#nso reference goes here

[radioactive-yuri]

no way dude, it's the substance abuse sides (unedited under the cut)

this was such a stupid idea i had at like 1 am and stayed up to make. youre all very welcome

[yoshiunity]

So another Six Character Challenge completed!

This time it was Nintendo themed, and thanks to my friends on Twitter, before the site further lost its mind -- I was able to draw six characters popular, somewhat known, and as obscure as can be.

Micaiah - Fire Emblem

Didn't get far into Radiant Dawn because I had a bugged copy and had to return it for something else. Though I always liked her design!

Anyway, the spell was originally supposed to take up the majority of the picture, with two rings of light engulfing the bottom screen. I removed it because it was too distracting. You can barely make out Nevessa as it is.

Bill Grey - StarFox

Fun Fact: Bill is my favorite Starfox character. I just like how he's the commander of two Cornerian squadrons, but goes into Bro Mode whenever Fox shows up.

Despite being in multiple games, Bill barely had any good references. So this design is a composite of all of them. Even added some grey in the tips of his ears.

Also, I actually did draw his legs, but his cockpit just seemed too empty for something so compact. So I added the console.

Ibis - Pilotwings

"Alright!" I would have never thought of anyone suggesting Pilotwings art in 2025. Sucks that Nintendo only used the PW64 cast for one game. They gave that entry a lot of charm by design alone!

I could count all official art references for Ibis on one hand. So I made up for it by studying whatever fan art there was, and captured photos while playing Pliotwings 64 on NSO.

I've also updated her design slightly since PW64 characters have some of the most N64 designs to ever N64. (That's not a bad thing, but an update is due.)

Meta-Ridley - Metroid

Ridley, or Meta-Ridley as portrayed here, perched on a collection of his..."work". To us, this is murder. But to the Cunning God of Death, there's much more work to be done.

While "Ridley" was one of the suggestions, the version preferred was never specified. So I went by my favorite. Anyway, Ridley is a sadistic bastard. So much, that if you look closely at his cheek, you can see a minute smile curling along it.

Also that's Tallon IV in the background.

Kumatora - Mother/Earthbound

She's currently taking a break after feeding that Pigmask Colonel a PK Fire-Roasted, Five-Knuckle, All You Can Eat, Buffet! And the other Pigmasks want none of it. Haha! As if they have a choice...

I haven't finished Mother 3. But I'm willing to believe that Kumatora uses PK attacks like everyone else. But for context in this art piece, I really love this old fan idea for a Smash moveset, where she'd uses it to power up her fists and punch enemies with it.

Also, angel gloves.

Captain Falcon - F-Zero

I finish my final lap with an art piece of the man, the myth, the legend, the guy that people FINALLY give a shit about outside of Smash Bros... Captain Falcon!

Launching into action in his home town of Port Town, with the Blue Falcon and the Falcon Flyer!

[psychodreamerangel]

Intro ˚₊꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

I've been on this hellsite a few months now, might as well introduce myself lolol (intro will be updated as time goes on)

.𖥔 ݁ ˖☾𖤓.𖥔 ݁ ˖

About me:

Hii, you can call me Selene, Leonid (or Leo), Angel, or Rainy! Sun and Moon are also okay nicknames! ^^

My pronouns are she/he/xe/mew/star!

I'm an aroacespec, genderfluid, xenogender cat therian, digital angel, and little star ₍^ >ヮ<;^₎ ₊˚⊹♡

I'm 17 years old, so no explicit nsfw; references, blood, gore, and the like are allowed though

My main interests are nso, pjsekai, Omori, Pokemon, and Zelda! I post a lot of art, mostly of these games but I will post art from any fandoms if I feel like it. I also want to get into Persona 5, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and NitW, so no spoilers please!!

Current hyperfixations: Minori Hanasato, Honakana, Minokana and Minoharu ౨ৎ⋆˚｡⋆

Feel free to dm me or send me asks, I love meeting and talking to people!!

I have very bad social anxiety tho so pls keep that in mind and be patient with me (>.,<;;)

DNI list:

All the basics: no homophobia, transphobia, proshippers, maps, terfs, racists, antisemitic, pro Israel/anti Palestine, any bigotry, etc.

note: please do your absolute best to support palestine, but keep all that discourse off of my blog please, i am not in the mental state to handle it right now.

