^{By Taylor Harrington 2/11/2021}

I remember we used to pack those shows, and it was getting to a point where other rappers would realize who we were. They’d be like, “Oh, nobody else is like this. Y’all really around a bunch of rappers singing love songs, this is some weird shit.”

Childhood best friends Benyeji & Will took a leap of faith after starting out playing on GarageBand in Philly, and are now living their best lives out in LA.

Going viral through sharing their music on Twitch, AP the Plan never skips a beat when it comes to spreading good vibes and giving us relatable music that you just can’t help but get up and move to!

Calling in to talk with us from their shared apartment in Los Angeles, we get to know AP the Plan a little bit better.

AP the Plan brings good news not only through good vibes and good music, but your friendship just elevates your music to another level because it’s so much deeper. Can you tell me where you guys started and where you come from?

We come from Philadelphia. Specifically, I’m from West Philly, and we met in middle school. We went to a music school called GAMP in South Philly. In fifth grade we met and initially, we didn’t like each other. Will had slapped me in the chest really hard one day. Mind you, I’m little, I’m like 125 pounds now, so imagine in fifth grade. I was probably 100 pounds, maybe, and he’s heavy-handed as hell. So Will slapped me in the chest, and I’m like, you’re not a cool dude. I don’t fuck with you. We had mutual friends though, and one time this girl added him to a call, and we were all just talking. I remember she went to sleep and it was just me and Will on the call. We started talking about our interests and we figured out that we have a mutual interest in music. So then, one day, he was just like, “You want to slide over to my house?” and I was like, “fuck it”. So I went over, and at the time he had a MacBook, and in the music school we went to there was a class where we could be on GarageBand making beats and record ourselves on MacBooks, so I always wanted a MacBook, and Will had one, so I was like, let’s do it. I went over to his house and we recorded the first song. It was an acoustic type, like Mac Miller. Yeah. Then we also did a Jay Cole cover to his song “Work Out”. After that, it was history. We started performing together at Springfield High School. At this time we were known as King Benji and Will IV. One day we were just reading Because the Internet by Childish Gambino and that inspired us to just do something. That album made me want to read into everything in general. I was like, Oh, I’m about to get into conspiracy theories.

Where did you come up with the name AP the Plan?

We were looking up conspiracy theories and it was because of the music we were listening to, just like, it activated our brains somehow. We were like fuck it, let’s just learn some new shit, and that’s where we found Apocalyptic Prophecies, or AP the Plan. It’s pretty much the idea of The Apocalypse, and we were kind of like, well, there has to be something that comes after the apocalypse. There has to be a type of movement to create, of creation somehow. This is in our sixth grade brains, mind you. It was because of what we were listening to, and we were introduced into weed at a very early age. So we were literally just vibing and came up with AP the Plan and we ran with it. We just kept making music on GarageBand, no microphone, no nothing. Just straight into the computer. We were like, you know, it’s time to invest, so we talked to Will’s dad, and he was very interested in what we were doing. He believed in us a lot. He would book our first studio sessions. We were recording in these big studios. It was probably like 2014 when we decided we wanted to make an album. So Will’s dad invested in it. We were making songs off of YouTube beats and bringing them to the studio, and at this time we were still writing. We would write our songs, and then go to the studio the next day and lay them down. Boom, track one, track two, track three, track four. Then we met our homie Wayne and he produced the rest of the tracks for our first album, and we named that album Dialect of Art and basically it was because we were like, “art is our language”, that’s what we do. After we put that out, we started doing shows and doing a lot of rehearsing. Like, honestly, there’s this place right next to the studio we worked at called Voltage Lounge. We used to perform there on Sunday afternoons. We were thirteen, and it was so amazing.

I remember we used to pack those shows, and it was getting to a point where other rappers would realize who we were. They’d be like, “Oh, nobody else is like this. Y’all really around a bunch of rappers singing love songs, this is some weird shit.”

What inspires your songs?

Nowadays, it’s actual experiences. We don’t write, you know? So it comes it comes from the soul.

Wait, wait! You guys freestyle?

Everything. Yeah, sometimes I’ll record a song and forget everything I say, like everything, and then I’ll listen to it back and hear myself talking about something important. You don’t really realize it, but to answer your question about what inspires our songs, it’s really just pure energy and experiences in which we feel something and we’re like, Okay, we can say this in a certain way, and then that first line can lead to the whole song.

Has your music been catching on anywhere in particular?

So this is a finesse. This how we promote our music. Have you heard of twitch? Yeah, so we go on and we make food. Yes, we make food just like we do on Instagram, which we’ll get to that later because I want to be a chef, but anyway, we go on Twitch on different live streams of people listening to music and we just send them our link. Depending on the live stream, it’ll be 10,20, 30, 40, 50, 60, people in there. They’ll play the song with the video and then everybody just floods to the song and literally we do that all day long and honestly it’s the best way of doing it because as an artist, what would you rather see than someone listening to your music, you know, in real-time.

It’s just kind of crazy how we’ve built this audience off of Twitch because it’s like nowadays, for example, we did that with our last song “Amyleigh”  and that went so well. When we started doing that with “Monday Afternoon” we were hopping onto the live stream and the people in there would be like, “Yo, AP is back!” We’re literally building a fan base right in front of our eyes. People are hitting us up from Alaska, we get DMS from people in Australia and Italy, and it’s just so cool to see it expand. I had a friend call me recently from Philly and he was like, “I’m impressed by “Monday Afternoon”. In Philly people don’t make music like that but that’s the music people want. Y’all are obviously having fun, I can tell it’s a good vibe. It’s good.” Yeah, that’s something I really wanted to hear from somebody you know? It’s cool.

How have you two kept this friendship and music going throughout the years?

It would be hard for me to say that it’s been a hard friendship. You know, I’ve seen bad friendships too, but we’ve always kept good energy for 10 years. That’s why in the music it sounds like we’re chilling. Because we’re honestly like, we just chill.

What are your plans for the future?

After we make our Platinum albums, yeah, after we do that, I have a plan. I love cooking and I want to open a restaurant and be a gourmet chef and then also rapp. Have you ever heard of the rapper Action Bronson?

Yes, my husband looks just like him.

Beautiful. That’s beautiful. Does he know how to cook? I want to be a chef. I want to grow a beard, and I want to be just like Action Bronson.

Does AP the Plan have any new projects coming out?

We have a project coming out soon, it’s called Patterns. Our first EP was two songs and Patterns is going to be four songs. Then we’re gonna do six, eight, then ten. We’re going to do a pattern, and we’ve got more cooking videos coming out soon, too.

I hopped onto your IG Live the other night, and I was not expecting this, but you two were just doing a live cooking show and I watched for like 25 minutes. My husband even comes in the room and I’m like, “Leave me alone, I’m busy.” Is there a certain time and how can people find your cooking show?

It’s on Instagram Live every Monday at 5pm PST, 8pm EST.

It was so much fun meeting you both officially, Benyeji and Will! We will talk again for sure. Here’s an idea: we do cooking from a distance. We go live on Instagram and you two have a recipe and I try to make whatever it is that you are making. It’s never going to look like what you’re making, but we will have fun because what you guys are doing is brilliant.

Make sure to check out AP the Plan on instagram at @APthePlanMusic, and check out their new merch available now via the @yousoundapp !