Das Racist was a Brooklyn-based American alternative hip hop group comprised of MCs Heems and Kool A.D., as well as hype man Ashok Kondabolu. Das Racist has been hailed as an urgent new voice in rap but has also been dismissed as joke rap due to its use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconventional style. Das Racist released their first commercial album, Relax, in September 2011, and it was named in many year-end best-of lists, including Rolling Stone and Spin, as well as being named the fourth best rap album of the year by Spin. Das Racist was also featured on the cover of Spin's November 2011 issue, along with an article written by Dap's brother, comedian Hari Kondabolu.

Das Racist's first album, the Shut Up, Dude mixtape, was released in March 2010 as a free download. The mixtape received positive feedback, earning a 7.8 rating from Pitchfork. Das Racist was named one of fifty acts to watch at the 2010 SXSW festival by Spin, and MTV Iggy named Das Racist one of the "25 Best New Bands in the World" in April 2010. The song "Hahahaha jk?" from Sit Down, Man was named one of the fifty best singles of 2010 by Rolling Stone. The group made its American television debut on Conan on November 28, 2011.

Richard Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965), better known as Slick Rick, is an English-American rapper and record producer. In the mid-1980s, he rose to prominence with Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew. "The Show" and "La Di Da Di" are regarded as early hip hop classics. "La Di Da Di" is one of history's most sampled songs.

He was one of the very first hip-hop artists to be covered when Snoop Dogg (then Snoop Doggy Dogg) rapped Rick's lyrics from his record "La Di Da Di" almost in their entirety on the track 'Lodi Dodi' on his debut album Doggystyle in 1993. Rappers using complete song lyrics from other artists was unusual at the time. Slick Rick has received VH-1 Hip Hop Honors, and About.com named him No. 12 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of All Time, while The Source named him No. 15 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time. He has appeared in and appeared as a cameo in ten films and videos.

Salt-N-Pepa (also stylized as Salt 'N' Pepa or Salt 'N Pepa) is an American hip-hop group formed in New York City in 1985. Salt (Cheryl James), Pepa (Sandra Denton), and DJ Spinderella were among the group's members (Deidra Roper). They signed with Next Plateau Records and released their single "Push It" in 1987, which reached number one in three countries and was a top ten or top twenty hits in others. Hot, Cool & Vicious, their debut album, sold over one million copies in the United States, making them the first female rap act to achieve gold and platinum status. Their fourth album, Very Necessary, sold over 7 million copies worldwide (5 million in the U.S.), making it the highest-selling album by a female rap act in history at the time.

Salt-N-Pepa is one of the best-selling rap acts of all time, having sold over 15 million records worldwide. The group has been nominated for several Grammy Awards. The trio won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 1995 for their song "None of Your Business", making them one of the first female rap acts to do so, along with Queen Latifah, who also won that year. Their accomplishments in rap and hip-hop culture have earned them the title "The First Ladies of Rap and Hip Hop".

Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), better known as DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is widely credited with pioneering hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City. Campbell, known as the "Father of Hip-Hop" and "Founder of Hip-Hop", began playing hard funk records similar to those of James Brown. Campbell began to isolate the instrumental portion of the record, emphasizing the drum beat and switching between breaks.

Using the same two-turntable setup as disco DJs, he extended the break by playing two copies of the same record. Hip hop music was founded on breakbeat DJing with funky drum solos. Campbell's announcements and exhortations to dancers aided in the development of the syncopated, rhythmically spoken accompaniment known as rapping. He appeared in Jin's music video for "Top 5 (Dead or Alive)" from the album The Emcee's Properganda in 2005. In 2006, he became involved in efforts to have Hip Hop memorialized at Smithsonian Institution museums. He took part in the 2007 Dance Parade.

Rammellzee was a visual artist, gothic futurist "graffiti writer", painter, performance artist, art theoretician, sculptor, and hip-hop musician from New York City, who has been cited as "instrumental in introducing elements of the avant-garde into hip-hop culture". Since 2021, Rammellzee's work is exclusively represented by Jeffrey Deitch.

Rammellzee was a pioneering hip-hop artist who pioneered specific vocal styles in the early 1980s. Some consider his 12-inch single "Beat Bop", co-written with rapper K-Rob and featuring cover art by Basquiat, to be the most valuable hip-hop record of all time. Rammellzee has influenced artists such as Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill. In 1985, he also wrote an opera called "The Requiem of Gothic Futurism", "offered to send some of the intelligence he had gathered for national defense", and "tried to promote his ideas by producing a comic book and a board game".