Black Violin, the globally loved Hip Hop duo comprised of violin player Kev Marcus and viola player Will B., are as talented as they are kind. When not blowing minds with their spectacular performances, they’re sharing time with their admirers to express gratitude, compassion, and even engage in conversations about Hip Hop’s historic cultural influence. The classically trained Florida natives live to entertain children and adults, and they do just that in emphatic fashion.
Following a memorable show at Frauenthal Center for Performing Arts in Muskegon, MI on February 26, 2023, and with this year being the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, the pair return to Wharton Center for Performing Arts on Feb. 28th for what’s expected to be yet another unforgettable experience.
In THIS INTERVIEW Black Violin talks to about A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, and what to expect from The Black Violin Experience. THIS is for YOU!
Your fans are so excited to see and hear your performance. Tell us what to expect.
We’ll be doing all types of things to, hopefully, show [them] something [they’ve] never seen before. We approach our artistry and our craft as pop singers or rappers; that’s how we move, we just have violins in our hands. My approach to the violin is very different. Will’s going to play a viola that’s amplified. He tucks it like a guitar quite a bit and does cool stuff with it which is hard to imagine until you come see it.
To some people, especially those who frequent a more traditional theater performance, that probably sounds extremely radical.
It’s just the idea of it that’s kind of radical. I think when you see it and hear it, it makes a lot of sense. You think, “Oh, this isn’t radical at all! I understand this.” It’s very relatable.
We feel like you really made something relatable when you released your album Stereotypes. Would you say that album is a classic?
We don’t think so. It’s a really great album. We’re proud of it. It was timely, but we haven’t made our classic album yet. We don’t know if it’s a classic until time has passed, then see if people are still pulling that one out of everything else we’ve come up with in our careers.
When you say “classic” we think of The Fugees The Score. Dr. Dre’s 2001. Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP is a classic. But the definition of classic changes depending on where you were in your life when you heard it, the feelings you felt at that time. Different people internalize things differently.
You’re both genuine Hip Hop junkies. What’s your thoughts on Miri Ben-Ari’s The Hip-Hop Violinist album?
There’s a couple of good joints on there, but there’s other Miri albums that are better than that one. Her first jazz album before she started doing anything hip-hop was better. She’s an incredible, incredible talent! She’s one of the originators. Her music’s on the playlist prominently. That album’s cool, but some of her other stuff – her YouTube stuff, her mixtape stuff – she just kills!
Who in Hip Hop used classical music the best before you two come along?
That’s a great question. I can’t think of anyone exactly. DJ Premier did some stuff with that. It has to be all sampling before we came around. Now there’s a lot of options with classical and Hip Hop.
An album that comes to mind for us is A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders. It’s an incredible tapestry of sounds and musicality, the reason it sits at the top of our all-time list and is ranked as an all-time great by numerous major music outlets and publications. What’s your opinion of it?
Oh, man… [Laughs] “Electric Relaxation”, man! We love that album! It’s an awesome, awesome album! No complaints. So influential and, easily, top Hip Hop albums all-time. They’ve got 4 of the top 15 Hip Hop albums.
How often do Hip Hop artists ask to work with you or just rhyme over your music?
We have a ton of artists who ask to! And if you go on YouTube you’ll find artists who take our songs and make whole songs over them. We’ve had the opportunity to work with Black Thought [of The Roots]. We just wanted to do a record together; that was awesome! We wanted to do a record with Pharoahe Monch. We got together and made it happen. | THIS ENT
[By Mr. Joe Walker]
