The genre-blending classical hip-hop duo Black Violin has been smashing stereotypes for the last 20 years. Their stage presence is electric, and they’ll be playing a show at Denver’s Paramount Theater on Sunday, February 4th.

As I mentioned in my intro, 2024 marks Black Violin’s 20th anniversary. What inspired you to start a group like this, and how has the journey been so far?

I’m doing good.

As I mentioned in my intro, 2024 marks Black Violin’s 20th anniversary. What inspired you to start a group like this, and how has the journey been so far?

Oh, what inspired us? Well, the funny thing is, after these classical degrees and being, uh, you know, we felt like, what are we doing with these degrees, and why are we pursuing this? You know, especially at the time of September 11th, classical music was fading away in South Florida. So, I think we did this out of necessity, less necessity, you know, trying to, you know, go out and play gigs. The combination of these two genres is something that we’ve always done. So it was very natural for us to do, very organic. And we didn’t think anyone liked it until, you know, we started performing in clubs and events, and we started seeing the reaction. And uh, and again, 20 years, and it’s been a little longer than 20 years, honestly. But you know, all these years, people still like it and love it.

Well, how long has Black Violin been together?

We’ve been together for at least 23 years. But I think in terms of, like, the establishment of Black Violin… I think we won the Apollo. Right? That was kind of like our first thing. We won Showtime at the Apollo in 2004. I think it aired in 2005. So it’s about 20 years since Black Violin established themselves, so that makes sense…