Rapping at the age of thirteen, Elias the Infinite, previously known as Florence the Infinite, has been gracing the ears of listeners with his journey through the landscape of Inglewood, Los Angeles and the spiritual awakening that has come from discovering yourself and stepping into your true identity.

Elias the Infinite produces watery, eccentric, and soulful beats on his recent EP, BE YOU (side A), pushing listeners down a slip and slide of heartbreak, locking into your dreams, shedding the extra weight, and finding your voice to encourage others to be weird, to unapologetically be their most authentic self. BE YOU (side A) is the first half of the project that is intended to be the blueprint for chasing your wildest dreams.

Maralize Carreon sat down with Elias the Infinite to discuss the importance of paying homage to his city, what it means to be a hooligan, and how the rawness of real life can be inspirational.

Are you originally from Inglewood? It seems like in your music and even in your videos, you really pay homage to your roots. It feels like you really made the city a medium for you to express your art and have done it in a really beautiful way. What does the city mean to you? How do you feel like it’s shaped your music and your pursuit of your art?

That is a very great question. Well, I feel like the city, the city is an extension of me. So, the neighborhood I grew up in is not highlighted often. Like only the negative sides around it are. So like I come from Ladera, but Inglewood for real, but like Ladera, Blair Hills, Baldwin Hills, that section.

And it’s not talked about, but I want to say it’s kind of almost like a gray area. So it’s like that kind of comes into full circle with my artistry as well. Like I feel like I’m the gray area. I’m not really black or white. Even literally, I’m mixed too. So the whole everything from the city to how people are treated in that specific area, it’s like this gray area, kind of like you’re free to be what you want.

So as a kid, I ate that shit up with my friends. Like we was just running around and skateboarding in that area. And my mama used to be like, you know, “If you could get over there from Inglewood, you could stay over there. You can have fun as long as you get yourself back and get there, you’re good.” And she’s like, “I’m not picking you up because I’m not trying to spend gas.” So like just that pursuit of going over there all the time just to have fun, it changed my idea of travel as well as like your environment. Because my environment in Inglewood, I couldn’t do anything over there because it’s like if I go outside, it’s possible that, you know, something bad could happen. But when I crossed over just like ten minutes down the street skateboarding and I go over to my friends, I’m in this whole new world where we’re just kind of doing whatever we want as kids.

A lot of times it’d be like, hooligan stuff. That’s why I have the group called Hoolipack. We get into a lot and the environment allowed us to get into certain things that we probably wasn’t supposed to. But at the same time it’s such a nice environment. We want to protect it. There’s certain things that we won’t do, you know what I’m saying, and kind of like, that is why I wear this city like my armor, because in a sense it did cradle me. Like when I needed food or I was tired, I was bleeding, I could go into one of those stores and the owner would know me or hook me up. And you know, just little stuff like that. And it went a long way. So I just feel like I have to. If I don’t, I’m stealin’. That’s what it feels like.

You mentioned Hoolipack, your brand. It’s kind of like a music collective, correct? I can tell you touch on different forms of art, whether it’s like music or film or fashion. So where did Hoolipack start? And what does the intersection of fashion and art mean to you?

Hoolipack is crazy cause it started off as a clothing brand. So I was hella into parkour and skateboarding. My whole idea was to have a brand that people could wear and feel like they’re part of something bigger than just, you know, which we all are, we’re all connected as humans, I believe. So I just wanted something where it’s like, okay, this is my taste of human life.

That brand was kind of like, like the city, hooligans. So for the brand, it represents basically the reckless dreamer, like somebody who don’t really have all they need, but they have a dream and they go about it however. But really it just represents unique dreams inspired. So I feel like even a reckless dream, whatever dream it is, whether it’s big, it’s hard to do, it’s unique and you feel me, unique dreams inspire.

