Dylan Mills, known professionally as Dizzee Rascal (born November 1, 1985), is a grime solo artist, formerly a Roll Deep crew member, who emerged from the UK Garage music scene. His music was a blend of garage MCing, conventional rap, grime and ragga, with some more eclectic samples. Dizzee began MCing on pirate radio and at raves at fifteen, but since his mainstream success he has distanced himself from the fledgling scene.
Felipe Andres Coronel (born February 19, 1978), better known by the stage name Immortal Technique, is a Peruvian rapper, and an urban activist. He was born in Lima, Peru and raised in Harlem, New York. Most of his lyrics focus on controversial issues in global politics. The views expressed in his lyrics are largely a mixture of socialist commentary on issues such as class hierarchy, poverty, religion, government and institutional racism.
Ta-Ku is a sample based hip-hop producer from Perth, Western Australia. He has several free beat tapes available:
http://paperchain.squarespace.com/storage/TA-KU%20-%202010%20BEATAPE%20S... http://paperchain.squarespace.com/storage/Haz%27%20%20Ta-ku%20-%20June.zip
John Stephens (born December 28, 1978 in Springfield, Ohio), better known as John Legend, is a Grammy award winning R&B singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet and actor signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label. Prior to the release of his debut album Get Lifted in 2004, Legend's career gained momentum through a series of successful collaborations with multiple established artists such as Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Lauryn Hill. He released his second album, Once Again in 2006, and his latest release, 2008's Evolver showcased a more experimental and upbeat side of Legend.
Paul "Sage" Francis (born november 18 1977 in Miami, Florida) is a hip-hop artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. Noted for his intense flow and sharp wit, Francis has won acclaim both as a freestyle battler and as an unapologetically intellectual lyricist. Francis uses a broad emotional palette to address a wide range of personal, cultural, and political issues. His unconventional style and persona have given him crossover appeal, but at the same time alienated some hip-hop listeners.
Kasha is an English rap artist from Charlton, London, UK and part of a production team called Vivid Imagery. Kasha has been labelled ‘the strongest lyricist in the UK’ by Kiss100, he has been likened to the lyrical intensity of Tupac with all the sparkle of Frank Sinatra. Kasha’s “unorthodox and “inspirational” style has been described as a breath of freshest air for Hip Hop. He tells serious stories of his surroundings, the problems in the world and his dreams but he always has time to throw in fun and positivity.
Michael “Mike” Posner (born February 12, 1988 in Southfield, Michigan) is an American producer, singer and rapper signed to J Records. He released his debut mixtape, Reflections of a Lost Teen, in 2006. His next two mixtapes, A Matter of Time and One Foot Out the Door, caught the attention of many major labels. His debut album 31 Minutes to Takeoff was released August 10, 2010. Posner graduated from Duke University in May 2010 with a BA in Sociology and Business. He is close friends with rapper Big Sean.
David Dallas (born August 28 in Papatoetoe, Auckland) is an award winning New Zealand rapper and producer, formerly known as Con Psy, signed to P-Money's Dirty Records. He released his debut EP Something Now in 2008, and then his debut solo album, Something Awesome, was released in August 2009. His second next album, The Rose Tint, was released in May 2011 and featured appearances from Freddie Gibbs, PNC and Buckshot. He is also half of the award winning duo Frontline, who were the recipients of the New Zealand Music Awards Best Hip Hop Album award in 2006 for their album Borrowed Time.
There are at least three artists called John Smith: 1. John Smith is an up and coming guitar player and singer from Devon. His technical adventurousness and passion as a live performer have secured him support slots with John Martyn amongst others. His debut album (2007), The Fox and the Monk was followed up by the 2009 release Map or Direction. 2. John Smith is a Canadian emcee with releases on Peanuts & Corn Records. After the first release, Blunderbus, which met with critical acclaim, came School Day 2 Garbage Day 4 (2000) with mcenroe and DJ Hunnicutt (as Park-Like Setting).
Ann Arbor's latest prodigal son and lover of sprinkles on doughnuts, takes the legacy of all Detroit's talented musical sons and daughters and makes Hip Hop beats filled with snippets of Soul, Funk, 70's Italian horror flick soundtracks, Nintendo bonus level music, and 90's Hip Hop. Somehow, with this much content, the beats still manage to sound gloriously minimal and disjointed. Fans like Benji B, Andrew Meza and XLR8R have been eagerly snapping up his tracks, as Sam freeze frames Electro energy and spits it back out as twisted future Jazz.