February 14, 2024 • 7 mins
This is a bonus clip of my conversation with Benny Blanco. We talk about Benny's days of making music, beat competitions, and more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
With a recdres.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm lucky because, like I always was so fucking into
what I did. I didn't even know you could make
money for music when I first started. It was just
like a pipe dream. And then I started making money,
and then I'm like, oh my god, Like I made
five thousand dollars, I don't ever have to work again,
like because you don't know anything. Like It's like it's
like I didn't grow up with like millions of dollars.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
So I made like four thousand bucks one time doing
a commercial and I went to Fulton Street mall and
bought gold teeth.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Yeah, and my friend goes, dude, what are you doing, dude?
I was like, I made four.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Grand, dude, I made. I made six thousand dollars. I
bought a bracelet, a diamond bracelet for for eighteen hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I went back to my hometown in Virginia and we
used to do this thing where when it was cold,
you would like go on the ice and you would
try to like slide on the ice as far as
you could. And I fell through the ice. I felt
my hands fell through the ice. Literally, bracelet gone in
the first second, like and I was like, I'm never
(01:06):
doing this again. Yeah, but it's like I don't know.
So for me, I'm always doing it. It's like I
started so young that I always was doing it for
fun and then I started making Like.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
You were like a boy genius. You were like a
musical genie. You're like the Doogie House of music. Really,
the story you told me when at New Year's about
like you were like you were like downloading different hacked
programs and free figuring them out to bullet boards. Not
at your level, dude, you are like a fucking wiz.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I was just upset. I'm like, I'm very obsessive with stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, you're jew So I'm like like I just get
so obsessed and I'm like I gotta do it, like
I have to do it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
But you come up very casually. When you told me
that story, I realized your creative prowess.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I was like, oh, yeah, Benny's like successful for a reason,
a reason like the fact that you were doing that reason.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
No, really that you were doing that. So for the audience,
can I tell a little bit? Can I shouldn't be
paraphrase you', I'll give like the cliff notes, But like
when you were like you have no twelve or thirteen.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
No, I remember vividly when you were like thirteen. Weren't
you downloading like.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Fruit loops and all those early program logic and acid
and all those early programs and teaching yourself how to
manipulate each one.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, I was. I was doing that.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And I would get like, and you were going to
like beat competitions I didn't even know was a thing.
And I would get like key generators to like hack
like the the program so I could it could like
start up and think that I paid for it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And yeah, like like like like.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
You have like a you have like a knack to adapt.
You're intelligent.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So that computer took the biggest beating of any life.
The only thing I want to hear those first gen
It's terrible, the but the only thing I did on
that computer was like nerdy shit and beat off all
day like it was like it was and I had
like this window before my mom would get home from work,
so I would actually run.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I would run home.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I would run as fast as I can, and I
would get home and I'd have like just only a
few hours. So I had to like balance it between
beating off and making beats, and I was like and
and this was like back when like the pieces were
like so bad.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
First of all, they sounded like they were.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Like yeah, it was insane, and there was it was
right when like pop ups started and do you remember,
like do you remember like the pop ups and the
little like viruses that would like make your like search
bar disappear, like my search bar was gone, and like
if you turn on my computer, which just like just
pop us. And used to have to call a man
(03:48):
and and and the man would come over with like
a briefcase and like to fix your computer.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
And every time.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
He came over, hed be like it's so much born
like and I'd be like, mom, all to take care
of the guy. So so like that was I was
just like beating off and making beats on the family computer.
He was like constantly. I was just like ass naked,
just like it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
But how did you know to go to beat competitions?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
It evolved like I used to go to My brother
used to take me to this like tape and record
store every day. We would go like every day when
I was like five years old. Yeah, yeah, my brother
was so into music. My mom my family was so
into music, and I had very good taste, so I'm
like I got to go all the time, and I
would like save up all my money to buy like
(04:36):
like the like just like singles, and I would just
listen to them all day. And then when Sam Goodie,
you remember the store Sam Goodie, when that came out,
I used to go and I would just be at
that free thing and I would just sit there all
day with the headphones on and just play every CD.