A reckless dreamer can inspire somebody who’s not as reckless, or the reckless dreamer goes through the path that nobody goes through and they trim down all the gunk and make sure the path is smooth for somebody else. I kind of wanted the brand to represent that for those people, the trailblazers, the people who don’t have a plan, but still figure it out, the people who got all, bets placed against them and they still come out on top, the underdogs, the misfits, you know. I wanted to be able to give all those people a cloak, a cloak of armor that, yeah, we matter. You know what I’m saying? The strong friend matters. And that’s kind of what Hoolipack is, it’s the strong friend. It’s the strong friend, for a dreamer.

You know, you can inspire others through your creativity. So it’s basically just to uplift others, to understand the inspiration that they have within themselves, and not throw that away for somebody else. More or less like, what’s the word I’m trying to look for? Like basically amplify your own inspiration, ability in yourself, and love yourself to the point where it’s like, OK, I’m this person, and this is what I do. And I don’t care what y’all think, because I’m going to get this about any means. So somebody who’s a Hoolipack, or somebody who’s got on a Hoolipack, is somebody who’s really dedicated to self-development and growth, as well as inspiring others through their journey.

So, I noticed this common theme in all of your multimedia content: that you have white eyes. So I just wanted to, like, you know… hear what that’s about.

I fuck with Kanye and Tyler and stuff. So it’s like when I see the way that they create, it inspires me. And what I notice is, as artists, people be scared to shed their skin. Like, you know, there’s people like Doja Cat. I think she’s nuts. But like, she’s lit though. Basically the whole idea of like, y’all can’t put me in a box. So I’m gonna put myself in this crazy ass look and I’m gonna make it make sense. And y’all gonna think it doesn’t make sense, but it does. And then that’s literally the art of manifestation creation.

So I want it to be literally the catalyst. So I’m like, all right, I’m gonna do this to myself. I’m gonna look crazy. I’m gonna look goofy as hell. ‘Cause like only the creator of something can tell you what it is. You know what I’m saying? So everyone else can have their own opinion on it. But at the end of the day, when I say, this is what it meant and this is what it is, that’s the end all be all.

So. I did it because I wanted all the naysayers, all the haters, all the judges, I wanted all those people to sit in front of, like, individuality and even if they don’t know what the fuck it is, but at least be able to, like, stop and be like, oh, like, that’s what that was.

So basically the eyes are a metaphor to look within. So I got a project called BE YOU and then what you do to BE YOU is, like, most times if you don’t know how to BE YOU, you gotta look within to start.

You gotta start thinking about yourself and thinking about things that you like, you don’t like, what you want to do, your purpose. And some people, we’re so distracted by all this shit on the outside and even just music and entertainment, that we, as individuals and civilians, we don’t pay attention to our own, like, you know, our own inner voice. We’re mostly listening to other people.

So when I did that, it was because I wanted somebody to see me and for a second, listen to their own inner voice. Like, so whenever you come to the agreement of whatever you see when you see my white eyes, that’s your inner voice.

I don’t know what they saying. It could be like, “Oh, this dude’s crazy.” “Ah this dude’s lit.” Whatever that inner voice is, is there. It’s gonna exist. That’s the first step. And then after that, when they come to ask me, what’s the eyes and I give them it, that means they’re ready. Like, it sounds crazy, but that means they’re ready to start their self journey. And it’s like, I don’t know what it’s gonna be like, because I’m not there. Of course, I’m only there for those initial moments. But at that time, I planted a seed and that seed is like, it’s dope to be your own individual. And this is what it looked like. Like this is what it looks like, the physical representation. But like this is like a way, a very exaggerated way of being yourself.

I used to draw that. I used to draw myself with no eyes. I wasn’t born that way. But I drew myself like that all the time and I never knew I could do it and something told me one day, it would be crazy if you did this. How would this make sense though? Like how do you get these people to understand that you love growing up on some Dragon Ball Z and this stuff. You look within and heal yourself.

You mentioned Dragon Ball Z, this is kind of a fun question. Like, so you obviously watch anime. What’s your favorite show?

