Joining Spillage Village Group w/ JID, Earthgang, 6lack & More ft. Benji.

To me, it felt like home because that's how I was always making music with my friends. Like we're just in there jamming. And then I'm, you know, picking my head up and realizing who I'm jamming with. And I'm like, oh, this is crazy. The One More Time Music Podcast. Genuine conversations with genuine people about music. Hosted by Henry with a three and playback Ben. One more time. One more time. One more time. One more time. One more time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back for another episode of the One More Time Podcast. It's Thursday, your favorite day of the week. Everyone's favorite. Here with your favorite host, I'm Playback Ben here with my co-host. Henry with a three, aka the trap, Jack Black. Henry, who do we have in the hot seat today, my friend? Welcoming in on episode number 37 of the One More Time Podcast. Legendary bass player, multiple Grammy winner. It's Victor Wooten.

Yo, he's the only one that's gonna know how funny that is. And that's why we said it. That's fire. He like barely looks like him, but barely. That was more of like. But it works. Yeah. It works. Less of the actually looking like the guy from my roast. But we do this every episode. Yeah, he approached me about this one, and I was like, That's a compliment to me personally. Exactly. I take it. He was like, yo, I'm I'm I might get on his good side with this one. Oh he's gonna fuck you. In all seriousness. Victor Wooten, we're out of here. We we have bass player. We got keys player, producer, songwriter, engineer, artist, filmmaker. Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But now we brought him to the light side here in Atlanta. We got Mr. Benji. Benji. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Benji, how you feeling, man? I feel good. I feel really good. I'm happy to be here. We are happy to have you. Very happy to have you. I literally first met Benji when he was sitting on top of a school bus. Wrapping his ass off on the happy shoot.

Yep. So to have you here on the One More Time Podcast is an honor, man. That's almost two years ago. I was a PA. I didn't, I didn't get the the uh playback dude. The playback dude. That's where he gets his name. No, I was even lower on the totem pole than the guy. He didn't even get playback. Shout out Chad Tenney's who was directing that. We've had Chad on the podcast. Words. We had Chad on the podcast. Yeah, Chad's good dude. Yeah, he's real good. Super talented. Love everything Resolve's doing. But Benji, appreciate you coming on, man. Of course. So spoke with a couple people that know you well. How important is family to you? That's very important. Um, I treat everybody. I try to treat everybody like family, especially my own family, my closest friends. Like it's just an operation of you know, a relationship that I I enjoy. It works. Um, you know, it helps set up boundaries, you know what I mean? But also, you know, you just treat everybody with respect and love, and you get it right back. And if you don't, you know, well, it's unfortunate that it does happen, but at the same time, you know, it's just not for you.

You know what I mean? But I I I really love family. My family has been probably one of the main catalysts for all inspiration, all things that I've ever gotten into, you know, um, sports, music. Like it was just right there. It was very supportive. Um, and you know, I wouldn't be here without it, you know. Well, yeah, so you mentioned music. What role did music play in the family? Um I honestly could not see anyone in my family doing anything else, yeah, especially myself, because you know, my my parents are musicians, my mom is an amazing singer. Um, all of my siblings are singers. And that's how your parents met, right? Sorta, kinda. They met at CMU, um, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. So they're just dumb. They're, you know what I mean? Like, it's just like an amazing school. It's it's casually casual. Carnegie Mellon. The funny part. It comes from brains. Yeah. Jeez. They like the they they met um like in a uh on the lawn or something like that. Apparently the story is my dad just walked up to my mom with like a joint or something like that.

Fire. He said it was good. You know. I heard it was so much more romantic. They met in the choir, but that's way cooler. I mean, they used see when they when their relationship was going, and you know, that's what they were doing. My dad was the the keyboard player, and my mom was directing and singing and stuff. Okay, cool. But you know, we can go back further and be like, no, my dad was he had the juice, you know. Real za. Yeah, my dad had the juice. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, everyone in your family really they they took music to be what it was for them, but like that was a huge part of what kind of bonded you guys, right? Huge. I mean, because we couldn't help but have music playing in the house. Um, you know, everybody sings, so like we wouldn't always just break out in a song or nothing like that. Like the Von Trapp family. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, we wouldn't just break out all crazy, but um, we we could recognize and understand music early. So, like, it was a language we spoke in the house. Yeah, and me, my uh my brother, and my older, like middle sister, I'm the youngest in my family, but I have um two sisters and a brother.

So my the younger older sister that I have, the three of us are musicians. So when we studied or when we were playing, you know, we had that going in the house as well. And then my older sister, she's a singer as well. So we were just around it, and then uh I played the drums uh first um in the choirs where everybody was singing. My sister was the keys player in the choir. And I just always played around. And then at my church, uh I had the freedom to kind of just play whatever I wanted. Is that because you were the pastor's kid? Pretty much. Yep. Another pastor's kid. We've literally had so many pastor's kids. I told Krista this. I was like, bro, you guys are pastor's kids too. Yeah. What the fuck is going on in this like, music world? We're Double. Both of our parents are pastors, and that was loud. So it's both of them. Sure. It's a two for one. It's buy one, it's a BOGO. It's buy one get one free. Buy one pastor, get one free. There you go. So I was just always around it, and I had the freedom.

So one musician that we had uh had to leave, and it happened to be the bass. And I was like, Well, my dad bought me a bass when I was like 14 for Christmas, and I was always playing it around in the house, but I was never playing it out. And at this point, I'm like 22, I want to say. I'm 28 now. And I was like, Well, I have a bass at home, so can I play? They were like, sure, whatever. And that's how I got stuck on a bass. That was the requirement. Do you own a bass? You own a bass guitar. Pretty much. But like that was kind of always my thing. Like I played flute and concert band uh growing up. And oh, so you were a flautist. I was a flautist. I absolutely was. But I was just playing stuff. That's a rare exclusive fact about Benji. Only because it was the only thing left. I wanted the snares. And in order for me again, everyone wanted the snares. Yeah, but they were I was late. They were already taken. The only thing I didn't want to play trumpet, and the only thing left was like the flute. And if I didn't pick the flute up, I would have to keep going to class.

And I didn't, I wanted to at least miss one class a day. You picked that flute up, I picked up. Shout out the flute. So tell us about your relationship with you know your brother Christo, who also is, you know, in the music scene, super successful producer. Yeah. You know, had the chance to speak with him. Kind of what was your relationship like with him growing up? Um, he was like, you know, when you have, if you've ever played team sports and you got a particular date or opponent circled on your calendar. He was like that for me because he was really good at everything. And it pissed me off. So I was like, Rivalry. Sibling rivalry, totally. But like in the most healthiest loving ways possible. But me as little brother, I'm like, I'm going to be better than you at everything that you do too, because I gotta prove myself. You know what I mean?

