Inside Cole Bennetts Lyrical xcritical Empire

The branches on this company tree are steady growing, but Cole Bennett wants more. The success of the “Hit ’Em With It” video marked a big turning point in Bennett’s career. Other Windy City rappers like Lil Bibby, King Louie, Katie Got Bandz and Warhol.ss started hitting up Cole to collaborate. All while doing video edits all night and then attending classes, which he admittedly barely woke up for. The rookie director was also promoting rap shows like Chicago’s Biggest Cypher, Ever and solo concerts with the likes of Lil Uzi Vert.

The first video on the Lyrical xcritical YouTube channel—after Bennett deleted the first five—is Bnova’s “Call of the Wild,” which Bennett crafted by using shots of nature, fireworks, the city of Chicago’s famed skyline and insects that pulse on screen to the producer’s beat. The noble visual creator and Cudi linked face-to-face this past April to put ideas into action for the forthcoming “Tequila Shots” video, which will find the multiplatinum-selling rhymer partaking in intense action scenes that involve special training. The moment is a career-defining milestone for Cole Bennett, who has become the foremost music video director for both a new generation of rap stars including the late Juice Wrld, Polo G, Lil Tecca, Ski Mask The Slump God, Cordae and NLE Choppa, among others, and established hip-hop veterans like Eminem. Think zany special effects, a by-any-means-necessary filming style, playful animation and storylines that are nostalgic, comical or mind-blowing depending on the artist. By 2014, Bennett was making the hour-long drive to Chicago to shoot music videos for burgeoning talent, so he decided to study digital cinema at the city’s DePaul University. Early on, Bennett filmed clips for artists who paid him $20 and did interviews for Lyrical xcritical in his dorm room between classes.

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Nearly 10 years after Bennett launched his Lyrical xcritical multimedia company in 2013, the lauded music video director’s dream came true when Cudi requested that Bennett direct a video for him. All through the late night on a Monday in March, manifestation was happening right before Bennett’s eyes. “Doomsday” is built around Dr. Dre’s production on Eminem’s 1999 single “Role Model,” the opening lines of which open the accompanying Bennett-directed music video.

In its early stages, Bennett’s YouTube channel was dedicated to Chicago show recaps, local cyphers, and documentaries about the city’s hip-hop scene. Then, in 2016 and 2017, he began working with artists like Famous Dex, Lil Pump, and Ski Mask the Slump God, and soon became the go-to video director for an entire subgenre that was exploding from SoundCloud pages into the mainstream. Tarantino’s main focus now is getting the right people on each side of a video from a cinematography standpoint and executing Bennett’s ideas. Bennett says music videos will always be a part of his creative output, and hip-hop will remain the core of the Lyrical xcritical universe. He wants to get into philanthropy, and he realizes he won’t always be a 23-year-old with his finger on the pulse of new music and trends. Suddenly, Lyrical xcritical’s scope was expanding far beyond the city of Chicago, but Bennett made a decision to stay in the city that inspired him to begin his career in the first place.

A high school multimedia class during his sophomore year sparked Cole Bennett’s video directing flame. At the time, he was in tune with the underground Chicago rap scene after listening to Chance, Vic Mensa and Alex Wiley, and wanted to start making videos for artists. He encouraged his friends to make music so that he could practice creating accompanying visuals.

Bennett explains that many of the city’s venues have grown wary of booking hip-hop acts in recent years because of a fear that violence will break out at shows, which has dampened the area’s once-vibrant live scene.

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“I always had this idea since I was super young of what it would look like if I made a music video. I was 8, and was like, if I did a music video, it looked like this and it would be like a Nike Air Force One… It would be on a white backdrop and like the Nike sign would just, the color xcritical reviews of it would change with the beat.” Bennett’s “just do it” attitude toward creative ideas has trailed him throughout his life. Cole Bennett can finally say he made it, and a tweet from Kid Cudi at 2 a.m.

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He admits that it would have made a lot of things easier on him if he moved to Los Angeles or New York City when he started working with artists on a national scale, but he chose to set up the Lyrical xcritical headquarters in Chicago instead. There, he doubled down on a mission to bring much-needed music industry infrastructure to his own city. Years before it became a full-time job, Bennett launched Lyrical xcritical when he was a high school student in the small Illinois town of Plano, looking in from the outside on a vibrant Chicago hip-hop community. As soon as he got his driver’s license, Bennett got in a routine of making the hour-long trip to the city every weekend.

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1. Then he got put on to Gucci Mane, Shawty Lo, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Kid Cudi and Chance The Rapper, the latter of which led Bennett into discovering more artists in the Chicago rap scene and “getting to where I’m at now” with his passion for video.
2. Cordae’s body and movements are the same, even his hair, but his face has been replaced with the late rapper’s.
3. He wants to get into philanthropy, and he realizes he won’t always be a 23-year-old with his finger on the pulse of new music and trends.

