Milkshaw Benedict: Energizing the City-Q&A
Milkshaw Benedict is the spark plug energizing the Boston hip hop scene right now. Milkshaw imposes a sort of passion in his music which is very rare to see nowadays, especially in songs like “Support” “Pool Party” and “All Of The Homies Need Trophies”. His daily motivating Instagram stories will surely put a smile on your face and it is always a great way to start your day. One memory I have of Milk that will help you get an idea of who he is, was at the Cousin Stizz concert in November at the House of Blues. While we (the crowd) were waiting for Stizz to come out, we were a little impatient and needed a lift up. “Uproar” by Lil Wayne came on the speakers, and Milk, who was on stage, started dancing, and it immediately filled the bodies of thousands with complete exuberance. A SPARK PLUG.
Johnny Dube: What was your childhood like in Roxbury?
MB: It was dope. Roxbury is a real neighborhood. You could go to ya friend’s doorstep and ask if they wanted to come out and hang. Roxbury was the perfect place to grow up. I was into sports so I would play at basketball courts around the neighborhood like Jeep Jones and Washington Park. There were mad spots to eat food over on Dudley. Everyone knew everyone, and if you didn’t know someone, you knew their sibling or cousin. It was dangerous in some areas, but I was focused on me and just being a kid. I wasn’t ever into gang life or smoking weed or anything like that, just playing sports and chasing girls. I used to love to play outside. You had to be back home when the street lights came on. I enjoyed video games sometimes, but I was definitely an outdoors kid.
JD: What are/were some of your favorite spots around the city?
MB: When I was younger, the Roxbury YMCA was the place to be. They had youth nights and YMCA parties that were fun, and I would play in their basketball league. We would hang out at the skate rink Chez Vous in Dorchester where on some Fridays they used to let us put the skates down and throw parties. 3C’S down the street was for the old heads. As I got older, downtown Boston was the meetup spot - we would dance there, hang out in the commons, sometimes that’s where people would fight. It was just the spot to be, to see what’s going on around the city. We started to go to Newbury Street when we got our money up and went shopping there. We go up Mass Ave to Bodega. That’s the place to be right now - it’s the headquarters. You go to Bodega to see who’s there and what’s going on. You could run into anyone there. Also my cousin Mikey, and my boy Rah used to live at “Flexico” right across the street from Market Casablanc. It was definitely a legendary place, if u was there, you know! And I was at Casablanc and saw all the cool shit there before it became what it is today.
Nowadays I like to go to the docks on Charles River; that’s one of my favorite spots to go to for relaxation and peace of mind.
JD: How did you first get into making music?
MB: My first introduction to music was through my parents. My dad is a DJ - he used to have a record shop. He has thousands of records and we would always be playing music throughout the house while growing up. I remember going to church as a kid and there were these rap gospel dudes that my parents used to mentor. We also had a studio in our basement with all the equipment in there. He even had producers and rappers in there making music. I would be in the studio while this went down just watching and observing the process and what goes down during a session. I even got producing lessons at one point in time. I was always a writer and enjoyed poetry. As I got older I started writing funny raps - I even wrote a whole rap about my nickname Milk. I also was heavy into dancing at this point. Me and my boys were into everything 80’s, and 90’s hip-hop, we even dressed like it. We set trends for being that group that carried a boom box around and “got light” on the train. So when I got to college I wasn’t into what the school was offering. I wasn’t trying to be a doctor, a psychiatrist, or anything like that. I knew it was in my blood to be an entertainer because I just enjoyed it so much. I felt I was a good writer, I spoke well, I had mad rhythm, then it clicked - I should be a rapper. I could make good rhymes but I had to work on a lot of things to get to where I’m at today. I always loved music though, and everyone around me loved music. I’ve always been a hip hop kid with all the knowledge of hip hop history. Even though the career choice of a music artist can be hard financially in the beginning, it was an easy choice for me because I love it.
JD: The album cover for “A Boston Block Party” is tremendous and fascinating, what is the story behind that piece?
MB: I wasn’t considering myself a visual artist until I drew that cover. I wasn’t ever thinking about sketching or drawing, until one day I drew this picture and it had a lot going on - I was like okay this is dope. I kept drawing pictures like that, and when Boston Block Party (listen here) came up I was like let me draw some stuff for this cover. I was thinking something like the Funkadelic and Outkast cover art. I always wanted to use stick figures because anyone can draw them and relate to them. They are flexible and you can do anything with a stick figure. It wasn’t difficult to do and I didn’t want to be super complex about it, but if you look at the cover it’s actually very complex with everything that’s going on in the picture. It’s a chaotic piece - it’s supposed to represent how we live in chaos. Everything is going on at once. If you look at the 02119 cover, these are specific things that are happening at once in Roxbury. Then I chose to do a cover for each song. I don’t think many artists are making covers for each of their songs on their projects. I didn’t intend on doing it but once I started drawing I was like let me draw for the whole project.
The cover art for “Boston Block Party”
JD: How do you incorporate other pieces of your visual art into your music?
MB: The visual art I make stems from the music I make. It doesn’t usually come before the music, they go hand in hand. I don’t draw as much as I make music, and when I do draw it’s always for a purpose. In this case, the cover arts were made to complement the music.
JD: You work and perform alongside some of your closest friends, what does that mean to you and how has it impacted your career?
MB: It means a lot to me. It means everything to me to work with people I trust and believe in, as well as reciprocate the energy you give them. You can’t ask for a better group of artists and management when it comes to starting as an independent artist. The support you need is immense, especially when you don’t have much infrastructure and money to achieve those dreams. When you have people around you that you trust, it makes the process smoother and more enjoyable. I can see things down the road better.
Milk performing with friend and fellow artist $ean Wire
JD: What has been your favorite performance so far?
MB: Easily $ean Wire’s Internal Dialect release performance at The Oberon. That show was so fun, and we got to do so many things in that space. We had all these lighting cues and we could jump up and stand on tables. I can’t wait for more shows like that, where we have more space and more chances to be creative.
JD: What’s next for Milkshaw Benedict? and what are you looking forward to?
MB: I am currently working on a mixtape, an album, a thesis, and a short film. We have Most High Kingdom dropping some content as well. I can’t wait for when we can perform again. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 6 months in terms of performances and having a large number of people at a show; they are probably going to pass some bills that may change some things. But I’m looking forward to moving in this challenging space. This is the time for me to be preparing and adapting to the environment and to be fearless in my approach of figuring it out and accomplishing my goals. The future is mine.
Follow Milk on Instagram: @milkshawbenedict
Also his collective, Most High Kingdom: @mosthighkingdom
Listen below!
