Taylor Bennett

One Liner:  Chance the Rapper's little brother

Wikipedia Genre: Hip Hop
Home: Chicago

Poster Position: 11

Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  Crazy - I started listening to this dude and was like, I can't even tell who is rapping on the tracks that have Chance the Rapper as a guest.  And it sure does look like Chance is the guy on the cover of his freaking album?  What is up with that?  And now I fire up Wikipedia and see that this dude is Chance's little brother.  Which is very interesting.  Chance shows up on several of his tracks, so Chance is obviously supporting his little bro, but also wouldn't it be weird to be Chance and your little brother is totally biting your style and sound?

So, Wikipedia says that Chance actually held back on promoting Taylor until he could build his own fanbase.  "Chance believed this was an important step in his development as an artist. Bennett finally started selling out shows at local venues such as Reggie's and even opened for his idol Nas at a Lollapalooza after party in 2014. Following his success, he and his brother released a track "Broad Shoulders", which is also the title track of one of his most recent mixtapes."  That one just so happens to be his top streamer, so let's give it a shot.  17.4 million streams.

So that is a full-on "official short film," so you get a 13 minute long video, with some deep talking before he even gets to the song, but if you want to see more of the guy than just a traditional music video, this is your chance.  And, just FYI, that video incorporates much more than just the song, it has chunks of several tracks from that mixtape from 2015.

His style very much borrows from Chance - conversational flow, some singing in the middle of it, beats that end up feeling more like an improvisational jazz session than a purposeful rap track.  His second most streamed track also features big brother, this is "Grown Up Fairy Tales," with 11.2 million streams.

Like, really, try to figure out which of those voices is Taylor and which is Chance.  Maybe you are a major Chance stan or something, but I can't tell who is who.  I obviously know when Jeremih jumps in to sing the hook, but I can't tell which verse is who by just listening. Is Taylor the deeper voice?  Their cadence is so similar.  It's a nice track, kind of a sad one about his grandmother passing away, but I have to say that the beat leaves me wanting something more.  I usually find myself in that boat with Chance as well - if he could pair his great lyrics and turns of phrase with a more banging beat, he could beat the world.

Let's find one more - Taylor put out a new album (? - it is only 8 songs, so maybe just an EP or mixtape?  I dunno) a few months ago called THE AMERICAN REJECT.  The opening track - "AMERICAN REJECT (WHITEHOUSE FREESTYLE) - has a little different style - a little more of a trap beat and some yelling to go with it (which might actually be coming from the collaborator named Supa Bwe).  I was hoping that there might be some harsh words in this track for the current state of our political discourse, but instead they are pretty crappy lyrics that appear to be about sexing up a lady?  Not very clear - not great lyrically.  He also steals the horn section sound that Chance uses well in his albums - like on "IN MY HEAD."  But the top song so far is "NO ONE OUTSIDE," which features a Chicago singer named bianca shaw (who appears on several of his tracks) and bog brother, yet again.  735k streams.

Again, not sure which one is which, but that verse at about 2:10 is pretty solid.  So many rings, gonna turn into a tree - I want to call it cheesy, but I actually dig it.  Nothing wrong with some love for momma and a little nostalgia.

Very chill stuff - generally like it but would like it a lot more if they mixed in some bangers to go with the laid back.  But his flow is good and sometimes his lyrics are good.  I might check it out.