The sound of a hip hop beat being played out by a fist pounding & a hand slapping against the surface of a Taft High School cafeteria table in the Bronx, brings together two of NYC's most well respected underground Latin Hip Hop/Reggeton Artists; Shown Black & NP Killah, who come together to form "Los Yo Yais". Independently, Los Yo Yais, have sold and promoted their street credible mix tapes throughout the NY, NJ, CT areas. NYC's underground has given birth to many of mainstream Hip Hop's top artists but none as hard core yet melodic as "Los Yo Yais".The oxymoronic combination of the hard hitting lyrics of NP Killah and the unique, sultry, melodic voice of Shown Blk sets them aside from the rest of the underground up comers.
NP Killah's rap style is straight forward and to the point with slick and witty punch lines setting him aside from his competitors. Born, Christian Hernandez in Cristo Rey, Dominican Republic. NP Killah spent is younger days between school and his families bread business. The first part of NP Killah's name (NP) came from his days of peddling bread on the streets of Sabana Perdida dubbing him "Niņo Pan". At the age of 14 NP's family moved to the United States to pursue a better life style for him and his two brothers. In 1995 NP enrolls in, what was at the time, one of New Yorks most notorious and quite possibly the worst high school in the country, Tafft High School in the Bronx. After an encounter with one of his classmates at the time by the name of "Baby Fresh", NP realizes his talent for music and the art of rhyming lyrics that speak about the streets and his up bringing in his native country. He began to make a name for him self by rapping in the cafeteria at lunch time and battling every day after school with the other wanna-be rappers. After linking up with DJ Mafa, NP begins putting together songs over hip hop instrumentals and puts out the first of many mix tapes which catapult Los Yo Yais street credibility.
Shown Black, also known as Juan Carlos Catala, the vocalist of the duo, brings to the table an original style of R&B/Balada with a hard twist of Hip Hop/Reggeton. Shown Black was raised between the streets of New York City and Santiago in the Dominican Republic. As a teenager Shown Black experimented with the arts and song writing by taking part in school talent shows, street festivals and other small private venues to perform his songs. It was never his intention to make a living out of entertaining a crowd it was done for the pure love of music. Many would applaud him for his talent and suggest that he take it seriously but it wasn?t something in his plans at the time. During the summer of 2004 touring with a local NYC group. After a show one night his high school friends and now partner NP Killah approached Shown Black and invited him to his studio to hang out and check out some new material he was working on. Upon listening to a few tracks NP played they agreed on working on a few of the tracks for a mix tape. Shown Black finished the summer tour and began to work on a project with NP Killah as ?Los Yo Yais?.
This dynamic duo is poised to break the stereotype of what Spanish Hip Hop and Reggeton should be or sound like. One way to best describe their style is ?spectacularly versatile?. Already with a strong following thanks to the Yo Yais Mix tape series, Los Yo Yais burn up the stage at every venue that is privileged to be entertained by their performance. Under the management of Nelson Frias, Shown Black and NP Killah?s talent was rewarded when they became official members of Wu-Tang Latino Family, headed by Rayroq Acosta, in May of 2005. With their smash hit single ?Mamita Ven? on the Wu-Latino Album titled ?Quemando el Genero?, due out in the first quarter of 2006, Los Yo Yais will prove to the music world that they are a force to be reckoned with.