“Sex, drugs, violence, money, death, romance and the color black are the things in life that can potentially destroy you. They are easy to learn but take forever to master. These are the types of things we rap about,” says BLKHRTS frontman, Yonnas. Passion Of The Weiss premiered the new mixtape from the Denver based goth-rap group, comprised of producer/rapper Yonnas, and rappers King F.O.E. and Karma The Voice. The 10-track tape, entitled Death, Romance and The Color BLK, showcases the group’s genre blending style, which pulls influences from artists as disparate as Morrissey and M.O.P., as well as their adept storytelling and range of delivery. The group has already created national buzz with their previous releases, leading to features from Pitchfork and the LA Times, as well as their electrifying live performances, most notably earlier this year at SXSW.

 

Differentiating themselves from some of the stereotypical trappings of their genre has been key to the group’s success. “The number one thing is that we are all 100% hip-hop artists,” says Yonnas, “We don’t rely on abstraction in anyway to reflect our ‘artsy-ness.’ The lyrics are upfront [and] the beats are all accessible head-nodders that work the way rap is supposed to work.” Sonically speaking, BLKHRTS is a quintessential mixture of rap and rock; there are aggressive beats combined with filtered guitars, synths and samples, syncopated trap snares over which throaty vocals layer to pierce like shrapnel. However punctuated throughout are moments that feel ethereal and atmospheric, where the group’s lyrical content flows poetically. The group remains firmly planted in between genres with an intention to create authentic quality rap music, yet clearly espouse conceptual elements of the goth movement. “The three things that define goth culture are an obsession with death, an obsession with romance and an obsession with the color black. That’s it,” says Yonnas, “In many ways, this mixtape is the goth-rap manifesto.”

 

To promote the mixtape, BLKHRTS has embarked on a tour which began on July 27th in Denver, CO, with several stops along the West Coast before concluding on August 9th in San Francisco, CA. BLKHRTS will follow up Death, Romance and The Color BLK with an EP and a full-length album, both due out in 2014.