1. The Cool Kids:

The Cool Kids is a group of two guys based in Chicago; Antoine Reed (Sir Michael Rocks) and Evan Ingersoll (Chuck Inglish) who make Hip-Hop music. The two met over Myspace when Reed found a beat produced by Inglish that caught his attention. Mikey and Chuck have both been affiliated with other groups since their “break up” in early 2011. Reed has released a number of mix tapes (basically free promotional albums) since then, including “Premier Politics”, “Lap of Lux”, and has also signed to Jet Life, a Warner Brothers Label owned by southern rapper Curren$y. Inglish has also worked on projects with Curren$y, and released mixtapes including “Droptops”, “WRKING”, etc. They never really officially broke up, they are still great friends, and they both had features on each others mixtapes. In fact, Chuck Inglish stated via Twitter on January 6th that he and Mikey would get back together again this year, and that they would release their highly anticipated album “Shark Week” this year. Since then, the due have released two new songs from the album. Mikey and Chuck, as they are affectionately known in the Hip-Hop world, both have had a great impact on not only Hip-Hop and rap music, but have also had a great impact on fashion today. Reed talks a lot about Neiman Marcus, Air Jordan, Ralph Lauren, and other popular brands in his songs. These references have influenced what you see people in the Hip-Hop industry rocking today, and in Ingersoll’s songs you see a lot of talk about cars and different shoes.

2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was a group consisting of singer/songwriter/guitarist Jimi Hendrix, bassist/backing vocalist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. The Jimi Hendrix Experience has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and had three albums in the top 100 of Rolling Stones Magazines’ ‘The Greatest 500 Albums of All Time.’ Hendrix himself was said to be one of the most influential guitarists ever. Although Redding and Mitchell did not get much attention they were a big part of the sound The Experience achieved in their music. The group had somewhat fallen apart in the late 1960’s when they were touring, and in February of 1970 in an interview with Hendrix, he had said that he was very depressed and unhappy. Hendrix had fallen into a depression and said that it had gotten to the point that he couldn’t eat or sleep many times anymore. On September 8, 1970, Hendrix passed away due to a deadly overdose. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was a large influence on all genres of music from the 70’s up until today. Their music shaped what fashion and music was like in the 70’s, and then the 80’s. Soul artists today like John Mayer have also felt the influence of The Experience, he has done multiple covers of Hendrix’s songs.

3. Outkast:

Outkast is a group of two Atlanta based artists, Andre 3000 (Andre Benjamin), and Big Boi (Antwan Patton). Their music is considered a mixture between G-Funk and Dirty South Rap/Hip-Hop. The two met in a shopping mall in Atlanta, and had also attended school together at Tri-Cities High School, where there were rap battles in the cafeteria. Their debut album was titled Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik which received a good amount of attention. When they released their second album, ATLiens,  a large difference in self-confidence was evident which allowed them to gain more popularity in the long run. In 2007, Big Boi announced plans to release a solo album, he was also featured on tracks with T.I. and B.O.B. Andre 3000 returned to rapping in 2007 after taking a break from the genre, and had features on multiple tracks such as “Pink Matter” off of Frank Oceans’ album Channel Orange released in 2012. This was the period when they went their separate ways; they weren’t recording albums as Outkast, no tours, etc. Outkast was really the group that initially brought light to Southern Hip-Hop and Rap music. Many southern rap groups now have the same style as Outkast. It was recently announced to much fervor on January 8 that they would reunite and headline at Coachella this April.

4. The Velvet Underground:

The Velvet Underground was an American rock band consisting of Lou Reed and John Cale. The band was said to be one of the most influential bands of the 1960’s even though it doesn’t show in the number of albums they sold. In a 1982 interview with Brian Eno, Eno stated that “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies [of the band’s album] started a band”. They created three albums together, one including German singer Nico. None of their albums were considered largely popular during their era, but are actually more popular now. In 1972, Reed, Cale and Nico had each somewhat developed their own solo careers and split up because of it. They all had successful solo careers, although the sounds that they created together shaped what came to be punk music in the late 80’s and 90’s, as well as landscaping a new sound that many try to recreate to this day.