50 Cent
Carmen Ashhurt-Watson
Dr. Jelani Cobb
Chuck D
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Fat Joe
Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Stephen Hill
Jadakiss
Sarah Jones
Jackson Katz
Talib Kweli
Mos Def
Nelly
Dr. James Peterson
Kevin Powell
Russell Simmons
Conrad Tillard
Tim'm West
Emil Wilbekin |
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Carmen Ashhurt-Watson is the former president of
Def Jam Recordings, the pioneering hip-hop
recording label.
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William Jelani Cobb,
Ph.D. is an assistant professor of history
at Spelman College. He is also a critic,
essayist and fiction writer whose writings
on politics, the African Diaspora and contemporary
African American culture have appeared in
a number of national outlets. His column
"Past Imperfect" appears
regularly on AOL BlackVoices. He
is the editor of The Essential Harold
Cruse: A Reader and has published three
books, including To The Break Of Dawn:
A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic.
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As the founder of
Public Enemy, Chuck D is one hip-hop’s
most iconic figures. Born Carlton Douglas
Ridenhour in 1960, Chuck D studied graphic
design at Long Island’s Adelphi University,
where he met and formed the group that would
become Public Enemy. The group’s debut
album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, was
released in 1987. Their second album, It
Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,
and third release, Fear of a Black Planet,
cemented the group as one of hip-hop’s
most important voices. After Public Enemy
went on hiatus in 1995, Chuck D has released
a solo album, published an autobiography
and has lectured on issues including advocating
MP3 technology.
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Dr. Dyson is the
author of Is Bill Cosby Right?, The
Michael Eric Dyson Reader, Open Mike; Holler
If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur;
Why I Love Black Women; I May Not Get There
With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr.;
Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line; Between
God and Gangsta Rap; Making Malcolm: The
Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X; and
Reflecting Black. He lives in Philadelphia
and is the Avalon Foundation professor in
the humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Born Joe Cartagena
in the South Bronx, Latino rapper Fat Joe
released his full-length debut recording,
Represent, in 1993. The album’s single
“Flow Joe” peaked at number
one on Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles
chart. By the late 1990s, Fat Joe had signed
with Atlantic Records and opened a clothing
store, Fat Joe’s Halftime, a barbershop
and a fashion line, FJ560. His most recent
album is Me, Myself and I, released
on the rapper’s own Terror Squad imprint.
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Dr. Guy-Sheftall
is the founding director of the Women’s
Research and Resource Center and the Anna
Julia Cooper professor of women’s
studies at Spelman College. She is also
adjunct professor at Emory University’s
Institute for Women’s Studies. She
has published a number of seminal texts
within African American and women’s
studies, including Sturdy Black Bridges:
Visions of Black Women in Literature,
which she co-edited with Roseann P. Bell
and Bettye Parker Smith. Her most recent
publication is a book co-authored with Johnnetta
Betsch Cole, Gender Talk: The Struggle
for Women’s Equality in African American
Communities. She is founding co-editor
of Sage: A Scholarly Journal of Black
Women.
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Number one on The
Source 2004 list of most influential
executives in the music industry, Stephen
Hill is executive vice president of Entertainment
and Music programming for Black Entertainment
Television (BET). Prior to joining BET in
1999, Hill served four years at MTV in New
York City as director of music programming
and worked as a corporate lending officer
for Bank of Boston. He is a graduate of
Brown University.
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Born Jason Phillips,
the rapper Jadakiss joined the Ruff Ryders
in 1999 and the LOX in 2004. He released
his solo album Kiss tha Game Goodbye
in 2001. His second solo album, Kiss
of Death, was released in 2004.
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Tony Award-winning
playwright, actor and poet Sarah Jones has
received grants and commissions from Lincoln
Center Theater, The Ford Foundation, and
theater honors including an Obie, a Helen
Hayes Award, two Drama Desk nominations,
HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival's Best One
Person Show Award and an NYCLU Calloway
Award in recognition of Jones as the first
artist in history to sue the Federal Communications
Commission for censorship. Her multi-character
solo shows include Bridge & Tunnel,
which was originally produced Off-Broadway
by Oscar winner Meryl Streep and went on
to become a critically acclaimed, long-running
smash-hit on Broadway.
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Jackson Katz is
internationally recognized for his groundbreaking
work in gender violence prevention education
with men and boys, particularly in sports
culture and the military. An educator, author
and filmmaker, Katz is co-founder of the
Mentors in Violence Prevention program at
Northeastern University's Center for the
Study of Sport in Society. He is the author
of The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt
Women and How All Men Can Help and
is a doctoral student in cultural studies
and education at UCLA.
