Hip-Hop Speakers

Talib Kweli

Few hip-hop artists have made as profound an impact in as short a time as Talib Kweli. In recent years, Kweli has played a major part in bringing a sense of spirituality, social conscience, and moral balance back to hip-hop.

Mos Def

Mos Def's devotion to hip-hop and passion for social consciousness combine with a synergy seldom witnessed in rap history. Def’s first solo album, a multi-dimensional portrait of an MC who embodies the best of hip-hop’s past and one of its brightest hopes for the future, is entitled Black On Both Sides. The ...

Ice-T

Hip-hop pioneer currently starring on Law and Order: SVU, Ice-T has risen up from the harsh realities of growing up disadvantaged to become a successful entertainer and entrepreneur. Serving as a sobering, yet inspirational, role model, he shares a powerful message with youth about overcoming adversity through ...

Saul Williams

One of the world’s most prominent spoken-word artists, Williams has redefined poetry as an accessible, living art form to countless youth across America. A contributor to the “Not in our Name” pro-peace initiative, his draft of their “Pledge of Resistance” served as a manifesto to millions across the world ...

Michael Eric Dyson

Named by Essence magazine as one of the 50 most inspiring African Americans, Dyson is one of the nation's most renowned public intellectuals, revitalizing the role with the fervor of an ordained Baptist minister. Called "a street fighter in a suit and tie," he takes on the toughest and most controversial issues of ...

Sister Souljah

Frequent collaborator with Public Enemy. Keynote speaker at the Million Women March. Author of "No Disrespect" and "The Coldest Winter Ever".

Marc Lamont Hill

An activist, social critic, and one of the nation's most notable African American leaders, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill is among a new generation of public intellectuals who move with equal ease between Faculty Row and Fraternity Row, "the street" and Main Street.

Lisa Cortes

Executive Producer of the Oscar-nominated Precious, Cortes worked for over a decade to bring this brilliant story to the silver screen. Passionate about revealing expressive voices and important stories to a worldwide audience, her credits as a producer include The Woodsman and the Academy Award-winning ...

Kevin Powell

As a talented political activist, poet, journalist, essayist, hip-hop historian, public speaker, and entrepreneur, Powell is widely considered one of America's most important voices in these early years of the 21st Century. An astute and enlightening observer, he comments on race, gender, class, and American pop culture ...

Troy Carter

Troy Carter is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Coalition Media Group, a talent management and full-service film and television production company. Carter is responsible for establishing the careers of numerous recording artists, including multi-platinum Grammy award winner Lady Gaga.

Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons

Joseph “Rev Run” Simmons is a pioneering musician, an accomplished author, a fashion mogul, and the star of MTV’s hit reality television show Run’s House. The man once known as the superstar rapper called “Run” from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group, Run DMC, found a further, deeper calling, and has ...

DJ Drama

Ask any southern rap fan to name the most prominent DJ in his region right now, and they will say, “DJ Drama.” Named by Rolling Stone Magazine as number one DJ in the Hip-Hop universe, his hits are certified platinum before hitting the stands. The Atlanta-based mix tape messiah brought this street music to ...

Black Thought

Trotter aka Black Thought, lead singer of The Roots, is recognized as one of the leading lyrical improvisers in rap. With an intense focus on live music, Black Thought and the Philadelphia group showed the way for live rap, building on Stetsasonic's "hip-hop band" philosophy of the mid-'80s by focusing on live ...

Krist "KRS-ONE" Parker

Dubbed "the conscience of rap" and its "leading activist" by "Rolling Stone". Organizing KRS-ONE's Temple of Hip-Hop Kulture, a hip-hop preservation society that promotes hip-hop as a strategy toward health, love, awareness and wealth.

Nas

Nas is heralded as one of New York's leading rap voices. Whether proclaiming himself as "Nasty Nas" or "Nas Escobar" or "Nastradamus" or "God's Son," Nas evolved from a young street disciple to a vain all-knowing sage to a humbled godly teacher. Such growth made every album release an event and thus prolonged the rapper's ...

LL Cool J

LL COOL J is an entertainer who has succeeded in crossing into all mediums of entertainment. Already a talented actor, two-time Grammy Award winner, and NAACP Image Award winner, LL continues to display his wide range of talents in his upcoming projects. In addition he is the recipient of ShoWest’s Male Star of Tomorrow ...

Justin Bua

World-class commercial and fine artist, Hip-Hop cultural icon and entrepreneur, he brings his paintings to life in his theatrical presentations. Combining autobiography with social, cultural, and political history, he transforms himself into a slice of his native New York's multi-ethnic, multi-cultural population as it ...

Leota Blacknor

Leota Blacknor, the former General Manager of the highly successful Ruff Ryder Records has launched a new and innovative program in the world of music business education called Biz-Muzic. Biz-Muzic is a seminar program which provides participants with an in-depth, tactical and hands-on/how-to look at the role of a record ...

AJ Calloway

Former host of 106 & Park on BET, he now is a correspondent on Extra. Calloway believes in giving back to the community and talks to young adults about the importance of striving for academic excellence, pursuing entrepreneurship, and responsibly avoiding the negative effects of drugs, alcohol, and ...

Harry Allen

Harry Allen, hip-hop activist and media assassin, writes about race, politics, and hip-hop for Vibe, Spin, The Source, The Village Voice, Billboard, Essence, Newsday, and XXL, among other publications. Widely hailed as one of hip-hop culture's most original minds, he has been quoted as an expert in The Wall Street Journal, ...