Avi Cantor
Staff Writer
Cole Bennett is a multi-faceted talent that shoots and directs videos, promotes up and coming artists, has signed an artist named Warhol .ss, acts as an A&R finding talent all over the country, and organizes concerts and festivals for all sorts of artists. He does all of this through Lyrical Lemonade, a company that his mom named while he was in high school.
Bennett is just 21 years of age but has been cultivating Lyrical Lemonade as a staple of the up and coming rap scene for close to five years.
Before establishing Lyrical Lemonade, Bennett was a junior in high school who was in a film class and got the opportunity to mess around with the computer application, iMovie. He and his friends would go to Chicago every weekend, driving an hour outside of Bennett’s hometown of Plano, Illinois. Part of the appeal of going to Chicago was that it was the polar opposite of Plano, which Bennett describes as “just cornfields”.
Chicago was and still is a rough and tough city that has one of the highest murder rates per year in the US and 20.9% of Chicago’s 2.7 million people are under the poverty line. Plano, on the other hand, had 0 murders reported in the last year and 14.4% of Plano’s 11,920 are under the poverty line.
However, Chicago’s limitations lead to a burst of creativity from its youth.
Chicago’s emerging rap scene garnered a cult following led by Chief Keef, Fredo Santana, G Herbo, Lil Bibby, and Young Pappy among others. Bennett got a front seat to all of it.
After graduating high school, Bennett was able to work behind the scenes for Laka Films, a production company that has made music videos for the likes of Montana of 300, Lil Bibby, G Herbo, and many more.
While on set, he got to meet Famous Dex, a rapper known for an eccentric rapping style, off the wall personality and an insane work ethic. Dex was initially mesmerized by Bennett’s video production style that had the ability to transform even the dull basement of a trap house into a turnt up tripped out cartoon world. This world would be the first of many fantastical worlds that Bennett and Dex would create for the video for Dex’s song ‘Hit Em Wit It’.
The video would go on to be viewed more than 16.7 million times. ‘Hit Em Wit It’ would ignite an intense familial and business bond that would allow the two to churn out nearly 15 videos together since the release of ‘Hit Em Wit It’ in March of 2016.
Dex would end up becoming one of his best friends and the first person to have a music video reach one million views on Lyrical Lemonade’s youtube channel. Helping Dex launch his career would suddenly open up tons of doors for the young rap mogul.
He would get the opportunity to shoot videos with anyone from Chance the Rapper’s father to Soulja Boy to underground artists in the Chicago rap scene. He also got to hold his first concert in Chicago for Dex and another young rapper by the name of Lil Uzi Vert.
Uzi and Dex’s concert videos racked up millions of views and helped launch Uzi to stardom. Since those videos were released, Uzi has been featured on the 2016 XXL Freshman cover, had several songs go multi-platinum, and has transformed rap with his ability to break the mold of what rappers should look and sound like.
It’s safe to say that Bennett has the golden touch when it comes to promoting artists.
Since the concert videos, Lyrical Lemonade has helped launch the careers of some of the biggest up and coming artists of the last year including Lil Pump, Smokepurpp, Lil Xan, Ugly God, Ski Mask the Slump God, Trippie Redd, and many more. He did this by promoting their content and allowing that content to reach rap fans around the world.
This is where his ability to be an A&R comes into play. While Famous Dex was a Chicago native, making it a little easier to find and collaborate with him, most of the artists who Bennett has worked with artists from the states, and even one artist from Russia. Bennett has worked with artists from Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, California, Georgia, and many other places. Because of his ability to find talent all around the country, rappers feel a certain sense of gratitude for his ability to find their content and give it a platform for it to flourish.
In an interview with No Jumper, a podcast that helps promote young entertainers of all trades, rapper Lil Xan stated “I got mad love for Lyrical Lemonade for that ‘Betrayed’ video. Cole really out here starting careers. I owe him so much…[Xan’s career] was going good but Cole changed my life.”
The ‘Betrayed’ video that Xan references is a video that Bennett shot and directed which blew up on Youtube racking up nearly 50 million views on Youtube and peaking at No. 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Cole Bennett is a switch army knife that features tools that allow him to have the potential to be one of the most influential people of this generation of music. However, the biggest upside to the Plano native is that he’s only 21 years old, so he has ample time to cultivate artists that he works with into the superstars of this generation.
Here are a few of Bennett’s most successful videos. Explicit content is included, viewer discretion advised.
Betrayed by Lil Xan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbfK7dei7ec
D Rose by Lil Pump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Prfg3vyZkA
BabyWipe by Ski Mask the Slump God https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JA4QNmpteU
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