Marc Eckō (born August 29, 1972) is an American fashion designer, entrepreneur, investor, artist, and philanthropist. He is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Marc Eckō Enterprises, a billion-dollar global fashion and lifestyle company. He is also founder of Artists and Instigators, a venture innovation company, and a partner at SeventySix Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund.

Marc Ecko was born Marc Louis Milecofsky in New Jersey in 1972. He was brought up with his twin Marci and an older sister, Shari, in suburban Lakewood, New Jersey, where his father was a pharmacist and his mother was a real estate broker. The siblings attended local public schools.

In his teenage years, Ecko turned his parents’ garage into a design studio and showroom, creating and marketing t-shirts with his own designs, customizing hip-hop clothing, and airbrushing girls’ fingernails.

Ecko entered Rutgers University’s School of Pharmacy after high school. During his time in college he dabbled in graffiti and became absorbed in drawing, taking “Ecko” for his tag. In his third year, the school’s dean encouraged Ecko to take a year off and pursue his dream. “You don’t want to be 40 with regrets,” the dean said.

Chase Jarvis is an American professional photographer, director, artist, and entrepreneur.

Jarvis was born in Seattle, Washington. His father was a Seattle Police Department officer, and his mother was an administrator at a biotech company. He attended San Diego State University on a soccer scholarship, receiving a B.A. in Philosophy.

Initially, Jarvis planned to attend medical school after university. A few weeks before graduating, Jarvis’s grandfather died and left all his photography equipment to his grandson. Jarvis subsequently went on a post-college trip through Europe and discovered his passion for photography. He is self-taught, and has learned photography through experimenting and independent study.

In 1994, Jarvis moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado with his girlfriend, where he began shooting photos of pro snowboarders and skiers. Jarvis licensed his first image for $500 and a pair of skis. Realizing that photography was more lucrative and fulfilling than waiting tables, Jarvis continued to pursue photography while studying Philosophy and Art at the University of Washington’s MA/PhD program. One quarter before completing his Master’s degree, Jarvis licensed a batch of his photos to REI that allowed him to leave academia and open his own studio, Chase Jarvis Photography.

Kanye Omari West ( /ˈkɑːnjeɪ/; born June 8, 1977) is an American musician, film director and fashion designer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used pitched-up vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments. However, subsequent productions saw him broadening his musical palette and expressing influences encompassing '70s R&B, baroque pop, trip hop, arena rock, folk, alternative, electronica, synthpop, and classical music.

West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008, and his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. West released a collaborative album, Watch the Throne with Jay-Z in 2011, which is the duo's first collaborative album. His five solo albums, all of which have gone platinum, have received numerous awards and critical acclaim. As of 2012, West has won a total of eighteen Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all-time. All albums have been very commercially successful, with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy becoming his fourth consecutive No. 1 album in the U.S. upon release. West has had 5 songs exceed 3 million in digital sales as of July 2011, with "Gold Digger" selling 3,086,000, "Stronger" selling 4,402,000, "Heartless" selling 3,742,000, "E.T." selling over 4,000,000 and "Love Lockdown" selling over 3,000,000 placing him third in overall digital sales of the past decade. He has sold over 30 million digital songs in the United States making him one of the best-selling digital artists of all-time.

Talib Kweli Greene (October 3, 1975), better known as Talib Kweli, is an American rapper. Kweli hails from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" (طالب); his middle name in Swahili means "true". Kweli first gained recognition through Black Star, a collaboration with fellow MC Mos Def.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kweli grew up in a highly educated household in Park Slope. His mother, Brenda Greene, is an English professor at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York and his father an administrator at Adelphi University. His younger brother, Jamal Greene, is a professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School, and former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. As a youth, he was drawn to Afrocentric rappers, such as De La Soul and other members of the Native Tongues Posse whom he had met in high school. Talib Kweli was a student at Cheshire Academy, a boarding school in Connecticut. He was also a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, before being academically dismissed. He later studied experimental theater at New York University.