Like, that's just classic little brother stuff. Yeah. But like it was, it never ever got to that point because of one, how we do, we played on the same sports teams, went to the same schools. Um, we played a couple of the same instruments. Um, but like we've done a lot of things together. We've never did it the same way. So it was almost impossible to even have that rivalry. It was like, he does this, I do this, uh he goes that way, I go this way. Um, you know, he is tall, I'm short. But you know, like it was just, I know. It was always like sad story. Sad, sad story. Um, and he also encouraged me to like just do it your way. Yeah. As opposed to like trying to be like me. So he was already, he was great to just look up to, you know. And we're 15 months apart. Okay.

Wanna say? So we're really close. Close in age. Yeah, really close in age. So I was right there watching him do all his stuff. And then when I figured that I wanted to do it, you know, his guidance was always like figure it out, but not to be like, leave me alone. But it's like, no, you can easily do this, but just figure it out your way because we're not the same. Um, so that was a huge booster for me realistically to just be like my own artist, my own person, my own whatever um athlete, you know what I mean. I was the only one to go all the way to college to uh play sports. Um and that was just something that I really liked to do. That was so casual too. Like, tell us about your sports journey real quick. Yeah, so I um in college I ran track. Um, it was one of those sports again, I was just trying out. Cause at first, me and my brother, we played soccer since we were kids. Okay. And um, we played in high school.

And in high school, I was playing soccer. That was like my main sport. That's what I wanted to do. And uh I couldn't try out for the basketball team because my grades were pretty bad. And soccer. School was not your thing, right? School was not my thing. No, it was not. He was not a scholar. No, not by any stretch. But his parents went to Carnegie Mellon. Yeah. Bro, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one. That's crazy. Those genes did not go to him. They did not. I I didn't even open the door for him to let him in. It just wasn't happening. Um, so uh spring season came around and track season came, and I was like, you know, uh, I could do this. This is what everybody does. They run track to get in shape for the sport that they want to do. You know what I mean? All the football players. All the football players do it, all the basketball kids do it. Yeah. It's never like the main thing you want to do until you realize you're good at it. And that's what happened. So I uh I thought I was a sprinter because I was like the fastest kid on the soccer team.

I got dusted every race I got into. Fast and track is a whole different beast. I learned. Oh, I learned. Yeah. But then I could always jump higher than anybody. Yeah. Um, and I was like five, four at the time, five five dunking. Like I was like five, four, five, five, barely getting two inches. off the ground. So I touched the net. You know, I don't, I don't even know if I could. So I tried the long jump. Late bloomer over here. So I tried long jump. Yeah. And my coach was like, okay, yeah, no more sprinting. You do this. Yeah, like you do this. And I was like, okay. It's cool. It looked cool because my brother was doing it. And I'm like, you get to run and jump in a box full of sand. Like that looks pretty dope. Yeah. So I asked my coach, can I go over here? And then he just tried me out after practice. Like, you got something here. Try this. Try that.

Then he had me try the triple jump. Did that like it was like I've always done it. What is the triple jump? The triple jump is if you ever heard like the hop, skip, and jump, like you run, jump off one leg, land on the same leg, jump on the other leg, and then jump into the sand. So you just jump three times. Yeah. Boom. Mm-hmm. Okay. So I did that, and he was like, Yeah, no more, no more sprinting. Yeah. And that became my event. That's how I got to college. I got this college scholarship to run track for long jump and triple jump. So I get to college and I win uh a couple of conference championships and long jumps, still got the school record in both long jump and triple jump. I don't think anybody's touching it. Hopefully. Shots fired at shots fired at uh Duquesne track track team. Boom. Step it up, Duquesne. Um I went to regional championship right before nationals. Um I was ranked as high as uh seventh in the country at one point. And um wow, I had a shot, like I was like 12 centimeters away, just about to try and uh try out for the Olympic trials.

Yeah, and I completely tore my hamstring, and that was the end of my sports career. Yeah, that was a like I was like hearing you know your brother describe the story. I was like, Oh, this is so cool, like he's gonna make it. It was like a movie with playing in my head, and I was like, oh fuck, she got injured and got hurt, and that was that was the end of that. Damn, and uh decided to leave school um and pursue music full time, and that's how it worked out worked out fine. So, like, what was the plan when you did that? Um you know what I think? Cause that's a big decision. Were you trying to go to the Olympics and like do that? No, no, I'm talking about when he dropped out uh for music, like what what were you so yes? That was that was my original plan at first. And then that got squashed by an injury. Um but so dropping out to pursue music, like you know, how were you planning to make ends meet? Um and were your parents pissed, yes. Well, slightly because like you know, they weren't particularly happy that school just wasn't my thing, but they knew that since like second grade, like they just knew it. And um, they wouldn't like force it on me, and then they did the whole thing, like, you know, get your grades up, we're pulling you off the teams and stuff.

Like they they did that because they wanted me to one, at least not get kicked out of school, but yeah, two, like finish something, you know, and then I get a scholarship to go to Duquesne, like just finish, you know what I mean. But it was just nagging me. I wasn't going to class. I was learning how to make beats. I was learning how to engineer, I was writing songs. So that was already starting while you're while I was in college. While you're doing track full time and school. And then part time? Yeah, school very part-time. Like anybody at Duquesne, if they were there at the same time as me, they know that I would sit at the same spot, same table, same cafeteria every day before practice, after practice. Uh, if I went to class soon as that class was, I was going to that same spot. Everybody saw me in the same spot. They didn't sit there, they knew like, okay. Yeah, or they could, like, my homies would come sit down with me or whatever, and then they would go to class and I would just stay there. You know what I mean? Just cooking up. Just cooking up. Just cooking up. And it was just that's where I was. Then it's three o'clock, I gotta go to practice.

And then I'll go to practice, and then Thursdays we travel for our track meets, and we're gone the whole weekend, so I won't see you till Monday. Damn. You know, so I was just doing that for four years. Like, all the while still like winning. And so you almost finished. Four years. Yeah, almost. But by the time I uh was a senior, I've got I think I had like 21 or something like that. But so I had to like, I think I was like a junior all over again academically. But still. So I was like, Damn. Yeah, I ain't I ain't got the money to pay for that. So my scholarship was done. So I was like, well, I'm just going to go ahead and go. You know. Go buy an MPC actually, with that. Yeah, you know what I mean? So when I decide, I told my parents I just want to focus on music, I was expecting them to just argue with me and fight with me about it. And they're actually like, We saw this coming. All right, go ahead. Just have a plan. And at that time, the plan really is just pay your bills. Um, so get a job.

And I did a bunch of odd jobs, not odd jobs, but I did jobs. I had uh, I was an overnight janitor. I served at a taco joint for a few years at our baseball stadium. Um, I played in wedding bands, I played in cover bands, anything, you know, that was that I could tolerate, yeah. Yeah, anything that I could tolerate doing that would pay me. Paid for studio time if I had it, but then I bought my own equipment, so I was just I was never really in the studio. I was just learning and buying more equipment with this stuff. Um, and then I would get shows. Um, and then you know, after a while, like I started getting paid for these shows. Um, and then it just I don't know, stuff kind of just worked this it worked its way out. I would figure it out, but things just really just worked out for me. Um were you like stressing during these times or hell yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because you make it sound like looking back on it, you're talking like it was like this job and did this, but like just kind of living it was. Yeah, living it sucked because like you know, you feel something like deeply in your heart that you know you can do that you want to do that you're really good at if you figure it out, shift the right gears and stuff like that.

