Meet the “Symphonic Hip Hop” Duo B-L’Attitude

Jam the Hype: We just recently met Tara and Josh from the new group B-L’Attitude (pronounced “Be La Attitude”). You guys are a completely new animal. Tell us about this project.

Tara: We are a “symphonic hip hop” duo. Our music is experimental. We’re mixing the violin with hip-hop. I play in the local symphony here in Bismark, North Dakota. But then we also are mixing everything from EDM to funk. The strings and the beats are both equal parts. We’re experimenting with a balance of sounds. We do “composed music” so it’s not just beats and raps.

Jam the Hype: I get the sense that you guys have been around the block musically.

Josh: I began leading worship when I was 19. But I went to high school in Minneapolis, and someone started beat boxing one day, and I started doing some “Jesus raps” on the bus and people liked it.

Tara: We’ve been involved for a couple of years leading worship at our church. But now we’ve been just enjoying guest leading worship, but not officially doing it in the church. We’ve been doing conferences as the B-L’Attitude duo.

Jam The Hype: Who is your dream collaboration?

Josh: Of course, Lecrae or maybe Beckah Shae. I like Teddy-T as a producer (Stacie Orrico, KJ-52). I used to love listening to Rebekah St. James and he’s had his hand in a lot of things. It would be fun to get to know them.

Jam the Hype: Who is producing your stuff?

Tara: Everaldo Martinez. He’s from Honduras, originally. He’s a Christian and he’s extremely talented, and he conducts the local sympony that I’m in. We’ve been going an intense collaborative effort.

Jam the Hype: Who influenced the current album?

Tara: Jars of Clay, Delirious. Being a violinist, when I heard Jars of Clay, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. We’ve been trying to just find our own sound. We also experimented with a lot of electronica sounds. And we’ve approached each song as “art pieces.” You end up being creative what you have with where we are. This has been challenging but rewarding to come up with our own approach and beats.

Jam the Hype: It’s okay to break genres, and to find new audiences. Sometimes that’s where breakthroughs come from.

Tara: We’ve even mixed EDM with Jazz improvisation. “Elevated Love” is an uplifting song with a symphonic string section, with solo violin, and then mixed it with a reggaeton beat.

Josh: Sometimes, I develop a theme and then I’ll write a rap around the theme. Then we’ll compose the music around it. I love working with Everaldo (producer) because working with international people because they have such a fresh sound and approach.

Tara: Everaldo has a long history of recording, and he loves developing artists. It’s unique to add the violin to hip hop.

Jam the Hype: Our audience is quite a bit more urban, so what would you tell them about your music?

Josh: Just listen. There might be something that you connect with. Don’t listen with any prejudice – listen with an open mind. We like to hear from people and hear what they think.

Tara: We’ve done things like taking time to compose bass lines, and we’ve tried to say something compositionally. We did the song “Searchin” for TedX here in Bismarck, North Dakota. We intentionally went between a major and minor key, like the song is “searching” for it’s key. So we wanted the song to deliver the message.

Josh: Our words are designed to uplift and encourage people on an upward journey. That’s our design.

Jam the Hype: What does the name “B-L’Attitude” mean?

Tara: The name B-L’Attitude is “Be Love Attitude” meaning “Be loved by God and it will change your attitude.”