From Viola to Hip Hop: The Story of Black Violin

Florida-based Sylvester and Baptiste, who go by Kev Marcus and Wil B, are two musicians with degrees in classical music performance who have been performing together as Black Violin for more than 10 years. 

"Violin became cool to me when I realized it was like a weapon I could wield in different ways," Sylvester said. "I could put on a cummerbund and play Walton Viola Concerto, or I could put a beat on and the people in my dorm room would start rapping to it. Eventually I found a way to make the violin into a voice for me."

Sylvester's musical training began when his mother placed him in a Saturday music program back in the fifth grade, to keep him out of trouble in their tough neighborhood in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. He started mid-year, so on his first day, there were no more "cool instruments" left. "That's what the fifth graders thought: no more cool instruments, all that's left is the violin. So I picked it up." He went to class every Saturday, and his mother's plan worked: the next year he went to Parkway Middle School of the Arts, where "every day, second period, I had classical music, I had orchestra."

When he auditioned several years later for Dillard Center for the Arts High School, the orchestra teacher said that if he switched to viola, "I guarantee, you'll get a full scholarship to college." Sylvester was intrigued. "I was always a strong student, but it was intriguing to me that (the viola) could open a door," he said. "So I ended up going to that high school, and in high school I started becoming very good at the instrument."

He had considerable training before college: "We had music theory classes in sixth grade, ear training classes in high school. There was theatre, dance, art -- every year we would do a musical, I'd play in the pit. There was even a rock band class, so I was in a rock band in high school -- just a lot of different ways to be exposed to the arts."

"I met Wil in 10th grade, he's a violist as well," Kev said. They were both accidental violists -- Baptiste started on viola from the beginning, but he had originally wanted to play the saxophone. "He was a year behind me, and we met as stand partners in orchestra. We didn't come up with this whole idea in high school; but the vibe that was set in high school definitely moved into what eventually Black Violin eventually became.

A lot of it also boiled down to "this teacher caring, and telling me, 'Look, you can do whatever you want,'" Sylvester said. His teacher pushed him to play in youth orchestras and to play chamber music. "My quartet played chamber gigs all around town -- four black kids, and we were all really good. It was a job for us; we actually made pretty good money, doing six, seven gigs a month. I was sort of the manager of it. So that's what got the business side of it going, and then we kept getting better and better as musicians."

Sylvester and Baptiste parted ways for college; Baptiste went to Florida State University and Sylvester went to Florida International University, where he studied with Chauncey Patterson.

In college, "after I'd finished all the practicing I needed to do, I would just sit around and make beats, try to find ways to blend the hip-hop music and the popular music that I love with the classical music that I love," he said. "I wanted to do it in a way where it wasn't pretentious, it wasn't preachy, and it wasn't out-of-reach of someone who doesn't understand both genres."

Sylvester values his classical upbringing but also emphasizes the need find one's own voice. That process is something Sylvester and Baptiste focus on when they work with students at schools. They call their master classes "Jump Training," and as part of it they put students on the spot a little, having them try some simple improvising.

"Once they're finished, I ask how it felt. They say, 'Man, it was nerve-wracking. It was exhilarating,' and I say, "Well, don't you want to do something with your craft that gets you going, that gives you that feeling like you're riding a roller coaster? That's what music is about, that's the thrill of it," Sylvester said. "It's about being able to pick up your instrument and play whatever it is you love. I may play something magical, I may play something and never remember it ever again. But it's your own individual expression," he said. "I don't feel that violinists are taught that. (My classical training) was always geared toward replicating the best music that has been created -- and to give my own take on it, to an extent; but not to go too far. If you're playing Bach, you have to play Bach a certain way; if you're playing Brahms, it has to also be a certain way. There are different things for different styles. You're interpreting other composers' works. But I think that the violin became cool for me when I created my own interpretation of my own music that I was creating."

People might not think of violin or viola as a "hip-hop" instrument, but that did not limit Sylvester's imagination. "Never for an instant did I think that it couldn't work or it wouldn't work," he said. "I always felt like when I played, I could sing with my instrument. I felt like if I played it choppy and rhythmically I could make rap cadences with it, and I tried that very early. So I never thought about it as it 'can't' or 'shouldn't.' I thought the violin is a great replication of the human voice, and I try to use it as such."