You know, music is very subjective, but it's either good or it's not, you know what I mean? Seems like a conflicting statement. Very conflicting statement, but it's like your taste is your taste. Yeah, you know what I mean. There's a market for everything, but it still has to be good or it isn't, and it only has to be good to somebody, though, and trying to figure that out versus what you like versus what you're also capable of. I didn't know I could do this. I didn't know I could do that. And you're learning, you're learning. So things are constantly shifting. Then you realize, you know, you gotta perform this stuff. And then you gotta like, yeah, you know, and I wanted I'm a musician, so I wanted to perform with the band. I gotta find really good musicians, I gotta do this. There's all these things that I wanted to do. And then, you know, at the same time, I'm like, at the time, I thought I was having a child, so it's like, okay, now I have to get like a full-time job of benefits now, or I can't really pursue music because you got to buy diapers. Yeah, I gotta buy diapers or and prepare for that, you know.

So it was very, very stressful. And I'm at the time I'm 23. Yeah, you know what I mean? So like I'm not really, I don't really have all my bearings there, you know what I mean. And I'm not in the most comfortable position. Um, and it just now that yeah, now that I really think about it, it sucked. Yeah, it really sucked. But you're not a dad. No, but I'm not a dad. Um that worked out, that worked out for sure. But you know, ultimately, well, yeah, he went on Mari. You are not the father, no, not even, you know. But so, like, what was the Pitt music scene like? Like, paint us the picture of kind of like, you know, we're here in Atlanta. Well, I'm I'm not too familiar with like what the scene was like. We um Wiz So Wiz, when I was in high school, Wiz was booming the guy, he was the guy, you know what I mean? Um but that's like not necessarily indicative of like what the rest of the scene was. looking like. No, because Pittsburgh has talent, and it's always had talent, but there's kind of always been this thing where um, at least in rap, I can't speak for the other genres because there's a lot of successful, you know, producers from Pittsburgh, there's a lot of successful um shoot country artists, you know what I mean? Oh, really?

Country. I wouldn't have guessed that. Um, so Pittsburgh has been around in uh multiple spaces, you know, different spaces, I'll say it like that. Um but the scene itself, you know, at one time we had like a staple venue that you had to perform at, you know, if you were going to be anything. You had to get it's called the Shadow Lounge. You had to go through the Shadow Lounge. That closed. down. It was like a rite of passage. In a way, yeah, because like that's where we went to see shows. Yeah. You know, that's where um everybody performed. Yeah. Basically, when they came when they came down for uh for their Pittsburgh show or something like that. So that closed down. Um Wiz goes on to be Wiz and Mac's coming up. Yep, Mac goes on to be Mac. Um, and then that's kind of it with Pittsburgh and small cities, small market cities like that, it's kind of like I talk with my homie about this a lot, like the sacrifice rule, basically. Like everyone's around, and everyone can be talented, you know, multiple things can be true at the same time.

Um, but one goes, and then the rest who were around at that point in time kind of just oh wow, go out. You know what I mean? And um so did you see that happen a few times? Yeah, basically, because you know, there was a lot of talented local rappers when Wiz was a local rapper. Wiz goes. Yeah. Um, and you know, he brings his people with him. Um, there were a lot of talented rappers and artists when Mac was a local artist. Mac goes. Everybody else is kind of, you know, they don't see the same success. You know what I'm saying? Um, you know, and then we had uh, you know, Jimmy Wopo, God rest his soul, he was killed on his way to you know, his highs and his peaks. Um, we've had artists go to jail, we've had artists get killed, you know. Similar story everywhere, right? Yeah. Um so for us, when I was coming up, you know, there's a lot of talent. I think what we did uh that was very beneficial for the scene that I was in was that we were just throwing our own stuff.

We really took a lot of pride in like basement jams. So we had shows in basements of houses. We had uh, I've had I got homies that owned uh art spaces, you know, and they would throw parties, they would throw events, they would throw shows, festivals. Um, so you would get on, you know, by getting on one of these programs, basically, uh being able to do your thing. Then this spot called Spirit, uh, who's actually owned by uh the same person that owned Shadow Lounge back in the day. So uh there was a guy throwing uh events there, um, which is actually how I met my DJ, uh Slim. Slim. Shout out Slim. Shout out Slim. Good people. Because him and Christo used to DJ this party called Bounce. Yeah. And that's how I met him. And that's how me and him linked up as like an artist DJ duo. Um I thought you met in a U-Haul. So we met in a U-Haul. sounds like a great story.

Yeah. We met in a U-Haul. Way funnier than meeting at a bounce DJ. Yeah, so let's get the real, let's get the real story. We met in a we met in a van. They were trapped, they were trapped in a U-Haul together. for 45 minutes. they were trafficking cocaine. Yeah, you know. We met in me and Slim. That's like a weird turn. He's helping a friend move. Yeah. So DJ Femi, shout out to DJ Femi. Um, I went to middle school with her. Yeah. But like her and uh Slim, they went to high school together. Like we have a bunch of mutual friends that we've known through different passages of time, yeah, different lengths of time. And then we kind of all just like realized we all know each other, and then we I love that. Decided to click up like wow, this is crazy. Um so Slim was driving the van. Femi was moving cribs. Uh, I got picked up in this van being driven by Slim. Yeah, and we're bonding over helping them, helping her move because we're sitting in this van just talking about music, like, man, like I want to throw like this big festival in a warehouse or something like that. Yo, I'm thinking about the same thing too.

Like, it's pretty crazy. Like, I rap and sing and stuff. He was like, Well, I rap, I produce, I DJ in Decatur. I'm like, oh, word. Who are you? I thought that was so cool. You know what I'm saying? That's a great story. Yeah, and then we realized like we know a lot, like some of his best friends lived around the corner from me, who were also my best friends growing up, and my brother's best friends growing up, and it's like how because they all went to high school together or something like that, and then uh my drummer, uh Jules, shout out Jules. Same thing. Like, we all just it was it was really wild. The connection came from Femi because I went to middle school with her, but you know, we all just like started coming back around, and like, oh, you know this person, I know that person. I went to middle school with that person. I went to middle school with them. They're your best friends. Oh, yeah. I went to high school. It's crazy, it's crazy. And then we just the links were already there. They were just kind of reactivated. We're just reactivating them, and the next thing you know, we're all best friends. Yeah, you know what I mean. I thought that was so cool. You inspired me to help more of my friends move. Yes. Yeah, I got friends of mine watching.

trying to get Slim. Trying to get Slim to move to Atlanta next. Yep. We'll help him. Yeah. He's my next. We'll meet everyone. He's my next project. So you know, you mentioned doing shows obviously in the city, but you also were doing shows out of town. I mean, yeah. You know, you had people inquiring, you know, to get you to come perform. Tell us about the Montana show. Oh man, that was my very first out-of-town show. It was the first one. First one. That's even more epic. Oh my God. Uh, it was such an epic. I'll never do it like this again. Yeah. Ever. Is it epic in a bad way? I mean, honestly, kind of and in a great way. It's like a beautifully bad like. Yeah. I'm looking forward to this one. We basically we had to get to Bozeman, Montana to do this show at Montana State University in two days. Uh we couldn't, we couldn't get flights coordinated. Slim had to work and do a gig on a day where, like, I think there's only like two airlines that fly in and out of Bozeman or something like that. Never heard of it.

