FT Alphaville is a daily news and commentary service for financial market professionals created by the Financial Times in October 2006. The service includes an email-based morning financial brief, a blog, and two message boards, one called "Markets Live" and another, added two years after its founding, called "The Long Room ". Commenting on the blog or participating on either of the message boards require registration; the Long Room is limited to current and retired financial professionals.

FT Alphaville won an Harold Wincott Award for 2007, in the category of online journalism. It subsequently won Best Business Blog in both the Judge's Panel and the People's Voice categories, at the 2008 Webby Awards.

The service is called "Alphaville", in reference to "the City term 'Alpha', meaning 'absolute returns' … above and beyond the industry benchmark." "The Long Room" is named after a dining room of a City of London bar/restaurant on Throgmorton Street that used to be frequented by stockbrokers, bankers and insurance brokers when the London Stock Exchange was located on Threadneedle Street.

Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2011.He has sold approximately 50 million albums worldwide, while receiving fourteen Grammy Awards for his musical work, and numerous additional nominations. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest rappers of all-time. He was ranked #1 by MTV in their list of The Greatest MCs of All-Time in 2006. Two of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996) and The Blueprint (2001) are considered landmarks in the genre with both of them being ranked in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Blender included the former on their 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die.

Jay-Z co-owns the 40/40 Club, is part-owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and is also the creator of the line Rocawear. He is the former CEO of Def Jam Recordings, one of the three founders of Roc-A-Fella Records, and the founder of Roc Nation. As an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 with eleven. Jay-Z also has had four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, one as lead artist.

Benjamin Hudson McIldowie (born 1979, Birmingham, England), known professionally as Mr Hudson, is an English R&B/pop artist based in London, England. Mr Hudson is signed to rapper and producer Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music. He has listed various influences, most notably Chet Baker, David Bowie, The Police, Andre 3000, Marvin Gaye, Phoenix, The Specials, Billie Holiday, Rosster, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzee Rascal.

Mr Hudson initially recorded with his band under the name Mr Hudson & The Library. Their first album, Tale of Two Cities, was released in 2007. The Library were Joy Joseph (Steel Pan, backing vocals, percussion), Torville Jones (piano), Maps Huxley (AKA Robin French, bass guitar) and Andrew "Wilkie" Wilkinson (drums). They were known for their energetic live performances and were nominated for "Best Newcomer" at the 2007 UK Festival Awards.

As a solo artist, Mr Hudson has worked with acts such as Kanye West, Dizzee Rascal, N-Dubz, KiD CuDi, Tinie Tempah, Jay-Z, Big Sean and Caspa, and also toured with Calvin Harris. His vocal performances have been compared to those of Sting. He is now accompanied by Joy Joseph (vocals and steel drum), Rob Barron (electric keyboard), Raphael Mann (bass guitar) and Andrew "Wilkie" Wilkinson (electric drums).

Theo Jerome Kerlin (born 7 May 1989) is a British MC who is credited by his stage name Master Shortie. He is also a singer, establishing his own record label, Odd One Out. Plus has been listed in the Sound of 2009 poll.

Originally from Mitcham in South London. His dad runs an east London jazz bar throughout his childhood which led him to listen to many genres of music, encouraging him to start rapping at the age of 12^{[citation needed]}

He Started off at The Kidz in the Biz Academy in South East London. After a short stint at the BRIT School at the age of 14, he soon dropped out, claiming “it wasn’t me, it didn’t suit me”. At 16, Kerlin enrolled on a BTEC course at Nescot studying Music Technology. He then started recording and producing his own adolescent hip-hop songs with producers and an underground reggae singer called Sparky.

Kerlin also appeared as Simba in a West End production of the Lion King.

In 2005, Kerlin started to support American urban acts such as ATL at the Hackney Empire, the Scala and Shepherd’s Bush Empire.