Jazz rap is a sub-genre of hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 which incorporates jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 influences, developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The lyrics are often based on political consciousness, Afrocentricity, and general positivism

Political positivism

Political positivism is a theory founded by Ljubisa Bojic. It includes intensive use of media to promote unity, participation, and positivism in thinking of common men and women.-Short explanation:...

. Allmusic writes that the genre "was an attempt to fuse African-American music of the past with a newly dominant form of the present, paying tribute to and reinvigorating the former while expanding the horizons of the latter". Musically, the rhythms have been typically those of hip hop rather than jazz, over which are placed repetitive phrases of jazz instrumentation: trumpet, double bass, etc. The amount of improvisation varies between artists: some groups improvise lyrics and solos, while many of them do not.

Precursors

Peter Shapiro

Peter Shapiro

Peter Shapiro is a freelance music journalist, who has written for Spin, URB, Music Week, Uncut, Vibe, The Wire and The Times.-Literary works:*The Rough Guide to Hip-hop*The Rough Guide to Soul and R'n'B...

, in his Rough Guide to Hip-Hop (2nd ed. London: Rough Guides, 2005) lists Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

's 1925 recording of "Heebie Jeebies

Heebie Jeebies (composition)

"Heebie Jeebies" is a composition written by Boyd Atkins which achieved fame when it was recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1926. The recording on Okeh Records by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five includes a famous chorus in which Louis does scat singing....

" in his timeline of hip hop. In the 70s, The Last Poets

The Last Poets

The Last Poets is a group of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African American civil rights movement's black nationalist thread...

, Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron

Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...

, and The Watts Prophets

The Watts Prophets

The Watts Prophets are a group of musicians and poets from Watts, Los Angeles, California. Like their contemporaries, The Last Poets, the group combined elements of jazz music and spoken word performance, making the trio one that is often seen as a forerunner of contemporary hip hop music...

 placed spoken word and rhymed poetry over jazzy backing tracks. There are also parallels between jazz and the improvised phrasings of freestyle rap

Freestyle rap

Freestyle rap commonly refers to rap lyrics which are improvised through a acapella or with instrumental beats, i.e. performed with no previously composed lyrics, or "off the top of the head"...

. Despite these disparate threads, jazz rap did not coalesce as a genre until the late 80s.

Beginnings of a trend

In 1985, jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 band Cargo, led by Mike Carr

Mike Carr (musician)

Mike Carr, born Michael Anthony Carr in South Shields, County Durham, England is a jazz organist, pianist and vibraphonist...

, released the single "Jazz Rap", appearing on the album Jazz Rap, Volume One http://www.discogs.com/Cargo-Jazz-Rap-Volume-One/master/260299. In 1988, Gang Starr

Gang Starr

Gang Starr was an influential East Coast hip hop duo that consisted of the late MC Guru and DJ/producer DJ Premier. Their style combined elements of New York jazz and hip hop.-Background:...

 released the debut single "Words I Manifest", sampling Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...

's 1952 "Night in Tunisia", and Stetsasonic

Stetsasonic

Stetsasonic was an American hip hop group formed in 1979 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York. It is remembered as one of the first hip hop crews to use a live band, and the group's positive, uplifting lyrics made it forerunners of alternative hip hop and jazz hip...

 released "Talkin' All That Jazz", sampling Lonnie Liston Smith

Lonnie Liston Smith

Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with important free jazz artists such as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion / Quiet Storm /...

. Gang Starr's debut LP, No More Mr. Nice Guy

No More Mr. Nice Guy (Gang Starr album)

No More Mr. Nice Guy is the debut album by hip hop duo Gang Starr, which was released in 1989 . Although it was regarded as a critical success amid the first wave of alternative hip hop acts such as Jungle Brothers and De La Soul. No More Mr. Nice Guy remains somewhat overshadowed by the highly...

(Wild Pitch

Wild Pitch Records

Wild Pitch Records was a hip hop record label started in the mid 1980s by Stuart Fine and was eventually distributed by EMI and eventually acquired by Jay Faires, who tried to reactivate it as part of his short-lived JCOR Entertainment label...

, 1989), and their track "Jazz Thing" (CBS, 1990) for the soundtrack of Mo' Better Blues

Mo' Better Blues

Mo' Better Blues is a 1990 drama film starring Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, and Spike Lee, who also directed. It follows a period in the life of a fictional jazz trumpeter Bleek Gilliam as a series of bad decisions result in his jeopardizing both his relationships and his playing career...