And I used to I'm such a loser. I used
to open the liner notes and cover up who produced
(04:56):
it and try to guess who produced the staff.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I want to get anywhere. This is what I did.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I would make. I had like a rollin eight track
digital eight track with a CD burner, and I would
my friend who actually made good beats on fruit loops.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
I would do my shitty raps all over it.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And then like I got a deaf juck CD and
I was like, I'm gonna take the fung wab bus
from Boston and New York and I'm gonna hand this
to LP and he's gonna sign me. And I had
my lyrics printed out like Microsoft word. I remember I
saw I went to Sunny purchase and Prince Paul played
and I gave him a burnt CD with my lyrics
(05:35):
printed out, and he looked at it. He's like, what
is this. I was like, I printed out my lyrics.
He's like, just give me the CD. Like I didn't
have a knack like you. It's not enough to have
a knack to have like good musical taste.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
You had a.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Knack for navigating the ever changing music industry, which is
his own skill set. You have, like to have that
level of musical prowess and on top of it, have
such a good You're so good at navigating that industry.
The industry always baffled my mind. And just like knowing
(06:08):
what people wanted, I was too neuro divers lyrics printed
all my lyrics printed out, But like my music.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Was not for dude, I didn't more than like one
hundred people.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I didn't know anything. I used to just I used
to literally go to studios and I would sit outside
of the studio.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And if anyone came out, I'd be like, do you
make music? Because they didn't. You didn't know.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
There was no Instagram or anything, so I'd like, do
you do you do stuff? And like I would sit
there and I used to like the way I recorded
was I had two boomboxes and I would record it
to one.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
The first tape I made it was my Grandma's VCR
and my mom's VCR and I would.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Record play Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, but you had a knack that maybe maybe it
is your brother was the secret ingredient of that. You
had some he was like your soundboard, You're like, is
this a bad idea? Was in the beginning where You're like,
is this dumb?
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Is this it?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
That idea?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I used to just shooting in the dark.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I used to cold call record later and I would
pretend I was like, so if it was like Atlantic
at the time or Deaf Jim, I would like pretend
I was jay Z's lawyer, and I'd be like, I
would look up brilliant and I'd be like, we need
to speak immediately. And then like when I got to
like the president of the company, I'd.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Be like, don't hang up. I got a demo table.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
And honestly, I actually became friends with all the assistants
at the time, and like, I mean one of those
assistants is my manager.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
To this day. Yeah, it's crazy, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I'm how brilliant. It's just brilliant because it worked out.
If it didn't work out, Yeah, just a moron
Speaker 4 (07:46):
With Adre
With a recdres.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm lucky because, like I always was so fucking into
what I did. I didn't even know you could make
money for music when I first started. It was just
like a pipe dream. And then I started making money,
and then I'm like, oh my god, Like I made
five thousand dollars, I don't ever have to work again,
like because you don't know anything. Like It's like it's
like I didn't grow up with like millions of dollars.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
So I made like four thousand bucks one time doing
a commercial and I went to Fulton Street mall and
bought gold teeth.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Yeah, and my friend goes, dude, what are you doing, dude?
I was like, I made four.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Grand, dude, I made. I made six thousand dollars. I
bought a bracelet, a diamond bracelet for for eighteen hundred dollars.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I went back to my hometown in Virginia and we
used to do this thing where when it was cold,
you would like go on the ice and you would
try to like slide on the ice as far as
you could. And I fell through the ice. I felt
my hands fell through the ice. Literally, bracelet gone in
the first second, like and I was like, I'm never
(01:06):
doing this again. Yeah, but it's like I don't know.
So for me, I'm always doing it. It's like I
started so young that I always was doing it for
fun and then I started making Like.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
You were like a boy genius. You were like a
musical genie. You're like the Doogie House of music. Really,
the story you told me when at New Year's about
like you were like you were like downloading different hacked
programs and free figuring them out to bullet boards. Not
at your level, dude, you are like a fucking wiz.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I was just upset. I'm like, I'm very obsessive with stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, you're jew So I'm like like I just get
so obsessed and I'm like I gotta do it, like
I have to do it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
But you come up very casually. When you told me
that story, I realized your creative prowess.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I was like, oh, yeah, Benny's like successful for a reason,
a reason like the fact that you were doing that reason.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
No, really that you were doing that. So for the audience,
can I tell a little bit? Can I shouldn't be
paraphrase you', I'll give like the cliff notes, But like
when you were like you have no twelve or thirteen.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
No, I remember vividly when you were like thirteen. Weren't
you downloading like.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Fruit loops and all those early program logic and acid
and all those early programs and teaching yourself how to
manipulate each one.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, I was. I was doing that.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And I would get like, and you were going to
like beat competitions I didn't even know was a thing.
