New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Underground Australian rapper Bently Boy has released a new song 'Alexander McQueen' featuring world-renowned rap artist
NLE Choppa which you can listen below. The song described as an eclectic combination of 'chill' beats paired with modern rap, focuses on 'never giving up on your dreams' and will feature the American rap star, NLE Choppa.
The song has been in production for over two years, with the initial collaboration between the two artists beginning on TikTok all the way back in 2020.
The 24-year-old Bently Boy responded to a TikTok challenge in which
NLE Choppa was encouraging other musicians to share a verse on one of his songs, with the best verses being shared on his own TikTok account. Bently Boy was among one of the videos shared with the duet receiving a whopping 1.1 million views and over 350k likes in total on the platform.
Bently boy said: "I was always on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and any opportunity where a rapper would do a freestyle challenge, I would definitely try the challenge and just get myself out there and get more exposure. I saw this
NLE Choppa one and the reason I was so passionate about it specifically is because he is actually my favourite artist and actually one of my biggest inspirations.
"I watched him blow up from his very first video, and it's amazing to watch the journey. He inspired me a lot. So when it came to that challenge, I knew that I had to give him my all.
"I did the challenge, I posted it and thought nothing of it. So when I woke up the next day my phone was blowing up, the feeling that it gave me was amazing. It gave me a little bit of a taste of what can come and it made me think that if
NLE Choppa is enjoying my music and liking what I do, how can I care about what my doubters have to say? It just gave me a confidence boost. I reached out to his team and just due to him having that relationship with me and liking me, he gave me the opportunity to make a song with him."
NLE Choppa is currently one of the biggest names in the modern rap scene with over 14.7 million followers on TikTok, a whopping 23,299,871 monthly Spotify listeners, and 6 million Instagram followers to boot.
The Australian rap up-and-comer continued: "The next step was for me to go fly out and release the music until I realized I couldn't get into the United States. I didn't take no for an answer So I flew out anyway in hopes of getting a visa another way. After I got the song back, I was living in Mexico, still trying to get a visa and I spoke to him a few times on FaceTime, but I always used to say, 'Oh, I'm coming this month or I'm coming next month' and it just never went to plan so eventually I had enough of talking and wanted to get there. But then somehow in the middle of these two years, I've been on this crazy rollercoaster."
"NLE is originally from Memphis. When I was in America, I spent a lot of time in
Memphis in a studio over there. So I was around the studio environment and studio space and I just kept recording. I got invited to a DJ appreciation event and met
NLE Choppa in real life. He played his new album Cottonwood 2 exclusively for all of us there. It was just a crazy feeling because at one stage I couldn't get into the country, and then the next thing I'm right next to him."
Although he was raised in Australia, Bently Boy was born in Iraq and fled to Turkey during the Iraq vs Iran war before getting a visa to Australia, thus delaying the process of getting an American visa and subsequently the process of releasing the song as a result. His application for an American travel visa was only approved after the fourth attempt.
"My family and I are from Iraq, and coming from there, we grew up very poor, we had a very difficult life, surrounded by war and terrible living conditions, just a bunch of violence and terrorism. There was nothing good going on there. So my parents wanted to have the best for me and my three sisters, and migrated to Australia for a better life," Bently Boy said.
"In the middle of the war, we decided to leave Iraq and cross the border to Turkey. After we went to Turkey, that's when we were able to get a visa to Australia. So when we went to Australia we realised how grateful we were to be there. To have the opportunity to be who we want, to go to school, to get to walk around safely. We were protected, we had rights. Coming from Iraq we didn't get to live in a Western world, so technology was new to us, even English as it's my second language. So when I was in school I used to struggle a lot. It wasn't easy for me."
"Because we come from poverty and grew up very poor I just wanna give my parents the opportunity to have a great life. So the only thing that motivated me was just to prove everyone wrong. I knew that I had something inside me and I didn't listen to what anyone told me and I just kept going for it and kept going for it. And now here I am."
Bently Boy had always had a firm interest in rap but only started to take it seriously as a professional career in 2019 when he started uploading his music to SoundCloud before moving on to Spotify and YouTube.
"When I was little, and growing up in Australia, my older sister Helen just got her driver's license and started driving around, so when I was young, nine maybe ten years old, she started playing
Lil Wayne in the car and we'd drive around all day. That was my first memory of rap music and I fell in love with the genre. In all honesty, I never ever thought I would ever be an artist or a rapper. Rapping was just a hobby. Me and my cousins used to hang out in the car and just freestyle, but then it became an everyday thing. One day we were just bored and said let's go to the studio. So we booked a studio session and that was my first time in any type of environment like that. I really enjoyed the process of creating music, it was like just something I just loved. Next thing you know, I just kept going, and then as I continued I decided that if I was going to do it I was going to go all in and not have a plan B, give it my all. From then I dedicated my whole life to music," the Independent artist said.
"Even if I needed to find a job while supporting my career, I'd make sure the job could work around my career. For example, I was a truck driver in Australia, so I was by myself. So during the long ride, I'd be able to freestyle in the truck so I could always work on my passion. I kept going and next thing you know, now this is what I do full time and I don't even work anymore. It just turned into a reality from a passion."
"So then in 2021, I decided to leave Australia. And since that day, I haven't been back and I haven't worked a regular job since, and it's been two years now!"
As for the future, Bently Boy has big dreams, with plans to start work on his debut EP over the coming months.
"I would really love to collaborate with 21 Savage. He's also one of my favorite rappers as well. I would like to collaborate with an Egyptian artist whose name is Mohammed Ramadan. I would also like to collaborate with a Mexican artist whose name is Peso Pluma," he said.
"Patience is a key factor and it's something that you have to master because it's not going to come easy. In my head, I used to think, after this song I'm going to make it, or after the next one I'm going to make it. But it was never really like that. And what I realized is it's not even about the result or what you're chasing, it's about who you become during the process and during the journey. That's all that really matters. So as long as you stay true to yourself and keep going you're already succeeding. However, If you're not willing to give it your 100 percent, then don't even start.
"I feel as if I'm still in the beginning of my career and I haven't even showcased what I'm able to do yet. Definitely, in the next few months, we'll be dropping an album for sure. So be on the lookout for that."