, further popularized the jazz rap style.

Native Tongues

Groups making up the collective known as the Native Tongues Posse

Native Tongues Posse

The Native Tongues is a collective of late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop artists known for their positive-minded, good-natured Afrocentric lyrics, and for pioneering the use of eclectic sampling and later jazz-influenced beats. Its principal members are the Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and A Tribe...

 tended towards jazzy releases; these include the Jungle Brothers

Jungle Brothers

The Jungle Brothers are an American hip hop group that pioneered the fusion of jazz and hip-hop and also became the first hip-hop group to use a house-music producer. The group began performing in the mid-1980s and released its first album, Straight Out the Jungle, in July 1988...

' debut Straight Out the Jungle

Straight Out the Jungle

Straight out the Jungle is the debut album from hip hop group Jungle Brothers. The album marked the beginning of the Native Tongues collective, later featuring popular artists like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Black Sheep....

(Warlock, 1988) and A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest

A Tribe Called Quest is an American hip hop group, formed in 1985, and is composed of rapper/producer Q-Tip , rapper Phife Dawg , and DJ/producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A fourth member, rapper Jarobi White, left the group after their first album but rejoined in 2006...

's People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm

People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm is the debut album by the alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, released April 17, 1990 on Jive Records. Though the album was well-received critically, it had little mainstream appeal. The album did earn the band a devoted following,...

(Jive

Jive Records

Jive Records was a record label based in New York City, operating under RCA Music Group. Jive was primarily known for a string of successes with hip hop artists in the 1980s, and in teen pop and boy bands in the late 1990s. The word "jive" was inspired by Township Jive, a form of South African...

, 1990) and The Low End Theory

The Low End Theory

The Low End Theory is the second album by American hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Released on September 24, 1991 through Jive Records, the album produced three singles: "Check the Rhime," "Jazz ," and "Scenario."-Conception:...

(Jive, 1991). The Low End Theory has become one of hip hop's most acclaimed albums, and also earned praise from jazz bassist Ron Carter

Ron Carter

Ron Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...

, who played double bass on one track. De La Soul

De La Soul

De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. The band is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres...

's Buhloone Mindstate

Buhloone Mindstate

Buhloone Mindstate is De La Soul's third full-length album. It was the last De La Soul album to be produced with Prince Paul. Comedian Chris Rock ranked it 10th in his list of the top 25 hip-hop albums of all time that was published in Rolling Stone in 2005.- Title significance :The title refers...

(Tommy Boy

Tommy Boy Records

Tommy Boy Entertainment is an independent record label started in 1981 by Tom Silverman.-History:...

, 1993) featured contributions from Maceo Parker

Maceo Parker

Maceo Parker is an American funk and soul jazz saxophonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s, as well as Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s. Parker was a prominent soloist on many of Brown's hit recordings, and a key part of his band, playing alto, tenor and baritone saxophones...

, Fred Wesley

Fred Wesley

Fred Wesley is an American jazz and funk trombonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...

, and Pee Wee Ellis

Pee Wee Ellis

Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis is an American saxophonist, composer and arranger. He was an important member of James Brown's band in the 1960s and appeared on many of Brown's most notable recordings...

, and samples from Eddie Harris

Eddie Harris

Eddie Harris was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ...

, Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson

Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...

, Duke Pearson

Duke Pearson

Duke Pearson was an American jazz pianist and composer. Allmusic notes him as being a "big part in shaping the Blue Note label's hard bop direction in the 1960s as a producer."-History:...

 and Milt Jackson

Milt Jackson

Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...

.

Also of this period was Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

-based Dream Warriors

Dream Warriors

Dream Warriors were a Canadian hip hop duo from Toronto, Ontario, comprising King Lou and Capital Q. Described as "a pair of deft, intelligent rappers" by Allmusic, they were major contributors to the jazz rap movement of the early 1990s. Their 1991 debut album, And Now the Legacy Begins, is...

' 1991 release And Now the Legacy Begins

And Now the Legacy Begins

And Now the Legacy Begins is the debut album of Canadian hip hop duo Dream Warriors, released April 23, 1991. It was released worldwide on Island Records and in the United States on sub-label 4th & B'way Records...

(4th & B'way). It produced the hit singles "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style" and "Wash Your Face in My Sink". The first of these was based around a loop taken from Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

' "Soul Bossa Nova

Soul Bossa Nova

"Soul Bossa Nova" is a popular instrumental title, composed by and first performed by American impresario, jazz composer, arranger and record producer Quincy Jones. It first appeared on his 1962 Big Band Bossa Nova big band album on Mercury Records. Multi-reed player Rahsaan Roland Kirk played the...

