Odds are when you hear the phrase “SoundCloud Rapper” a certain image pops into your mind. Young, certainly; colorful hair and plentiful face tattoos, definitely; but that’s only a small subset of artist who use the platform to advance their musical dreams. Chicago rapper Taylor Bennett has been a SoundCloud user from the very beginning of his career around 2012. The streaming service’s very existence is one of the main reasons this fiercely independent artist, just like his brother Chance The Rapper, has been able to spurn the advances of major record labels looking to scoop him up and lock him into a 360-degree deal for years to come.
Beyond its ability to share his music with the world, SoundCloud has also been a critical discovery tool for Bennett, helping him find new up-and-coming artists and producers that he’s tapped to work with on different projects. One of the more fruitful finds of late was the Japanese musicians StarRo, who linked up with Bennett to create the song “Know Yourself (Outro)” that serves as the closing track to Bennett’s latest release, the Be Yourself EP. On paper, it was an unexpected match but it’s a credit to both artists in how they were able to meld their different backgrounds.
“I’m not a typical hip-hop producer,” StarRo explained of the collab. “The track that I made for Taylor is far from a conventional hip-hop beat. There’s a little more of a rock element I think, and I always wanted to do that with a rapper — Taylor is one of those people who appreciate it. I’m really glad that this track worked out in this project because basically I showed him a few work in progress beats and he picked out that one track specifically… and what he did on the track is just amazing.”
Be Yourself is as frank and honest a release we’ve received from a hip-hop artist in 2018. Across its six tracks, Bennett alternates between extreme micro-analysis of his own character and heady macro views about American society at large. It’s topics range from sexuality, race, fame, capitalism, and just about every other theme you could name. Bennett tosses off his insights and bits of hard-earned wisdom in a very direct manner, but sometimes you have to dig through a tangle of stream-of-consciousness verses to find them. In other words, this is a project that rewards repeat listening, and points to bigger things to come.
Fresh off a barnburner of a set at Lollapalooza and an appearance on Good Morning America, I had the chance to talk to Bennett about his newest project, his increased profile, and what’s to come next.
I recently caught your set at Lollapalooza, and as a native Chicagoan, it was pretty obvious the experience of playing at Perry’s Stage really meant something to you.
Growing up, man, like $200, $300 for a ticket for like one day was totally out of the question, you know what I’m saying? My parents, we weren’t broke, but we didn’t have money like that. So, every year, kids would always hop the fence. We used to be hopping fences trying to finesse, call contact, anything we could do, and when we got in, the place where everybody knew to go was to go to Perry, because it’s just the rockingest stage. That’s where Travis Scott performed, that’s where Chance performed, that’s where Flying Lotus performed, that’s where DVBBS performed. Legendary stage, man.
A lot of your initial days as an artist began with SoundCloud. Can you talk about how you’ve used that platform to get your music out to people and find new things yourself?
It was the first streaming platform that I had the opportunity to play my music on, and they’ve had an exponential growth over the years, but something that they’ve always kept is their value of independent artists and giving them their placement and giving them their spots. Long before they had the resources to do the things that they can do now, just long before I had the resources, they’ve always been about pushing independent artist and they’ve always been about the craft and about the music, and that’s something that I’ve always come to respect. And because of that, they stayed in my career. They have been so essential to this stuff, not just with me, but with many, many, many artists, Chance the Rapper, Lil Uzi Vert. Those guys broke on SoundCloud, not all those other stream services.
Do you ever feel pressure from peer group or industry people to sign with a label and do it the traditional way?
Not so much anymore. Now, I’m a lot more settled, doing bigger shows, making more money. Early on man, I won’t lie, it’s a tempting thing. You see these guys running around with these $300,000 chains and these huge cars and big houses and it’s hard to be like, ‘Man, that’s not what’s important,’ and what’s important is music. So the pressure is definitely there. You gotta believe in yourself enough to know that one day you’ll be able to amount to whatever and more and still own your product. And I think that’s something that’s very important.
Can you talk about the Be Yourself EP? What was your mindset heading into that project?
I knew that I was at a point in my career that I had a platform that I could speak on, and I had people that I can affect and that’s something I’ve always wanted to do and, seeing that opportunity, I wanted to speak on it in my music, not just in my lifestyle.
How did you get StarRo involved to work on “Know Yourself (Outro)?”
I was getting to one of my favorite songs, and I think one of the deepest songs, or yeah, the deepest song on the project. My manager said, ‘Hey SoundCloud just put our song with this guy StarRo. You need to check him out. I’m going to get something from him. I’m gonna get a song.’ He grabbed it, and as soon as I heard the beat, I knew it was history, all the words kind of poured out of me.
Were you ever worried that you were maybe too open on that song? You really touch on a lot of different deeply personal topics on that track.
Yeah, not really, man. The cover art, if I did the cover art, why not? My whole thing about doing the cover art was if I can talk about it then I should be able to show it, and I shouldn’t be afraid of that.
Were you always conscious this was going to be an EP? Did you ever think about tacking another song on there and calling it a seven song album?
No, but I knew that this was something that I needed to get out to the world and this was a message that I wanted out, but I knew that this wasn’t the album. This is something that I wanted to share with the world, and I wanted to start a discussion and I wanted to try to use my platform to change the community and the lives of others.
What’s your plan going forward? Are you working on the album now? What’s Taylor Bennett’s life looking like these days?
Yeah, man, it’s different. I’m bigger. I have more options and more places I could go and more resource. I think there are really endless possibilities. So, one thing that I want to do is I want to take it to a level I’ve never taken it before, and knowing that, I know that I can’t handle this album how a traditionally would. So, I don’t want to come up with a title and come up with the music. So, I’m just here in the studio and putting out what I feel and trying to get that organic vibe.
Be Yourself EP is out now. Get it here.
