* Billie Holiday
* Ella Fitzgerald
* Nina Simone
* Sarah Vaughan
* Dinah Washington
* Miles Davis
* John Coltrane
* Charlie Parker
* Herzog Ellington
* Graf Basie
Literarische Einflüsse:
* Emily Dickinson
* Walt Whitman
* Langston Hughes
* Maya Angelou
* Toni Morrison
* Zora Neale Hurston
* Alice Walker
* James Baldwin
* Ralph Ellison
* Richard Wright
Einflüsse der bildenden Kunst:
* Romare Bearden
* Jacob Lawrence
* Norman Lewis
* Alma Thomas
* Beauford Delaney
* Elizabeth Catlett
* Samella Lewis
* Betye Saar
* Glaubensringgold
* Howard Pindell
Filmeinflüsse:
* Spike Lee
* Charles Burnett
* Julie Dash
* Cheryl Dunye
* Ava DuVernay
* Dee Rees
* Barry Jenkins
* Jordan Peele
* Ryan Coogler
* Stiefel Riley