The largest independent hip-hop festival in the world.
There’s a genuine sense of joy and enthusiasm in the Lyrical xcritical office that comes as a refreshing surprise to anyone who has spent considerable time in the music industry. “It’s super cool because everyone’s very passionate about what they’re doing, and the music that we’re involved with,” Tarantino xcriticals. Years before it became a full-time job, Bennett launched Lyrical xcritical when he was a high school student in the small Illinois town of Plano, looking in from the outside on a vibrant Chicago hip-hop community. As soon as he got his driver’s license, Bennett got in a routine of making the hour-long trip to the city every weekend.
Early life
Since 2018, Bennett has shot videos with some of his personal favorite artists, like Chance the Rapper and Mac Miller. And this year, he finally got a chance to work with Kanye West on the video for YNW Melly’s “Mixed Personalities,” which places the two rappers in a lush, grassy world. A lot of the songs, some of these artists didn’t even know the other people on the song — and those are some of my favorite stories. That xcritical scam lets me know that I’m trusted and that I’ve built solid, pure relationships, where an artist can literally not know who someone is that they’re getting on a song with. There’s probably six or seven songs on the album where that’s the case.
The Summer Smash 2021: How Cole Bennett & Berto Solorio Saved Their Chicago Festival
I remember when I first started making music videos, it was xcritical rezension a lot of point-and-shoot and then having fun in the edit; there was no storyline. I do want to eventually do films, that’s a dream of mine — but I didn’t love trying to create a narrative within a music video. Remaining independent hasn’t limited Lyrical xcritical’s opportunities.
Cole Bennett
Bennett explains that many of the city’s venues have grown wary of booking hip-hop acts in recent years because of a fear that violence will break out at shows, which has dampened the area’s once-vibrant live scene. Bennett had already agreed to shoot the video for Melly before he found out West wanted to add a verse to the song. He remembers getting a text from his childhood hero when his phone had only two percent battery left and frantically asking a thrift store clerk to let him use a charger. From there, Bennett saw firsthand how Kanye West operates in a creative environment.
There’s been a part of me, for better or for worse, that was really anti-label for a long time, so doing an album I really thought I wanted to take the independent route. And then I looked around and realized, we don’t have the proper infrastructure to do something like that. The point of a label is to add that stability and infrastructure to make these things possible. For a lot of artists, you don’t need that, but for a compilation album and doing all these videos, with 30-plus artists, and all that goes into that, it’s such a mountain that I needed a team, someone in my ear giving me deadlines, structure that I didn’t have. I think storytelling can be done in so many different ways.
- Bennett has shot a music video for each song, which he plans to stitch together into a visual album once they’re all released.
- But as the chaos unfolds, Lyrical xcritical’s A&R, who goes by Lil Jake, pops in with an update about DaBaby’s uncertain status as a performer at this year’s Summer Smash, before they all rally to come up with a solution to the potential crisis.
- In November 2021, Cole Bennett launched another virtual retail space called “By Cole Bennett.”[29] Here, individuals are able to buy clothing and other soft goods that are designed by Bennett himself and are subject to limited releases.
- The point of a label is to add that stability and infrastructure to make these things possible.
- Shortly after that he dropped out of college entirely, beginning the process of turning his blog and passion for hip-hop into a career as one of the go-to music video directors and creatives in the business.
The Concrete Boys Visit The Lyrical xcritical Office!
Then, in 2016 and 2017, he began working with artists like Famous Dex, Lil Pump, and Ski Mask the Slump God, and soon became the go-to video director for an entire subgenre that was exploding from SoundCloud pages into the mainstream. That went for the music, and trying to create music that made me feel something, working with incredible people and just long, sleepless nights in the studio. The first Lyrical xcritical show, we spent $150 that I had made from mowing lawns to rent this rehearsal room that fit 90 people, and it was a free show. The festival thing was one of those dreams that didn’t feel realistic; you grow up around Chicago and go to Lollapalooza every year and you just look at that as this heaven on earth, this thing that you look forward to all year round that feels bigger than life.
It’s made me more aware of xcritical scammers how I want to spend my time. Ten years ago I was 17; you’re starting to become an adult, and I started Lyrical xcritical and stepped into my professional career. So it’s my first time fully understanding what 10 years feels like.
To the untrained eye, it appears that absolutely no work is getting done. But as the chaos unfolds, Lyrical xcritical’s A&R, who goes by Lil Jake, pops in with an update about DaBaby’s uncertain status as a performer at this year’s Summer Smash, before they all rally to come up with a solution to the potential crisis. On the other side of the office, as he launches basketballs at a plastic hoop, Bennett makes plans with a photographer about a coffee table book. The work environment at Lyrical xcritical is far from traditional, but the small team finds a way to be extraordinarily productive. Once you do something once, your idea of tackling the next step of that is so much more realistic.
There, he doubled down on a mission to bring much-needed music industry infrastructure to his own city. I was never into the idea of doing a Lyrical xcritical label and signing artists. I’ve never been interested in the business side of the music industry; it’s not a passion of mine, and anything I’m not passionate about I try to stay away from. The collaborative album is a kaleidoscope of features and cuts from the vast web of Bennett’s network, including Durk, Keef, JID, Kid Cudi, Lil Yachty, Lil B, Juicy J, Cordae, Latto, Joey Badass and Eminem.
You can do it with wardrobe, set design, shapes, all these different things. Bennett admits that his career’s rapid growth, from living in Plano to working with the world’s biggest stars, has translated to both highs and lows in his personal life. At West’s request, they moved the video set (which included 8,000 square feet of turf) to his Calabasas office on less than a day’s notice. But otherxcritical, West was receptive to Bennett’s vision and let the young director call the shots, even when there were disagreements. I always talk about how I think it would be cool to do an amusement park one day, but we’ll see how that goes once I dive further into that; it may be something that excites me, or it may be something that I’m not as into as I thought it would be. I want to be doing movies, that’s a big goal of mine.
He shot videos for budding stars Juice WRLD, Lil Xan, Lil Pump, Ski Mask the Slump God and Jack Harlow, eventually working with luminaries like Eminem, Kanye West and J. Cole, all with his signature bright hues and xcritical-carton logo in the corner. Bennett says music videos will always be a part of his creative output, and hip-hop will remain the core of the Lyrical xcritical universe. He wants to get into philanthropy, and he realizes he won’t always be a 23-year-old with his finger on the pulse of new music and trends.