", while the second sampled Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

's 1967 rendition of "Hang On Sloopy

Hang on Sloopy

"Hang on Sloopy" is a song by the pop group The McCoys which was #1 in America in October 1965 and is the official rock song of the state of Ohio and The Ohio State University...

". Meanwhile, Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 hip hop group Freestyle Fellowship

Freestyle Fellowship

Freestyle Fellowship are a rap group from Los Angeles consisting of rappers Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., Self Jupiter and producer J Sumbi...

 pursued a different route of jazz influence in recordings with unusual time signatures and scat

Scat singing

In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...

-influenced vocals.

Jazz artists come to hip hop

Though jazz rap had achieved little mainstream success, jazz legend Miles Davis

Miles Davis

Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

' final album (released posthumously in 1992), Doo-Bop

Doo-Bop

Doo-Bop was jazz innovator Miles Davis' final studio album, which would have marked the beginning of the artist's turn to hip-hop-oriented tracks. However, Davis died on September 28, 1991, at which time only six tunes for the album had been completed...

, was based around hip hop beats and collaborations with producer Easy Mo Bee

Easy Mo Bee

Osten Harvey, Jr., better known by his stage name Easy Mo Bee, is a hip hop/R&B record producer, known for production work for late 80's artists such as Big Daddy Kane, but most notable for his affiliation with Bad Boy Records in its early years and his heavy production involvement in The Notorious...

. Davis' ex-bandmate Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

 returned to hip hop influences in the mid-nineties, releasing the album Dis Is da Drum in 1994. Jazz musician Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis

Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...

  collaborated with Gang Starr's DJ Premier

DJ Premier

Christopher Edward Martin , better known by his stage name DJ Premier , is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with emcee Guru...

 on his Buckshot LeFonque

Buckshot LeFonque

Buckshot LeFonque was a musical group project of Branford Marsalis. The name Buckshot LeFonque was a pseudonym used by jazz saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley for contractual reasons on the album Here Comes Louis Smith...

 project that same year.

1990s–present

Digable Planets

Digable Planets

Digable Planets is an American alternative hip hop trio based in New York City, composed of Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler , Mary Ann "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving . They released their debut album Reachin' in 1993, and their follow-up album Blowout Comb in 1994...

' 1993 release Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)

Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)

Reachin is the debut album by alternative hip hop group Digable Planets. It was released on September 27, 1993, by Pendulum/Elektra Records. The album was produced solely by Digable Planets' Butterfly and features raps by each of the group's members. There are no guest performers on Reachin, but...

was a hit jazz rap record sampling the likes of Don Cherry

Don Cherry (jazz)

Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...

, Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins

Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...

, Art Blakey

Art Blakey

Arthur "Art" Blakey , known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community....

, Herbie Mann

Herbie Mann

Herbert Jay Solomon , better known as Herbie Mann, was a Jewish American jazz flutist and important early practitioner of world music...

, Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Grant Green

Grant Green

Grant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....

, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...

. It spawned the hit single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)". Also in 1993, Us3

US3

Us3 is a jazz-rap group founded in London in 1991. Their name was inspired by a Horace Parlan recording produced by Alfred Lion, the founder of Blue Note Records. On their debut album, Hand on the Torch, Us3 used samples from the Blue Note Records catalogue, all originally produced by...

 released Hand on the Torch

Hand on the Torch

Hand on the Torch was the debut album for the jazz-rap group Us3. It received much attention because of its mix of jazz and rap, using live jazz musicians...

on Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...

. All samples were from the Blue Note catalogue. The single "Cantaloop

Cantaloop

"Cantaloop " is a song by jazz-rap group Us3 from their 1993 album Hand on the Torch.It features a sample of Herbie Hancock's song "Cantaloupe Island", and reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's only top 40 single....

" was Blue Note's first gold record.

This period was the high watermark for jazz rap's popularity among hip hop listeners, following which it came to be regarded for a time as a trend which was "played out". Musical jazz references became less obvious and less sustained, and lyrical references to jazz certainly more rare. However, jazz had been added to the palette of hip hop producers, and its influence continued throughout the 1990s whether behind the gritty street-tales of Nas

Nas

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones, who performs under the name Nas , formerly Nasty Nas, is an American rapper and actor. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in hip hop and one of the most skilled and influential rappers of all-time...