So only like only like two days out of the week or something. It's really, it was really crazy. This is like what, 2017, 2018, maybe? Yeah. And um, so the only other option for us to get down there and not leave this money on the table, basically, is to ride a car and to drive across the country to Montana in now a day and a half. You know what I mean? A day and a half. It's a 27. 27 hour drive. Hour drive. We have basically two days to get there. And the clock starts as soon as he hangs up with promoter. Yo, we didn't. I don't even think we left, because we're for some reason we're just notoriously late to everything. But we didn't even leave out of Pittsburgh. That's why you played the flute. Yeah. There you go. See, We didn't leave. I can confirm he was late to the podcast, guys. He's not lying. I'm not lying. He's a latey. Yeah. Tis tis I. We didn't leave till like three o'clock in the afternoon. And it just the clock was just ticking.

Was it just you and Slim? It was me, Slim, and my guy Wesley. Okay. He was recording everything for us. Oh God. Is there footage of this? Oh my god, yes, there was a we need it. There's so much footage. Okay, send that. There's so much footage. So you hop in the car, So we're in. the car. It's me running a Chevy Equinox. Oh my god. And I don't know if you haven't met Slim. I don't know if you've seen Slim. Slim is 6'3. Big dude. 6'4, big dude. Big guy. Not Slim. There's only, yeah, and that's the best part about his name. It's not Slim at all. Oh, it's funny. No disrespect, but like, you know. He's a heavier set gentleman. Right. There's only one place. There's only two seats he can sit in the car. That's driver's seat, front seat. that's it. You can't sit in the back. No. At all. And now we have all we had to bring all our own equipment, PA system, uh cables. In an equinox. In an equinox. We got bags, you know, suitcases and stuff. Yeah. DJ equipment, cables. Like we had everything in this car, and three people were packed for 27 hours. So we're driving, we're going, and it's you know, it's cool.

We're driving across the country. I do suggest that everybody takes a cross-country drive at least once in their life. Yeah. Just not for two days. Just don't do it in two days. Yeah. And not rush. And not rush. Just take your time. But it's beautiful. So we get out there, and uh, that's where I saw Tumbleweed for the first time. That's cool. It was crazy. Um we get shout out Tumbleweed. Right. We get uh we get into Montana, it's beautiful, the stars are out, the sun is setting, there's no street lights, like at all. So even in the college town, none. Yeah. As we're driving through these mountains, it's pitch black. It starts snowing. It's getting crazy. Next thing you know, I'm I'm the one driving at this point. Next thing you know, I noticed that my tire pressure is going low. Oh god, like it was like the back right one or something like that, and it's just leaking. And you know, I'm putting gas in the GPS. Now, mind you, we're out in the mountains, really don't got no service or nothing like that.

Uh ain't a gas station for miles. Miles. We're also running out of gas. So this is snowing anxiety. It's pitch black, uh, no street lights, tire leaking, no gas. And you gotta get there, and we gotta get there. We're still like an hour, two hours out, mind you. Um is the show like coming up the next day. Okay, so it's the next day, but okay. It's the next day. Like set time was in three hours. No, it's the next day. But like we um we long story short, we make it, we find a gas station, we put gas, but we get there with you know, very low, damn near deflated tire. You know what I'm saying? And it was crazy. So we get there, um, the show was cool. Now we gotta drive back. We get the tire patched up at uh a Walmart for like 10 bucks. It was actually pretty crazy, but it was this gigantic thick construction now that I ran over at some point that punctured our tire. Yeah, but you guys spent like a lot of your money to get to this show.

Right. Yeah. Like, like, don't forget the most epic part of this is he's like, I gotta get the bag. So I'm dropping whatever I got to on gas to go make my money. All of it. 27 hours away. All of it. Yeah. And uh we had it was like a uh there was a specific bank that we had to cast a check at or something like that, or like deposit it or whatever. Because we needed we needed the money to get back because we had a show in West Virginia two days after that. Oh my gosh. So this whole, who did your routing, bro? Terrible. We were just following DPS at that point. So bad. You know what I'm saying? It's so bad. And even as we're leaving, I get pulled over twice, like within five minutes. Um my god. Yeah, in like South Dakota. It was stupid. Um, this cop in like a Tokyo drift through the grassy median just to pull me over on the opposite side. It was pretty impressive. I'm not gonna lie, it was very impressive.

But it was uh good the median, he was going. No, he was go, he's oh my god, he was going for it. But you know, it was a good time. My thing was a good time. That sounds that sounded so epic. I was like, dude. And I didn't know that you had to get to West Virginia next. Like, yeah, we had a show. Those are my very first two out of town shows. Those are the two most bumfuck shows you could ever do. So shout out since the 80s. Yeah, home team. Um shout out. how did that relationship you know come about? Um, so me and Zeke uh went to high school together. Um I remember I had a show at Spirit, and um at the time, one of my bigger songs, Mimosa was playing. I performed it. Actually, no, I didn't have a show, it was just a party. And uh I think it was DJ Femi who played the songs. She played Mimosa, whole place is going crazy. They stop it. Uh RB, he stops the whole party. He's like, he calls me out of the crowd and he's like, no, you gotta perform the song right now. Everybody's going crazy.

So I get up there, I start performing the song, everyone's going nuts. Zeke, I didn't even know he was there. Zeke is to my right as I'm on stage. He just pops up, he's going crazy. Um after I do the performance or whatever, uh he tells me, you know, that they they got this uh joint venture or whatever, they got this label and stuff. So I'm like, what's up? He's like, what's up? Two years later, they call and sign me. And I'm like, word, you know, it was cool. But so it was like you always know you were gonna get a deal? No. So you I mean, I wanted to. Okay, so you were like chasing a record deal. Yeah, is that kind of? Because I thought that's what that was. the thing. You just think that's what you did. You're an artist. You get signed. Yeah, I mean, I I had confidence that I would get something. Okay, cool. You know what I mean? But like still felt like yeah, when that when he said that, I at least saw something that was tangible for myself, or at least in a in a way reachable and achievable. Yeah.

