Jersey Shore is an American reality television series that premiered on MTV on December 3, 2009 in the United States. The series follows the lives of eight housemates spending their summer at the Jersey Shore in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Season 2 followed the cast escaping the cold northeast winter to Miami Beach, with Season 3 returning to the Jersey Shore. The fourth season, filmed in Italy, premiered on August 4, 2011. MTV confirmed in June 2011 that Season 5 will return to Seaside Heights.

The show debuted amid large amounts of controversy regarding the use of the words "Guido/Guidette," portrayals of Italian-American stereotypes, and scrutiny from locals because the cast members were not residents of the area.

Dubbed a cultural phenomenon, the series has garnered record ratings for MTV, making it the network's most viewed series telecast ever. The series' cast has also been credited with introducing unique lexicon and phrases into American popular culture.

The University of Chicago and the University of Oklahoma are among the educational institutions that have had classes or conferences about the show. In 2010, the cast of Jersey Shore was named on Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People list, and the series has since been exported to dozens of countries worldwide.

Paul DelVecchio (born July 5, 1980), publicly known as DJ Pauly D or simply Pauly D, is an American television personality and disc jockey. He is best known for being a housemate on MTV's reality show Jersey Shore. In August 2011, he announced a pending three-album deal with 50 Cent's G-Unit Records & G-Note Records. This deal was later confirmed by 50 Cent on December 1, 2011. He is also the first of the Jersey Shore cast to get his own spin-off show, The Pauly D Project.

DelVecchio was born on July 5, 1980 and raised in the Providence, Rhode Island area, and in Johnston, Rhode Island. He attended Johnston High School. He began his career as a local DJ under the moniker Pauly D. One of his professional idols is the late DJ AM.

DelVecchio was cast in 2009 for Jersey Shore. He has stated that his being chosen for Jersey Shore had nothing to do with his music, but that they instead sent him a Myspace message after liking his look. After he sent them his number, "The casting directors called me from LA and they said they wanted to send down a camera crew to Rhode Island to film a day in my life. They filmed me at the gym, filmed me tanning and filmed me going to the club. Six months later they said I got on the show. I never really auditioned."

Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, better known by his stage name Jay Sean, is a British singer-songwriter, rapper, beatboxer and record producer. He debuted in the UK's Asian Underground scene as a member of the Rishi Rich Project with "Dance with You", which reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart in 2003. This led to him being signed to Virgin Records and having two UK top 10 hits as a solo artist in 2004: "Eyes On You" at #6 and "Stolen" at #4. They were included in his critically acclaimed debut album Me Against Myself which, though only moderately successful in the UK, sold more than two million copies across Asia and remains his most successful album to date. Alongside the Rishi Rich Project, Sean was a pioneer of Bhangra-R&B fusion, which his debut album helped popularize among the worldwide South Asian diaspora.

He eventually left Virgin in 2006 and founded his own independent label, Jayded Records. After a gap of nearly four years, he returned in 2008 with "Ride It", which reached #11 in the UK and topped the charts in several Eastern European countries, including Romania where it was one of the best-selling singles of the year. It was followed by hits such as "Maybe", which reached #7 on the Japan Hot 100, and "Tonight". They were included in his second album, My Own Way, which became his most successful album on the UK Albums Chart, reaching #6, and topped the UK R&B Chart. At around this time, he began increasingly incorporating electropop sounds into his R&B music.

David Anthony Love, Jr (born February 7, 1967), also known by his stage name Kid Capri, is an American musician.

He was born in the Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He is the son of David Love Sr., a Musician/Singer. He is of African-American and Italian descent.

In the 1970s, Kid Capri began to attend block parties, starting his DJ career at the age of 8. His stage name was taken from a girl he used to date who was eventually "murdered by accident." During class one day, she had said to him, "Kid Capri sounds like a good name for a DJ," and he later took her suggestion. He eventually garnered widespread attention at Studio 54 and began selling his sets with his partner at the time Starchild. Kid Capri has deejayed for seven seasons of Def Comedy Jam. He's also produced tracks for Boogie Down Productions, Heavy D, Big L, Grand Puba, and Quincy Jones. He eventually released an LP on Warner Brothers Records titled The Tape in 1991. He appeared in the 1993 movie Who's the Man? alongside Doctor Dre, Colin Quinn, KRS-One, Ice-T, Pete Rock, CL Smooth, Eric B, Flavor Flav, Kris Kross, Melle Mel, Busta Rhymes and many others. In 1997, Kid Capri switched from Warner Brothers to Trackmasters after he appeared on the 1997 Puff Daddy And The Family World Tour. He has subsequently released Soundtrack to the Streets in 1998.

Onika Tanya Maraj (born December 8, 1982), known by her stage name Nicki Minaj ( /mɪˈnɑːʒ/), is a Trinidadian-born American rapper and singer-songwriter. She was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago and when she was 5 years of age she moved to the New York City borough of Queens, where she grew up.

After releasing three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009 and being signed to Young Money Entertainment in August 2009, Minaj released her debut album, Pink Friday, in November 2010. It quickly became a commercial success, peaking at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and being certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a month after its release. She became the first female solo artist to have seven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. Her second single, "Your Love", reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart, making Minaj the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002. She also became the first female artist to be included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List. Minaj was named the 2011 Rising Star by Billboard. Her second studio album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded was released on April 3, 2012.