SXSW 2017 Series: Artist Introduction — XXX

Ying Leung

March 13, 2017

In the next article for the SXSW 2017 Series, we bring to you—XXX.

This Korean hip hop duo just debuted in June of 2016, but even before their debut, they were turning heads. In mid-June, the DJ of Beast 1, the official global radio station of Apple users, promoted their music. A few days later, French Music/Fashion label Maison Kitsuné picked one of their early tracks to feature as the celebrated 100th track on their Hot Stream Channel. The label’s founder even promoted ‘Yves’ on his social media. Then after a few more teaser tracks and MVs were released, they dropped their first full album, Kyomi.

But even before that, they were making waves. FRNK, XXX’s beat-master, was already known for producing stand-alone single ‘Sleep Tight’ for Korean hip hop artist E Sens, who went on to win Album of the Year at the 2016 Korean Music Awards. XXX rapper, Kim Ximya was the only artist to feature on that award winning album, ‘The Anecdote.’ And now they’re still turning heads. FRNK’s ability to create unusual but memorable beats is remarkable. What’s more remarkable is that he manages to lay all sorts of dichotomous rhythms, anything from violent to dreamy, underneath Kim’s furious lyrics. Korean audiences recognize them for Kim’s mercilessly curse-laden verses and FRNK’s dichotomous tracks, but Korean and international audiences have taken note of their equally double-edged music videos.

With that said, naturally, to see what people are talking about, you should check out the not-quite-safe-for-work ‘Flight Attendant’ –

or the also not-safe-for-work ‘Yves’ that Maison Kitsuné picked up –

and you can find a couple of remixes and demo tracks on their SoundCloud.

They’ll be performing at the Scratchouse on Wednesday, March 15th at 8:40 PM and Karma Lounge on Friday, March 17th at 11:30 PM.

Both of these events are Official SXSW Conference events. Primary access is allocated to music and platinum badge holders, and secondary accesses are given to artist wristbands, film/interactive badges, and music festival wristbands. Wristbands do not guarantee admission into every SXSW Conference event, and admission is subject to venue capacity and venue age restrictions.

You can keep up to date through these two event’s Facebook events here:

• Wednesday at Scratchouse
• Friday at Karma Lounge

Stay tuned for our upcoming articles in this series for the rest of the lineup along with exclusive coverage from the esteemed music, arts, and technology conference and festival!

Article by: Kat Schonheyder
Edited by: Ying Leung

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