Here's an introduction to a young artist who's moved all around the country while sharpening his acumen as a rapper, singer, and producer. Raised in The Bay, Benjamin Earl Turner has been feverishly pursuing his musical dreams since high school. Upon graduating, he's moved to LA and then onto stints in Texas, Tennessee, and most recently, Chicago, where he met and learned from Saba and recorded his latest body of work, Yell Pretty. A highlight off the 8-track album is "Humble Pi," a track that finds Turner expressing pain and jubilance all at once. "I feel like a trillion dollars right now," he begins the hook, "But I don't even got a hundred dollars right now."
The song also sheds some light on the album's title. "Yell Pretty" is pretty much definitive of what Turner does throughout "Humble Pi," meaning his voice fluctuates naturally with the emotions being expressed. That's the end goal for Turner, rather than having separate definitions for singing, rapping, or whatever else. Even when it's yelling time, the musicality of the record is never obstructed. One can hear the remnants of all the particular stretches he's spent experiencing different scenes around the nation. His sprawling influences are impressively fused into one direct musical expression.
