Nicholas Evan "Nick" Berg (April 2, 1978 – May 7, 2004) was an American Jewish businessman who went to Iraq after the US invasion of Iraq. He was abducted and later beheaded according to a video released in May 2004 by Islamist militants in response to the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal involving the United States Army and Iraqi prisoners. The CIA claimed that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi personally beheaded Berg.

The decapitation video was released on the Internet, reportedly from London to a Malaysian-hosted homepage by the Islamist organization al-Ansars.

Berg was a native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, where he owned his own company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service. He inspected and rebuilt communication antennae, and had previously visited Kenya and Uganda on similar projects.

Berg attended Henderson High School in West Chester, where he received a diploma in 1996. Berg attended four universities: Cornell, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Oklahoma. While at the University of Oklahoma, according to Nickberg.org, Berg developed a "paper brick" that was to be the precursor to his "Bovl Block" pressed construction blocks. He once traveled to Kitende, Uganda to help a village, by among other things teaching villagers how to make Bovl Blocks, a modular concrete block Berg invented for use in tower construction where steel is not readily available or is cost-prohibitive. In addition, Berg set up a subsidiary of his company, Prometheus Tower Services, Inc., in Kenya.

Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( /ˈluːpeɪ/ LOO-pay), is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. He also performs as the frontman of rock band Japanese Cartoon under his real name. As an entrepreneur, Fiasco is the chief executive officer of 1st and 15th Entertainment.

Raised in Chicago, Fiasco developed an interest in hip hop after initially disliking the genre for its use of vulgarity. After adopting the name Lupe Fiasco and recording songs in his father's basement, 19-year-old Fiasco joined a group called Da Pak. The group disbanded shortly after its inception, and Fiasco soon met rapper Jay-Z who helped him sign a record deal with Atlantic Records. In 2006, Fiasco released his debut album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor on the label, which received three Grammy nominations. He released his second album, Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, in December 2007. The lead single "Superstar" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. He released Lasers on March 8, 2011 after a two-year delay. The album's lead single "The Show Goes On" peaked at number 9 on the chart, thus becoming his most successful single since "Superstar".