Denver’s obsession with its homegrown hip-hop act Flobots is catching on outside the city’s limits, and in a big way. Recent appearances on late night television, a major-label release, national radio play, massive digital sales, and a tour of sold-out shows are indications the band’s conscious, uplifting, message-driven songs are outgrowing their roots and generating a buzz on a national scale. It is ultimately those Denver roots, however, that the band’s members credit for Flobots existence and on-going success.

Despite Denver’s somewhat isolated scene, success came relatively quick for the six-piece band after its self-produced and recorded Fight With Tools was released and celebrated with a sold-out Gothic Theater show in October 2007. The act’s bio says the CD represents a year’s worth of writing and recording, calling it “a fire-breathing rallying cry for all freethinking individuals fed-up with the violence and apathy that have, thus far, defined the new millennium.”
Not long after that heralded CD-release performance, radio station 93.3 KTCL held its “Hometown for the Holidays” contest, which allowed fans to vote for their favorite songs from 35 local bands. Flobots won both the radio and live performance awards and were given the opportunity for its single, “Handlebars,” to get on the air.  The popularity of “Handlebars” ultimately attracted the attention of record companies, and Flobots subsequently were signed to Universal Republic for a two-CD deal. Since then, the band has been on a quick rise to the top.