A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to return to The Fillmore to cover Lil Tecca on his HVN ON EARTH Tour, and it did not let down. I wrote about my previous experience at The Fillmore covering Lil Yachty last fall, and if you remember correctly, I had nothing but positive things to say. That continues here, as this became one of my favorite shows that I have been to, and my new favorite show that I have professionally covered as media. As a reminder, The Fillmore is a smaller venue, with a capacity of less than 2,000, which makes the process of entering and exiting much smoother. For a smaller venue, they are well-staffed, and it shows, and I am definitely looking forward to returning in the future.
Our opener on the first Saturday of March was tana, a 17 year old artist who has made waves among the new generation of underground music enthusiasts. Tana, originally known as BabySantana, was part of a first wave of young artists who gained traction from TikTok and its viral potential in 2021. Tana’s first song to break the internet, called “14”, was a collaboration with KASHDAMI, another teenager who was starting a music career very early. In the song, they go back-and-forth discussing how they are only 14 years old, yet they do all the things that older rappers do. “14” has amassed over 35 million streams on Spotify and even got a Cole Bennett-directed Lyrical Lemonade music video that has over 10 million views. Following the success of “14”, tana collaborated with another up-and-coming teenage artist named slump6s for the release of “Antisocial”, which would become his most popular song. At 15 years old, Tana was growing quickly, but unlike many young artists who encounter a bit of early fame, he never let it faze him.
In 2021 and 2022, I took consecutive trips to Cole Bennett’s Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash, in Chicago, and got to see a huge variety of artists, including tana. It is always cool watching young artists grow and develop as they get older, and that was one of the reasons I wanted to be sure I saw his performance. On this tour, tana performed a mix of his older songs that helped him take off and his newer stuff, where it is evident he has started to find his voice. He of course finished his set with “Antisocial”, getting the crowd ready for the next opener, SoFaygo.
SoFaygo is another artist who encountered fame after having music go viral on TikTok, and has since built a very loyal following. If you were on TikTok at all around 2021, you definitely heard “Knock Knock”, which now has over 250 million streams on Spotify, and over 65 million views on the Cole Bennett directed Lyrical Lemonade music video (are you noticing a trend yet?). This success helped his late 2020 album “After Me” take off, leading to some of his most popular songs to this date, including “Everyday” and “Off The Map”. The viral success of his early music helped him ultimately sign to Travis Scott’s label, Cactus Jack Records. He released his debut studio album, Pink Heartz, in November 2022, and had an impressive catalog of features, including Lil Uzi Vert, Gunna, Don Toliver, and Ken Carson. Since then, Faygo has been working to establish a name for himself outside of the internet, as the viral success he once had has phased out.
SoFaygo is special to me for the same reasons as tana, I have seen his career develop and it has been awesome seeing the growth. SoFaygo was also present at Summer Smash in 2021, where I got to see him perform twice. As a reminder, this festival occurred in June of 2021. Conversations surrounding COVID-19 led to doubts about whether this event could even occur. But it also meant that it was one of the first rap festivals following the majority of the pandemic. And for some of these artists, especially the teenage artists, this would be some of their first opportunities to perform in front of a live audience. At a much smaller afterparty show on the day before SoFaygo was set to perform on the main stage, he expressed his feelings to the surprisingly small crowd of 100-200 people. He talked about how he was excited, but nervous, as this was one of his first times performing. That night, at the afterparty show, tana opened for SoFaygo, who opened for Lil Tecca, just like they did on this night at The Fillmore.
I enjoyed all three of the sets, but Tecca’s was my favorite. I have been a big fan of Lil Tecca since high school, when my friend first showed me one of his songs in early 2019. He was only 16 years old at the time, but I could tell that he had potential to make a real name for himself. He released several singles throughout the year leading up to the release of his debut album, “We Love You Tecca”. It is one of my favorite albums, as it was released in August of 2019, right when I moved off to college, making it a very nostalgic album for me. While the main focus was on his new album, HVN ON EARTH, he played several songs from WLYT, which was great.
Lil Tecca’s path has been very similar to both tana and SoFaygo, as he started making music at a young age. His career truly blossomed after his single “Ransom” went viral in 2019, and it has over 1.3 billion streams on Spotify alone up to this point. Another factor that propelled the success of “Ransom” was (you guessed it) a Cole Bennett-directed Lyrical Lemonade music video, which currently has almost half a billion views on YouTube, making it the fourth most viewed Lyrical Lemonade music video on the channel. As you have likely noticed, Cole Bennett has been a part of the success of each of these artists, and he rarely gets the credit he deserves.
Cole Bennett built Lyrical Lemonade from the ground up, starting as a media blog back in 2013. Based in the Chicago area, he dropped out of DePaul University to pursue his career in videography and rap music. He found initial success throughout the Soundcloud era (2016-2019) by shooting music videos for up-and-coming young artists before they really found fame on a larger scale. His video and production style are very unique, opening new lanes for creatives in the music video industry, and leading to Lyrical Lemonade amassing over 21 million subscribers on YouTube, a very impressive feat. Some of my favorite Lyrical Lemonade videos include “Nowadays” (Lil Skies), “Poppin” (Yeat), and “100 Bars” (Babytron) just to name a few.
His impact is further felt through his Summer Smash Music Festival in Chicago, which is set to happen for the sixth year in a row. At Summer Smash, you get a mix of young artists with untapped potential and generally popular artists, who have already become household names, but many share one thing in common: Cole Bennett has directed and shot a music video for one or more of their songs. By bringing out the newer artists, he not only gives them an opportunity to perform in front of larger crowds, but also allows them to promote new music and expand their fanbase in real time, as festival-goers recognize artists that they have seen featured in a video. His latest venture was putting together a Lyrical Lemonade album featuring LL regulars and favorites, which released earlier this year.