Um, you know, and because you know, my brother has been JID's DJ and producer, worked with EARTHGANG uh a bunch, and has been around, you know, for a while. Um, I at least had a frame of reference to kind of just like, you know, ask some questions, you know. Even if they weren't gonna sign me, I felt like I had mentors. You know what I mean, in a way. So I just I had someone to watch. I had uh something to watch, uh study, you know, just in case if it came down to it, cool, or um, you know, if it came to something else, I kind of had an idea of maybe how things go, you know, but um it ended up working out. They called me. Well, yeah, I didn't realize it was two years after that party. Yeah, really. Really? Yep. Because like the way I heard the story, it was like, boom, he performs the mimosa back to back, gets on a flight to LA, fucking inks the deal. No. I was like, damn, that party must have been lit. No, it wasn't. The way I heard it in my head, I was like, it was two years later because uh in 2018, right after that in 2018 is when I dropped Smile You're Alive the first time. And then I get on NPR's artist to watch list for 2019, and then me and my band go on our own tour.

Yeah. Um, and then uh Barry and Z call me again two days after they call me, they fly me to LA in the deal, and then everything's all good, and here we are. Yeah. Let's talk about the Smile You're Alive, like the fact that it was out for a short period of time. You said released for the first time. Then you get signed and it gets pulled back. Yep. How did you feel about that at the time? Were you on board with that? Um I guess to be honest, no, because I didn't understand it. Um, you know, when I went on tour with EARTHGANG, um, it was still out. Shout out to EARTHGANG. Um it was already out. I was performing it, you know, on the road. And then we plan was really the plan wasn't for it to be gone for as long as it was. The plan was while we were on the road, we took it back because we had this bigger platform essentially now, so we just wanted to give it more traction, so we'll, you know, we'll re-release it like this while on tour with while on the road with them, and then it just didn't happen.

And then COVID happened. So nothing's happening. So, like, and then that's how Spillville came about. Because right before COVID happened is when I go out there to work with them, and then COVID shuts it down. Then we get truck, uh, we all get stuck out in that house. Um it's a wild timeline. Yeah, that's how Spilligion happened. Um, or at least that's how it came out the way it came out. Spilligion. I was like, I kept butchering this. I was like, yeah, every Spilligionian, like I don't know. Spilligion. Spilligion. Spilligion. Yeah. Like religion. The timeline is. And now hearing it. Hearing it, yeah, Yeah. Yeah, the timeline is crazy. You know, welcome to Atlanta hip hop. There you go. Um, but but no, so tell us about like when you know, when that tour wrapped, and you were like, how long were you supposed to come down here for those uh you know Spilligion sessions? Like, I was planning only for like a week, like a week, yeah, because my birthday was coming up, okay, and like it was like the very next week. Um, so I was only, you know, I get the invite to come out, I go down.

Um is this like March 8th or something? This is March 13th. So you fly down March 13th, yeah. So right when it's like, you know, we're hearing the news about it in China, whatever. yeah, people are canceling things, festivals are getting canceled. So you're like, eh, like Yeah. I'm clearly just going to Atlanta for a minute, sure, because it's like one of those things that I'm like, you know, let me now try and be a part of something major. Because like before then, I really hadn't been in no big studio sessions. I was really only working on my own music and working with music on the with the homies. I'm just coming off the tour with EARTHGANG. That's my first major anything, you know what I mean? So, like, all right, yeah, no, let's let's see what I can. And the the dreamer sessions just finished. The revenge of the dream sessions. February series. They that just happened, I'm pretty sure. If I'm not mistaken, that just yeah. So, like, I never had anything like that, no experience like that. So that was my first one.

And I felt safe and comfortable because my brother was down there. So I go down. Shout out Christo. Yeah. Shout out Christo. I'm thinking it's only gonna be like a week for me because I don't know these guys. And when I first get there, it's a lot of people in and out, you know what I'm saying? Um and next thing you know, uh COVID's like, yeah, no, we're shutting this thing down. Like no travel, no flights, no nothing. So realistically, we had to stop having people come into the house. And whoever was there is like, that's we're there. And that's it. Whoever's left is whoever's left. And it was all of us. The chosen ones by default. By default, you know what I mean? But the quarantined ones. Cause when I I remember when I was down there, I was like sleeping on the couch for days at a time. Yeah, like paint us the picture of like what was this that was this was a house, like yeah, it was a big, yeah. kind of like paint the picture of what what what this was. The house is huge. Um and it had this like just here in the A somewhere or like Yeah, I don't I forget which side uh north. Um probably north.

It might honestly it might have been the West. I think it was actually on the West. Um but it was a it was a big house, had three studios in the basement. Okay. Um, and that's where we were working primarily. We had a big A room, um, we had a B room, and then uh my brother's room had a studio in there, so naturally he took that one. Yeah. Um, but you know, there were multiple setups around, but we had those studios, like actual studios in there. Um, and for the most part, you know, I had like a little bag uh with me. I had some clothes, and you know, for me, I'm just like, you know, I'm just I'll set up anywhere. Like, I'll take this black leather couch, and that's gonna be my home. Um, for I guess the duration of I'm gonna be here. How long was it? Uh it didn't last that long because when we had to move everybody out, basically, uh, kick everybody out, there was a room available, so I took a bedroom. Um, but it turned from that one week into two and a half months before like travel was allowed to happen again, basically. Yeah.

Um is that how you became spillage village just by being locked in? Just by being there. That's crazy. Literally. Um and we're just working on the records every day. Um, I don't know. See, I don't know if it was like the plan all along for me to join Spillville, but to my knowledge, I think just being there and producing how I did and producing what I did. Um, and I mean, everybody in there is so talented, like every individual artist in Spillville is really godly. It's the fucking Avengers, bro. Crazy. But you obviously impressed them too. I guess so. You know what I mean? And you know, I I enjoyed that entire experience. You know, we're bonding over Michael Jordan's The Last Dance came out during that time. Love it. So, like we're bonding over that. We're playing 2K. Um, you know, we're watching actually we were watching Infinity War. There you go. We were watching Yo. Chris has said he's gone on like a MCU. Yeah, yeah.

I told I told him. Yeah, I gave him uh I gave him the uh the order. Yeah, I gave him the order of how you gotta watch it. He's like, bro, I've been watching two of these a day. I was like, bro, this sounds like an addiction, bro. Is the order different from when they came out? Yes, cool. Okay, yeah. Like I kind of want to get that for that. Like to get the timeline of everything, yeah, yeah. But I I recommend every any MCU fan, you should absolutely do that. But if you are an MCU fan, you've probably got it. Can we put the uh the order in the description down below? Henry, stop offering up my he always offers up these ridiculous edits, or he's like, yo, can you make Benji's like hair on fire like for this episode? I'm like, bro, I'm Barely a novice at Final Cut. Like relax. Trying to expand your abilities. There you go. But it was a really good, it was really good, at least for me, bonding experience with like experienced and successful artists. Yeah, like what were some of the gems you you know got from that? Like are there some things you remember, like conversations you had, maybe that like really stuck with you? Um I don't think one in particular, but everything that I kind of gained from that experience myself with talking with everybody, work when everybody was just like be yourself.