 (Illmatic

Illmatic

Illmatic is the debut album of American rapper Nas, released April 19, 1994, on Columbia Records. Following his signing to Columbia with the help of MC Serch, recording sessions for the album took place during 1992 to 1993 at Chung King Studios, D&D Recording, Battery Studios, and Unique Recording...

, Columbia

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, 1994), or backing the more bohemian sensibilities of acts such as The Roots

The Roots

The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...

 and Common Sense

Common (rapper)

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. , better known by his stage name Common , is an American hip-hop artist and actor....

. Since 2000 it can be detected in the work of producers such as The Sound Providers

The Sound Providers

The Sound Providers are a Jazz rap duo formed by producers Jason Skills and Soulo. Formed in 1998 in San Diego, California, it originally included a third member, an MC named Profile, who left the group shortly before they were signed by ABB Records...

, J Rawls, 88-Keys, Crown City Rockers

Crown City Rockers

Crown City Rockers are a five-member hip hop band from Oakland, California, by way of Boston, Massachusetts and Pasadena. Formerly known as Mission:, they play old school inflected hip hop music with live instrumentation , citing influences such as: A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, KRS-One and De...

, Kero One

Kero one

Kero One is a Korean-American hip hop MC and producer from San Francisco, California.-History:Kero One originally worked as a web designer, making 50 copies of his first single with home equipment and personal credit cards. One of the copies was purchased at a record shop in Tokyo by a Japanese DJ,...

, Nujabes

Nujabes

was a Japanese hip hop producer and DJ who recorded under the name , the reverse spelling of his name in Japanese order. Nujabes was also owner of the Shibuya record stores, T Records and Guinness Records and founder of the independent label Hydeout Productions....

, Freddie Joachim, Asheru

Asheru

Asheru, born Gabriel Benn, is an African American hip hop artist, educator, and youth activist. He is widely known for performing the opening and closing themes for the popular TV series, The Boondocks, as well as his pioneering and innovative efforts to forward the Hip Hop Education...

, Fat Jon

Fat Jon

Fat Jon the Ample Soul Physician is an American hip hop producer from Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the four members of Five Deez, alongside Pace Rock, Sonic, and Kyle David...

, Madlib

Madlib

Otis Jackson Jr. in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer...

, Simple Citizens, and the English duo The Herbaliser

The Herbaliser

The Herbaliser is a jazz rap band formed by Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba London, England during the early 1990s. Although currently signed to !K7 Records, they were one of the best-known acts from the Ninja Tune independent record label...

, among others.

One hip hop project which continued to maintain a direct connection to jazz was Guru

Guru (rapper)

Keith Edward Elam , better known by his stage name Guru, was an American emcee and member of the hip-hop duo Gang Starr, along with DJ Premier. He was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts...

's Jazzmatazz series, which used live jazz musicians in the studio. Spanning from 1993 to 2007, its four volumes assembled jazz luminaries like Freddie Hubbard

Freddie Hubbard

Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...

, Donald Byrd

Donald Byrd

Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...

, Courtney Pine

Courtney Pine

Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass Clarinet and keyboards...

, Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett is a Grammy Award-winning American post bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained fame in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band. He has since pursued a critically acclaimed solo career...

 and Lonnie Liston Smith

Lonnie Liston Smith

Lonnie Liston Smith, Jr. is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with important free jazz artists such as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith And The Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of albums widely regarded as classics in the fusion / Quiet Storm /...

, and hip hop performers such as Kool Keith

Kool Keith

Keith Matthew Thornton, better known by his stage name Kool Keith, is an American rapper from The Bronx, New York. A founding member of Ultramagnetic MCs, Kool Keith has recorded prolifically both as a solo artist and in group collaborations. Kool Keith is the self-proclaimed inventor of...

, MC Solaar

MC Solaar

MC Solaar is a francophone hip hop and rap artist. He is one of the most internationally popular and influential French rappers....

, Pete Philly and Perquisite

Pete Philly and Perquisite

Pete Philly & Perquisite was a hip hop duo from Amsterdam, The Netherlands consisting of Pieter "Pete Philly" Monzon as the MC/vocalist and Pieter "Perquisite" Perquin as the cellist, producer and composer of all the music. Their music is best described as hip hop with influences from jazz,...

, Common, and Guru's Gang Starr colleague DJ Premier

DJ Premier

Christopher Edward Martin , better known by his stage name DJ Premier , is an American record producer and DJ, and was the instrumental half of the hip hop duo Gang Starr, together with emcee Guru...

.