Blipsters (black hipsters) are all the rage in New York right now, but there’s a new tribe of race-bending trendsetters taking over. Blipsters beware. Blavers (black ravers) OWN London’s new/nu rave scene right now. East London, the epicentre of nu rave, is home to big black communities and so racial mixing was inevitable. Soon enough the neon-clad, glitter-faced, MDMA-fuelled parties became a melting pot of all creeds. Nu blave was born…

Before we even knew who he was, we knew MC Niyi (see interview below) was a total DO. His joint "London" has become a nu blave anthem.
The Coconut Twins are nu blave’s pin-up girls.

Check out Super Super, the blaver style bible.

Ebony Bones is like a nu blave Grace Jones. Check out her jam "Don’t Fart on My Heart."
It’s all about the future, from its fashion to its view of a racially tolerant tomorrow.
** See previous Vice articles on Blazis (Black Nazis) and Makinheads (Malaysian skinheads)
INTERVIEW - NIYI:
VICE: Your EP just landed on my desk. It’s H-O-T.
Niyi: Cheers!!!!!!!
What inspires you?
I’m not sure if it’s cartoons or porn. I know it’s not very PC to say this, but I absolutely love obviousness and I love stereotypes even more. When I see a baddie on TV, I want him to be big, scary and have like massive frowny eyebrows. In my music I like to put massively obvious things that shouldn’t be together, in the same song.
The nu rave scene is very mixed in terms of race and sexuality. Why do you think that is?
I think it is developing into something else. Maybe the Klaxons are the rave bit. I’d like to think of us as something a bit new.
Is it okay to describe black nu ravers as nu blavers?
Yeah. And the gays could be Quavers.
You’re riding the crest of the nu blave wave. Is there anything you’re pissed off about?
My friend Namalee! She won’t give me my strawberry jumper back. It looks like a strawberry!!!
OK, well, good luck with that. Bye!
Bye.
DOM TUNON












Reader Comments
February 19th, 2007
5:14 pm
haha - too funny
February 19th, 2007
6:16 pm
That first picture was ripped from a London music magazine article about New Rave, Jesus Guys get a fucking grip
February 19th, 2007
6:39 pm
sorry to correct you, but that first pic is actually the cover to Niyi’s new EP.
February 19th, 2007
6:49 pm
vice is really great and all, but this is total dogshit! bet pingu would love this stuff! anyway keep up the good work!
February 19th, 2007
7:04 pm
ugh. ok. have they at least stopped using the cheesy voice samples in rave music.that shit is the lamest form of electronic music ever.
February 19th, 2007
9:20 pm
I <3 Blaxons
February 19th, 2007
9:50 pm
I want to fuck everyone in that group photo. And I love how all the links are to someone’s Myspace profile. Suck it Live Journal!
February 19th, 2007
10:45 pm
Black people hang out with white people in London, that’s how it works, nothing new. I’m sure it might be a novelty to some but these scenes aren’t particularly about black or white. I’m not saying it isn’t an issue AT ALL just that it’s how it’s been for years now. We just one big meltin’ pot baby, ebony and ivory, colour-blind, nah, fuck it, just kiddin’, eveyone’s prob just too drunk to notice INNIT.
February 20th, 2007
12:32 am
But I heard last week on http://bigbignews.net that ‘Bluppies’ (black yuppies) were the hot new thang…no?!
February 20th, 2007
12:42 am
so to be racially tolerant you have to dress like a fucking optical illusion?
February 20th, 2007
12:43 am
so to be racially tolerant you have to dress like a fucking optical illusion?
February 20th, 2007
2:05 pm
THIS IS A JOKE GUYS!
February 20th, 2007
8:35 pm
Some black dudes from the midwest put out the first *techno* records, and gay black dudes created House music, so it’s not all that weird that they be associated with rave shit. Although I don’t see much of a correlation between raves and “nu rave” besides the name. Nu Rave is just the latest bandwagon musical genre, thanks to NME.
