Cole Bennett : The mind behind Lyrical Lemonade.

Learn how Cole Bennett's "glass half full" and "problem-solving mentality" fueled him to create an empire!

While doing one of my favorite hobbies which comprises of me watching through music videos on Trace or trending videos on YouTube I began to notice something familiar. The majority of the rap music videos sported a blue and yellow lemonade logo which I later found was the logo for Lyrical Lemonade, the music empire created by Cole Bennett. Lyrical Lemonade does not only produce music videos for the likes of Eminem, Wiz Khalifa and Don Toliver but also does music promotion, offers up recording facilities and holds a music festival called Summer Smash annually with last year’s event bringing in 20 000 people each day. I had to learn more about brains behind the whole project and how it all began.

Founder

Bio

Name: Cole Bennett

D.O.B: 14 May 1996

P.O.B: Plano, Illinois

Where it all began

Cole Bennett created a music blog out of his love for Chicago rap when in high school. With the help of his mother he got the website made and acquired a video camera so that he could also start filming music videos for underground artists. Bennett began his promotion by getting Lyrical Lemonade stickers made and handing them out at school. He admitted that not everyone could see the vision and potential of it with one of his friends calling it "stupid." However that just fueled him more to make it a success.

The next step for him was to hold an event. Bennett had little to no resources so decided to hold a free event in a rehearsal room that could hold 90 people. He managed to get artists to perform for free and the event was a success with 300 people attending throughout the event.

Cole Bennett's next exciting venture was going to study in Chicago, the music hub that inspired Lyrical Lemonade. Bennett sacrificed his social life and put his all his energy into his studies and Lyrical Lemonade. While other college students were out at parties he was in his dorm room writing blog posts and holding interviews. If anyone, Bennett is truly an example of making extraordinary sacrifices in order to achieve extraordinary feats.

Bennett hit the sweet spot where the underground and mainstream were starting to collide with the rise of SoundCloud rappers. In his sophomore year at college he had raised 3000 dollars from his work on music videos and wanted to hold another event. He managed to book Lil Uzi Vert two months before the event and by the time the event was held Lil Uzi Vert had skyrocketed to fame. Bennett started to create relationships with artists on the rise and before he knew it he was being interviewed by the likes of The Rolling Stones.

The success of Lyrical Lemonade prompted him to leave college so that he could focus on growing his business and seeing it reach it's full potential. The risk was worth it with Lyrical Lemonade now becoming a music taste-making platform and also producing quality merchandise.

Anecdotes and Fun Facts

- Cole Bennett's mother came up with the name Lyrical Lemonade.

- Cole's first big mainstream music video was with Migos. He flew to Atlanta the next day and all he had was his camera. The shoot went well and he spent the next two months dedicating 12 hours a day to editing the video only for Migos to decide to shelf the project. He felt like he was finally reaching a new pinnacle in his career only for it to be taken away in a second. However he credits his "glass half full" mentality that pushed him to rise above that moment of disappointment.

- Watch below to see how Cole made Lil Tecca's Ransom video and how they tricked fans into thinking they were filming in North Korea.

- Watch his Ted Talk below to learn more about his story