. His other work spans genres including instrumental and abstract hip hop, black metal, free jazz and noise music.

Tyler Gregory Okonma, known professionally as Tyler, the Creator, is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. He is one of the founding members of the music collective Odd Future. Okonma has won two Grammy Awards, three BET Hip Hop Awards, a BRIT Award, and a MTV Video Music Award.

Gavin Mays, better known by his stage name Cities Aviv, is an American rapper and record producer from Memphis, Tennessee.

JJ DOOM was an American alternative hip-hop duo composed of Jneiro Jarel and MF DOOM.

Victor Vazquez (born November 16, 1983), also known by his stage name Kool A.D., is an American rapper, record producer, author, and artist. He is from the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Vazquez is best known for being a member of the New York-based rap group Das Racist, though he has also been a member of the bands Boy Crisis and Party Animal. Vazquez has also released his own solo material, including numerous mixtapes. Mother Jones magazine described his work as "a thoughtful effort to deconstruct and rearrange cultural objects in ways that challenge our deepest assumptions about society and cultural products".

Vazquez, who is of Afro-Cuban and Italian descent, originally hails from the San Francisco Bay area of California. He attended high school at the Arthur Andersen Community Learning Center in Alameda and college at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English. While at Wesleyan, Vazquez played drums for the band La Spanka and formed the group Boy Crisis. At Wesleyan, Vazquez met future Das Racist bandmate Himanshu Suri as well as Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT.

Thomas Fec, better known by his stage name Tobacco, is an American electronic musician. He is the frontman of the psychedelic rock band Black Moth Super Rainbow, in addition to working as a solo artist. As of late 2018, he has teamed up with rapper Aesop Rock to become the music duo Malibu Ken, releasing their self-titled debut album in January 2019.

Daniel Dewan Sewell (born March 16, 1981), better known by his stage name Danny Brown, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He has been described by MTV as "one of rap's most unique figures in recent memory".

In 2010, after amassing several mixtapes, Brown released his first studio album, The Hybrid. Brown began to gain major recognition after the release of his second studio album, XXX (2011), which received critical acclaim and earned him such accolades as Spin, as well as Metro Times "Artist of the Year". In 2013, he entered a US Billboard chart, with the release of his third studio album, Old, which reached number 18 on the US Billboard 200 chart and spawned three singles, "Dip", "25 Bucks" and "Smokin & Drinkin", which peaked at number 31 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart. His fourth studio album, Atrocity Exhibition, was released on September 27, 2016, and his fifth studio album, U Know What I'm Sayin?, was released on October 4, 2019, both albums being received with further critical acclaim.

Himanshu Kumar Suri (born July 6, 1985), better known by his stage name Heems, is an American rapper from Queens in New York City. Best known for being part of the alternative hip hop group Das Racist, Suri is also the founder of Greedhead Music, an independent record label. In 2012, Suri released his first solo mixtape, Nehru Jackets, on his Greedhead imprint and in conjunction with SEVA NY, a community-based organization from Queens of which Suri is a board member. Suri has also written about music and all things South Asian for The Village Voice, Death and Taxes, Fuse, Stereogum, and AlterNet. In August 2015, Heems announced that Fox had bought his story rights for a potential sitcom, and that he was working on the pilot. He is currently a member of Swet Shop Boys along with actor and rapper Riz MC and producer Redinho.

Anthony Fantano is an American music critic and YouTuber who runs the YouTube channel The Needle Drop and its tie-in website. He discusses and reviews music from a variety of genres in his YouTube videos and on his website.

Das Racist was an American alternative hip hop group based in Brooklyn, composed of MCs Heems and Kool A.D. and hype man Ashok Kondabolu. Known for their use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconventional style, Das Racist has occasionally been hailed as an urgent new voice in rap but often dismissed as joke rap.

Julian Koster(born July 26, 1972) is an American multidisciplinary artist. As a musician he is a member of the Elephant 6 Collective, the leader of The Music Tapes, and a member of Neutral Milk Hotel. He is known for writing, directing, and acting in audio fictionThe Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air), and for performing with the theatrical troupe of the same name. He is also known for his heavy use of the musical saw in recordings, even releasingThe Singing Saw at Christmastime, his only solo album released under his own name, in 2008.

In 1989, Koster formed Miss America with Liza Wakeman, Alan Edwards, Paul Wells and Keith Block. After legal threats from Miss America, they became Chocolate USA. Chocolate USA released two albums on Bar/None before disbanding to follow other projects.