HXLT

HXLT is one of the few serious renaissance men in music. An OG in the hip-hop/punk scene, he's a true creative - a formidable rapper, musician, designer, director, fighter, and a great entertainer. His sound is a mix of melodic minimal chords, strings, and guitars paired with hard and gritty beats. Heavily influenced by punk rock, gangster rap and everything in between, his music is a collection of different tastes neatly blended to express his mixed background and innovative spirit.

Born in Chicago to a multi-ethnic musical family, HXLT was raised listening to Led Zeppelin, Smokey Robinson, 2Pac, The Clash, and countless other artists from various genres. He developed a love for art, culture, and fashion at a young age which paved the way for his future ventures in music and design. He started out rapping with his friends under the name Hollywood Holt, quickly blowing up in the rap scene but ultimately not fulfilled. His musical passions were rooted in punk rock, but he didn't have the ability to make it at the time. While taking the time to learn, he brought in producer Le Fonz to assist with the vision. While working on his first HXLT project met Kanye in NYC and was invited to a studio session. The rest is history and HXLT signed to West’s record label G.O.O.D. Music in April 2014. In 2016 he released his debut HXLT record which featured Kathleen Hanna and was critically acclaimed by Pitchfork, NPR, Billboard, Noisey, XXL, etc.

HXLT spent the past three years teaching himself guitar, piano and production, finally able to fully express himself musically. He showcases his new talents on upcoming project Bloom From Doom. Every song started as a guitar melody to match the emotion he was feeling in the moment. He made the album during the hardest point of his life, focusing on extremely raw emotional honesty about topics such as real despair, failure, depression, and pain going into songs of actual hope and forced positivity, leading to a whole new perspective. Bloom From Doom is out now on all platforms via The Orchard.