Yeah, you know what I mean? Like that's the only way, excuse me, anything works. Yeah, you know, and works to the best of its ability. Just be yourself. I remember I think the very first song I worked on was Psalm Sing. And I uh I'm eating dinner by myself, everybody's downstairs. I'm eating dinner by myself. They call me down and hand me a bass. Um, and I played that bass line over it or whatever. But it was just like everybody's sitting in the studio, we're just jamming, just having a nice old jam session. Um, the words start coming. I actually think some of it was actually recorded or whatever. Um, and you know, it just felt to me it felt like home. Because that's how I was always making music with my friends. Like we're just in there jamming. Um, and then I'm you know, picking my head up and realizing who I'm jamming with. And I'm like, oh, this is crazy. Having that like come to moment. So you're like, yo, this is not just me and you know, no, this is me and Grammy nominated multi-platinum, you know, very accomplished sellout tour, talented motherfuckers.

Yeah, and there's nothing to, you know, there's nothing wrong with like the people who probably you've been jamming with up to this point. Yeah, like 30 minutes. I've never experienced that before. Cause even like I was on tour with EARTHGANG, like that still blows my mind. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And like that tour was such an amazing experience. My first and only tour bus experience. You know what I'm saying? After me and my band toured in a 13-passenger van with all our equipment in it, you know, from city to city, everywhere we went. Uh, or renting Chevy Equinoxes. You know what I'm saying? Like, well, yeah, what was your favorite stop on that tour? Do you remember? Um, Burlington, Vermont. Burlington, Vermont. Shout out to Vermont. So random. Yeah, because no one's ever shouted you out. Jay, this is your time. They were the only crowd that I've seen on the road, especially on that tour, that were Mosh Pitting to Slow Songs. Oh, wow. Now, mind you, I was the opener. Was that the drugs. I was the opener, like the opener opener. And first person everyone saw. So, like, I did uh we performed Rain, and it's a slow song. Yeah, and these guys are going to Mosh to Rain.

Crazy. Oh my God. But I was like, Yeah, but that song vibes, bro. You know, but here's the thing. Not Mosh vibes. Yeah, probably not. But like here's the thing about about that tour. Every city we went, and you know, I I opened the entire show. The reception was always the same. It was like wide-eyed, like, who is this guy? Oh, I really like this guy. Oh, this guy's really good. You know, like they really they welcomed me, they loved me. It was some of the videos you would think that was my tour, based on how like that's awesome. Me and my DJ like had everybody hooked in after a while. Like, it was an amazing experience to to see that. But when we get to Burlington Vermont, it was like the eighth show on the road. Um we like have them way quicker than we anticipated. Um, and not that we were really like anticipating people fucking with us or like that, but it was just you know, is it gonna be like the last time? Is it gonna be like you know, that was kind of how we were, and sure enough it was. Next you know, we get to the part where we're like introducing new songs, and but then I would joke like I don't know who I am anyway, so everything's new. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.

So that would get them all the time. That's a good one. Did you have fans though? Uh like a couple. It would be rare. Isn't that cool to see like the couple though? Because it would be rare. I was like singing every word or at the time I had like 12, maybe maybe 2,000 followers on Instagram. Okay, and like I wasn't even verified yet either. So like it just it was interesting to see somebody in a complete place that I did not, I've never seen or never experienced, yeah, be like, I listen to your song all the time. I love Mimosa, or I love whatever. And I'm like, huh? How? Yeah. That's crazy. That's so cool. You know what I mean? And like for newer artists, like, you know, once you reach a certain level, it's almost, you know, of course, expected that people are gonna be singing your words and like whatever there for you. But like that's gotta feel really cool. Yeah, because we weren't expecting anyone to sing our words whatsoever. We just wanted to introduce ourselves as best as we possibly can and hopefully leave a lasting impression. Because after us, you gotta you're listening to Duckworth, or in the second half of the tour, you're listening to Guap Dad.

And then you're listening to the two options for the different legs. Yeah, first half it was me, then Duckworth, then EARTHGANG, who everybody came to see. The second half, it was me, then Guap Dad, then EARTHGANG. Scam God. Oh my god, it was nuts. Interesting. yeah. It was nuts. Watching both of them perform was crazy. Crazy, right? Oh my god, it was amazing. It was so amazing. Um, did you see growth in your like? Yeah, yeah, like followers or streams or whatever. Um I got like you felt like it was working. Yeah, I felt like it was working, and it was I was getting tagged in a bunch of stuff, and a lot of the the chatter around me was like, This is the best opener that I've ever seen. Yeah, because how many rap shows do you really go to, or how many shows, period, do you really go to where the opener opener is that good? Yeah, yeah, where it like you bought a ticket to see who you wanted to see, but you're talking about the first person you saw. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. That's rare. And for us to be in that position and and how it played out for us, you know, like that was amazing to me.

And that kind of like let me it let me know that like I got something here that I really need to like buckle down and focus on. Like, this is a great indicator of what I can do. This isn't it, you know what I'm saying. So, like, because of what I was doing up to that point, work like that. I I took it upon myself to really up my game and and you know, go from there. Um, yeah, put the battery in your back. I really did because Burlington coming back to Burlington, Vermont. Shout out Burlington. I'm telling you, we were, it was the last uh the last song we did. It's a song, it's a non-release song I got called Night Rider, and we did it. We every night beforehand, we were doing it, and I think we might have got two Mosh Pits out of it, which is still crazy. But then um Burlington, Vermont. We decided, and actually DJ got a case of water with DJ Afterthought, and we decided to pass all water bottles to everybody. And you know, you know what to do after that.

Yeah, everybody unscrew them. Spraying that shit. And counted three. The video is even crazy, but we just have a giant water fight. And it was nuts. Like I mean, from the front to the back. Everybody's going insane. And I can't even wrap my lyrics at this point because I'm just so hyped up. Like, wow. I can't believe it. Out of breath, I can't believe that work. I threw my glasses that I just bought into the crowd, never to be seen again. And the sound guys looking at me like, oh, this guy. Because I definitely soaked all of their equipment. Oh, for sure. Yeah, it was. I always wondered about that. Yeah, that was the first time I saw the, like, like Like, somebody has to clean this up. They're not happy. They're not happy. Fans love it though. Oh, yeah, it was a great time. Yeah. It was a great time. So, So I, you know, you were a musician first, I would say. Then you started dabbling in, you know, producing, right? You know, you said you were the guy at the table by yourself, and God was making beats all the time. Yeah.

And now you're clearly, you know, an artist. Yeah. What how do those like rank where you're at today, right? Like, are you artists first now? Oh, man. or do you still feel like that musician at heart? You know what I mean? It's a good one. That is that's a great question. He's like, I've never had to answer this before. Cause the funny, so the order's a little different. I was a musician first, and then I actually started rapping. Okay. Um, my very first show. Yo, is this the common courtesy days? Yeah. Oh, he said it. Shout out Common Courtesy Motherfucker. Courtesy. So yo, is that like taboo or something? No, I just, oh man. It's Part of your story, bro. For the people at home, it is. It is your old moniker. It is my old moniker. I had like four of them, but that was the one I really tried to stick with. That was the second best. Shit. The rest of them, I'm I promise you were not. either. I won't say the third and fourth. Thank you, God. So my actual my first show with the guys, uh, Danny and Zach, Zach Albright, um, who I was rapping with, our first show was opening for Bone Thugs and Harmony. Okay.