And I would get like key generators to like hack
like the the program so I could it could like
start up and think that I paid for it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And yeah, like like like like.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
You have like a you have like a knack to adapt.
You're intelligent.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So that computer took the biggest beating of any life.
The only thing I want to hear those first gen
It's terrible, the but the only thing I did on
that computer was like nerdy shit and beat off all
day like it was like it was and I had
like this window before my mom would get home from work,
so I would actually run.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I would run home.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I would run as fast as I can, and I
would get home and I'd have like just only a
few hours. So I had to like balance it between
beating off and making beats, and I was like and
and this was like back when like the pieces were
like so bad.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
First of all, they sounded like they were.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
Like yeah, it was insane, and there was it was
right when like pop ups started and do you remember,
like do you remember like the pop ups and the
little like viruses that would like make your like search
bar disappear, like my search bar was gone, and like
if you turn on my computer, which just like just
pop us. And used to have to call a man
(03:48):
and and and the man would come over with like
a briefcase and like to fix your computer.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
And every time.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
He came over, hed be like it's so much born
like and I'd be like, mom, all to take care
of the guy. So so like that was I was
just like beating off and making beats on the family computer.
He was like constantly. I was just like ass naked,
just like it was crazy.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
But how did you know to go to beat competitions?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
It evolved like I used to go to My brother
used to take me to this like tape and record
store every day. We would go like every day when
I was like five years old. Yeah, yeah, my brother
was so into music. My mom my family was so
into music, and I had very good taste, so I'm
like I got to go all the time, and I
would like save up all my money to buy like
(04:36):
like the like just like singles, and I would just
listen to them all day. And then when Sam Goodie,
you remember the store Sam Goodie, when that came out,
I used to go and I would just be at
that free thing and I would just sit there all
day with the headphones on and just play every CD.
And I used to I'm such a loser. I used
to open the liner notes and cover up who produced
(04:56):
it and try to guess who produced the staff.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
I want to get anywhere. This is what I did.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
I would make. I had like a rollin eight track
digital eight track with a CD burner, and I would
my friend who actually made good beats on fruit loops.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
I would do my shitty raps all over it.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And then like I got a deaf juck CD and
I was like, I'm gonna take the fung wab bus
from Boston and New York and I'm gonna hand this
to LP and he's gonna sign me. And I had
my lyrics printed out like Microsoft word. I remember I
saw I went to Sunny purchase and Prince Paul played
and I gave him a burnt CD with my lyrics
(05:35):
printed out, and he looked at it. He's like, what
is this. I was like, I printed out my lyrics.
He's like, just give me the CD. Like I didn't
have a knack like you. It's not enough to have
a knack to have like good musical taste.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
You had a.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Knack for navigating the ever changing music industry, which is
his own skill set. You have, like to have that
level of musical prowess and on top of it, have
such a good You're so good at navigating that industry.
The industry always baffled my mind. And just like knowing
(06:08):
what people wanted, I was too neuro divers lyrics printed
all my lyrics printed out, But like my music.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Was not for dude, I didn't more than like one
hundred people.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
I didn't know anything. I used to just I used
to literally go to studios and I would sit outside
of the studio.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And if anyone came out, I'd be like, do you
make music? Because they didn't. You didn't know.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
There was no Instagram or anything, so I'd like, do
you do you do stuff? And like I would sit
there and I used to like the way I recorded
was I had two boomboxes and I would record it
to one.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
The first tape I made it was my Grandma's VCR
and my mom's VCR and I would.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Record play Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, but you had a knack that maybe maybe it
is your brother was the secret ingredient of that. You
had some he was like your soundboard, You're like, is
this a bad idea? Was in the beginning where You're like,
is this dumb?
Speaker 5 (07:00):
Is this it?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
That idea?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I used to just shooting in the dark.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I used to cold call record later and I would
pretend I was like, so if it was like Atlantic
at the time or Deaf Jim, I would like pretend
I was jay Z's lawyer, and I'd be like, I
would look up brilliant and I'd be like, we need
to speak immediately. And then like when I got to
like the president of the company, I'd.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Be like, don't hang up. I got a demo table.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
And honestly, I actually became friends with all the assistants
at the time, and like, I mean one of those
assistants is my manager.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
To this day. Yeah, it's crazy, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I'm how brilliant. It's just brilliant because it worked out.
If it didn't work out, Yeah, just a moron
Speaker 4 (07:46):
With Adre
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