No syscourse please, I don't know much about the subject but I have system friends and don't want them to be hurt or upset!

I'm also taken so please no flirting or any sort of romantic moves, they make me very uncomfortable (ˊ~`;)

I reserve the right to block you if i don't like you or your blog

Links:

Instagram, commissions, pronouns card, etsy

all etsy proceeds in 2024 will go to support Palestine

(comms are currently closed, but will likely open up in January or February)

(list to be updated later on)

Requests + Tags:

Art requests are open!

I'll draw anything as long as its not too complex, explicitly sexual (jokes, innuendos, and references are okay) or explicitly gorey (blood is okay)

I'll also draw emoji requests! I will draw simple expressions, simple stim/autism/adhd related emojis, and simple objects. Anything more complicated than that, such as specific characters, multiple different emojis, and full body poses will later be available as a commission ^^

Please credit me when using them!! Edits are alright, also with credit ( `−ㅿ−´)

Using my art as a pfp, banner, etc. is absolutely fine, long as you credit me!!

Keep in mind there is NO guarantee I will take the request, based on my current circumstances and/or mood

___

art posts: #psychoelectricangel

shitposts n random thoughts: #moonposting

I hope you decide to stay here and chill with me!!

dividers are by the lovely @/mamimikey

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

[rynzii-419]

I’ve been reading about this study on psychology and it talked about this thing, “positive sentiment override” vs “negative sentiment override” and so, of course, I connected it to apologist discourse.

Bit of warning; this is going to talk about Dream in a negative light, and I’m going to reference Tommy and Wilbur in a positive light. The point of this is to show why I think common interpretations of Wilbur and Dream are exaggerated, and I try to talk about Wil critically too even though normally thats a bit harder for me, which is actually related to the psychology thing I’m gonna talk about here. So yeah, please read this if apologist discourse something you’re interested in! I try to make this readable and unbiased as best as I can. (I say this but the point here is to talk about misconceptions and exaggerations about Wilbur and Dream, meaning I say why I think Dream isn’t as deserving of forgiveness as the fandom treats him and Wilbur isn’t as deserving of the hate he gets, but I really feel like this one isn’t biased.)

Alright, first I want to explain positive sentiment override (im gonna abbreviate it to “pso”). Pso is something I see used on Dream a lot, where people will see someone do something negative and think “oh well they probably had a reasonable explanation for that”.

Negative sentiment override (nso) is what I see used on Wilbur (like all the time). This is where someone will do something even positive and people will look on with skepticism and think “that was manipulation.” (ex. The reaction to every conversation he’s had with ranboo)

While its great to look for reasoning behind a character’s actions, and great to have skepticism about a darker character’s motives, its also taken too far in these cases very often.

Okay here’s where I get a little critical of Dream. The reason that I believe he isn’t very deserving of this “benefit of the doubt” he gets so often is because:

He isn’t apologetic for any of his actions. Now, we could go back and forth all day on whether his treatment of L’manburg was right or not, but we all know that his behavior with Tommy in exile was wrong. The thing is that Dream doesn’t agree. He even says in the prison when Tommy got trapped in there, “this is gonna be so much fun, just like exile” (paraphrasing, im sorry </3). When a character shows no remorse for actions that are inherently evil (like theres no getting around that Dream in exile was evil), it makes me feel as if they cant be treated as if they’re redeemable. Of course, he could be redeemed, but i can’t see that happening to him until he apologizes to Tommy and Tubbo and distances himself from them entirely. The problem is that i don’t see that happening at this point.

He showed signs of being a bad person/friend before exile. Again, I’m actually not even going to address L’manburg because that’s something that people disagree on often, so here I’d rather talk about Sapnap and Dream’s relationship and why I believe that was very unhealthy. After Dream’s speech about Spirit and how he doesn’t care about anything other than the discs (and its implied that he really meant tommy but thats besides the point), Sapnap instantly took that as meaning Dream didn’t care about him. Now some people hear that as “Sapnap is such a bad friend, he immediately assumed the worst out of Dream, how could be be so rude?” What i see that as is a sign that Dream probably wasn’t a very good friend himself. I also had a situation similar to this, where i had a friend who was really trashy (but i didn’t realize at the time) and I was always scared that they would ditch me. A lot like Sapnap, I would ask “do you think they’ll leave me?” then go back and say “haha, no, thats irrational, isnt it”. The problem is, those kinds of fears often aren’t based off of nothing. They come from an understanding of how that friend treats others, and the fear that they feel the same way for you. I think Sapnap saw how Dream treated others and didnt care much for his relationships and that made him scared for his own friendship, and rightfully so, as we saw later.

