Acclaimed hip-hop/indie rock trio Blackstarkids say goodbye with today’s release of HEAVEN ON URF

Blackstarkids live. // Photo by Daniel Ruiz

It boggles the mind to realize that Kansas City trio Blackstarkids has only been together for a little over five years. Thanks to an impressive discography—which began with self-releasing Let’s Play Sports and SURF on their own Bedroom Records, continued with a pair of mixtapes and two LPs on Dirty Hit, and ends with today’s release of their seventh album, HEAVEN ON URF—the indie rock meets pop meets R&B meets hip hop of the group fully overtook our music coverage.

We were beyond excited when the group of Deiondre, Ty, and The Babe Gabe released SATURN DAYZ via Dirty Hit in September, but with the drop of today’s companion piece HEAVEN ON URF, the musical journey of Blackstarkids has now come to an end.

A grand portion of the band’s identity has been connected the slew of music videos released in conjunction with each album and single drop, followed by the stunning visuals which they generated. They teamed up with filmmaker Ryan Njenga—who’s previously directed videos for rapper Paris Williams’ “Hopscotch” and “Sunsets & Solariums”—for videos for a few of the album’s tracks, resulting in a fresh new take on the trio’s style. It was through Williams that Njenga connected with the three.

“I was with an old collaborator, writing a script and just writing to songs from local artists,” Njenga says. “We were a fan of Williams, and then I got the chance to interview him for Shuttlecock Magazine. We started working with him through that. I didn’t really know Blackstarkids ’til I just kept hanging out with them and slowly meeting the whole group. I met Gabe, and then I met Ty, and Deiondre.”

Blackstarkids hit up Njenga and his crew at Njenga Films in 2022 as they were planning SATURN DAYZ, and asked them to do the videos, which led to them beginning to conceptualize the visual aesthetic. The end result fit in with the aesthetic they’ve been cultivating over the last four or five years, while also working with his own. It feels like the director created a world for each of the videos he’s done for the indie rockers, where it seems as though they all take place in different parts of a shared universe.

“That’s the best part,” Njenga says. “I have a respect for [musicians], and I feel like they deserve a world in the same way movies create whole worlds, especially for a specific project because that’s how I attach to albums.”

In that sense, it’s fun to figure out what aesthetic will feel distinct to each artist, continues Njenga, and that’s a world apart from where Blackstarkids started out, says the band’s Ty. For the band’s earliest videos, like “LOVE, STARGIRL” or “TOO DEPRESSED 4 SEX,” they “had no director or planning. We literally just got dressed and went outside with a camera and improvised on the spot. So it’s changed completely. Things are entirely different now.”

“It was definitely a different experience because we got to work with a bigger team and so many other creative people,” agrees The Babe Gabe. “We’ve always made sure to include our friends whenever we do music videos, but, this time around, I felt like we not only had friends but family and even made new friends with people we met those days.”

Ty explains that the group initially decided to work with Njenga because they were familiar with his style and liked what he had previously put out, but came to realize that he puts a great touch of love and care into his projects once they got to know him further.

“A lot of people, in general, just don’t care, and it’s easy to understand why when you look at the state of the world, but Ryan cares about everything and has curated a team of people who cares,” Ty says. “That energy is very inspiring so it was a no brainer to work with him and the team.”

Speaking to Njenga, that care is readily apparent when he talks about the work he does.

“I love the fact that I get to support their world, their vision, and expand on it for them,” says the director. “I only work with musicians I love, like I genuinely love.”

As they have expanded the scope of their videos over the years, the trio has always wanted to top the ideas they had from the previous era, making sure the videos represent whatever new era they’re in, says Gabe, with everyone involved constantly pulling inspiration from different things and coming together to show each other something new.

In case of Blackstarkids’ work with Ryan Njenga and crew, the vibe that the director curated is inspired by a vast array of influences, with French New Wave directors Agnès Varda and Éric Rohmer serving as big points of reference, alongside Ice Cube and The Fugees.

“Obviously, there’s a big coming of age angle with BSK, so that was a big one,” Njenga says of “SOULMATEZ.” “It feels like it was a party. I made this joke on set with Paris and Gabe—They feel like the high school jock and the cheerleader having their love story kind of thing.”

After a lot of trial and error, the band members feel that their visuals truly display the amount of thought and care that the three have put into the music.

Blackstarkids // Photo Courtesy of Jake Kelly

“Almost every video we’ve ever made came out in a way that we didn’t want it to, but I think a lot of that is listening to too many people at once and also not having a clear vision for what we wanted,” Ty says. That said, Gabe has a bit of nostalgia regarding Blackstarkids’ visual history, saying that they’re important to the group’s musical journey.

“Whenever I’m going back and watching any of them, I can tell exactly what era we were in,” Gabe adds. “They’re like time capsules we get to look back on for the rest of our lives and get nostalgic about. You see what we were into at the time visually, fashion wise, and musically.”

Given that the two parts of SATURN DAYZ and HEAVEN ON URF represent the end of Blackstarkids, Njenga is happy to be part of the band’s send off.

“I think they’ve always deserved a cinematic treatment and I’m happy to support in that sense,” Njenga says. “We’re honored and blessed to add our little touch to their work.”

While the band is going away, Gabe and Ty are excited for what comes next musically. As Ty puts it, it’s a chance to reconnect with their roots.

“We’re not going anywhere, just changing the medium we present our ideas,” he says.

Gabe is equally excited, saying that she sees herself taking everything she’s learned and developed while being in Blackstarkids and only getting better at her craft.

“My growth keeps getting stronger and I’m excited for all the music I’ll continue to make with my bandmates in this new era we’re in,” concluding by saying she’s also excited to continue to grow her band BabyCakes and eventually getting into acting of some sort. “There are so many things I want to do creatively and can’t wait to really dive into them.”