Antonio "L.A." Reid (born June 7, 1956) is a US record executive, songwriter, and record producer. Best known as the co-founder of LaFace Records, he is responsible for signing and helping bring Avril Lavigne, Death Grips, Mariah Carey, Pink, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Kanye West, Toni Braxton, Kerli, Nicki Minaj, TLC, Usher, Ciara, OutKast, and Dido to multi-platinum album sales. He has won three Grammy Awards.

He is the President and chief executive of Hitco Music Publishing, based in Atlanta and was the chairman and chief executive officer of Island Def Jam Music Group until 2011, when he signed up to appear as a judge on the 2011 U.S. version of The X Factor. He is currently the Chairman and CEO of Epic Records.

Reid was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is one of four children of Emma Reid, a seamstress and interior decorator. His father was mostly absent. He was raised in the Mount Auburn and Madisonville neighborhoods in Cincinnati's east side. Antonio gained the nickname "L.A." as a young musician when a guitar player in his band called him "L.A." because he was wearing a T-shirt that said “L.A.” in reference to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were competing against the Cincinnati Reds at the time. His first drum lessons were with his uncle, Albert Baldwens.

Los Angeles (ⁱ/lɒs ˈændʒələs/ loss-AN-jə-ləs; Spanish: [los ˈaŋxeles], which is written Los Ángeles; British pronounciation /lɒs ˈændʒəliːz/ loss-AN-jə-leez) with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in the state of California, and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km²), and is located in Southern California. Often known by its initials L.A., the city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation's largest cities. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos".

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.

In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.

Justin Drew Bieber ( /ˈbiːbər/ BEE-bər, born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian Pop/R&B singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher, and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid. Bieber's debut single, "One Time", was released in 2009 and peaked in the top twenty in Canada and charted in the top thirty in several international markets. His debut album, the seven-track EP My World, followed in November 2009, and was soon certified platinum in the United States. He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

Scott Samuel "Scooter" Braun (born June 18, 1981) is an American talent manager. His acts appear on two record labels, Raymond-Braun Media Group (RBMG) and Schoolboy Records. The most prominent artist Braun represents is Justin Bieber, who is signed to Raymond-Braun Media Group.Asher Roth, also a Braun client, is signed to Schoolboy Records.

Braun was born in New York City. He comes from a Hungarian Jewish family. His father and paternal grandparents lived in Hungary until 1956. Just before the Soviet Union intervened to suppress the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the family fled to the United States of America. In Hungary, his grandfather had been a dental student, but when he arrived in the United States, he took work as a lab technician in Queens. To make ends meet, Braun's grandmother took work in a New York sweatshop.

Braun's father, Dr. Ervin Braun, followed in his own father's footsteps, becoming a dentist in Manhattan. During dental school, he met Susan Schlussel, also a dental student, and the two married. After Scooter Braun was born, the family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. His father was active in youth sports in the Greenwich area, founding the Connecticut Flame AAU basketball program.