Wow. I was like 17. That's hard. Um, and after that, we opened up for Wu Tang. What? After that. Why are you opening up for rap legends? Because I'm telling this is the Pittsburgh scene, because this is how I'll get there. Because the next show after that was even crazy. We opened up for Kid Cudi. What? What? the fuck? Man on the Moon 2. We opened up for that man. What? Yes, sir. 5,000 people, Station Square Amphitheater. Uh, my freshman year of college. It was nuts. Before you were even really an artist. Like well before. Because really at this point, I'm like a hype man feature artist. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I wasn't even like, it wasn't even like my set, really. It was uh Zach he used to go by Niv. It was his set. And I would be there to hype him up, and then I had verses to do and stuff like that as well. Actually, uh, when we did the Kid Cudi show, Ricky P, he's one of Wiz Khalifa's main producers, uh, he was a rapper at the time too. He was performing as well with us. Okay. It was it was just it was a wild time, dude. It was a real wild time.

Sounds like it. Um and yeah, the fucking courtesy days. were lit. they were nuts. They were nuts. But like in Pittsburgh, we had uh two like main promotion companies, uh, Opus One and Drewski Entertainment, or it's Dresky, I don't know how they pronounce it. Um, but uh they would send out email blasts of who's coming into town that needs local acts to open. And first come, first serve. You email back with a link to your music or whatever, and then boom. They did, like there's no way they vetted anybody. Wow. Because why are we opening for Kid Cudi? Why are we opening for Big Sean? That happened right after that too. What at Altar Bar. This guy has the most legendary opening credits. Finally famous. Finally famous album we opened up for Big Sean Wow. at Altar Bar. Promise you. Damn, man. Yeah. Legendary. It was nuts. Because again, why are we allowed to do this? You know what I'm saying?

Allowed. Yeah. Like, if you Who approved this who approved this. If you understood like who those artists were at that time. Oh, it's the big, the biggest of the big. You know what I mean? It doesn't make any sense. Now, a Bone Thugs-n-Harmony at the time, like on their way out. It's like a reunion tour basically, right? Sorry, Bone Thugs. No, it's legendary. So it's like, you know, their peak has been reached. Yeah. Kid fucking Cudi. Man on the Moon 2? I watched this man perform Rev of Ev in front of my face. Wow. Damn. That was like one of my favorite songs for a little Yo, phase for sure. It was nuts. Like, why were we allowed to do this? I'm listening to that song while my right hand. You know what I'm saying? Like it was, it was nuts, you know, but it was an email blast. First come, first serve, boom, boom, boom. And then me and uh these guys split up, and when I decided to pursue, excuse me, or go solo basically. Yeah, that's how I got shows.

Um, I would just email in or uh yeah, emailing back, uh, a link to my stuff, and then I had some opening gigs of my own. Um, not anywhere close to that level, but it was just, I mean, that's still on my resume. It's crazy. Yeah, that's wild. man. but yeah, it was I don't think that's how they do it anymore, right? I hope not. I'm not First guy to reply to the email. I really hope not. I really hope not. So, yeah, so like back to how are you prioritizing your like musicianship, you know, and and the songwriting side of things. We, you know, we kind of talked about that off camera a little bit that you're starting to maybe be open to songwriting opportunities. You're obviously a producer. Yep. Uh you're an artist. Like, how do those, you know, do you come in and out of those roles very like fluidly? I think how does that work? I would say yeah, because you know, my main focus right now is definitely like being an artist, you know. And I always have my musicianship and production in the bag. Yeah. To the point where like I go into sessions. If I if I'm gonna go into a big session, I really don't feel the need to do anything realistically because like, and definitely not the need to like try to hop on this song, like as an artist.

I don't feel the need to write a verse just because there's a bunch of people in the room. Like I don't feel the need to be competitive in that regard. Um I feel the need to be helpful or available more so because I can do a bunch of things, and someone's always going to need one of the things that I do. You know what I'm saying? It doesn't have to be a rapper, I don't have to sing, I don't even have to engineer realistically, you know what I'm saying. But I, you know, I don't have to produce a full beat, I could just play a couple keys here and there or add some drums or play some bass or do whatever. So because of that, you know, pull out the Swiss Army knife, whatever you need, I got you. And if you don't need anything, I can just be an ear, you know. Um, I feel like my ear is very trustworthy. Yeah. Um, to that regard, too, and to that standard, you know, to where it can be helpful to somebody else. And that's helped me stay in more rooms, you know, and get more calls. Yeah. What that like like not being thirsty to always like to get in a verse, or because force yourself into something that Yeah, because I don't want to... Is that how it usually is that there's a lot of people doing that. I mean, it depends.

Because yes and no. Um people are everybody's hungry. You know what I mean? Everybody's hungry. And you know it's like you don't fault them, but like No, yeah, I don't fault them at all because get it how you live, but that's just not my thing. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That's not your approach, I guess. No, that's not my approach. I don't want that to be my approach because I don't want to find myself where I'm not thinking clearly, or find myself in a situation that I didn't want to be in. You know what I mean? Or be a part of something that I shouldn't have been a part of. Yeah. So uh it helped staying back and starting off as a fly on the wall and then interjecting yourself into the room as you go is kind of my approach. But just having my tools in the bag that you know uh I can pull out to to be of use to somebody, yeah, um, is one of my greatest benefits for sure. But from my, you know, I have a lot of music in the in the vault in my catalogs that you know I can pull out a project yesterday, you know what I mean, and um do that, but like really focusing on like you know, targeting my audience and marketing and you know how you know this this really goes, and um that's my main and fucking getting on the talk, yeah. getting on TikTok. He's getting on TikTok.

Follow Benji on TikTok. Follow Benji is it also at Avatar Benji? Avatar Benji. so I meant to ask you this, and and you know, we'll head into a final segment here in a second. Sure. What is the song that you played probably day in and day out on the bass that Christo finally was like, all right, fuck it. This guy, this guy's gonna make it. What was the song? Seinfeld theme song, man. Oh, that's the classic bass. Yo, when I heard that, I was like, yo, that is a tough song to learn on bass. The Seinfeld theme song was the Very first bass line I ever played. It was the very first one. You like challenged yourself right off the bat. Yeah, because like my parents, and this is the thing about my my house growing up, like the same, not the same things, but especially TV shows and sitcoms. Like my parents were watching the stuff all the time. So all I'm hearing when I'm coming home from practice is I'm like, okay. This is now in my head.

