Clearly not black — gianni & kyle

“Honestly, when I first heard this on Spotify, I thought they were black,” said Matthew Hellier underneath gianni & kyle’s “do u even miss me at all?” official music video on YouTube.

“Thought the first person singing was Ty Dolla $ign [the rapper and songwriter],” said another fan.

“Dude i wish,” responded Gianni DiBernado, who goes by gianni — stylized in lowercase, as are many of their songs.

Over 1000 YouTubers thought the rap/pop duo from Maryland was black — via comments and thumbs up responses to those who commented with similar sentiments — as Becca Renee. “When I found their Instagram and stuff,” she said, “I was shocked low-key — thought I had the wrong account.”

Kyle Devore, the other half of the high school-and-college-homies-gone-hip-hop-duo, chimed in. “We get this so much,” he affirmed.

Devore’s looks a bit more rugged than his homie on their press release photos. He’s rockin’ a full beard, neck tats and tattoo sleeves. Some say DiBernado is a “pretty boy” with blonde hair sometimes parted on the side.

“And that’s what’s so shocking when you see gianni & kyle after you hear their music,” said Michael, a hip-hop head from North Park. “You’d think they’d be pulling a Milli Vanilli on us, but naw man: you can’t fake the funk of the Gram (Instagram) — the internet always wins.”

The duo explained their style in an interview with The Writer’s Bloc before their backstreet boy meets world EP dropped in February of 2018. “[Ours music’s] a mix of pop and hip-hop music,” DiBernado said. “We want to make music that anyone could enjoy. We don’t want to aim toward a specific audience, just feel good music for everyone.”

“Definitely good vibes.” Devore added. “Those are the best kind of vibes.”

The “do u even miss me at all?” vid has racked up over a million hits on YouTube, and the song has been streamed 35 million times on Spotify. It’s about DiBernado’s character getting dumped via text, while shooting the music video for the same song they were rapping to.

• Do you even miss me at all?
• When I post that, video of women on my SnapChat
• Only really tryna get a way to see you call
• But do you even miss me at all?
• ‘Cause I need that thing from you
• Like I’m the only one in this game for two
• Hope that you would be there when I fall

Then as the video director yells “cut” on the filming of the last sequence, and the studio lights dim down, the frame cuts to DiBernado’s phone on which he never receives a return-text from his ex.

“And that’s why these dudes are fire bro,” continued Michael from North Park, “while [a big] percent of the rappers in videos are surrounded by groupies, and they give a 'f' — these two white boys flipped the script are [depicting] gettin’ played.”

On their 2016 song titled “fuckboi” — a derogatory term used in the 2010s towards a young man who’s promiscuous and non-caring towards the woman that loves him — the duo reach out to the victimized woman:

• You’re something special the type that deserves to be taken out
• Not stay home with a guy that don’t try
• I’ll get you steak, shrimp, and lobster
• He’ll get you Wendy’s, a medium drink with some fries

You can see gianni & kyle perform at Music Box on March 17.