February 20th, 2007
10:07 pm
I wanna fuck that EBONY BONES sooo bad! Wish she’d come to New York..
February 20th, 2007
11:24 pm
To the the clown who was chattin bare fraff about black chaps in the Mid West putting out the first Techno records. No, you cock smoker.
Step away from my internet.
http://www.myspace.com/judasbeast
February 21st, 2007
12:10 am
Heard she’s coming to NY! Ebony Bones gets boned (Bronx style)Mmm..
February 21st, 2007
12:31 am
black yuppies are BUPPIES
not “bluppies”
take note, fools
February 21st, 2007
3:39 am
This isn’t actually happening.
It can’t be.
It’s almost like Chris Morris and Armando Iannuci are prophets and the stupid future they envisioned has come true.
For once I’m actually glad I live in Glasgow where people who dress like this get stabbed.
February 21st, 2007
4:09 am
I think i saw these guys on Cliff Yablonski like 3 years ago… meh, old news
February 21st, 2007
10:06 am
Black people wow! I didn’t know they could be into anything but hip-hop, reggae and grime. All this sort of article does is turn race into a human zoo.
February 21st, 2007
10:07 am
are black people in this week then?
February 21st, 2007
10:10 am
NIYI is wack…i just heard this so called banger of a dubplate, and it sounds like Just Jack on seratonin. JME serious, get to know.
February 21st, 2007
10:59 am
NIYI is wack? ‘JME serious’ ? FIRSTLY, learn to speak English. SECONDLY, if you are comparing these two, then you just don’t get it. I expect to see NIYI doing pretty well this year….
February 21st, 2007
12:54 pm
for fuck sake.. nu rave is done. in london that shit is played out… catch up please!
nu rave is old fuckin news!
move on!
February 21st, 2007
3:58 pm
Ha! Ha! NU RAVE IS SOOOOOOOOO OVER!! The Klaxons said it themselves. The only person iv ever heard of on that list is Ebony Bones - who we saw play in Manchester. Fucking AMAZING. A*
February 21st, 2007
3:59 pm
Ha! Ha! NU RAVE IS SOOOOOOOOO OVER!! The Klaxons said it themselves. The only person iv ever heard of on that list is Ebony Bones - who we saw play in Manchester. Fucking AMAZING. A*
February 21st, 2007
5:08 pm
lol. why do vice insist on writing shit like this?
Am quite an ebony bones fan though, read she’s working with timbaland soon..
er.. who the fuck are the though? .
February 21st, 2007
5:08 pm
God.
Being so over is so over.
Which in turn is now so over.
Which in turn is now so over.
and on. and on. Ar-is-ton.
February 21st, 2007
5:11 pm
lol. why do vice insist on writing shit like this?
Am quite an ebony bones fan though, read she’s working with timbaland soon..
er.. who the fuck are the rest though? .
February 21st, 2007
5:12 pm
this is fuckin gay.
February 21st, 2007
5:15 pm
lol. why do vice insist on writing shit like this?
Am quite an ebony bones fan though, read she’s working with timbaland soon..
er.. who the fuck are the rest though? .
February 21st, 2007
6:43 pm
Now this might be some sort of Blaver trend that I don’t know about yet… but did anybody realize that his cigarette is backwards in the first picture?
February 21st, 2007
8:40 pm
Shit why are black people so fucking cool!? Pisses me off everytime..
February 21st, 2007
9:56 pm
This is why I love VICE…Ebony Bones…first time hearing of her and I like it…pretty fucking cool…
February 21st, 2007
11:12 pm
I didnt realise that hipster=white and ravers=white..
and fucking nu rave.. is aload of wank and fuckin glow sticks should be fucking banned..
i like all the above artists though innit.
but dont call me a blipster or a fucking wotev..
im just a black girl who likes good music.
February 22nd, 2007
12:40 am
Blave? More like Blovercooked Blillconcievd Blollocks. Blironic? More like Blullshit.
