black music

The Pharcyde is a West Coast underground/alternative hip hop group. The group was formed in 1991 in South Los Angeles, California, United States, where the group's members grew up. The group was one of the most well known of the first wave of alternative hip-hop acts. The original members of the group are "Slimkid3" (Tre Hardson), "Fatlip" (Derrick Stewart), "Imani" (Emandu Wilcox) and "Bootie Brown" (Romye Robinson). The group is best known for their hit singles "Passing Me By" (which crossed over to alternative rock radio) and "Runnin'", and their debut album Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde.

Melissa Arnette Elliott (born July 1, 1971 in Portsmouth, Virginia), better known by her stage name Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, is an American Grammy Award winning rapper, singer, producer, actress and former member of the R&B group Sista. With sales of over seven million in the United States alone she is the only female rapper to have six albums certified platinum by the RIAA and has worked extensively as a producer for many other artists along with her childhood friend Timbaland.

Pierre Gage (born 3 January 1977, Montreal, Quebec, Canada), known by his last name Gage, is a Francophone Canadian singer/songwriter of Jamaican and Haitian ancestry. Gage got his start in the music business while still attending high school by landing the role of Johny Roquefort after attending an audition for the rock opera Starmania. Thus began his career as a musician heavily influenced by Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Lauryn Hill; influences partly explained by Gage's Jamaican and Haitian roots.

Ruth Brown (1928