Twin Cities 'grime-core' performer Riotgrrrldarko lives up to her name
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By Joely Kelzer | Carbon Sound
Bray’Jana Coleman, also known as Riotgrrrldarko, is a Minneapolis lady rager, mother of two, doula, friend and local icon. Although Riotgrrrldarko has only been making music for a couple of years, she already has a devoted fan base in the Twin Cities. If you aren’t already, you should be listening to Riotgrrrldarko.
“I haven’t met another Riot, I haven’t seen anybody rock a stage like Riot, I feel like Riot is going to be the face of the city's music scene in a few years,” says 6RIPS, Riotgrrrldarko’s fiancé and collaborator.
“I call my music Grime-core. I don’t want to box myself in, I’m always growing as an artist. I make rap, I make pop, I make punk,” said Riotgrrldarko.
Zamzam, a local fan, said, “I became a fan after one of my friends played one of her songs in the car, I felt like I was hearing a top-charting female rap artist. It felt surreal to know she was from Minnesota.”
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I remember the first time I saw her live at ItsFest in the summer of 2021. Everyone was dancing, even if it was their very first time hearing her music. Her performance set the tone for the rest of the performances that day. She walked off like it was nothing. I knew right away that she was someone to watch for and went to as many of her shows as possible after that.
Riotgrrrldarko finds time for music in between all of her other obligations, and she was able to fit in some time to talk over Zoom with me back on Dec. 8.
How it started
“I had no intention of being a rapper,” Riotgrrrldarko said to me during our conversation, “I was just f---- around, I used to have videos of me freestyling on my old Facebook page, it was just fun.”
Riotgrrrldarko’s creative endeavors did not begin with music. Jazmyn, Riotgrrldarko’s long-time friend, recalls “Back in high school she was making jewelry with baby doll heads and resin art, she’s always been very creative even before the music.”
”I used to go to performing arts school in middle school. The drill team and drumline were popular and I had no rhythm to dance, so I was stuck doing poetry and spoken word,” said Riotgrrrldarko. “My mom always thought I’d be a writer. English was my favorite class.” From her love of writing and through encouragement from her fiancé, 6RIPS, music happened naturally.”
“It literally started off a diss track,” she laughed. “Then I listened back to it and I was like s---, I’m actually kinda better than anybody at this s--- … This is fun! I should start making music.”
“I was obsessed after that,” said Riotgrrrldarko, “Summer 2019, I lived right by my job and on my 30-minute lunch break I would come home and record some s---, then go back to work. I made a whole album that summer doing that. I was on my little brother’s bunk bed recording Diary of a Mad Black Rager,” Riotgrrrldarko recalled.
“Eventually people started hitting me up to do shows and s--- and I was like, ‘Woah I was just playing around,’” says Riotgrrrldarko. To date, she has done shows all over the city, at local festivals such as ItsFest, and legendary venues such as First Avenue’s 7th St Entry.
Her name, Riotgrrrldarko, encapsulates her sound more than any words you could use to describe it. She was listening to bands like Pure Hell and various lady musicians when she started learning more about the Riot Grrrl movement and what it meant to her, “It showed you can still be tough and rough as a girl, you don’t have to take s--- just cause you’re a girl.”
She is serious about that sentiment. “Riot Grrrl” is tattooed above her knees. The name came from many different sources of inspiration along with that, Riotgrrrldarko explained, “I was listening to a lot of Flatbush Zombies and I was a huge Meechy Darko fan. My favorite movie is Donnie Darko. I knew I wanted ‘Darko’ in the name… for the longest time my Facebook name was ‘Dolly Darko’... it just kinda shows where I was at the time.” From then, the name Riotgrrrldarko stuck.
Riotgrrrldarko’s inspirations
Her friends describe her as a very focused musician. “She wastes no time. She is very strict with her process, she recorded her whole recent project in two intervals. Most of the songs were recorded in one day,” says 6RIPS. “She knows exactly what she’s going for all the time, we can give her opinions but it doesn’t matter, she has an idea and she sticks to it,” says her engineer and long-time friend Meda.
When it comes to music, Riotgrrrldarko says, “I wanna be my own inspiration.” She motivates herself, which isn’t always easy. “It’s like when you’re putting together a puzzle. You get frustrated, have to put it back together, and come back to it later. That’s literally my life when it comes to music.”