Oh, well Dragon Ball Z off rip. I’ve watched all the Dragon Ball Z that anybody could watch in a lifetime. I watched, I’m up to date. So that says a lot. There’s a whole bunch of different variations. That’s my shit. I grew up with the action figures. I don’t know, it’s just got this nostalgic vibe. And I got a lot of lessons from it. And a close second right now, there’s One Piece. I like One Piece. It’s cool.

Getting back to music, you dropped your album earlier this year, BE YOU (side A), and the lyricism explores multiple avenues like love, soul searching, ego in friendships, and being in LA. Can you walk through the story behind the tracks and the inspiration?

So the project that everybody listening to right now ain’t the actual order. But the story is basically like, I was on the bus one day, this is literally how it happened. I was trying to come up with this album, I was on the bus and I was like, ‘bruh, I got to do more.’ So before I go to this job that I’m trying to get, my whole goal is like, ‘I’m gonna go to Melrose.’ I already do business over here. The business owners know me. I’m gonna try to figure out how to get a job. Like just to hold me over so I can make this album.

That’s how I was looking. And I was on the way, I was writing the song. And then I was like, ‘what the hell? Like, this is crazy. I’m literally writing on the bus.’ And I’m like, I”m on the way to go work. But this should be my actual job.’ That’s how I’m thinking in my head. Like, ‘why, why is this not my job?’ But I’m going on the way to get a job. It’s just, it didn’t make sense to me. So I sat down and I started writing ‘HIRED,’ the first song.

So I was having anxiety ‘cause I wanted to get the job on Melrose. But at the same time, I didn’t really want the job. So I was like really confused. And I was like, fuck you, I got this beat though. Let me just take my energy and put it on there. And I was like, maybe I can manifest the job through the song. So I’m gonna name the song ‘HIRED,’ and I’ma rap, but the first verse came off more about me getting hired in the career that I want, which is like, you know, an artist, but not hired in that sense. Like, I hired myself in that, which is crazy. I hired myself after I made that song. And I didn’t even know that, but consciously I was like going through that, like really going through that on the bus thinking that and writing that song out.

Then I didn’t get the job. So that didn’t stop me or nothing cause I still finished the project, of course, but like, after not getting the job, I sat back and I was like, damn, if I didn’t decide that I hired myself and I was going to really do this, like this job would have like threw away my album and I probably would have never made this.

So that’s when I started going in deeper and I was like the concept of going to work versus chasing the thing that you actually are. Like, how do I make that a message? How do I get that to people? And that’s how it became. And I kind of just took my exact experience of me being Elias Benefiel, like going through, you know, my main daily life, not my art side. And I was like I’ll use myself as a catalyst to show how to lock in with yourself. And I’m going to be the guinea pig because I got to lock in with myself. That’s how the project went. Like, if I don’t lock in now, like this interview, none of this would happen.

So I’m going to do a live action, self healing growth journey. And I’m going to allow all my fans to be a part of it and everybody who just is attracted to the music, to be a part of it and they can grow with me or they can watch me grow and use me as a blueprint. And every song is me slowly stepping into that.

And then like I said, after ‘HIRED,’ I didn’t get the job. So I ended up in the car with the homie smoking weed, trying to figure out how to numb the pain. And that’s how I made the song ‘HOTBOXING THE SIMPLY WHOLESOME PARKING LOT.’ And that song, that’s all about trying to stop smoking weed, cause I know it’s bad for me. But like, not bad for me in the sense, it’s bad. But in my mind, I’m like, yo, the reason why I’m not where I wanna be is cause I’m smoking all the time with these dudes running around the city when I know damn well I should be rapping. I should be damn well doing this. I’m over here fucking my time off, trying to smoke with my homies. Then after the smoke shit is done, it’s like, okay, we’re transitioning to ‘CHANGED MY STATUS,’ because it’s kind of like me basically saying like, all right, that’s about a woman, a deep relationship that happened. But it’s also going on more to the whole idea, I’ma change my status and ‘[WHEN THE] GRASS GET CUT’ because it kind of like they tie into each other. They’re both basically me shedding the unnecessary baggage that I don’t need, that is weighing me down from being able to actually pursue what I’m trying to do.

