BLXST has broken out from the anonymity of a bedroom studio and ascended the list of Los Angele’s most promising new artists, but the profits have come with consequences. While recording his debut EP No Love Lost, BLXST was experiencing the metamorphosis of fatherhood and the betrayal of close friends. “Me having my son opened my eyes to what I want and realize my self-worth. At that time I was feeling used, falling out with friends, and just facing different challenges as a man growing up. It just bled out of me in music. I use it as my therapy.”
Accompanying the standout No Love Lost, BLXST dropped a 5-part film, which follows BLXST commit a litany of crimes for the favor of his girlfriend, only for her to betray him later when she sets him up to be robbed by his friend. The plot parallels the difficult betrayals and sacrifices BLXST experienced on the route to his dreams and the girl represents the success he has chased, and the unforeseen consequences it brings. “With the music, I feel like it was straightforward. So with the videos, we wanted to throw subliminal in there and show different signs of betrayal, love, disloyalty. I feel like in the storyline, it shows that, with me trusting someone and then them stabbing my back at the end of the day. Just wanted to display that in a different way.”
While BLXST has recently become a prominent name, he has been steadily working at his craft of production, mixing, rapping, singing, and orchestrating a creative vision for much longer. His first tattoo was for the label he formed with his friends, “TIU,” and he steadily produced music from his bedroom studio for a decade. Now, he finds himself gaining recognition from some of music’s titans like J Cole and Ty Dolla $ign. “It’s just reassurance that I’m on the right path. I feel like I’ve put in my 10,000 hours, as far as like a 10-year mark, and now I’m actually seeing the benefits, the fruits of my labor, so when I get a tap-in from those types of artists, it’s just reassurance.”
Gaining inspiration from YouTube videos of hands-on producers/artists like Ryan Leslie, Pharrell, and Kanye West, BLXST took on their formula of full creative control, and with the emotional and musical cohesion of his debut No Love Lost, the formula is definitely still working. “I think mainly, just making sure anything I have a hand on means something. I stand on integrity, so anything I do has to be intentional from the artwork to the music itself.”
BLXST’s creative control manifests a completely cohesive project with No Love Lost, as each beat seems to roll out the red carpet for the LA-crooner to find the perfect pocket for his melodies. While there is no limit on themes and lyricism within the project, BLXST’s effortless ability to create unbelievably catchy melodies on the laidback, west coast beats may be his most impressive talent, a smoothness that draws back memories of classic Nate Dogg. When creating his music, BLXST usually starts with the melody: “ The reason is that I feel like the melody is what drives the emotion, that’s what drives the feeling and I can just insert the words after that.”
“BLXST’s words reflect an emotional honesty he hopes can have an effect. “It’s about breaking the boundary of expressing how you feel like a man. I think it’s not popular for men to feel, but we human at the end of the day, and I just want to display that it’s okay to feel.”
While No Love Lost, with its initial drop in September and Deluxe in December, has been an undoubted success, BLXST is looking forward, eager to drop more music as his life changes even more than it did before. He is already working on his next project which will be BLXST’s debut album. “I’m looking forward to digging deeper, showing the world who BLXST really is. With the EP it’s a small version of that. But just this past year’s experience feels like I’ve been through way more than the previous year, so I got a lot more to talk about and a lot more to show.”
While his first tattoo is a meaningful testament to his past, his most recent looks forward to his future. “My last tattoo, I got this eagle claw grabbing LA, I actually got it last night. The Eagle is a collective that I put together. The Eagle to me represents confidence because it’s what one of the highest-flying bird that doesn’t fly in flocks. So the way I want to spin it is, creating a group of eagles so that we can all fly solo, but when we come together it’s a force.”
All Photo Credits: Slater Goodson