K’naan

If you want proof that success hasn’t changed K’naan, just look at him. “Man, they lied to me!” he laughs over the phone from a tour stop in Lincoln, Neb. “They say, ‘When you become popular, you start to gain a little bit of weight.’ I’ve been waiting to be un-skinny forever.”

Few, if any, MCs in hip-hop cut as recognizable a figure on stage as K’naan does: He’s sapling-thin, sporting a dangling goatee and an Afro that’s nearly always shaded by a broad-brimmed hat. Often he slings a hand drum over his shoulder: It allows him to accompany himself when he raps, and it also asserts a connection with his Somalian heritage. His experience growing up in – and barely escaping from – war-torn Mogadishu instilled in him a sense of purpose that helps him see through the allure of superstar excess.

Thievery Corporation

Drop the needle on any one of Thievery Corporation’s productions, and their sound is recognizable within seconds. Their reputation for consistency is well-deserved, and yet it tends to obscure what’s most interesting about the band. Over the course of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton’s fourteen-year career, they have come to contradict a series of widespread ideas about pop music: that a band without a permanent lead singer has no identity, that live performances by electronic acts are nothing more than glorified light shows, and that it’s impossible to fight the power and chill out at the same time.