‘WHEN THE GRASS GET CUT’ is about keeping the snakes out, the fake people out of your life. So they don’t muck up what you’re trying to do new and then those people go around, usually tell their friends, and their friends usually create this idea of you. And if you’re an artist or you’re trying to be in a reputation based industry, which requires respect, it requires a certain type of face card. It’s hard when you’re dealing with people who are trying to play with your name and throw it around. So it’s like when I say “When the grass get cut, watch the snake routes / Warn all your people that the fakes out” is basically saying like pay attention to the snake routes so you have receipts, some evidence. When this person comes through trying to be a snake, you could basically pull this out and be like yo, but what about this, this, this, and that.

I went through specific situations where it’s like you’d have to go through that to know that. I was like here’s this blueprint right here of my pain, so you can get an idea of what not to dip your toe into you and if you do, at least now you got a soundtrack.

And ‘CHANGED MY STATUS’ is a break up song. I go really into deep detail with this one relationship. She was way older than me and like she put me on to a lot of game just about relationships and self-worth and knowing yourself. And if you don’t know yourself, someone will try to take advantage of [you]. I genuinely did get the lesson from that, so I didn’t want it to be like “You broke up with me. Fuck you.” I wanted it to be like, “Thank you and here’s the knowledge for whoever else needs this.”

And then ‘BLACK & BLUE’ is a continuation to ‘CHANGE MY STATUS.’ So you can kind of think of it like I just changed my status part one. It’s its own thing, this song has its own element involved, but it’s literally like a continuation of CHANGED MY STATUS.’ So ‘BLACK & BLUE’ was like pre pre-relationship. I actually wrote that before I got into the relationship, so I didn’t know it was going to be bad. I’m talking about some past relationship shit that I’m trying to shed for the new relationship. Then, ‘CHANGED MY STATUS’ is after that relationship took place. You kind of can see where my mind was before I got into the relationship and then where my mind was after I got into the relationship. And I kind of wanted to show the balance of it.

And then ‘CASH FLO’ is me talking my shit. That’s me standing back and saying like, all this is going on. But this is the main voice. This is the vision. This is like what I feel like my heart is telling me. This is what my mind is telling me. And this is the shit that I’m maneuvering and adjusting to get the life that I want.

I sat through and watched all of your music videos and every single one is just so cinematic and so creative and they all really work together. It’s like bringing your music to life and I really love that the end of ‘HIRED” flows right into ‘HOTBOXING,’ right? How do you come up with your ideas?

Real life. Like ‘HOTBOXING,’ I was in the Simply Wholesome parking lot smoking a blunt with the homie. Driving around, the blunt wasn’t rolling. It was cracking. We opened the package. They broke. So it was just irritating because we just did all this. We bought the weed, picked up the blunts, found a location where we could smoke in the neighborhood, and then the blunts just cracked. So then we go drive to another liquor store, spend 10 more dollars, for a blunt that might crack again. So that was where the idea came from, because it just sat, it was like, oh my God, like is it really this serious? Like am I even supposed to be smoking? And why am I at this establishment? Like what the fuck is going on right now?

It was just a whole realization, like damn, that song came from real life. All of them came from real life. The way I direct is me trying to literally take what I went through in my brain and physically and take exactly what the hell came from what I experienced and what I felt and make it like manifest and basically recreate it. So when I’m directing, that’s my challenge. Trauma and everything. I want you to feel the shock, the fear I feel, love, the happiness. And then I want you to see the things that I saw. And hopefully through that connection, we can have a shared experience. So that’s what I’m trying to share, my experiences with others.