Dream was unapologetically manipulative and abusive continuously. A few spur of the moment actions would be an unhealthy mental state, but continued and premeditated abuse without remorse is a… really bad sign.

WILBUR TIME!! At long last aha. Now, this is where i speak POSITIVELY about Wilbur. I’ll throw in some crit dont worry <3. So here’s why I dont believe that Wilbur is deserving of the amount of hate he gets:

Wilbur has shown at least an attempt to apologize to people, which goes against his usual mentality. He’s a very prideful character, and he hasn’t apologized much in the past i believe. While he’s nowhere near better mentally than he was on Nov 16, he’s shown that he’s trying.

While he has manipulated people since his revival, it’s all been spur of the moment reactions. No continuous decisions, like I mentioned with Dream. Its likely that they come from his delusions/paranoia (which he still suffers from, isolation does not heal mental illness).

I believe that the times that we see him being most genuine are when he’s with Ranboo, since Ranboo is a nonjudgmental person who Wilbur has related to and feels is a blank slate for him to talk to. We’ve heard him open up about his motives a lot, such as feeling as if everyone is scared of him. That’s further pushed by the fact that cc!Wilbur confirmed that when he said that Quackity is the only one that makes him feel human since he’s not scared to question Wilbur.

I think this is the big one: Wilbur recognizes that he was in the wrong in Pogtopia. He sees that he hurt Tommy and regrets it, which I think is really important to remember. Simple as that. He said he sees Tommy look at him with the same eyes as he did in Pogtopia, which makes me believe he would want to be better. I would talk about what i believe Wilbur’s motives throughout Pogtopia was here but I think that’s a post for another dayz

Alright uh thats it i think, sorry this was so long i was just havin a lotta thoughts about it, ya know? This is open to discussion i think, i just really enjoyed writing this out :D

[brainitworkstechnology15]

Here Is a Quick Cure for Ericsson Ericsson Certified Associate Security (ECP-391)

Ericsson Certified Associate Security (ECP-391) Certification Exam Credential An associate professor on the Johns Hopkins counsel security institute has pointed out that angel can and ought to do more to stay away from NSO attacks.

 He argues that while it’s real that it is unattainable to fully prevent exploits in keeping with aught-day vulnerabilities, there are two accomplish that the iPhone maker can recall to accomplish NSO’s job a great deal harder …

 Cryptographer Matthew green makes his case in a blog publish. He says essentially the most being concerned factor is apparent aught-click on attacks despatched by means of iMessage. without difficulty receiving the bulletin is enough to acquire manage over the i The assault doesn’t want the user to have interaction with it in any approach.

 A more being concerned set of attacks seem to use apple’s iMessage to function “-click” corruption of iOS contraptions. the usage of this agent, NSO easily “throws” a centered make the most burden at some angel identity similar to your mobile number, and then sits returned and waits for your crank mobile to contact its infrastructure.

 this is in fact sinful. whereas cynics are likely appropriate for now that we probably can’t shut bottomward each access for accommodation, there’s respectable purpose to consider we are able to shut down a agent for -interplay accommodation. And we may still are trying to try this.

 He says apple must address a primary security weakness in iMessage, and the company’s attempt to do so with a firewall called BlastDoor isn’t alive.

 What we comprehend that these assaults take skills of fundamental weaknesses in apple iMessage: most significantly, the incontrovertible fact that iMessage will gleefully anatomize all kinds of complicated information obtained from accidental strangers, and should try this parsing the usage of abominable libraries accounting in memory dangerous languages. These considerations are challenging to fix, because iMessage can settle for so abounding records formats and has been accustomed to sprout so a lot complexity over the last few years.

 there s decent proof that angel realizes the bind they’re in, because they tried to fix iMessage by barricading it in the back of a specialized “firewall” referred to as BlastDoor. but firewalls haven’t been above all a success at combating focused network attacks, and there’s no intent to think that BlastDoor will do a lot better. certainly, we are aware of it’s doubtless not doing its job now.

 apple has to date spoke of that the assaults aren t a privacy possibility to most iPhone house owners, however green says angel could make existence a good deal tougher for attackers with the aid of afterlight iMessage from blemish, and accomplishing greater intensive ecology.

 angel will need to re-write most of the iMessage codebase in some reminiscence-protected language, together with abounding gadget libraries that address records parsing. They’ll additionally need to extensively install ARM mitigations like C and MTE in order to accomplish corruption harder …

 apple already performs some faraway telemetry to become aware of processes doing unusual things. This kind of telemetry could be improved as a lot as feasible whereas not destroying person privacy.

 The aggregate of those two things would on the actual atomic drastically enhance the cost of NSO’s attacks, meaning they will be deployed against fewer ambitions – and will probably alike accomplish them so high priced that the company goes out of business.

[shirlleycoyle]

How Google Changed the Secretive Market for the Most Dangerous Hacks in the World

Between 2016 and 2018, Ian Beer found more than 30 vulnerabilities in the iPhone’s operating system. These bugs were worth millions of dollars on the open market.

Beer’s ultimate goal is to make the iPhone even more secure, but he doesn't work at Apple. He's a hacker for Google’s Project Zero, an elite hacking team focused on finding bugs in popular software and products made by companies like Apple, Microsoft, and by Google itself.

In between hunting bugs, Beer has also released a tool to help other researchers jailbreak the iPhone in order to find bugs in iOS, and taunted Apple during a talk at a security conference where he asked the company to donate his would-be rewards to a charity.

“I'd love to get a chance to sit down with you and discuss how together we can make iOS even more secure for all our users. Cheers,” Beer wrote in a tweet directed at Apple’s CEO Tim Cook at the time. (Apple has tried to hire Beer, according to two sources with knowledge, but for now he remains at Google.)

In other words, Beer wants to avoid precisely the scenario he laid out in a bombshell analysis he published at the end of August, where he detailed a shocking years-long campaign to hack iPhones in China.

“The reality remains that security protections will never eliminate the risk of attack if you're being targeted,” Beer, who used to work at GCHQ, the UK’s intelligence agency, wrote in a blog post. “To be targeted might mean simply being born in a certain geographic region or being part of a certain ethnic group. All that users can do is be conscious of the fact that mass exploitation still exists and behave accordingly; treating their mobile devices as both integral to their modern lives, yet also as devices which when compromised, can upload their every action into a database to potentially be used against them.”

The researcher did not name them, but that “certain ethnic group” was later revealed to be the persecuted Uyghur minority in China’s province of Xinjiang. Apple confirmed news reports that the Uyghurs where the targets of the campaign in a statement that challenged some details of Google’s report.

This latest research has earned Google headlines all over the world, but Beer is only one of a team full of a team of superstar hackers, which include Natalie Silvanovich, Tavis Ormandy, and Jung Hoon Lee, the 25-year-old who was once dubbed one of the world’s best hackers by the The Register. Ever since Project Zero was announced in 2014, these hackers have taken apart software used by millions of people—and predominantly written by other company’s engineers—with a mission to “make zero-day hard.”

Do you work at Google, Apple, or in the security team of another tech giant? Are you a vulnerability researcher? If you have any tips about vulnerabilities and exploits, and the market for them, using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, OTR chat at lorenzofb@jabber.ccc.de, or email lorenzofb@vice.com.

Zero-days are vulnerabilities or bugs in software that are unknown to the software maker, meaning they haven’t been patched yet. Hence their name: the company has been aware of the issue, and able to knowingly fix the bugs, for zero-days. As well as vulnerabilities, the term zero-days can be used to refer to exploits, which are techniques and code used to take advantage of those bugs.

In five years, Project Zero researchers have helped find and fix more than 1,500 vulnerabilities in some of the world’s most popular software, according Project Zero’s own tally. In Apple products, Beer and his colleagues have found more than 300 bugs; in Microsoft’s products they found more than 500; in Adobe's Flash, they found more than 200. Project Zero has also found critical issues in CloudFlare, several antivirus apps, and chat apps such as WhatsApp and FaceTime. A Project Zero researcher was also part of the group who found the infamous Spectre and Meltdown flaws in Intel chips.

These numbers show Project Zero has had a massive impact on the security of devices, operating systems, and applications used by millions of people every day.

For Google, these disclosures give the internet giant good publicity by showing how much the company cares for the security of not just its users—but everyone else too. In assembling one of the most elite hacking teams on the planet, Google is messaging to its customers that it takes security very seriously. Along the way, Google has given itself an excuse to probe its competitors products and software, doubtlessly learning from others' security mistakes. Project Zero has been able to poke holes in the bulletproof mystique of the iPhone's security, which is widely believed to be the hardest consumer device to hack. In doing so, Google is able to insert itself into conversations it might not otherwise be a part of.

Regardless of Project Zero's true mission, there’s no doubt that the team has had a profound influence on the cybersecurity industry in the last five years.

“Without this level of technical detail in the public eye, defenders don't stand a chance.”

For one, Project Zero has normalized something that years ago was more controversial: a strict 90-day deadline for companies that receive its bug reports to patch the vulnerabilities. If they don't patch in that time frame, Google drops the bugs itself. Microsoft, in particular, was not a fan of this policy at the beginning. Today, most companies that interact with Project Zero respect that 90-day deadline as an industry standard, a tidal change in the always controversial debate on the so-called “responsible disclosure”—the idea that security researchers who find vulnerabilities should first disclose them to the affected company, so that it can fix them before the bugs are exploited by hackers. According to its own tally, around 95 percent of bugs reported by Project Zero get patched within that deadline.

“People looked at the way the wind was blowing and then decided that—maybe just maybe— instead of creating a fuss, creating a fix within 90 days was just easier,” said Chris Evans, Project Zero’s original team leader.

But perhaps no accolade is more significant than how much people on the other side of Project Zero’s fence, whom Evans would call the “insecurity industry,” hate the Google hackers. This “insecurity industry” is made of companies like Azimuth Security and NSO Group, government contractors whose job is to find bugs and write exploits. But, instead of reporting the vulnerabilities to the companies who own the software, these companies sell them to governments who turn them into tools to hack and surveil targets.

“Fuck those guys,” said a researcher who works for a company that does offensive security, referring to Project Zero. “They don’t make the world safer.”

The researcher, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to the press, said that zero-day vulnerabilities are sometimes used to go after terrorists or dangerous criminals. So when Project Zero kills those bugs, it may be killing tools used by intelligence agencies to go after the bad guys, according to the researcher.

In the end, however, Project Zero isn’t really stopping the trade of exploits to governments. If anything, Project Zero is highlighting areas where hackers can find more bugs. According to the researcher, by finding and reporting high-quality bugs, Project Zero is driving up the cost of other bugs and exploits, as they become rarer and harder to find.

“The price goes up and they’re making us all rich,” the researcher said. “Life does get hard, we just charge more. Keep doing what you’re doing, cause I’m getting richer.”

Ben Hawkes, Project Zero’s current team leader, thinks that being open about zero-days and detailing them in blog posts ultimately benefits users by pressuring companies to improve the security of their products, and show them what skilled hackers can do to hack them.

“We want to help provide accurate understanding of how attacks work to a wider audience so that users, customers, can ask the right questions and ask for the right things from their vendors and suppliers,” Hawkes said when we met in Las Vegas this summer.

“Fuck those guys, they don’t make the world safer.”

But some think Project Zero may actually be helping law enforcement and intelligence agencies learn from its research and help them develop what are known as N-day or 1-day exploits. These are hacks based on zero-days that have been disclosed—hence their name—but work until the user applies the patch. According to some critics, the ideas here is that malicious hackers could lift the code published by Google researchers as part of their reports and build on it to target users who have yet to update their software.

Earlier this year in Las Vegas, during the Pwnie Awards ceremony, a mostly satirical affair that recognizes the best and worst hacks of the year, the founder of Azimuth Security Marc Dowd joked about this idea. When he was introducing one of the awards for which Project Zero was nominated, Dowd called the Google team “NSO Group’s commercial arm.”

