Rare groove is defined as very hard to source or relatively obscure soul or jazz music. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, jazz and pop, but is also connected to sub-genres including jazz fusion, Latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this category generally have high re-sale prices. Rare groove records have been sought after by not only collectors and lovers of this type of music, but also by hip hop artists and producers. Online music retailers sell a wide selection of rare groove at more affordable prices, offering fast downloads in digital format. This availability and ease of access has brought about a resurgence of the genre in recent years.

The term was coined by British DJ Norman Jay after his "The Original Rare Groove Show" on pirate radio station Kiss 94 FM (the progenitor of Kiss 100 London). The show was a collaboration with DJ Judge Jules and featured a mainly urban soundtrack from the 70's and 80's mixed with early house music.

Sylvia Striplin (b. 1957) is a New York based jazz, soul and R&B vocalist. Striplin has worked with funk, jazz, R&B and soul, vibraphonist Roy Ayers, who helped her release her 1981 album Give Me Your Love on the Uno Melodic record label. Striplin, along with Marva Hicks found some solo success after being in the group Eighties Ladies. Their album Ladies Of The Eighties was also produced by Roy Ayers. She was also part of the group, Aquarian Dream.

Her song, "You Can't Turn Me Away" is featured on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, playing on quiet storm station VCFL. As well as, the romantic comedy film Prime and the mini-film 'Ecology of Love' with Pharrell Williams. This song also serves as the basis for the Notorious B.I.G/Junior Mafia hit, 'Get Money' on BigBeat Records,subsidiary of Atlantic. BigBeat label chief Craig Kallman is the judge in the video for this song. Erykah Badu also sampled this song for her 2010 track "Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)" on the album "New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)."

Lynda Cheryl Smith (born March 11, 1957), known better by her professional name Cheryl Lynn, is a female African-American disco, R&B and soul singer known best for her 1978 disco song, "Got to Be Real".

Lynn's singing career began when she was a young girl with her church choir. However, her professional singing career started during 1976 when she obtained a job as a backing vocalist for the national touring company of the musical drama The Wiz. Eventually she would obtain the role of Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, during the six month national tour.

Prior to her appearance on The Wiz, Cheryl taped an episode of the Gong Show during the early part of 1976. She won the competition while singing Joe Cocker's "You Are So Beautiful". After the episode was broadcast, during the autumn of 1976, record industry executives were calling to contract her.

After her performance on The Gong Show, Ahmed Ertegun of Atlantic Records company couldn't come to an initial meeting with Lynn, with the result that she was contracted with Columbia Records company. Lynn released her first and best-known song, "Got to Be Real," which was composed by keyboardist David Paich (of the band Toto), David Foster and Lynn. The song scored #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 record chart and #1 on the Rhythm & Blues chart. The success of the single album prompted a full scale debut album. Named Cheryl Lynn, it was produced by Paich. The album sold more than a million copies and scored #5 on Billboard magazine's R&B albums chart and #23 on Billboard's top 200 album charts. The next single album, "Star Love"', also became a success.

Roy Ayers (born September 10, 1940) is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure at Polydor Records beginning in the 1970s, during which he helped pioneer jazz-funk .

Ayers was born in Los Angeles, California and grew up in a musical family. At the age of five, Lionel Hampton gave him his first pair of vibraphone mallets. The area of Los Angeles that Ayers grew up in, now known as "South Central", but then known as "South Park", was the epicenter of the Southern California Black Music Scene. The schools Roy attended (Wadsworth Elementary, Nevins Middle School, and Thomas Jefferson High School) were all close to the famed Central Avenue, Los Angeles' equivalent of Harlem's Lenox Avenue and Chicago's State Street. Roy would likely have been exposed to music as it not only emanated from the many nightclubs and bars in the area, but also poured out of many of the homes where the musicians who kept the scene alive lived in and around Central. His high school, Thomas Jefferson High School, produced some of the most talented new musicians, such as Dexter Gordon.

Vernon Darrell Burch (born 1957) is an American R&B/soul singer and guitarist.

In 1975 Burch signed to United Artists, where he released his debut album, I'll Be Your Sunshine. Later he moved to Columbia Records and then Chocolate City Records, which was distributed by Casablanca Records and Filmworks. He later recorded for Spector.

Two of his singles, "Changes (Messin' with My Mind) in 1975 and "Do It to Me" in 1981, made it into the Billboard R&B top 20 chart. Burch's other singles include "Brighter Days", "Steppin' Out", "Love Is", "Never Can Find a Way (Hot Love)", "Once Again in My Life", "Get Up", and "Fun City".