Funk styles refers to a group of street dance styles that originated in California in the 1970s during the funk era. These mainly include locking, popping, and electric boogaloo. Though many of these dance styles have been incorporated into hip hop culture and are often seen danced to hip hop music, they were originally (and are still) danced to funk music. One of the reasons that the term funk styles first appeared was to give these dances their own identity and avoid them being primarily associated with breaking which is from New York.

John Anthony Frusciante ⁱ/fruːˈʃɑːnteɪ/; born March 5, 1970) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums. Frusciante has an active solo career, having released ten albums under his own name, as well as two with Josh Klinghoffer and Joe Lally as Ataxia. His solo recordings include elements ranging from experimental rock and ambient music to New Wave and electronica. Influenced by guitarists of various genres, Frusciante emphasizes melody and emotion in his guitar playing, and favors vintage guitars and analog recording techniques.

Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers at eighteen years old, first appearing on the band's 1989 album, Mother's Milk. The group's follow-up album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), was a breakthrough success. However, he was overwhelmed by the band's new popularity and quit in 1992. He became a recluse and entered a long period of drug addiction, during which he released his first solo recordings: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994) and then Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997). In 1998, he successfully completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers with the album Californication (1999). His album To Record Only Water for Ten Days was made in 2001. On a creative spree, Frusciante released six solo albums in 2004; each album explored different recording techniques and genres. In 2009, Frusciante released The Empyrean and again parted ways with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As of 2011, Frusciante is currently working on his eleventh solo album. Frusciante has produced and/or recorded with the Wu-Tang Clan, The Mars Volta, George Clinton and others. His most recent solo releases will be a 5 song EP entitled Letur-Lefr, due out in July 2012, and a full length album entitled PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone, due out in late 2012.

Afrika Bambaataa (born April 19, 1957) is an American DJ from the South Bronx, New York who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1980s. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "Grandfather" and the Amen Ra of Universal Hip Hop Culture as well as the Father of The Electro Funk Sound. Through his co-opting of the street gang the Black Spades into the music and culture-oriented Universal Zulu Nation, he is responsible for spreading hip hop culture throughout the world. On September 27, 2007, he was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Afrika Bambaataa grew up in The Bronx River Projects, with an activist mother and uncle. As a child, he was exposed to the black liberation movement, and witnessed debates between his mother and uncle regarding the conflicting ideologies in the movement. He was exposed to his mother's extensive and eclectic record collection. Gangs in the area became the law in the absence of law, clearing their turf of drug dealers, assisting with community health programs and both fighting and partying to keep members and turf. Bambaataa was a founding member of The Bronx River Projects-area street gang The Savage Seven. Due to the explosive growth of the gang, it later became known as the Black Spades, and Bambaataa quickly rose to the position of warlord. As warlord, it was his job to build ranks and expand the turf of the Black Spades. Bambaataa was not afraid to cross turfs to forge relationships with other gang members, and with other gangs. As a result, the Spades became the biggest gang in the city in terms of both membership and turf.

James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of funk music and is a major figure of 20th century popular music and dance.

In a career that spanned decades, Brown profoundly influenced the development of many different musical genres. Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly "Africanized" approach to music making. Brown performed in concerts, first making his rounds across the Chitlin' Circuit, and then across the country and later around the world, along with appearing in shows on television and in movies. Although he contributed much to the music world through his hitmaking, Brown holds the record as the artist who charted the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 without ever hitting number one on that chart.

For many years, Brown's touring show was one of the most extravagant productions in American popular music. At the time of Brown's death, his band included three guitarists, two bass guitar players, two drummers, three horns and a percussionist. The bands that he maintained during the late 1960s and 1970s were of comparable size, and the bands also included a three-piece amplified string section that played during ballads. Brown employed between 40 and 50 people for the James Brown Revue, and members of the revue traveled with him in a bus to cities and towns all over the country, performing upwards of 330 shows a year with almost all of the shows as one-nighters. In 1986, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1990 into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.