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Born in Brooklyn
as the eldest of two sons of college professors,
Kweli made his first recording for Rawkus
Records as one-half of hip-hop duo Reflection
Eternal, with DJ Hi-Tek. With Mos Def and
Hi-Tek, Kweli’s raps as part of the
group Black Star ushered in an alternative
hip-hop revival in the late 1990s. In 2000,
Kweli and Hi-Tek released their second album
on Rawkus Records. His first solo record,
Quality, was released in 2002 and
produced by the then-unknown Kanye West,
containing the hit “Get By.”
More recent albums include The Beautiful
Struggle and Right About Now.
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Born in Brooklyn
in 1973, Mos Def formed his first music
group, Urban Thermo Dynamics, with his younger
sister in the early 1990s. He then joined
Afrika Bambaataa’s Native Tongues
Collective and signed with Rawkus Records,
who released his underground rap classic
Universal Magnetic. Mos Def teamed
up with Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek to form
Black Star, producing the 1998 album Mos
Def and Talib Kweli Are… Black Star.
In 1999, he released his first solo album,
Black on Both Sides. His second solo
album, The New Danger, was released
in 2004. Mos Def is also an acclaimed professional
actor, appearing in movies such as The
Italian Job and The Woodsman
and on Broadway in Topdog/Underdog.
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St. Louis-born Nelly
was one of the first Southern-Midwestern
rappers to gain national success, due to
his crossover appeal. His 2000 debut album
Country Grammar, featured the hit
single “Country Grammar (Hot…)”
and his sophomore release Nellyville
contained the chart-topper “Hot in
Here.” More recent projects include
his 2005 album Sweatsuit.
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Dr.
Peterson is an assistant professor of English
at Penn State Abington and teaches a course
at Drexel University called Hip-Hop and
Politics. He is associated with Hip Hop
Scholars, Inc., an educational consulting
group.
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Kevin Powell is
an activist, poet, journalist, essayist,
editor, cultural curator, hip-hop historian,
songwriter, music producer, public speaker,
political consultant, and fundraiser and
businessman. He has published six books,
including Who’s Gonna Take The
Weight? Manhood, Race, and Power in America,
an Essence bestseller. He was a founding
staff member of Vibe where he also served
as a senior writer. Powell has hosted and
produced programming for HBO and BET and
is the founder, CEO and president of True
York Entertainment.
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Entrepreneur Russell
Simmons’s marketing skills have helped
bring hip-hop into mainstream American culture
and make rap music big business. Simmons
grew up in Queens, New York and formed his
own artist management company, Rush Productions,
in the late 1970s, taking on his younger
brother’s group, Run-D.M.C., as clients.
In 1984, he co-founded the Def Jam label
with Rick Rubin. By the time he sold it
in 1999, it was worth 100 million dollars.
Simmons’s other ventures include creating
the HBO series Russell Simmons’s
Def Comedy Jam, producing the hip-hop
documentary The Show, launching the clothing
line Phat Farm and establishing the Hip-Hop
Summit Action Network.
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Known as the “hip-hop
minister,” the Reverend Conrad Tillard
has worked extensively for social justice
for urban youth. Formerly known as Minister
Conrad Muhammad, an outspoken national youth
minister for the Nation of Islam, Tillard
currently serves as pastor for Nazarene Congregational Church in the Bedford Suyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. His autobiography, The Prodigal Son Imperative: In My Father's House, about a spiritual journey a of a hip-hop generation minister, will be out in February 2008.
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Queer rapper Tim’m
West grew up in Taylor, Arkansas and holds
a B.A. from Duke University and M.A.s from
Stanford University and the New School for
Social Research. As a teacher, performance
artist, author and culture producer he
has taught writing at the New School, Stanford
and the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High
School for Public Policy, published three
books, released three albums with Deep Dickollective
(ddc) and been anthologized widely. He currently
works as a high school coordinator for College
Summit, Inc.
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Former editor-in-chief
of Vibe magazine and current vice president of brand
development for designer label Marc Ecko,
Emil Wilbekin was named one of Out’s
100 Most Influential Gay People in 2002.
Born in 1968 in Cincinnati, Ohio, he is
a graduate of Hampton University and Columbia
University's Graduate School of Journalism
in New York City.
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Read a filmmaker statement from Byron Hurt »
Learn about the issues debated in HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes » |
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