Aaron Dontez Yates (born November 8, 1971), better known by his stage name Tech N9ne (pronounced "Tech Nine"), is an American rapper from Kansas City, Missouri. In 1999, Yates and Travis O'Guin founded the record label Strange Music. Throughout his career, Yates has sold over one million albums and has had his music featured in film, television, and video games. In 2009, he won the Left Field Woodie award at the mtvU Woodie Awards.

His stage name originated from the TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun, given to him by rapper Black Walt due to his fast rhyming style. Yates later applied a deeper meaning to the name, claiming that it stands for the complete technique of rhyme, with 'tech' meaning technique and 'nine' representing the number of completion.

Aaron Dontez Yates was born on November 8, 1971 in Kansas City, Missouri. He began rapping at a very early age, and would rap the letters of his name in order to remember how to spell it. He never met his father, and his mother suffered from epilepsy and lupus when he was a child, which emotionally affected him and inspired him to "search for God." He would wander around abandoned buildings with his best friend, Brian Dennis, hoping to catch a ghost on film. In 2003, Dennis was shot and killed by his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, which further inspired Yates' search for a higher power, as well as giving him the drive to vent his frustrations in his music.

Serj Tankian (Western Armenian: Սերժ Թանգեան [ˈsɛɾʒ tʰɑnˈkʰjɑn]; born August 21, 1967) is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional live rhythm guitarist of the rock band System of a Down.

During his musical career, Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan (Serart), as well as three solo albums Elect the Dead, Imperfect Harmonies and Harakiri. A live orchestral version of Elect the Dead incorporating the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra named Elect the Dead Symphony was released. In 2002, Tankian and Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice. Tankian also founded the music label Serjical Strike Records.

Tankian is ranked 26th in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.

Melvin Calhoun Jr., better known by his stage name Kutt Calhoun, is an American rapper from Kansas City, Missouri. His second album, Feature Presentation, debuted at #60 on the Billboard "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums" chart in its first week of release. His third album, Raw and Un-Kutt, performed better on the charts and debuted at #162 on the "Billboard 200" chart in its first week of release.

Kutt would release his debut album, B.L.E.V.E. (standing for Boiling Liquid Expanding Viscous Explosion), on August 10, 2004. The album features several appearances by the man he had performed hype duties for, Tech N9ne, as well as other local rappers, Krizz Kaliko, BG Bulletwound and fellow label mates Skatterman & Snug Brim. The album didn't perform well on the charts, only making an appearance on Billboard's "Top Heatseekers (West North Central)" chart.

After a long hiatus for most of its artists, Strange Music would find a new distribution deal in 2006, and thus a schedule of releases was mapped out. Summer 2007 was originally the projected release time for his second album, Feature Presentation. Strange Music would see a delay in their release schedule however, and Kutt Calhoun would instead record and release the album on October 7, 2008. The album saw features from his label mates Tech N9ne, Krizz Kaliko and Skatterman & Snug Brim once again, though it also featured several other local rappers such as The Popper, E-Skool, Paul Mussan and BG Bulletwound. The second album performed better on the charts than his debut, reaching #60 on Billboard's "Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums" as well as charting #19 on the "Top Heatseekers" chart. A music video was shot for the song "Bunk Rock Bitch," and the video was released by the Record Label through their YouTube account on January 15, 2009. The video features fellow label mates Tech N9ne and Krizz Kaliko.