Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972),better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter egoSlim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer,songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition. As well as being a member of D12, Eminem is also one half of the Detroit hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the best-selling artists in the world and is the best selling artist of the 2000s. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest artists of all time by many magazines including the Rolling Stone magazine which has ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

The same magazine has declared him The King of Hip Hop. Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number one albums on the Billboard 200. He has also sold more than 33 million track downloads and 39.6 million albums in the United States alone.

Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP. That first album,The Marshall Mathers LP and his third major album, The Eminem Show, all won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. The Marshall Mathers LP is also considered one of Eminem's best and most successful albums. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery, which was an international success. Recovery was also named the best selling album worldwide of 2010 joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery, giving him a total of 13 Grammys in his career. Eminem has named Masta Ace, Big Daddy Kane, Newcleus, the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, AZ, Nas, and Ice-Tamongst others as his influences.

Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones (born September 14, 1973), 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. His debut album Illmatic, released in 1994 by Columbia Records, was critically acclaimed and would go on to be widely hailed a classic in the genre. MTV ranked him at  on their list of The Greatest MCs (Rappers) of All Time. Editors of About.com ranked him  on their list of the Top 50 MCs of Our Time (1987–2007), making him the highest ranking rapper of his generation (ahead of The Notorious B.I.G., abdullahi bayi and 2Pac).

Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), known by his stage names 2Pac (or simply Pac) and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time.

 Rap music is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted.

 It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, breaking/dancing, and graffiti writing.

Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing.

"hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture.