As rapper Lizzo says in her song “Rumors,” “Black people made rock and roll.” Unfortunately, Black musicians are disproportionately represented in the rock genre today. That doesn’t mean Black rockstars don’t exist, though. We had icons like Jimi Hendrix in the 60s and Living Colour in the 80s, but what about in the 21st century? Here’s a list of 10 modern Black rockstars!
Cullen Moore
Sleep Theory, fronted by lead vocalist Cullen Moore, is a relatively new alternative metal band that formed in 2020 and released their first EP in 2023. They have amassed an impressive following over the past five years, having over a million monthly listeners on Spotify and five songs with over 10 million streams each. In a recent interview with Rock Feed, Ronnie Radke (the former frontman of Escape The Fate and current frontman of Falling In Reverse) lists Sleep Theory as one of the upcoming artists with the most “potential.”
Sleep Theory’s first album, Afterglow, is set to release on May 16, which will be followed shortly after by a headline tour.
Lajon Witherspoon
Lajon Witherspoon has been the lead singer of Atlanta-based hard rock band Sevendust since 1994. The band has released 14 studio albums between 1997 and 2023, and their song “Thank You” was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the GRAMMY Awards in 2016. In a recent interview with radio station 93.5 The Beach, the interviewer compares Sevendust to Living Colour and posits that Witherspoon may have inspired Black artists like Cullen Moore of Sleep Theory (see above) to join the metal music industry. Witherspoon’s humble response to this statement was, “I think that’s incredible if I have [paved the way]. If I’ve helped and I inspired anyone that’s a beautiful thing because people still inspire me.”
Sevendust is currently on tour with Disturbed.
Jaz from Vixen77
Jaz (last name undisclosed) is the bassist for all-female retro rock band Vixen77 as well as one of its founding members. The group formed in 2018 and released their first album in 2022, including a cover of “What I Like About You” by The Romantics. They were featured as radio station 93.3 WMMR’s Local Shots Artist of the Month for September 2023.
Ayron Jones
Ayron Jones started out in a rock trio called Ayron Jones and The Way in 2010. They made one album together in 2013, then Jones pursued a solo career starting in 2015. He has since released two studio albums and was nominated for Best New Rock Artist at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in 2022. His song “Take Me Away” has over 15 million streams on Spotify, and last year he featured on a song by Black Stone Cherry alongside Christian rock band Skillet. According to his Spotify bio, his musical influences include Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana, both of whom were based out of Jones’s home state of Washington.
Ayron Jones is currently on tour as an opener for Theory of a Deadman.
Loniel Robinson
Loniel Robinson is currently the touring drummer for legendary emo band Pierce The Veil. Robinson started playing the drums as a teenager over 20 years ago. He was the drummer for the band Of Machine from 2009 to 2010, and worked as a drum tech for metalcore band Of Mice & Men before becoming the permanent drummer for letlive. It was during Robinson’s time in the band that letlive. released their most recent album, If I’m The Devil…
Loniel Robinson will be joining Pierce The Veil on their I Can’t Hear You World Tour starting in May.
Nova Twins
Georgia South and Amy Love, better known as Nova Twins, are an alternative rock duo from London. They are the featuring artist in the song “1×1” on Bring Me The Horizon’s 2020 album POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR and are responsible for the official rock remix of GRAMMY-winning song “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim Petras. Household name Sir Elton John described the duo as “phenomenal,” and according to their website Rolling Stones UK once called them “the most vital rock band in Britain right now.” Nova Twins are extremely outspoken about issues such as racism and sexism both in their music and off the stage and are heavily involved in political activism, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and starting a scholarship at The Institute of Contemporary
Music Performance. They have released two studio albums were nominated for two categories at the 2023 Brit Awards.
Nova Twins will be opening for Lenny Kravitz for six shows during his Blue Electric Light tour and have a European headline tour scheduled for September and October.
Traa Daniels
Mark “Traa” Daniels has been the bassist for Christian rap rock band P.O.D. since 1994 and started providing backup vocals as well in 2001. The band has released 11 studio albums between 1994 and 2024, and they have several songs with over 150 million streams each on Spotify. P.O.D. has been nominated for a GRAMMY three times (twice for Best Hard Rock Performance and once for Best Metal Performance). In an interview for Talk Toomey Podcast in 2023, Daniels confessed that he “never thought in a million years [he]’d be playing for a metal band” due to his “funk/jazz background,” but as soon as he joined P.O.D. playing with them felt completely “natural.”
P.O.D. will be joining Drowning Pool as openers on the Godsmack World Tour in Europe starting next month and have three headline shows scheduled for April.
Cammie Gilbert-Beverly
Cammie Beverly (née Gilbert) of Houston, Texas became the lead vocalist and primary lyric writer for the gothic metal band Oceans of Slumber in 2014. Since then the band has released five studio albums, and the 2018 album The Banished Heart was featured on Metal Hammer’s list of best metal albums of the year. Beverly has also released four singles as a solo artist over the past year. In an interview with Metal Hammer two years ago, Beverly stated that she believes “everyone, especially in the music industry, has learned a lot about inclusiveness, and about the importance of history and representation of minorities” in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, making the rock genre a bit more welcoming towards Black artists and fans.
KennyHoopla
Cleveland-born Kenneth La’ron Beasley, better known as KennyHoopla, got his start on SoundCloud in 2016 and has since released an EP and one studio album. All eight tracks on said album feature world-class blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, who also features in three of Hoopla’s singles from 2023. Other artists Hoopla has collaborated with include Wiz Khalifa, grandson, and GROUPLOVE. An interviewer with THE FACE described KennyHoopla as one of pop-punk’s “most promising stars” in 2021, then in 2022 he won Best International Breakthrough Band at the Heavy Music Awards. Last year he joined Poppy and AFI as an opener for Thirty Seconds to Mars on their Seasons Tour.
Fefe Dobson
As a teenager, Fefe Dobson was a hardcore emo kid who listened to bands like My Chemical Romance and Green Day. She released her self-titled first album back in 2003, then three more albums in 2006, 2010, and 2023 respectively. Her 2010 song “Stuttering,” which won three Canadian Radio Music Awards in 2012, has over 23 million streams on Spotify. Journalist Kathleen Newman-Bremang wrote that Dobson’s music “gave unspoken approval to [awkward angsty] millennial Black girls [who were quirky before it was cool] to just be — whatever that may look like.”
Fefe Dobson will be joining fellow Canadian punk rock icon Avril Lavigne for the Canada shows of her Greatest Hits Tour later this year.
