Ryan Daniel Montgomery (born July 5, 1977), better known by his stage name Royce da 5'9", is an American rapper. He is known for his longtime association with Eminem and for his solo career, recording primarily with Carlos "6 July" Broady and DJ Premier, as well as ghostwriting for the likes of Diddy and Dr. Dre. Royce is one half of the rap duo Bad Meets Evil with Eminem and also a member of hip hop group Slaughterhouse. The editors of About.com ranked him #33 on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007).

Ryan Montgomery was born and raised on the West side of Detroit, Michigan on W. McNichols & Wyoming Ave. He moved to Oak Park, Michigan when he was 10 years old, later acquiring the nickname "Royce" during high school after wearing a Turkish link chain with an R pendant resembling the Rolls Royce symbol. He started rapping at age 18, influenced mainly by Ras Kass and Redman. He signed his first deal in 1998 with Tommy Boy Records, after the label shut down, he signed a deal with Columbia where he started recording an album called Rock City, referring to Detroit's former status as home to Motown Records. When the project was heavily bootlegged, Royce left the label for Koch to re-record some of the album, eventually releasing it in 2002 as Rock City (Version 2.0). While the album did not sell very well, the DJ Premier-produced single "Boom" gained Royce some underground recognition and eventually resulted in the two working together more closely.

Tyler Gregory Okonma (born March 6, 1991), better known by his stage name Tyler, The Creator, is an American rapper, record producer, actor and fashion designer from Los Angeles. He is best known as the leader and co-founder of the alternative hip hop collective Odd Future, and has rapped on and produced songs for nearly every Odd Future release. Okonma also creates all the artwork for the group's releases and said in an interview with DJ Semtex that he designs all the group's clothing and other merchandise as well. He is currently signed to English independent record label XL Recordings, and his own record label, Odd Future Records.

Tyler Okonma was born in Los Angeles, California to a Nigerian father and a mother of African-American and white Canadian descent. He claims that he had never met his father, and spent his early life living in the communities of Ladera Heights and Hawthorne in southwest Los Angeles County. At the age of seven, he would take the cover out of an album's case and create covers for his own imaginary albums including a tracklist with song times before he could even make music. At the age of 14, Okonma taught himself how to play piano. In his twelve years of schooling, he had attended twelve different schools, in Los Angeles and Sacramento areas.

Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), better known by his stage name DJ Premier (also known as Preem, Premo, or Primo for short), is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with emcee Guru. Born in Houston and raised in Prairie View, Texas, he has lived in Brooklyn, New York, for much of his professional career. Rolling Stone identified Premier as arguably Hip-Hop's greatest producer of all time.

The Source named DJ Premier one of the five greatest producers in hip-hop history, while the editors of About.com ranked him #1 on their Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers list. He also made the "Finals" in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe. He attended Prairie View A&M University.

Premier is known for producing all of Gang Starr's songs as well as many of the Gang Starr Foundation's songs. His work also includes production for heavyweight rappers such as (alphabetic order) Apathy, Big L, Bun B, Canibus, D.I.T.C., Fat Joe, Game, Jay-Z, Kanye West, KRS-One, Lord Finesse, M.O.P., Mos Def, Nas, Rakim, Royce Da 5'9", The LOX, The Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, rock band Limp Bizkit, Big L, Big Daddy Kane, Ill Bill, Joell Ortiz, and pop/R&B singer Christina Aguilera, among many others.

Joe Budden (born August 31, 1980) is an American rapper from Jersey City, New Jersey.

In the year 2003, Budden released his debut solo studio album, Joe Budden. It included Budden's 2003 Grammy-nominated summer hit "Pump It Up", and was also featured in the soundtrack for the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious and the video games Def Jam Vendetta, Def Jam Fight for NY, and Madden NFL 2004. The song "Focus" was also featured in the game and Joe Budden was also a character. Its second single was "Fire" featuring Busta Rhymes, which was in the movie Mean Girls. The song "Drop Drop" was featured on the soundtrack for the movie Cradle 2 the Grave. Joe has hinted in many songs that he was a recovering drug addict and has reaffirmed his position several times through multiple outlets.

After his debut album, Budden's sophomore release titled ‘The Growth’ was hampered due to the label's problems with Joe and his Def Jam seniors not happy with the direction of his music. The production of the album appeared to end up in a development hell and was ultimately not released. Continued disagreements between Budden and Def Jam forced the two sides to part ways. However, Budden managed to release the first and second installments of his Mood Muzik mixtape series while on Def Jam, and the series has been met with critical acclaim.

Timothy Elpadaro Thedford (born September 19, 1976), better known by his stage name Jay Electronica, is an American hip hop recording artist and record producer, currently based in London, United Kingdom. Jay Electronica first gained significant attention after the release of the musical composition Act I: Eternal Sunshine (the pledge), made available on a MySpace page in 2007. It is fifteen continuous minutes of music, without drums, built from Jon Brion's soundtrack to the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In late 2009 he released two songs, both produced by Just Blaze, "Exhibit A (Transformations)" and "Exhibit C" the latter of which won a Sucker Free Summit Award for Instant Classic. On November 12, 2010, it was announced Jay Electronica had become an official member of Jay-Z's Roc Nation record label.