Ben Reilly

One Liner: Solid rapper whose flow reminds me of one of Kendrick's voices

Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but this is rap and hip hop.
Home: NYC (but now Atlanta)

Poster Position: 25
Weekend Two Only.  Saturday.

Thoughts:  Ben Reilly is also known as the Scarlet Spider in the Marvel Universe, who is a lab-grown clone of Peter Parker.  In the image on Wikipedia, he wears a sleeveless hoodie over his red spider suit, like he robbed Bill Belichek.  If you are looking for the similarly named musician on Wikipedia, it helpfully directs you to Ben Riley, who is an American drummer known for his work with Thelonious Monk.  Who is definitely not the guy I am looking for here.  I gotta say, the name is not something that sparks excitement about hearing what he has to play.

And now I find out that he really did intend to reference the Spider-Man character for his rapper name.  Weird.  HIs real name is Nahree.  He said he was going to go with Peter Parker, but that name was already being used by a DJ, so he went with his actual favorite character from Spider-Man.  I don't want to bore you with too many details about the name, so if you are interested, go down to the bottom of this post and I'll give you a full answer he gave to Complex in an interview.  For the td;dr crowd, know that he likes the name despite it sounding corny.

This dude is a rapper who grew up in New York City, loves comic books, Nas, and Rakim.  He said that he fell in love with rap when he heard Dana Dane's 1987 song "Nightmares" (which is fascinating, because that song kinda blows).  And, not surprisingly right now, he got his big break like everyone else, from TikTok.  An article I just read said this: "After hearing time and time again that all artists need to take advantage of TikTok—plus being reassured that it didn’t need to be goofy dances or viral trends—he decided to give it a shot. On a whim while he was at work, he posted a clip from his song “Maytag.” He was thoughtful about it, as he is about everything related to his music, and teased the perfect snippet of the song with a 14-second clip from the music video. The next day, it had a million views."  

That track is definitely the hit of his catalog - 21 million streams when the next biggest one only has 1.2 million.  And when compared to his name, it freaking bangs.  I figured "Ben Reilly" was going to be some goofy ass white kid with dreads playing Jack Johnson covers.

Good beat, good flow.  Sounds like Kendrick's high-pitched voice.  The switch to a new beat and flow in the middle is also cool.  I have no clue what the rap is about - the verses are just braggadocio, but the chorus saying "Maytag n****as, I'm a Maytag n****as" - I can't come up with what the hell that might mean.  Like, he's cold like a refrigerator?  He is good at washing clothes?  Whatever, it sounds freaking cool.

He's in a group called Abstract Media, and they are listed on some of the tracks on his album (although not all of them), but this is his solo stuff here.  They have their own albums and singles and whatnot.  Although, their top two tracks on Spotify are both tracks from the Ben Reilly solo album.  He started writing when he was young, but the first mixtape was in high school, but he says that the real push to get after it was once the pandemic happened and they were on lock down.

The other hit from his one album is "Townhouse."  1.2 million streams.

"I got hands I don't need Smith & Wesson" is a good line.  Fascinating imagery in the video too, like the nest he has on the basketball court, or the pie on his knee when he is smiling in a creepy way.

Digging it.  I still think his rapper name is terrible and he should be Nahree Reilly or something, but the Freelance album is solid all the way through.  I'd check this dude out.

Here is that further background on the name, taken directly from a Complex article:

"I have to ask about your name too. I know it’s a Spider-Man reference, but how did you land on that name and what does it mean to you?

My real name is Nahree. I was playing Spider-Man before I picked up the phone. I’m a super big comic book head. When I was searching for a name, I was like, “Okay, I’m going to go for Peter Parker,” but I learned that that name was taken by a DJ or something. Ben Reilly is my favorite Spider-Man character anyway, so I was like, “This is my favorite version of Spider-Man. I’m going to name myself after Ben Reilly.” I did that, but over time, the meaning of it changed. 

Early on, I was working at a restaurant to pay bills and to fund my music. I was serving and bartending. I was working one day, and these three ladies came in. It was a mother, a daughter, and the daughter’s best friend. I walked to the table and I introduced myself as Nahree. After a little while they were like, “Yo, what do you do? We can tell that this ain’t your shit. Burgers and fries is not what you want to do. What’s your thing?” And I was like, “Well, I make music. I’m a rapper.” They were like, “Word. Where can we hear some of your stuff?”

At this time, I didn’t have any solo music out, but I wrote down my stage name on the receipt: Ben Reilly. I wrote down my Instagram and my Twitter, and I wrote down my group name: Abstract Media. I handed it to one of the ladies, and she looked at it and she was like, “Who the fuck is Ben?” And I was like, “That’s me. That’s my name.” And she was like, “But you just told me your name was Nahree,” and I was like, “Yeah, no, Spider-Man ...” I went through the whole spiel that I just gave you, and she was like, “Yeah, I’m not going to lie, bro. Ben is a corny ass name.” And then she was like, “Nahree, what’s your name?” And I was like, “Nahree.” And she was like, “What’s your name?” I’m like, “Nahree.” It wasn’t clicking with me.

And she said, “Look, I’m going to be honest. This name ain’t it, but your name—your actual name, Nahree—is a beautiful name and I’ve never met another person with that name. Your mother gave you that name and you should embrace it.” And she kept saying, “Be Nahree, be Nahree, embrace Nahree.” It started to resonate, but at the time I was like, “Damn, I still like being called Ben.” They left me a $200 tip, which was a lot, and then I went home and I meditated on it. I thought about it, and I was like, “Damn, maybe I should change my stage name.”

But over time, I started to realize, “Nah, I’m going to stay Ben Reilly, but what if I change the meaning behind it?” Ben in itself is B-E-N, and the N is for Nahree. It stands for “be Nahree.” It reminds me to embrace myself and take pride in myself."