Soul Benefits: Making waves down under!

Soul Benefits is a hip hop group that hails from Rooty Hill which is based in Western Sydney. The three members of the group comprise of Storme, Aakell and The 26th Letter. Storme has just left his teens and is 20 years of age, Aakell is only 15 and the producer of the group, and the 26th Letter is in the last year of his teens. Now they might seem young, but trust me, their age does not represent what they are capable of though. The group makes their own beats, writes their own lyrics as well as records and masters their own tracks.

Surprisingly, Storme, Aakell and The 26th Letter have learnt music on their own without any formal training. While The 26th Letter learnt music by shutting himself in a room and teaching himself, Storme was influenced by rhythm training from his mother and Aakell… well he learnt from listening to his mum singing in the shower! Their inspiration stems from such diverse and well known artists such as Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Tupac, J Dilla, Homebrew, B.I.G, J. Cole and Drake – the 26th Letter also feels that he found inspiration in his mother too.

When the group was just starting out, they originally decided to create great music and upload it for free downloads without thinking of the results that it would get. They also persevered by performing at various events through Sydney. Word of mouth has been their best friend and they have not really indulged in any formal marketing as yet.

Their first ever solo performance was at Hotel Parramatta back in 2010, since then they have performed on stage with known artists such as Miracle, Mike Champion, Capree, VTribe, DSS, Fourtunate and Lazy J &am as well as Big Guy. They have also collaborated with various artists such as Fundamentalz, SF1, Verbaleyes (True Vibenation), 6Pound and Buxx. Out of all their performances, the 26th Letter feels that the performance on Waitangi Day 2010 is what they consider their most memorable performance, Storme remembers the time when they performed in a room with just 12 people watching as their most memorable performance whilst Aakell’s favourite performance was when they performed at the Kingston Fire Appeal at The Roxy in Parramatta.

Becoming StarCentral Magazine’s 2011 Group of the Year has been their first award yet, but let’s get real, the group is destined to go a long way. When asked where they see themselves in five years, the 26th Letter said he is currently just focussed in creating good music and hopefully in five years they will still be doing what they love, Aakell is looking forward to becoming more famous, while Storme just wants to be debt free in five years!

The latest release of the group has been Mixtape ‘All The Hits Bro’, an album that is now available for free download. They continue to receive support and motivation from their family, friends and fans and they hope that their fans will continue to support them as they have done so in the past since their ‘journey has only just begun’.