Token 2,533

I was sitting in my first period precalculus class. I checked my phone and thought I was seeing things. The video had gotten 7,000 views the night before and was up to 100K by the morning. I almost fell out of my chair.

The video for “No Sucka MCs” earned 17-year-old wunderkind Token (a.k.a Ben Goldberg) his first real burn on the rap blogs. The track catapulted Token from provincial problem to national nuisance. Originally submitted to an online rap competition –one of several Token ended up winning– the song has amassed 1.6 million views on YouTube. It was this track that prompted another Massachusetts native who’d gotten his start rhyming, superstar Mark Wahlberg, to take to Twitter and proclaim Token his new favorite rapper.

“No Sucka MCs” also prompted iconic hip-hop tastemaker Sway Calloway to invite Token to spit on his influential Sway in the Morning SiriusXM show. Token reveals:

I rehearsed day and night for Sway, I wanted it flawless. And I actually prepared about 11 minutes of material, roughly 250 bars. Then, literally the day before, I got the news that I would have about half that time. I had to chop 11 minutes down to like 6, basically overnight. It was nerve-wracking.

Sway’s co-host Tracy G actually broke down in tears with his verse—the video of which has garnered over a million views in a single 24-hour period, and totals more than 5 million views to date.

One of Token’s main inspirations is the rap group Slaughterhouse, which also carries the flamespitter Joell Ortiz. It was a dream come true for Token as he collaborated with the rapper on the “Kill at Will.” Token explains his excitement for the collaboration and how much Joell meant to him:

This is someone I grew up listening to, I have his whole discography. I was listening to him every day, so when he reached out to me, I couldn’t believe it.

In 2014, Token released his debut mixtape, The Mindstate, a nineteen track effort which showcased his lyricism and clever punchlines.

In 2015, he followed up his 21 track mixtape with a compilation project titled The YouTube Compilation, released on August 4, 2015. The project compiles his YouTube videos and “free verses” that he’s released on his YouTube channel earlier in his career.

In 2016 he released Eraser Shavings mixtape which gained him more traction with the songs like “Happiness” and “Exception.”

In 2018 he released Between Somewhere, his biggest project to this date. Singles from the project like “Flamingo” and “Mom Would Agree” made the project highly anticipated among his fans. Project had features from peers like Bas and IDK on “And You” and Tech N9ne on “Youtube Rapper.”

In 2020 he founded his own record label Never Too Different in a partnership with major label Atlantic Records.

On January 14, 2022 he released his debut studio album Pink Is Better which included features from JID, Rico Nasty, Lil Skies, Digital Nas, Saint LYOR and Benny The Butcher.