Sole: In 1998 he founded Anticon Records, the first collectively owned indie Hip-Hop label in the United States. Since then, Sole has played over a thousand shows throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Japan. Recently, Sole pulled his masters from anticon and has re-invented himself as a new kind of artist, business, and political entity. His music has been featured in major media outlets such as Rolling Stone, 2DopeBoyz, Pitchfork, MTV, Huffington Post, Spin, Alarm Press, Alternet and many more. Sole has released ten full length studio albums and over a dozen mixtapes. Throughout his career sole has been known as one to push the limits in terms of genre and content and is widely heralded as a pioneer of avant garde & experimental rap music. This year, Sole & his wife Yasamin released the instrumental project WHITENOISE and Sole launched "The Solecast", a podcast featuring long form interviews with academics, artists and activists. Sole’s activism reaches beyond the studio and stage into his everyday life where he is deeply involved in material and logistical support to many projects that engage directly in the class struggle.
DJ Pain 1: Known for his 2008 break-out beat on "Don't Do It" for Young Jeezy's platinum-selling album "The Recession", producer DJ Pain 1 stays busy. He tours as a DJ, produces full albums, as well as creating original and free content for the producer community - this Hip-Hop musician takes no breaks. Pain 1 spent the late 90's cultivating his hip-hop sensibilities through graffiti, DJing and beatmaking. He juggled a youth service/teaching career with creating music, often times marrying the two worlds-- he co-founded the first hip-hop performing arts program to be hosted in an institute of higher education in his city. Once Pain 1 decided to focus on his production career, his resume quickly grew to include both legendary hip-hop acts (Public Enemy, Kool G Rap, MC Lyte) as well as contemporary hit-makers (Juicy J, 2 Chainz, 50 Cent). He has also garnered attention for his multiple Youtube video series on both production technique and music business know-how.