There is no evidence that government hackers have taken the exploits published in Project Zero’s research, and turned them into hacking tools. But—at least in theory—it could have happened, or could happen in the future.

“There are a lot of ways in which attackers can try and create exploits for things that are known,” Evans said. “It's an age old problem of security disclosure, right? If you disclose something will the bad people turn around and use it?”

That shouldn’t stop Project Zero, or others, from sharing detailed knowledge of bugs and exploits, according to Evans.

“Let's be clear, this will happen. Eventually, some researcher, maybe Project Zero, maybe someone else, they'll publish something, and some future harm will occur. But you know, they did the right thing by sharing what they found, so that we can all learn from it,” Evans said. “You got to reserve your anger for the person that did the bad thing, not the security researcher who was just on the journey we're all on to share things and learn together and grow together.”

Hawkes also agrees that there is a risk of something like this happening, but it’s all a matter of keeping an eye on it.

“We have to constantly monitor and assess to make sure that our disclosure policy results in more good than harm,” Hawkes said.

According to him, the reality is that the window of time to exploit users with an N-Day is shrinking on many platforms that have gotten better at forcing users to patch, such as iOS. Plus, Hawkes said, it’s not that easy to turn one of Project Zero’s bugs into reliable N-day exploits. It's one thing to know there’s a bug in software, another to turn it into malware that bad guys can use to hack users. (For example, the much hyped Windows vulnerability known as BlueKeep was disclosed in May, and hackers have yet to turn it into an exploit that works seamlessly and can cause significant damage)

“There's actually a substantial amount of additional research and development that you have to perform to take a Project Zero report and turn it into something that is pragmatically useful as an attacker in the wild,” Hawkes said. That’s because in practice attackers need to chain several different exploits to hack a target, so Project Zero may give them information on one of those links in the chain, but then the attackers need to use that exploit with others.

“The set of people that have that capability, that can perform that research and development. The theory is that they also have the capability to find the zero day themselves. […] That set of people appears to be very very small,” he added.

In other words, there aren’t that many other teams outside of Project Zero and offensive-focused hacking teams who can find highly valuable bugs and write these kinds of exploit.

That’s what makes Project Zero almost unique. It’s a team of extremely talented hackers who devote a lot of time and resources into finding bugs in the software of anyone they think it’s an interesting target. This means that more often than not, highly paid Google hackers are looking at code written by other companies.

“I think we'll look back on Project Zero as previous generations did on AT&T Bell Labs: such a concentration of brilliant minds allowed to direct their own research is a beautiful thing, for however long it lasts, even if not long for this world,” said Katie Moussouris, a security researcher who launched the Microsoft Security Vulnerability Research (MSVR) team in 2008. MSVR is a pioneering program that has very similar goals to those of Project Zero: namely to find, report, and help fix bugs in third-party software. But MSVR has always been a program more than a team. There are no dedicated full time researchers on MSVR, while there’s around a dozen researchers working for Project Zero.

Hawkes is convinced that the world needs more Project Zeros. With that goal in mind, he said him and his colleagues have started to talk to other companies about building a “coalition” or Project Zeros across the industry, academia, and nonprofits.

It’s unclear what this coalition would look like, or who would be willing to be part of it.

Eric Doerr, the person at Microsoft who manages MSVR, said that there are no plans to have researchers work on that program full time, at least for now. We also asked Facebook, Amazon, and Apple if they had any plans to follow Google’s footsteps. Facebook declined to comment, while Apple and Amazon did not respond.

Moussoris agreed with Hawkes that the world needs more security researchers who focus on hard to find bugs, and then tell the world how their attacks worked—no matter who they work for and where the bugs are.

“Without this level of technical detail in the public eye,” she said, “defenders don't stand a chance.”

Subscribe to our new cybersecurity podcast, CYBER.

How Google Changed the Secretive Market for the Most Dangerous Hacks in the World syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[2700fstreet]

CLASSICAL / 2017-2018

NSO POPS: BLACK VIOLIN

APR 4 NSO FAMILY CONCERT

Black Violin “Classical Boom Tour” with the National Symphony Orchestra Pops Steven Reineke, conductor

Photo by Colin Brennan

So, What’s Going On?