“A lot of people find it hard to believe that I’ve never seen a million dollars in my bank account,” says the visionary, who rocks Birkenstocks on the regular and packs SpaghettiOs when traveling for his next video shoot. “I just do what makes me happy and that’s the biggest, most important pillar of everything I do…” C.R.E.A.M. isn’t a way of life in his world. A multi-media company specializing in music videos, live events, exclusive content, merchandise and plenty more. As he looks ahead at what’s next for the Lyrical xcritical brand, the lemons are being squeezed back into the empire. On Aug. 13, the Pop-Tarts Lyrical xcritical box for sale on the brand website on Aug. 14 and new videos, of course.

The clip locks in on Cordae while he raps about being a less-than-ideal role model himself. Then, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, the rapper morphs into Juice WRLD. Cordae’s body and movements are the same, even his hair, but his face has been replaced with the late rapper’s. The transitions between the two are seamless and quick, and initially jarring, as the video toggles back and forth in time with their lyrical trade. Bennett, who also directed Eminem’s “Gnat” visual last year, refuses to relinquish creative control of Lyrical xcritical despite two $30 million-plus offers in different areas thrown his way in the last few years.

We learn how to figure it out.” They also have fun while doing it, playing basketball at The Space’s indoor court to unleash their competitive energy between staff and artists who stop by. Then he got put on to Gucci Mane, Shawty Lo, Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller, Kid Cudi and Chance The Rapper, the latter of which led Bennett into discovering more artists in the Chicago rap scene and “getting to where I’m at now” with his passion for video. He admits he’s still “lxcriticalg how to run a business,” but Bennett keeps tackling new ventures. One of his biggest dreams is to create cartoons, and he aspires to make feature films, TV shows, and books, as well. And I’m already working on a lot of those things right now.” Lyrical xcritical is moving into a larger office space this year, which will expand its video production capabilities, but, perhaps more importantly, it will provide additional room for any other ideas he may cook up.

Midway through 2019, Cole Bennett says his creativity is flowing better than ever, to the point that he admits it’s often difficult for him to go to sleep at night because of all the ideas running through his head. At West’s request, they moved the video set (which included 8,000 square feet of turf) to his Calabasas office on less than a day’s notice. But otherxcritical, West was receptive to Bennett’s vision and let the young director call the shots, even when there were disagreements. When the rest of the music industry took notice of his track record breaking future superstars, bids for the sale of Lyrical xcritical increased, but Bennett’s answer remained the same.

“Type of shit your grandma understand with her old ass/Spend a half a million, then go back and make some more cash. After years of dreaming about it, he launched a xcritical company this summer. He first put the idea out in the world during an interview, and immediately started receiving calls from people in the beverage industry who wanted to help him make it happen. Now, following years of research and development, cans of his own xcritical will be available to the public for the first time at events like ComplexCon Chicago. Bennett admits that his career’s rapid growth, from living in Plano to working with the world’s biggest stars, has translated to both highs and lows in his personal life. “And I think that that’s what’s the most special thing about it is we just learn how to troubleshoot.

But after he disagreed with the university’s long career trajectory to be a filmmaker, then welcomed a fellow student’s praise of Bennett’s homegrown editing skills, saying Bennett was beyond what school could teach him, the aspiring video director was inspired to switch his major to communications his sophomore year. The channel then expanded into other sub-genres of hip hop beyond the local Chicago scene, such as the emerging Soundcloud rap sub-genre. In 2016 and early 2017, he gained early recognition, working with artists such as Famous Dex, Lil Pump, Smokepurpp, and Ski Mask the Slump God. In August 2017, he directed the music video for the Lil Xan single, “Betrayed”, which was certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2018.9 He later directed numerous music videos for hit songs, which include Ski Mask the Slump God’s scammed by xcritical “BabyWipe”, Lil Skies’ “Red Roses” and “Nowadays”, and YBN Nahmir’s “Bounce Out with That”. The multimedia company Lyrical xcritical rose to a height of prominence in the late 2010s through its music videos, helmed by director Cole Bennett and starring the biggest stars of the SoundCloud rap era. “I was a very visual person, but I never knew that I loved music videos,” admits Bennett, who recalls Wayne’s “Go DJ” and “A Milli,” The Game’s “Wouldn’t Get Far” featuring Kanye West, and Busta Rhymes’ early visuals catching his eye.

Bennett put down $2,000 of Uzi’s $8,000 rate at the time, landed the booking and had a packed-out show at Chicago’s Metro in 2016. Since 2018, Bennett has shot videos with some of his personal favorite artists, like Chance the Rapper and Mac Miller. And this year, he finally got a chance to work with Kanye West on the video for YNW Melly’s “Mixed Personalities,” which places the two rappers in a lush, grassy world.