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Michael Stanley (born Michael Stanley Gee; March 25, 1948 – March 5, 2021).

Michael Stanley Gee graduated from Rocky River High School in 1966. He attended Hiram College on a baseball scholarship and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1970.

Stanley released his first solo album, Michael Stanley, on Tumbleweed Records in 1973. The album was produced by Bill Szymczyk and featured contributions from Joe Walsh, Todd Rundgren, Rick Derringer, and Joe Vitale (formerly of Barnstorm with Joe Walsh). Its first song, “Rosewood Bitters,” would become a lifetime fixture in Stanley’s shows and was later recorded by Walsh in 1985. Stanley’s second solo album, Friends and Legends, released later in 1973 on MCA Records, was again produced by Szymczyk and included support from members of Barnstorm and Stephen Stills’ Manassas, among others: Walsh, Vitale, Kenny Passarelli, Paul Harris, Joe Lala, Al Perkins, David Sanborn, Dan Fogelberg, and Richie Furay, with J. Geils contributing to the production.

After the breakup of the Michael Stanley Band, Stanley continued to write songs, record, and perform with bands (often with some former members of MSB) including Michael Stanley and Friends, the Ghost Poets, the Resonators, and Midlife Chryslers. He released many more albums on Razor & Tie or his own label, Line Level.

In 2003 he released the album “The Ground” which included the song “My Last Day on Earth”.

Mushroomhead is a heavy metal band from Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 1993 in the Cleveland Warehouse District, the band is known for their avant-garde sound and horror film-inspired imagery which features masks and costumes as well as their unique live shows.

2003 saw the release of XIII, their first album with new material for Universal Records. The album produced the single “Sun Doesn’t Rise” which was featured on MTV: Headbangers Ball and the Freddy vs Jason soundtrack. Also featuring the hidden track “Crazy”, a song originally by Seal. The album debuted at no. 40 on the Billboard Top 200 charts and sold 400,000 copies worldwide.

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony is a hip hop group composed of rappers Bizzy Bone, Wish Bone, Layzie Bone, Krayzie Bone, and Flesh-n-Bone. Formed in 1991 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1995, the group released its second album E. 1999 Eternal, which included hits “1st of tha Month” and “East 1999“. Their hit song “Tha Crossroads“, a tribute to then-recently deceased mentor Eazy-E, won a Grammy Award in 1997.

Strength & Loyalty was released on May 8, 2007, on Interscope Records. Being their first major album after an absence of nearly five years, the album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and No. 1 on iTunes and the Billboard urban music charts. The first single was “I Tried“, which was their first top-10 hit in 10 years, peaking at number 6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA.

Kid Cudi was born Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 30, 1984. Cudi attended Shaker Heights High School for two years before transferring to Solon High School. He was expelled from the school for threatening to punch the principal, but later earned his GED. He studied film at the University of Toledo, but dropped out after a year. His subsequent plan to join the Navy did not pan out because of his juvenile police record.

After leaving Cleveland in 2005 with $500 and a demo tape, he moved in with his uncle, accomplished jazz drummer Kalil Madi, in the South Bronx. 

In 2007, Kid Cudi’s song “Day ‘n’ Nite“, began being featured on several music blogs, after having initially uploaded the song to his MySpace page. This early work caught the attention of Kanye West via his then-manager Plain Pat, subsequently leading West to sign Cudi to his GOOD Music imprint later that year. In July 2008, Kid Cudi released his first mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi (executive produced by Plain Pat and Emile Haynie), in collaboration with New York street-wear brand 10 Deep as a free download.

With “Day ‘n’ Nite” issued as its lead single, his debut studio album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day (2009), was released to critical and commercial success, receiving quadruple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It spawned the follow-up singles “Make Her Say” (featuring Kanye West and Common) and “Pursuit of Happiness” (featuring MGMT and Ratatat)–the latter received diamond (10× platinum) certification by the RIAA.