“As of late, I’ll be doing the dishes and start freestyling in my head and then I’ll just make note of anything cool I say.” She usually has a full story or theme she wants to convey in a song, she knows what it will sound like before she even starts to create it.
Riotgrrrl also creates her own cover art, “When I drop covers I look at movies and get inspired,” said Riotgrrrldarko. She talked about movies like Kill Bill, Natural Born Killers and Bullet Train, “I watch a lot of action movies, s--- that’s gonna get people blown up.” Her film influences are present in her forthcoming project, “It has a lot of samples from Major Payne. There is more trap and drill coming. I wanted it to be more apocalyptic and rough than what I have been doing,” she says. “I make s--- that makes you wanna punch people in the face.”
Her friend Jazmyn fondly recalled going to a metal show together in high school, “There was this drunk grown man behind us being out of hand and he was just doing too much, Riot got fed up and she just turned around and punched him.” Jazmyn continued, “She doesn’t take s---. She’s not one of those friends to sugarcoat s---, if you’re doing something stupid she would call you out. She’s a really honest friend.”
Riotgrrrldarko doesn’t take s---, as she said, a true “Riot Grrrl”, and that intensity in her music translates into the intense love she has off-stage. Jazymn says, “She comes off as intimidating but she’s super sweet and down to earth, she’s just fun.”
“It’s refreshing to see someone so raw always be so kind,” said Huhroon, a fellow local artist.
The real Riotgrrrldarko
“She is not giving gimmicks,” says 6RIPS. “The same person you get on stage is the same person I’m dealing with at home. She is charismatic. She is intense. The kids have that too, she is intensely loving. I haven’t met any other Riot,” says 6RIPS.
Her most recent tape, Spitting In The Wind took two years, she explains, “I was pregnant when I started it.” She tries not to put timelines on herself, “Music should never stress you out, it should always be a release.”
Meda describes her as very cool, calm, and collected when it comes to performances, “She picks the songs she’s gonna perform that night as we’re driving to the venue, she’s very calm, I’ve never seen that girl flinch.” Jazmyn echoed that with, “She’s just chill before she goes on, every time she gets nervous, you can’t even tell.”
She used to be scared about performing, but not anymore. She joked, “I don’t have a stage presence, I don’t be having s--- to say. I just be getting on there, doing my s---, and leaving. It’s actually funny, people are probably like she didn’t say s---to us the whole night. She just got on stage and yelled at us then left.”
Fans have a different perspective on what it’s like to be at a Riotgrrrldarko show. “Riotgrrrldarko shows are chaotic, sweaty, and loud. People lose their minds in the mosh pits, it happens naturally, her music brings that out of you. You can’t stand still while she’s on stage,” said Huhroon.
“No matter the size of the crowd it feels like everyone is a fan and is belting the lyrics at the top of their lungs,” said Zamzam. Another fan, Teddy Nordy, said, “Every time I’ve seen her the crowd is yelling along for every song and the energy is electric.”
“I love the way people react to her lyrics while she’s rapping, it’s always a delayed reaction as the lyrics set in people’s heads, people are audibly saying ‘Woah.’ She’s not afraid to serve it to you or give you a hard-hitting visual,” said Bob Kabeya, of rising local band Miloe.
When she isn’t working on music, her first priority is her family and loved ones. Meda says, “Anytime she has an idea, she gets it done. Really focuses on it, no s---. Really commits to it.” Whether that be her music, her role as a mother, or her becoming a doula.
“She’s someone who wants to serve her community, she’s very tapped in. It’s really cool to see an artist that isn’t self-serving. She serves her community in a lot of different ways, like being a doula, and uses her platform to amplify that. Someone like that, you just want to stand behind them and support them,” said Bob.
She serves her community with things other than music, she cooks delicious meals and provides plates for the community and was even doing tooth gems at one point, “It’s like everything she does is for the better of the people she is in community with,” said local fan Zamzam.
Riotgrrldarko concluded our interview by telling me some words she likes to live by, “I do best by other people. Life will always work itself out if you’re not a s--- person. I just let things happen, life will always work itself out.” Her child joined our Zoom call and sat on her lap, and gave me a hello wave.
Riotgrrldarko’s sound elevates with each release, from her debut single “Like Nancy”, to her most recent album Spitting In The Wind. Riotgrrrldarko is just getting started. As Zamzam put it, “I’m looking forward to being one of those annoying fans that brag about knowing her before she became a superstar.”
Carbon Sound is supported by Minnesota Public Radio, The Current and in partnership with KMOJ.