Multi-talented and prolific, Melvin Van Peebles (born 1932) paved the way for modern African American filmmakers and rap artists. Called "the godfather of modern black cinema" because of his controversial 1970 film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Van Peebles also wrote novels, wrote and produced Broadway musicals and TV shows, acted for film and television, and released several spoken-word albums in which he helped invent what later became known as rap music.

Born Melvin Peebles in 1932 on the south side of Chicago, he added the "Van" later. His father was a tailor, and, starting at the age of ten, he worked in his father's shop most of the time he wasn't in school. He later told an interviewer that his long hours in the shop "didn't give me a work ethic as much as it gave me a work routine. It's just something you do; you don't even think about it...