Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Angeles.
Hi Benjamin, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
So I was born at Grady Hospital in Atlanta on April 9th, 1993.
I’ve always been intrigued by music, especially the way it would make me feel ever since I was a young kid. And I started experimenting with writing my own music when I was about 13 or 14 years old.
Just being able to get positive reassurance from people around me through music ended up helping me through a lot of the stuff that I’d go through on a day-to-day basis. So I was hooked on the idea from there.
Down the road, I ended up actually being in a chorus group, and I found a friend group through that experience. I got a chance to record my first song over at my friend Elias’s house, which ended up being a freestyle over the instrumental from “I Get Money” by 50 Cent.
And I remember that being the moment that I was addicted to the idea of making music, and I wanted to record all the time.
Eventually, I started my first band at the age of 16, which was a Ska Punk band with a couple of friends. We would perform in random garages and shit like that, just having fun with it. And then I just continued, I never stopped.
I ended up moving to Texas for a while, had my house foreclosed on, had to move in with my aunt, but I still continued to be in bands along the way, playing bars and other random gigs.
From there I just kept recording with some of my close friends, and it turned into a rap collective called “Illectric Gold”. I performed with them for a couple of years. We had our first big show at the Masquerade, which was super nerve-wracking but it ended up going really well… And I knew from there this was a path I needed to continue down.
They still do music to this day. Shout out to Less Plus, Pharaoh of Darrow, Dallas Winston, & Glenn San.
But eventually, I decided I wanted to do music on my own and really transitioned into this new wave that I can’t really explain because it changes every day. It changes with my moods.
That’s when ITSNINETYTHREE was born.
You can check out my latest single, “Toothache” here:
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Ah man, it’s honestly never been a smooth road and it still isn’t a lot of the time.
Everything from getting kicked out of my house as a young kid, having to share a bedroom with my brother, to crashing on couches, living with friends, and going to school just for the lunches… Like, not really learning shit at all just because I was so worried about other things.
I would surround myself with people and situations that probably weren’t the best for me, which was really just out of ignorance. But music was always there to keep me grounded. It was more of an escape to realize, like, ok maybe there is a light at the end of this tunnel, something to move forward for.
But I’m proud to say that I’ve evolved into my own as an artist. I can say that with my chest and not feel like a fake or a phony. Because I know in my heart that what I enjoy doing is making music and being able to express how I feel.
Translating things like why I’m upset that my house is cold, or getting that frustration out of going to a friend’s house and seeing how they have it then going home to my own situation, it was always something I battled with early on.
I grew up a Jehovah’s Witness, and it affected me in ways that I honestly never realized until later on. We stopped going when I was like twelve years old, but it left its mark enough for me to realize that I never wanted to be put into a box.
Like, I don’t want to be restrained from my potential of being an artist because I was definitely holding stuff back then.
Any good artist in history has more than likely been through some shit like if there’s no adversity, you can f*cking hear it in the music. I’m not trying to be like, I’ve had it this bad or anything, but I’ve never had it easy and I take pride in that because I survived and I can show that.
I guarantee you, when you play my songs you’ll hear it. You can feel what I’ve been through because I put my all into that.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think for one, what sets me apart is that I’m not afraid to experiment with different kinds of music, I have so many different influences to pull from.
I made rap music for a huge part of my artistic journey, I’ve been in punk bands, SKA bands, I’ve even done country songs un-ironically, I’ve made 80’s love songs, the list goes on and on.
I just really enjoy seeing and visiting different avenues of music and thinking about what I can do and what I can do well.
I would say that I specialize in being able to conjure up what I’m wanting to express in that moment.
Whether it’s what I feel, being able to go back to a memory or feeling and really tap into that and express it through my music. I always try with everything in me to portray what it feels like to go through that. Because I know with any emotion, someone has felt it before and someone needs to be like, yeah, me too. Yeah, I’ve been there.
Just having that reassurance of being like “yeah, okay, I’m not alone in that”. I think that’s a huge part of why I do what I do.
I don’t want to get too into detail, but there are things in my past that I still hold to this day that have messed me up, that I want someone to be able to feel that, and I think I do a pretty good job at that.
I also think I’m known for putting on a pretty crazy show as a performer. As of late, I haven’t done many shows but I’m really excited to get some more done. I just want everything to be perfect so I can allow myself to give that show that I want, the type of show that I’m known for.
You can check out my latest live stream performance here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMjYHrw175o
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
My team of producers that I have really put in the work and really just take time to listen to me and help me out and help me with opportunities, there’s no way I could have done this alone.
Like my friend NXNELIVES. I don’t know how to use a computer. I don’t know how to record… He’s a person that helps me out so much and asks for nothing in return.
He just wants to help me express myself in that shit. He’s my brother. There’s no way I would be able to do any of this. You guys have interviewed him, and he’s literally the reason why I got this interview now. Because he’s such a good guy that he’ll help out any artist to get where they want to be.
He rarely asks for money, he’ll use his own beats and put in time with mixing records. His studio has thousands of thousands of dollars worth of equipment that he’s just open arms, just letting people use with his supervision, of course. But that shit is crazy to me still to this day… NXNE is the one that got me back into music.
He’s put me on and recorded my shows, and just like a dude that’s in the scene way more than people think I’m on. Yeah, shout out to him, man.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsninetythree/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmTBX82rD2o
