AOTM - gianni & kyle

March's Artist of The Month

If you asked me a few months ago who "gianni & kyle" were, I would have told you that I had not the slightest clue.

To help you out, I will tell you who Gianni and Kyle are because they are on the verge of blowing up. That way, when your friends ask you, "Hey do you know gianni & kyle?" You can respond with , "Ummmmm , YES!"

This urban hip hop / rap duo consists of Gianni DiBernardo and Kyle Devore.

While you may think this is just another duo in a crowded genre, gianni & kyle have managed to separate themselves from the pack. Their very catchy and groovy beats are backed by amazing raps and vocals from both guys which prove that they are unlike anyone else in the game at the moment. The duo is also very versatile in their sound proving that they can create softer and slower acoustic tracks while also coming out with amazing pop-rap anthems that are great for bumping with the windows down. Between the music , humor , energy and personalities that they bring to the table, it is hard not to love these two.

If you're a lyric guru like I am, then you will certainly fall in love with gianni & kyle's lyrics as well. Their main topic that's woven in to most of the tracks is relationships and love. When you sit down and listen to these lines in depth, you'll come to discover that most of the lyrics are almost too relatable. On most tracks, you'll see that it's hard not to chant some of these clever lines at the top of your lungs. This makes for constant playthroughs of their tracks fun and exciting. Even after listening to most of their songs over a hundred times each, they still have all the charm and luster that they did when I first heard them. The ability to write songs that still sound just as good, months later is just another reason why gianni & kyle are able to stand out.

The duo are originally from in Annapolis, Maryland. They both went to the same high school and this is how they came to know one another and formed their strong bond.

After high school, Gianni attended the University of Maryland and Kyle attended Rowan University on a swimming scholarship but dropped out after freshman year.

Once Gianni graduated, the duo moved out to LA to pursue their music career together.

They released their first tracks, "be without you" and "right now" in 2015 on SoundCloud. The duo followed up those two tracks with bigger hits like "tension" and "we ain't" the next year in 2016.

The duo then went on to release their first album/ep , "backstreet boy meets world", on February 21st, 2017. The six track ep includes tracks like "lax" , "come thru" , "foreign" and "pay stub". This ep brought them success and they started to see some exposure and recognition after this release.

From there, the duo pushed on and released even more singles in 2017 which include some of my personal favorites like "jealous" , "independent" and "pop a pill". With each newer track, the amount of plays started to go up and rightfully so. This was their springboard headed into 2018.

In 2018, the duo released arguably their two biggest tracks in "5 shots" and "do u even miss me at all?" coming in June and September. The duo then found themselves on tour with fellow rapper, Hoodie Allen in the fall.

This is how I discovered this amazing duo in the first place. I attended their home show in Washington D.C. Heading to that concert, I had no clue that I would end up discovering one of my favorite artists that night. Being a fan of Hoodie Allen for years, I was simply just excited to see Hoodie again. Therefore, when these two guys came up on stage and they immediately started jamming out and hyping up the crowd, it made me ask my friends , "wait, who is this again?". Track after track I kept bobbing my head and they kept growing on me. By the time their set was over, I already had them followed on Instagram and Spotify and liked on Facebook.

Walking out of the venue, I spotted the guys hanging out and I approached them. I told them that I had no clue who they were when I got there, but that they gained one more fan in their corner. Gianni then asked if we wanted to get a picture....obviously wasn't going to turn that offer down! Since then, this amazing hip hop duo has been constantly in my music rotation.

After the tour , they went on to release a nine track ep titled , "she's no angel" on November 1st. This ep includes hit singles "5 shots" and "do u even miss me at all?" along with a bunch of other bops like "company" , "u&me&hennessy" and "independent".

Gianni & kyle then got 2019 off to a great start towards the end of January releasing their latest track, "close". They are even going back out on the road with Hoodie Allen here in the spring over in Europe!

Being very excited about this duo and wanting to show them as much love and support as possible, I decided that there is no other artist out there more "underexposed" than gianni & kyle. This duo puts their heart and soul into everything that they do. When I was going through trying to do my research on them though, I was coming to a roadblock trying to find out some information and so I decided to reach out to the duo on a limb. To my surprise, I heard back from them within minutes and they actually took the time out of their day to answer some of my questions. The questions that I asked included the following:

Q: What inspired you to start writing music?

A: "Gianni saw the 'Bye Bye Bye' music video when he was very young and was like "I wanna do that". Kyle was forced to write a song for a Spanish class and then fell in love with the process."

Q: Did you start with the intent of trying to blow up or was all of this a fun side project? A: "After beginning to make music we realized this was always going to be the plan. There was no plan b. We fell in love with music and wanted to make it our careers."

Q: If someone were to ask you to describe your sound, how would you describe it? A: "Urban pop. It's not like corny pop music but pop music anyone can enjoy. Easy on the ear type stuff."

Q: "You are going to be touring with Hoodie Allen in Europe soon, what are your plans going forward after that? A: "OUR OWN TOUR AND MORE MUSIC"

I think that the fact the two of them took the time to respond to me says a lot about who these two gentlemen are. Fan interaction is sadly a dying breed these days. It is amazing to see artists who appreciate and care about their fans. It truly goes a long way.

This outstanding duo is easily destined for greatness. With amazing tracks that include hot and bumping hooks, the only direction these two are headed is upwards. With each new track that they release, they somehow manage to out do themselves. I am very excited to see where this awesome duo goes from here. I can almost guarantee that with time, "gianni & kyle" will become a household name.