Welcome to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Are you ready for some…hip hop? You heard that right. It’s hip hop in the concert hall. Meet Black Violin, two talented string musicians whose performance, along with the National Symphony Orchestra Pops, is where classical music and hip hop collide.

So what’s it like to be at a Black Violin concert?

Glad you asked!

With their modern twist on classical musical structures and techniques, Black Violin creates a sound that challenges musical stereotypes and changes the expectations of BOTH classical and hip hop audiences. Usually when Black Violin performs live, they’re backed up by only a DJ and a drummer. The group plays everything from what you might think of as “serious” classical music to hip hop, R&B, and bluegrass, and then goes a step further to mash-up these genres into blended, innovative musical pieces. In fact, the group prefers not to specialize in just one music genre.

Black Violin has toured across the world for momentous occasions ranging from NFL Super Bowl celebrations to President Obama’s Inaugural Ball, and has collaborated with artists including Wu-Tang Clan, Aerosmith, Kanye West, P. Diddy, and Alicia Keys. Their goal is to create music that transcends labels and aims to start a conversation between those who might never have the occasion to share musical experiences otherwise. In their eyes, that’s the one thing hip hop and classical music share: the mission of bringing people together. That’s where YOU come in.

The NSO Pops: Black Violin performance falls on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the focus of this performance is an appreciation for the life and work of Dr. King. The first half of the program includes the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) Pops honoring the work of respected African American composers including Adolphus Hailstork, Jessie Montgomery, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and William Grant Still.

Special FYI: You should know that William Grant Still was among the first to incorporate African American musical forms like blues, spirituals, and jazz into traditional classical music. His Afro-American Symphony (perhaps the original mash-up?) introduced classical audiences to the African American experience in a new way. It is precisely modern composers and performers like Black Violin who continue the legacy of Still and others—forging a path of their own sound and inspiring a new generation of music appreciation.

Who’s Who

Meet Black Violin.

Photo by Colin Brennan

Violinist Kevin Sylvester “Kev Marcus” or “Simply Sick” is a classically-trained violinist who was nudged towards music by his mother in the fifth grade—finding himself assigned to violin, which he initially considered “uncool”—and ended up majoring in classical violin in college.

Photo by Colin Brennan

Violist Wilner Baptiste or “Wil B” has a similar story: Hoping to play saxophone in summer band camp, an error placed him in the strings class instead. (He would later find out there was no error—the band and strings teacher both wanted him in their class and the strings teacher won out). Baptiste picked up the viola, an instrument no one else seemed to want, and the rest is history.

Before they developed a love for strings, both were kids who grew up on hip hop music. After meeting in high school orchestra, these hip hop-loving teens developed respect, appreciation, and eventually, love of classical music and composers. (Kev Marcus cites Bach’s music as “the equalizer” making him work hard towards greatness.) When Sylvester and Baptiste discovered a mutual interest in bringing people together through music, no matter the genre…Black Violin was born.

Plus, NYC hip hop drummer Jermain McQueen and DJ SPS bring it all together to blend the group’s hip hop and classical sound.

But before Black Violin storms the stage, you should know the concert will feature music by these African American composers of the past and present including:

Adolphus Hailstork is a living musician, composer, and music educator in the Norfolk, VA area. As a composer, he draws on his African American heritage and musical elements from African American and European traditions. Hear Hailstork’s Fanfare on “Amazing Grace”:

Jessie Montgomery is a young musician, violinist, composer, and music educator, forging her way in American classical music. Her compositions combine classical chamber music with elements from folk music, African American spirituals, and improvisation. She uses music as her voice in the world, exploring her beliefs and even politics. Watch Jessie Montgomery speak about her composition “Banner,” commissioned to celebrate the 200th anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner”:

Jonathan Bailey Holland is a composer and educator, serving as Chair of Composition, Theory, and History at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He has been commissioned to compose pieces to be performed by many orchestras, including Equality, featuring the poetry of Maya Angelou, and Signals, commissioned by the NSO in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Visit Jonathan Bailey Holland’s Soundcloud Station to hear his compositions. Our favorite? “Synchrony,” a piece that explores the idea that two realities can exist at one:

Finally, William Grant Still (1895–1978) was an American composer, referred to as the “Dean” of African American composers. A trailblazer for African Americans in classical music, Still was the first African American to conduct a symphony-orchestra and the first to have a symphony—his “Afro-American” Symphony—performed. This symphony blended elements of African American music like rhythm and blues with traditional symphonic form, integrating Black culture into traditionally European musical forms. Still collaborated with literary and cultural leaders in the Harlem Renaissance movement like Langston Hughes, leaving a legacy for those who would follow his musical influence. Hear the finale of the Afro-American Symphony here:

Check This Out…

At the beginning of the concert, the NSO features pieces by African American composers, many of whom incorporate fundamentals from African American music, like rhythm, jazz melodies, and folk instruments, into a classical setting. Listen for African beats and drums, improvisational techniques, and folk sounds.

Watch for the similarities and differences between how the NSO and Black Violin work together to create music. How do members of the orchestra convey the music’s message, perform in sync, and create a cohesive musical sound? (Hint: Do you see someone helping them know what to do, when, and how?) How do the members of Black Violin communicate with one another to accomplish the same things? What is similar and different about the ways a small group and an orchestra work together?

Black Violin’s ensemble includes one person you rarely see on a concert stage: a DJ. A disc jockey (or DJ) is someone who plays live music in a club or radio station, frequently selecting tracks to play and manipulating recorded music in a process called mixing. DJs engage an audience by mixing one recorded track to the next or performing other maneuvers like cuts, juggles, and beat manipulation. The DJ is a key part of Black Violin’s emphasis on beat. Just for fun, watch Black Violin’s Tour Bus Jam cover of Camila Cabello’s “Havana” as part of YouTube’s #CreateBlackHistory 2018:

What role does the DJ play in this improvisational cover?

The violin and viola are stringed instruments made of wood and held together with glue. Their bodies have four strings, a bridge that supports the strings, and a hollow “box” through which sound is amplified.

Photo by Lisa Lione Violins and violas are played by dragging a bow across the strings (arco) or plucking (pizzicato)—as the strings vibrate to produce a musical tone. Listen for the similarities and differences between the instruments as they are played by the orchestra and Black Violin. Learn about the differences between the violin and viola:

Just like their music, Black Violin’s performance style is a mixture of classical concert and hip hop jam session. A classical performance has certain audience expectations—attentive listening, polite responses to music (such as applause), and concert hall manners. During the NSO presentation, it’s a good idea to follow these expectations. But Black Violin enjoys audience participation in a slightly different way. They might encourage you to experience the beat with movement, put your hands up, clap, or participate in other movements.

Think About This…

The group named themselves Black Violin after being inspired by jazz violinist Stuff Smith, who was one of the first violinists to use electric amplification in the jazz swing era. His music, including the album Black Violin, broke new ground using the violin in jazz and blues. How does Black Violin’s mission to break through classifications honor Stuff Smith’s legacy? Listen to Stuff Smith play “Yesterdays” from the 1965 album Black Violin:

The style of Black Violin is called a “classical boom,” in part due to the hip hop beats they bring to traditional classical style. How does the infusion of beats and rhythms change classical music? Compare this to what William Grant Still did with the Afro-American symphony. What is similar about the music of Still and Black Violin?

Black Violin’s most recent album is called Stereotypes. Consider your own stereotypes about music or art. How can you challenge those stereotypes?

Take Action: Break Through

Black Violin combines very different styles of music—classical and hip hop—to create music that’s brand new and innovative. They break through barriers of both kinds of music in the hopes of extending understanding and experiences beyond what people might otherwise encounter. How often does a classical musician get the chance to play a hip hop rhythm? Or does a hip hop artist get lost in a Bach concerto? Black Violin makes both of those experiences—and many others—possible, with their unique way of breaking through expectations.

How can you break through the expectations of your artistic experiences? Maybe you’ll try rewriting your favorite pop song as an operatic aria, choreograph Swan Lake as a modern dance, or paint a landscape using Cubism. Snap a picture or take a video showing how you break through to experiment with expectations and post it to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, or any other platform. Then, tag five friends and ask them to share what it means to them. Use #breakthrough as your hashtag.

Explore More

Go even deeper with the Black Violin Performance Extras.

David M. Rubenstein is the Presenting Underwriter of the NSO.

AARP is the Presenting Sponsor of the NSO Pops Season.