The 8-track EP features appearances from Chance the Rapper and fellow Chicago native Bianca Shaw. It’s been exciting to see Bennett’s growth as an artist, and with this project, he delivers some of his best work. Stream below, and let me know what you think.

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Image credit: Tay Bennett Ent.

Taylor Bennett (Chance The Rapper‘s brother and talented artist in his own right), has followed up a recent tour with a brand new project titled Be Yourself, which comes with 6 tracks and features additional assistance from Bianca Shaw, Young Thug and more.

He explained the new music to TIME, also naming Thug as an inspiration for the title:

“I was very inspired by Young Thug. He’s a good friend and talented recording artist. I stayed with him in the studio for two days while I was on tour. Man, I’ll tell you, there’s nobody that’s harder-working — and also nobody that’s more comfortable with being themselves. Expressing all your feelings seems impossible — or at least I would like to think so — for many African Americans. While I stayed with him, nobody was judged based off anything they were wearing, the way they talked… it was literally a safe, carefree community, which I don’t feel really exists for African Americans.”

Enjoy Be Yourself below.

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Having an older brother in the same industry who’s more famous than you are is probably hard enough by it self. Now trying looking like a spitting image of said brother and you have Chicago native Taylor Bennett, the younger brother to emerging superstar Chance The Rapper. This weekend, Taylor went on to Hot 97‘s Real Late With Peter Rosenberg to touch on this and many other topics such as Chicago’s rap scene, how to make it as an independent and more. Early in the interview, the South-side Chicago native gifts us with a story about how Lil’ Wayne‘s management team mistook him for his brother and invited him on stage to perform. “I remember at SXSW, I met Lil’ Wayne and this was about 2-3 years ago,” says Bennett to Rosenberg, “His manager, Hip-Hop, came and grabbed us and told us how much he appreciated us and we talked for like 15 minutes.” He goes on to say, “Then he invited me on stage and I was like ‘I don’t think I really want to do that’ and eventually he told was like, ‘I’m gonna introduce you to Wayne, Chance!’ and that’s when I had to tell him like, ‘Yo that’s my older brother.”

WOW!

Missing a chance to be on stage with one of the greatest rappers of our generation? The reasoning behind the decision warrants nothing but respect. “The moral is, no matter how big the opportunity. I’m never ever ever going to be something I’m not.” said Taylor afterwards.

After watching this interview, anybody who’s still sleeping on this kid will think twice. He goes on the rest of the interview to address how he’s independently distributed his album with TuneCore and made the most out of his promotional opportunities, which earned him spots on Apple Music’s “Explore” page as well as Tidal’s “Rising Artists” page. Bennett also touches on a touching story about how he used his popularity in the Chicago youth scene, to help promote the release of his older brother’s mixtape, 10 Day.

We all know how that ended up…

Check out the interview above which features Taylor flexing his lyrical muscles with a scathing freestyle and a few head turning written rhymes.

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Footaction’s Family Cypher made a memorable and remarkable debut in Austin Texas for 2016 at SXSW. At their annual music festival, Rotimi, Taylor Bennett, Sylvan Lacue, and L.A. VanGogh all performed. It was epic, to say the least. They did freestyles all day and got the crowd going with their enormous talent.

This happens every March. The music industry comes together to put on riveting performances. While performing, all the artists came together to wear the latest in Footaction. This was Footzction’s first ever ” Family Cypher.” DJ Austin Millz spinning the tracks. This was definitely a great success.

Who knew Footaction could create something so magical?  The performances were raw and authentic. This video of freestyle rap is epic for the times. The video starts out with everyone meeting underground in a basement. Then, each member does a freestyle rap and song. Flashes of light can be seen in the background.  There is a DJ in the background of this clip. There is a heavy piano melody played over hip-hop beats. This was a great marketing strategy with merging tennis shoes and hip-hop. This was the best example of transitions between flows, which is pretty impressive. L.A’s wordplay is bananas. In a way, L.A. kind of raps like Andre 3000.  Fans are clearly spazzed to see this. Check out the video below and tell us which artist’s freestyle you enjoyed the most!

The flow is as follows:

0:10 – Rotimi
1:00 – Sylvan LaCue
1:43 – L.A. VanGogh
2:34 – Taylor Bennett
3:23 – Rotimi

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Taylor Bennett follows up Mainstream Music with a visual to one of the standout cuts. The “Demon Slayer” video finds Bennett giving us multiple performance shots, with a couple of twisted angles courtesy of director Thelonious Stokes. Watch it below.

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The post Mixtape Download: Taylor Bennett – Mainstream Music appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

RESPECT. exclusive: Chicago MC Taylor Bennett sent us this patriotic photo. Check out his latest video: here.

The post Photo Of The Day: Taylor Bennett Gets Patriotic appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.