A couple of months ago, Zilla put me up on a trio of vowel-averse emcees out of Denver calling themselves BLKHRTS, comparing the group favorably to M.O.P. I didn't know what to make of them on first listen; they certainly seemed to have been influenced by the Mashed Out Posse, but there was a whole lot going on in their music that was unlike really anything else in hip hop. Favoring dark, noisy rock samples to go alongside double time raps delivered with hoarse voices that sounded like they'd been worn down by years of smoking and shouting, BLKHRTS had little in common with the pop rap of mainstream or the indie rap that tends to get highlighted on this site. And, I have to admit, it did not click with me at first.
About a month after dismissing the group, Sach O over at Passion of the Weiss ran an interview with the group. It was an interesting read, with the group dropping references to Thom Yorke and Morrissey, dismissing "True School" rap, and offering up the following quote in regards to the category that they see themselves being in: "I feel like a rock star period minus the skinny jeans because my nuts and belly won't allow it!"
It was enough to get me to revisit their self-titled EP, and my opinion of them has changed considerably. The lead single from the EP, OVR, has been on fairly steady rotation since then. The above video is a snippet of them performing the song in their studio, but the song needs to be heard in its entirety to fully appreciate it:
BLKHRTS - OVR (right-click to d/l, mp3 jacked from PassionWeiss)
You can hear more from BLKHRTS over at their bandcamp page. And don't tell anyone you heard it from me, but there's a good chance you might just see them collaborate with Zilla in the near future.
3/20/2011 6:30:00 PM posted by Fresh
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