The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, the term is often a euphemism – an increasingly inaccurate one – applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas. In the United States, the term has the additional connotation of impoverished Black and/or Hispanic neighborhoods. Sociologists in these countries sometimes turn this euphemism into a formal designation, applying the term inner city to such residential areas rather than to geographically more central commercial districts.^{[citation needed]}

However, the euphemism is increasingly inaccurate and irrelevant as inner city areas of American cities have undergone gentrification especially since the 1990s.

Such connotations are less common in other countries, where deprived areas may be located in outlying parts of cities. For instance, in many European cities, the inner city is the most prosperous part of the metropolis, where housing is expensive and where elites and high-income individuals dwell. Poverty and crime are more associated with the distant suburbs. The Spanish, French and Swedish words for suburb (suburbio, banlieue and förort respectively) often have a negative connotation similar to that of the English term inner city, especially when used in the plural.

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye (he added the 'e' as a young man), was an acclaimed American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range, who achieved major success in the 1960s and 1970s as an artist for the Motown Records label. He was shot dead by his father on April 1, 1984.

Starting his career as a member of the doo-wop group The Moonglows in the late 1950s, he ventured into a solo career after the group disbanded in 1960, signing with Motown Records subsidiary, Tamla. He started off as a session drummer, but later ranked as the label's top-selling solo artist during the 1960s. He was crowned "The Prince of Motown" and "The Prince of Soul". because of solo hits such as "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)", "Ain't That Peculiar", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and his duet singles with singers such as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell.

His work in the early- and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. After a self-imposed European exile in the early 1980s, Gaye returned on the 1982 Grammy-Award winning hit, "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album before his death.

Kevin Saunderson (born Kevin Maurice Saunderson, September 5, 1964, Brooklyn, New York) is an American electronic music producer. At the age of nine he moved to Belleville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit where he attended Belleville High School and befriended two students, Derrick May and Juan Atkins. Saunderson, with Atkins and May, (often called the "Belleville Three"), is considered to be one of the originators of techno, specifically Detroit techno. He is married to Sharmeela Lamarsha Saunderson.

Although frequently associated with Detroit, Kevin Saunderson spent the early years of his life in Brooklyn, New York, before moving to Belleville, Michigan, a rural town some 30 miles from Detroit. As teenagers attending Belleville High School, Atkins, May, and Saunderson were fans of DJ Charles "The Electrifying Mojo" Johnson and the pop, disco, and funk music he played. Atkins and May soon became serious about mixing others' music and creating their own, but Saunderson pursued other goals first, studying telecommunications and playing American football at Eastern Michigan University. Atkins had begun recording with Cybotron in 1981, but it was not until 1985 that May followed suit and made a record. Initially concentrating on becoming a DJ, Saunderson watched the six-month-long process as May completed "Let's Go;" he was inspired to create his own music.

Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011) was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s. His collaborative efforts with musician Brian Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues, and soul, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. His own term for himself was "bluesologist", which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues." His music, most notably on Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul.

In addition to being widely considered an influence in today's music, Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here. A memoir he had been working on for years up to the time of his death, "The Last Holiday", was also published, posthumously on January 2012.