February 22nd, 2007
1:42 am
are there a load of ebony bones myspace groupies on here? you fucking tossers.
February 22nd, 2007
3:28 am
Blipster?
Well then, what’s called for asian hipster? I am really curious.
February 22nd, 2007
3:29 am
Blipster?
Well then, what’s called for asian hipster? I am really curious.
February 22nd, 2007
3:53 am
haha! i love vice - only vice could get away with this monkey piss - i bet all of the above have never even heard of the term blavers or woteva u fucking call it.. but i admit - they r rather cool.
February 22nd, 2007
4:20 am
..Well I wasnt before but after checking the sites out its safe to say im now OFFICIALLY a myspace groupie AND a fucking tosser! (literally) *sigh* my poor arm..
February 22nd, 2007
1:15 pm
Lol! click ‘view friends’ on ebony bones myspace - haha! had us in stiches!
February 22nd, 2007
2:06 pm
omg is that a midget or an umpalompa? No ok i think its an umpalompa dressed as an asian boy.. is he in her band!? Right I gota see this show!
February 23rd, 2007
3:13 am
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Just a little.
February 23rd, 2007
3:14 am
I bet these guys drink orbitz just because nobody else does.
February 23rd, 2007
2:26 pm
No i reckon the midget drinks Sprite..
February 23rd, 2007
2:28 pm
..or maybe pepsi - shit i wish i had those moves
February 23rd, 2007
2:28 pm
..or maybe pepsi - shit i wish i had those moves
February 23rd, 2007
3:53 pm
Cultural & musical history aside (paradise garage etc), what a load of ol’ rubbish. Why do black guys who dress up have to be given names and create scenes. Yeesh - give me a break you skinny jeaned crackers, can’t they just be? What’s next blockers - black guys who like rock?. Wow how different and interesting, don’t tell me they don’t all just listen to RnB and hiphop?
February 23rd, 2007
4:26 pm
THI SIA ALL WELL AND GOOD…BUT YOU ACT LIKE RAVE WAS EVER RACIALLY OR SEXUALLY DIVIDED. iF YOU THINK THAT YOU WERE NEVER A PART OF IT. rAVE HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT EVERYBODY IN IT TOGETHER.
February 23rd, 2007
5:49 pm
exactly - musics for everyone! Why do vice always do this shit.. these guys seem to be a talented bunch bringing people of all races together. Im up for that! Not all this bullshit name taggin
February 23rd, 2007
5:57 pm
WELL SAID!
P.S I LOVE THE MUSIC - ITS FUCKIN GR8. THATS WOT VICE SHOULD B TALKIN BOUT..
February 26th, 2007
9:53 pm
who r these ebony bones girls!? they’re AMAZING!
February 28th, 2007
8:33 pm
THE IDIOTS ARE WINNING! THE IDIOTS ARE WINNING! i cannot believe this is happening either. at the stylistic evolutionary fork in the road, the trendy fucks always seem to take the worse route. soon there will be a new wave of Creed and Nickelback meta-bands, just watch. furthermore, why can’t these neu-rave people choose some of the more substantial, less surface aspects of the rave scene in the 90s? why are they re-hashing shit that looks like Jesus Jones and EMF videos? why can’t they re-hash Kickin’ or Ibiza Records? why are they playing Haddaway and 2Unlimited at hipster parties - why not Underground Resistance or Bones Breaks??!?!??!? AGGGGGH, my head hurts.
March 7th, 2007
11:09 pm
yo man put the crack pipe down..
April 22nd, 2007
3:19 am
hadnt heard of her till i read about Lenny Kravitz and her recent fling
September 24th, 2007
5:57 pm
we(the retro kidz) started this and didnt realise how far it would go-sorry.
December 28th, 2007
9:17 pm
this has been happening in london for the past 12 years.. on this scale for the past 6. i dont think anyone “started it”
August 26th, 2008
5:52 pm
These looks remind me of something straight out of the tv show Fresh Prince.
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