Entertainment

Slideshow: theGrio's top 25 black celebrity hipsters

6:00 AM on 08/30/2011

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Solange Knowles attends the Bean Pole x Kim Jones block party at the Opening Ceremony store on August 11, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Ben Hider/Getty Images)

Hipsters defy categorization. Resistance to conformity -- in some cases -- puts them on the fringe of American popular culture. Their wide-range of expression (and influences) make them enviable among their peers and a necessity for their art-binging-hipster-loving following. For all their individualism, creative genius, and yes, swag, we chose the following artists who epitomize hipsterism, expanding their respective field and our notion of what it means to be black and an artist.

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Lenny Kravitz

Singer-songwriter.

(AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Musiq Soulchild

Singer-songwriter and Musician.

(File Photo)
Lisa Bonet

Actress

(Photo Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)
Pharrell Williams

Rapper, singer, record producer, composer and fashion designer.

(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Erykah Badu

Singer-songwriter, producer, actress and fashionista.

(AP Photo)
Jeffrey Wright

Actor

(Sipa via AP Images)
Lauryn Hill

Singer-songwriter, producer and actress.

(Getty Images)
Macy Gray

Singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.

(Photo by George De Sota/Liaison)
Lupe Fiasco

Rapper, artist, producer and entrepreneur.

(AP Photo/Charles Sykes)
Kanye West

Rapper, singer, and record producer.

(AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Janelle Monae

Singer-songwriter, dancer, performer, and fashionista

(AP Photo)
Spike Lee

Film director, producer, writer and actor

(AP Photo)
Ben Harper

Singer-songwriter and Musician

(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Suzan-Lori Parks

Pulitzer-prize winning playwright.

(Photo by John W. Ferguson/Getty Images)
Colson Whitehead

Author

(Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for The New Yorker)
Solange Knowles

Singer, actress and model.

(Photo by Ben Hider/Getty Images)
Dwele

Singer-songwriter and record producer.

(Photo by Moses Robinson/Getty Images)
Van Hunt

Singer-songwriter, record producer and musician

(Photo by Marsaili McGrath/Getty Images)
Questlove

Drummer, DJ, music journalist, and record producer.

(Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for ONE Show)
Cody ChesNUTT

Singer-songwriter, composer and musician.

(Photo by Djamilla Rosa Cochran/WireImage)
Raphael Saddiq

Singer-songwriter and record producer.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Jada Pinkett Smith

Actress, producer, director, author, and singer-songwriter.

(Photo by Bob Falcetti/Getty Images)
Eric Benet

Singer

(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Corrine Bailey Rae

British Singer-songwriter and Guitarist.

(Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images)
Whoopi Goldberg

Comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, producer, activist and talk show host.

(AP Photo)