Stephen Robert Nesta Marley, (born April 20, 1972 in Wilmington, Delaware; raised primarily in Kingston, Jamaica) is a reggae artist and a son of Bob Marley and reggae singer Rita Marley. Stephen is a five-time Grammy award winner as artist, producer and recording engineer. As child and teenager, he was a member of Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers. His debut album Mind Control was released 20 March 2007.
Thievery Corporation is a Washington, D.C.-based recording artist and DJ duo consisting of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton and their supporting artists. Their music style mixes elements of dub, acid jazz, indian classical and brazilian (such as bossa nova) with a lounge aesthetic. Thievery Corporation is on the Eighteenth Street Lounge record label named after the DC club owned by Eric Hilton, but several of their singles and EP's appear on the 4AD and !K7 labels.
Funkystepz is a collective containing three creative producers and one DJ under the names of Stimpy, Renay, Twitch and DJ Maxsin who are all individually talented but decided to come together and fusion their ideas.
M People were a British house music act from Manchester which formed in 1990. They consisted of Mike Pickering, Heather Small and Paul Heard and Shovell. Pickering was a member of factory records dance act Quando Quango, but became more noted as one of the original DJs at The hacienda. Heard was a member of acid jazz band Ace Of Clubs. Heather Small was in the British Soul band Hot House who had released a number of critically acclaimed records without scoring any major success.
Guy Sebastian is a successful Australian singer/songwriter whose recording career was launched spectacularly when he won the inaugural Australian Idol competition in November 2003. Since then Sebastian has released 5 studio albums which have been awarded 10 platinum & 1 gold accreditation for albums, and 8 platinum and 2 gold accreditations for singles. On his 5 albums, Sebastian has collaborated with many fine musicians/artists such as John Mayer, Steve Cropper, Robin Thicke, David Ryan Harris, Brian McKnight and most recently a duet with Jordin Sparks.
Wonderbrass formed in 1992 as a community street band from Pontypridd South Wales. Today they are bigger, bolder and brassier (pun intended) than ever before. Under the expert leadership of instrumentalist and composer Rob Smith and drummer extraordinaire Mark O’Connor, Wonderbrass are constantly evolving and exploring new musical challenges. Expect an intoxicating mix of jazz, Latin, ska and soul; a diverse repertoire including Cannonball Adderley, Abdulah Ibrahim and Madonna whilst indulging in a number of their own compositions along the way.
Dog Eat Dog made its big breakthrough in 1994 with the hit single No Fronts and the album All Boro Kings. The story behind Dog Eat Dog started a little earlier though... Dog Eat Dog has actually been around since 1990, when Dave Neabore and Sean Kilkenny decided to form a band of their own after previously playing in another band called Mucky Pup. A short while later Dave and Sean were accompanied by John Connor who was to act as the voice of the band and Dan Nastasi, who would play the second guitar.
Gift Of Gab (Tim Parker) and Chief Xcel (Xavier Mosley) met at John F. Kennedy High School in 1987 in Sacramento, California and formed the group in the early 1990s. They released their first recording, "Swan Lake", on solesides records. The Solesides Crew consisted of the duo, as well as other friends of theirs they had met at University of California - Davis, including DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born and Lateef The Truth Speaker. The single was an underground hit, but label trouble prevented the duo from immediately capitalizing on their fame.