An extended play (or EP) is a musical recording that contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full studio album or LP. The term EP originally referred to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play (SP) records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact Discs and music downloads as well. Ricardo Baca of The Denver Post said, "EPs—originally extended-play 'single' releases that are shorter than traditional albums—have long been popular with punk and indie bands." In the United Kingdom, the Official Chart Company defines a boundary between EP and album classification at 25 minutes of length or four tracks (not counting alternative versions of featured songs, if present).

EPs were released in various sizes in different eras. The earliest multi-track records, issued around 1919 by Grey Gull Records, were vertically cut 78 rpm discs known as "2-in-1" records. These had finer than usual grooves, like Edison Disc Records. By 1949, when the 45 rpm single and 33⅓ rpm LP were competing formats, seven-inch 45 rpm singles had a maximum playing time of only about four minutes per side.

Patrick Baril (Born January 23, 1982, in Lawrence, MA) better known as Statik Selektah, is an East Coast-based DJ, Producer and CEO of Showoff Records.

Statik Selektah was introduced to music at a young age, experimenting with his parents eight-track machine, cassette recorders, and turntable. By middle school, he was already DJing school functions, but he was inspired to be a true wheels-of-steel artiste after hearing DJ Premier & Funkmaster Flex scratch and mix records on Hot 97fm in New York City. Statik began doing radio at Phillips Exeter Academy’s WPEA, where he also occasionally DJ’ ed some of the Afro-Latino Society Parties. Naming himself DJ Statik, (the "Selektah" came later after hearing a local reggae artist say it unconsciously ) he began to start to DJ at clubs and private parties up and down the New England Coast. In 2000, Selektah moved back to Massachusetts from New Hampshire to pursue an audio production degree at Boston's New England Institute of Art. Around this time, Statik started to put out his own mixtapes titled "Spell My Name Right" series. In 2003, Statik created ShowOff Marketing which has had clients such as Reebok, G-Unit Records, Virgin Records, Capital, Universal Records, Diddy’s Vote or Die campaign and many others. In 2006, Statik Selektah made Showoff into a record label and put out Termanology's Out the Gate as the labels first release. In 2007, Statik released his first LP, titled Spell My Name Right and came out with a second Stick 2 the Script in 2009. In 2010, Statik Selektah dropped another album 100 Proof: The Hangover which reached 37 on Billboards Heatseeker Albums Chart. Besides dropping his own albums, he also has produced on many other artist's projects. Statik currently has a show on Thursday nights on Eminem's Shade 45 XM/Sirus Radio Station.

Tariq Trotter (born on October 3, 1971), better known as Black Thought, is an American hip-hop artist who is the lead MC of the Philadelphia-based hip hop group The Roots, as well as an occasional actor. Black Thought, who co-founded The Roots with drummer ?uestlove (Ahmir Thompson), is widely lauded for his live performance skills and his complex and politically aware lyrical content.

Black Thought was born Tariq Trotter and attended the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts and Millersville University. In 1987, Trotter became friends with drummer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and formed a drummer/MC duo performing on the streets of Philadelphia and at talent shows. Trotter would subsequently spend some time as one of two MCs in the group The Square Roots: the other one was Malik B., who Tariq met in college. In high-school, Black Thought converted to the Islamic sect of The Nation of Gods and Earths.

The Square Roots renamed themselves the Roots and released its debut album Organix in 1993, to prepare for a concert in Germany. The Roots signed to DGC and followed up with Do You Want More?!!!??! in 1995. Recorded without any sampling, the album was more popular among alternative music fans than those of hip hop. Around the release of the album, the Roots performed at the Lollapalooza alternative music festival and Montreux Jazz Festival. Illadelph Halflife, the band's 1996 album, became its first album to chart within the top 40 spots on the Billboard 200 because of the successful single "What They Do".Things Fall Apart followed in 1999, the year the band played at the Woodstock 99 concert.

Albert King (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992) was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.

One of the "Three Kings of the Blues Guitar" (along with B.B. King and Freddie King), Albert King stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) (some reports say 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)) and weighed 250 pounds (110 kg) and was known as "The Velvet Bulldozer". He was born Albert Nelson on a cotton plantation in Indianola, Mississippi. Although unrelated, Albert occasionally referred to himself as "B.B. King's half brother". During his childhood he would sing at a family gospel group at a church where his father played the guitar. One of 13 children, King grew up picking cotton on plantations near Forrest City, Arkansas, where the family moved when he was eight.

He began his professional work as a musician with a group called In The Groove Boys in Osceola, Arkansas. Moving north to Gary, Indiana and later St. Louis, Missouri, he briefly played drums for Jimmy Reed's band and on several early Reed recordings. Influenced by blues musicians Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson, but also, interestingly enough, Hawaiian music, the electric guitar became his signature instrument, his preference being the Gibson Flying V which he named "Lucy". King earned his nickname "The Velvet Bulldozer" during this period as he drove one of them and also worked as a mechanic to make a living.