"Big" may be the bow of many Atlanta hip-hop and R&B artists on the ballet stage, but on records, many of them are characters easy to imagine in front of a curtain:

Frank Niemier / AJC (ENLARGE)
Janelle Monae
Mikki K. Harris / AJC (ENLARGE)
Sleepy Brown
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• Big Boi often plays the flashier, slicker-talking "player" to Andre "Dre" Benjamin's more sedate "poet" on their multimillion-selling OutKast CDs.

• Sleepy Brown seems — and sings — from the funk era of long Cadillacs. Polyester shirts opened to the navel and Curtis Mayfield 8-track tapes. Think: Sweeter-sounding Isaac Hayes.

• Joi Gilliam seems — and sings — like she's from another world, where one of her alternate personas, Star Kitty, rules over funk, R&B, rock and whatever else, in towering silver Kiss boots, feathers around the shoulders, and usually something tight and revealing in between.

• Janelle Monae is described as the female version of Prince or OutKast's Benjamin by industry insiders, perhaps because her style and sound seem oblivious to industry standards, while raising them at the same time.

• Keisha Jackson is the daughter of R&B's infamous X-rated singer of the '70s, Millie Jackson. You know it looking at her. And when you hear her, it's also clear that vocal force can be in the genes as well.

• Scar sings all of the right things in a young woman's ear on the Purple Ribbon All-Star's "Big Boi Presents: Got Purp? Vol 2."

• Big Rube appears to be the guy that could break up a fight by just standing between the combatants, but instead it's his plainly-spoken poetry that calms.

• David Whild isn't a stage name. In fact, the surname not only describes his rock star get-up but his approach to the guitar.

• Debra Killings has the voice millions have heard — but probably didn't know — as she served as a vocalist for TLC before the diminutive talent stepped out front, strapped on a bass guitar and started singing more contemporary gospel.

• DJ Swiff – or Cutmaster to OutKast fans — is the poker-faced guy on the turntables who isn't beyond lying in coffins to illustrate Benjamin's earlier claim that hip-hop was dead.

– Sonia Murray