Coordinates: 40°43′21″N 73°59′43″W / 40.722542°N 73.9951515°W / 40.722542; -73.9951515

Nolita, sometimes written as NoLIta, and deriving from "NOrth of Little ITAly" is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Nolita is bounded on the north by Houston Street, on the east by the Bowery, on the south roughly by Broome Street, and on the west by Lafayette Street. It lies east of SoHo, south of NoHo, west of the Lower East Side, and north of Little Italy and Chinatown.

The neighborhood was long regarded as part of Little Italy, but has lost much of its recognizable Italian character in recent decades because of the migration of Italian-Americans out of Manhattan. Many elderly descendants of Italian immigrants continue to live in the neighborhood. Moreover, the Feast of San Gennaro, dedicated to Saint Januarius ("pope of Naples"), is held in the neighborhood every year following Labor Day, on Mulberry Street between Houston and Grand Streets. The feast, as recreated on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Houston, was featured in the film The Godfather Part III.

Gilbere Forte is an American rapper/producer born in Flint, Michigan on July 14, 1987. Following his parents separation at an early age, Gilbere headed to Chicago with his mother for several years before making Philadelphia his home in 1999.

Music has played a central role in Gilbere’s life since birth. Learning from his parents taste, and healthy vinyl collections Gilbere was introduced to the likes of Isaac Hayes, Roy Ayers, Phil Colins, and Sade as a youth. By age 9 he was reciting raps from likes of 2Pac, B.I.G. and Outkast, which inevitably led to Gilbere penning his own songs by age 12. In 2000, songwriting gave way to production and an initial foray into beat-making with Fruity Loops and Reason. His sound captured the attention of the neighborhood, where Gilbere soon became known for his mixtapes and for supplying local singers and rappers with the soundtrack to their dreams.

The inspiration to take music seriously led Gilbere to pursue a degree in Entrepreneurship & Business Management at Temple University, where he enrolled in the fall of 2006. As Gilbere progressed as a musician, he was aided by his brother DeNiro Forte’s own growth in the industry. Working in radio, brand management, and through his own production efforts, DeNiro provided Gilbere a trusted guide through the challenges of selling and working in music. Through him, Gilbere was introduced to the Junior Music Executive Program which lead to an internship with Studio 609 and award winning production duo Dre & Vidal. The experience and experimentation with Reason and Logic, along with live instrumentation, presented a true opportunity for Gilbere to carve out his own sonic identity. Staying close to the business while building his musical foundation he took another step in his progression as an artist – teaming up with fellow producer from Temple, Rakib “Raak” Uddin.

Vanessa Lee Carlton (born August 16, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Upon completion of her education at the School of American Ballet, Carlton chose to pursue singing instead, performing in New York bars and clubs while attending university. Three months after recording a demo with producer Peter Zizzo, she signed with A&M Records. She began recording her album, which was initially unsuccessful until Ron Fair took over. Her debut single, "A Thousand Miles", reached the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2002. Her debut album, Be Not Nobody, followed and received platinum certification in the United States. Her subsequent albums, Harmonium (2004) and Heroes & Thieves (2007), failed to exceed the commercial success of the first. She produced a fourth album, Rabbits on the Run (2011) independently before sourcing for a record label to release it.

Keren Ann Zeidel (Hebrew: קרן אן זיידל‎ born 10 March 1974 in Caesarea, Israel) is a singer-songwriter-composer-producer and engineer based largely in Paris, Tel Aviv, and New York City. She plays guitar, piano and clarinet, engineers and writes choir and musical arrangements.

Her parents are Russian-Jewish and Dutch-Javanese. She lived in Israel and in the Netherlands until the age of 11, when her family moved to France. Though she has lived and recorded mostly in France and New York, she retains her Dutch and Israeli citizenship. Keren Ann speaks fluent Hebrew, English, and French.

Keren Ann has released six solo albums; she is also a member of the band Lady and Bird with Barði Jóhannsson. They released an eponymous album in 2003 and have worked on diverse composition projects, such as a show with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in Reykjavík (May 2008) with director Daniel Kawka. The live performance has been recorded and post-produced by the band and was released in September 2009. A second show for the Parisian hall "Salle Pleyel" was held in October 2009, this time with "L'Orchestre Lamoureux" directed by Christophe Mangou. Keren Ann and Bardi have also created the music for the TGV 2005-2006-2007 campaign.