Written by: Oliver Heffron
After making a name for themselves as Grammy-winning songwriters and producers, R&B duo Blaq Tuxedo, consisting of brothers Darius and Dominique Logan, step confidently into the spotlight on their new album Should’ve Seen This Coming. The dazzling 10-track display both the two’s R&B mastery on songs like “Leeway,” and their love for upbeat, high-energy production tracks like “Never Over.”
Defining themselves as a new genre, “Rhythm & Player,” the Sacramento-raised, LA-based duo’s infectious sound breaks the boundaries between R&B, drill, and hip-hop. It proves the brothers are ready to shine on center stage.
Catching up with Nuance, Grammy-winning R&B duo Blaq Tuxedo, aka brothers Darius and Dominique Logan, discuss creating their journey through the music industry, inspiration for Should’ve Seen This Coming, and where their sound goes from here.
Photo Courtesy of Bria Christian
Growing up in Sacramento, Darius and Dominique remember music always being a part of their lives. Darius explains, “Our Mom was a singer, so it was always in the house.” With their father being a former pro football player, the brothers were raised to commit to their passions and to always have more than one thing going on. “Growing up, we had to do three things,” Darius says. “We had to have good grades and be doing two other things.”
Those two other things ended up being music and sports for both. However, they initially gravitated and excelled in opposite lanes. In high school, Darius was a nationally ranked basketball player, playing with future NBA talents like the Lopez twins and Quincy Poindexter.
“So for me, music was more like, ‘God, I don’t want to get in trouble with my dad,” Darius says. “But then, as time went on, I was like, Oh, thank God, I did do some music. So I always knew that would be something I would do if I wasn’t sports.”
While Darius was no scrub in sports, Dominique explains how he gravitated towards music earlier: I would always be kind of the one that went to the studio with my mom and sit in on all the sessions and learn how to work at NPC at five, six years old. So I kinda always had a thing for the studio.”
After moving to LA around 2009 to pursue their music careers, Darius and Dominique highlight two people who helped them get established in the industry: songwriter Andre Merritt and choreographer Flii Stylz.
their cousin, actor Robbie Jones, helped connect them to Merrick early in their careers while the songwriter was having a significant moment, having written “Forever” for Chris Brown and “Disturbia” for Rihanna. Dominique explains, “I feel like that was a moment where we realized, like, if he writes to this beat and it gets placed, we can be "on" in the industry. I feel like the first moment where we were like, Oh snap. Like we we really can, like, do this, right?”
Darius adds, “So while that was happening with Andre Merritt, we met Flii Stylz through our big homie, Jammer J, who knew our dad, s we would see in the performance side. So, Flii would take us to the Chris Brown rehearsals, the Usher rehearsals, and we would see it from that side, too. You go from being in the studio to making a record and then bringing it to life, live. So we got a chance to see both sides.”
After going to Rihanna’s Grammy party and meeting Chris Brown around that time, the two’s music dreams started turning into a real career. Dominique explains, “We always wanted to do artist stuff first, yeah, but we went into songwriting and producing when we he had to make a living.” Darius adds, “It was tired of being broke, so you might want to sell that song.”
Photo Courtesy of Bria Christian
More than getting by, Darius and Dominique went on to excel in songwriting and producing, working with the likes of Doja Cat, Ty Dolla $ign, and Omarion, as well as a Grammy win this year for their work on Chris Brown’s 11:11 with the #1 Billboard Hot R&B hit “Residuals.” Darius explains, “We’ve always been artists, we’ve just been giving our sound to everybody else. So we don’t, we don’t really have a style because can do any style. You can’t put us in a box.”
On the meaning behind “rhythm & player,” Dominique says, “It’s just talking with a certain lingo, a certain posture, as a creative. It’s not sugar coated in any kind of way; it’s being able to say what’s going on in the room unapologetically, and also still connecting with people. Whether it’s a sad story or a happy story or a fun time, whatever mood it is, it’s just being able to connect in a real player way.”
After their Grammy win earlier this year, Darius and Dominique decided to lock in on Blaq Tuxedo. Darius says, “After a while, it’s just like, man, I want to put out some of the songs that I’ve been working on. I can’t give everybody all my stuff, I gotta put my stuff out there as well.” They explain that Should’ve Seen This Coming is made of tracks the brothers have kept for themselves over the years, with many being first created during the pandemic.
Dominique says, “‘Better Off, ‘Fake Happy,’ and ‘Slide,’ those were the three we held onto the longest. Then the other ones were newer, but we still had to hold on to those–not playing in meetings and stuff like that. But those three in particular, were from the COVID era and that time, and held onto because we knew it was special.”
When asked what to expect from Blaq Tuxedo in the future, the brothers cite the album’s energy-packed closer, “Travis Porter,” as a hint of where their sound is headed: “‘Travis Porter’ is kind of a segue to what we’re what we’re going to be doing for the next project. It’s definitely gonna be different. The whole project is just turn-up party and having a good time.” After shaping the sound of popular R&B for years, the Blaq Tuxedo party has properly arrived.