It's already in your head. Then my dad buys me a bass for the first time, and I'm like, wait, this is the one that makes the Oh, shit. Which I later found out uh that theme song was made on a keyboard. Wow. Yeah. It was a keyboard, Bass. It was a virtual thing. That's a perfect segue, Henry. We have arrived at a final segment of the one more time podcast. That was a letdown. Hopefully, this rampage will not be a letdown. This is, if you're not familiar, Benji, this is the rapid fire rampage. Oh boy. Exactly. Exactly. That's that's the reaction we had. We should use that as a sound effect. Oh boy. I got this one. Bruh. Bruh. Yeah, that's good too. So it's a three-part rampage. I'm gonna break it down. We're gonna just start with the short answers. I just got some short answer questions for you. Sure. There's no right or wrong answer necessarily except for no answer. Because we do want to see if we can keep it rapid. We're trying to get the first thing off the top of your head here.

Let's do it. Kind of thing. Oh boy. Here we go. Episode 37 with Benji, Rapid Fire Rampage. Initiate Rampage. Rampage! If someone wrote a biography about you today, what would the title be? How? What is one of your favorite keys? E-Flat. Major. There you go. E-flat major. Seven. Ooh. What is one of your favorite tempos? Uh 135. If yellow is right here and blue is over there, where are you? Green. You have to delete three states. What are you? Montana. Yo, totally not Vermont. Definitely not Vermont. No, definitely not Vermont. He's protecting Vermont from this. Eliminate three states.

They're not gonna die. Like they can we could. People can relocate, okay? Okay. Florida. Yeah, Florida. Good call. South Dakota, because that's where I got pulled over. Oh. Twice. In five minutes. Yeah, fuck South Dakota. Yeah, he didn't mention that part. And oh man. Arkansas, because what the hell do you do in Arkansas? Agreed. Benji, what are three things we'd find in your fridge right now? Mmm. Uh oat milk. Fruit. Salmon. Oh nice. If you had to wear the same outfit for the rest of your life, what would you wear? Can I just say like sweats or sh sure? That's that's part of it. I would wear an upper garment. Need an upper garment. I mean, you don't. Yeah. you don't want it. You could be shirtless the rest of your life.

A P hat any kind of hoodie. Any kind of sweatpants, socks. No shoes. Slides. Boom. Benji, if we plugged you into the matrix and you could learn any one skill instantly. What are you picking? Telepathy. Is a hot dog a sandwich? Mmm. You know what? A hot dog is a sub. Ooh. The bread does not separate. Ooh. It's a sub. Wow. That was really good answer. It's philosophical. I've never talked this deep about hot dogs. And sandwiches, in my life. Never thought about the bread. Think about it, right? Does that make sense? Yeah. No, it's sound logic, Benji. It's very sound logic. There we go.

Well, there's two more parts to the rampage. Let's do it. Henry, how's he doing? I would say he's uh, about mid mid middle of the road, kind of average, you know, decent start. I think there's room for improvement here on the turn. Not impressed, Henry. I mean, I hit the Jeopardy button a couple times. Okay. So, you know. Turn it up or not. It's never done. It's only up from here, Benji. Yeah, it is. This is the this or that portion of the rampage. I'm gonna give you two choices, maybe three, who knows? And you just pick whichever one stands out more to you as quickly as you can. Pittsburgh or Atlanta? Starting off hot. Pittsburgh. Gotta do it. Lyrics or flow? Flow. Vocals or instruments? Instruments. Digital or analog? Analog. Driving or putting? Driving. Funk or soul?

Funk. Damn. Silly hats or silly socks? Silly socks. Drums or flats? Flats. Flat. And then I did something interesting here. Drums or keys. Oh, so interesting. Yo. When you prefaced it with this was interesting, I was like, this better be good. And that did not follow suit. It's a Different kind of drums. Drums. Okay. That was good. Thank you. That was not good. Don't enable him, man. Oh, that was cool. I thought that was cool. It was a cool little thing. Never again, Henry. Pen and paper, phone notes or mental. Phone notes. Instagram or TikTok. Follow me on TikTok, Avatar Bendy. No, this guy's on the top. We're getting him popping on the talk after this episode. Battling against one elephant-sized penguin or 50 penguin-sized elephants. I'll take the 50 penguin-sized elephants.

Yeah, you don't want that giant. No, I don't. It'll mess you up. That sounds terrifying. It sounds terrible. Yeah. I don't know. 50 penguin-sized elephants. Kind of crazy too. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be so it's gonna be a fight. It's gonna be a fight. It's gonna be a battle. Yeah. Invisibility or flying? Invisibility. Personal maid or personal chef. Personal chef. Hakuna matata or YOLO? Hakuna matata. Part two of the rampage. Part two, much better. Picked up. What a wonderful phrase. What a wonderful phrase. Cue the Lion King Musical here. Come on. Yeah, it was much better. Improvement. I'm getting there. I'm getting there. This is there's only one section left, so there's no more like getting there. This is it now. You cannot take your time here. No, we're going. This is it. So this last section is the word association. Okay. I'm gonna give you one word. Just shoot one right back at me. Simple as that. No right or wrong. Nope. Nope. This one.

Rampage. Here we go. Bass. Guitar. Airplane. B.O.B. Ooh. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. You got so many points for that answer. Nice. Toddler. Kids. Cemetery. Death. Anxiety. Hate it. Only fans. Do what you gotta do. Lil. John. Ooh. Yeah. Sativa. Indica. China. Oh. Trump. China. YouTube.

TikTok. This guy's on the top. love it. Love it. He is campaigning. On TikTok. Microphone. Stage. Smile. You're alive. What a rampage. What an episode. Much better on part three. It was improving the whole time. He just was unfamiliar with the platform. You know, he hasn't seen the show, yet. I understand. But quick learner. He got every section. Definitely having back a second time. I will knock it out the park. We would be glad to, man. Now, this has been an amazing conversation. I think it'll be you know awesome for your fans to you know understand your story. There was some hilarious ones. The Montana one still gets me, man. I didn't realize you got pulled over twice in five minutes. That's even it's even better. Really think that the way you've been able to incorporate your musicianship, you know, your production and songwriting into your own artistry. I mean, that's what makes you unique, man.

Thanks for, you know, really embracing that, which I think you've already continued to do that more. Thank you. Like that's the differentiator for you, I think, because you're obviously super talented, multi, multi-talented, right? Um, and so I'm excited to hear what the next project looks like because Smile, you're alive. Oh man, thank God it came out, even though it was a little bit longer than it did. yeah, we got a single coming up. It's whew. fire. Yeah, you'll see some snippets from me soon. I'm gonna make some content around it, but we're we're planning it right now, but it'll be it'll be our first quarter. So have you dropped the name yet? Do we get a one more time exclusive or what? Nope. Oh man. this episode won't be out for a little bit. What a tease. No, it's all right. That's all right. Henry's always trying to pressure our guests to do one more time exclusive. Yeah, it's fine. I love you for that, but We respect it. Benji, this has been awesome, man. We appreciate you coming on. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Henry, until next week. What are we doing? Getting out of here. getting the fuck out. Bye bye. Peace. Yeah.