So it sounds like you really have your flow down to a T, like the cadence of everything and your tracks are really diverse. You got some soulful, dream-like melodies and you have more intense, head-bopping sounds. So how did you come to find your sound, and if you could pick three artists that really influenced your music, who would they be and why?

Um, damn, that’s a good ass question. So it’s like this. I tried to rap on lofi beats because I liked how they felt. I like how they felt sonically and in my spirit, they would make me want to talk about things I was going through. They would always inspire me, even to this day. I did my homework. I studied where that came from. It was like, you know, nostalgic old school boom bap beats. I started learning about tempos. And that’s kind of like where my first sound was developed. And basically just being on the BPM, the one and the two and the three and the four just like understanding that and like being able to rap like right on that.

And that’s kind of like how I crafted my flow. But at first it sounded like a really old New York head. Because that’s how they learned, it was the same way that I went through it. And I was like, oh, like when I was rapping to the metronomes or trying to count beats, that’s exactly what these old heads were doing when they were sampling songs and trying to like put the drums over it. And I took that and I was like, okay, that’s dope. But I like lofi. I like that spin of it. I like that new era boom bap vibe. But it wasn’t giving like all of me, it was only giving like the introspective version of me, but there’s a lot more to me.

So I was like, I have energy. I got vibes. Like why I feel like I’m in a box when I rap to stuff like this. So my goal after that was to find beats that had a bounce and a feel like a West Coast beat, but also the feeling is soulful like the melodies and the synths, the noises in it are soulful. But it still got this grungy, spacey vibe like a lofi beat. So then that’s when my sound happened. Like I literally made it.

I call it West soul lofi. So West Coast, neo-soul, and lofi. And that’s my foundation. Everything comes from that. But after I’ve studied so many artists and stuff like I’m not in a box. I literally make everything. But that’s my home, where my heart is, where you’ll see my bodies of work.

And for the artists I could say that I put together in a blender, it’s probably like Kendrick, Kanye, for sure Kanye, a lot of Kanye. If you listen to Be You, after listening to Graduation, you gon hear what I’m saying. I even mixed and mastered the project similar to how he did his drums and the stuff on Graduation. And To Pimp a Butterfly is my favorite album by Kendrick. But the last artist, like the only person I can really think of is Gorillaz. But they’re not really like a rap group. They’re like a band that features artists on their stuff. So I grew up listening to the hip hop artists that they would feature on their collective projects. So I took a lot from that. A lot of the creative approach that came from that.

I know you used to go by Florence the Infinite. So where did that come from and then why did you change it to what you have now, Elias the Infinite?

Well, Florence is like a street. Like when I would pull up to my house in Inglewood, it’s a street. And it’s this big ass church, like right there it say Florence. So like every time I saw the church and saw Florence, I knew I was home. I knew I was about to be home in like two minutes, like from my mom crib. And then that street, basically I wanted everything I do to have intent.

So when I wrote the name, I was like, this shit gotta be a bar. It gotta make sense. So if you break down Florence, the nickname of Florence is “Flo” and what you do when you rap? You flow. So Flo the Infinite, like flow forever. Infinite flows, you can take it as I just didn’t want to be in a box. So I knew for sure my name got to represent that I could rap whatever I want to do and do whatever I want to do.

And then plus, Florence is an infinite street because of all the LA riots and shit. So it’s like basically Florence is infinite because of things that took place on Florence Street to help LA where it is now. It connects through all the hoods in LA damn near. So it’s like, I wanted that street just cause I knew like a lot of people knew about it.

Then I felt like I had to turn into somebody else. Like, I gotta change my name if I want to be taken seriously. But as you can see, that’s not true. I went back, I took Florence away cause there’s a little, there’s a child. There was the child version of me that’s tied into that. And I’ve done a lot of growing and developing. So I’m not afraid to have my name be known in that light. I don’t want something that’s already had a name, established for me to feed off of and then be the face of that, which is cool. I was doing that for a long time as a kid. People driving around LA, seeing Florence and then thinking of me. And that’s great marketing.

But when I changed my name, it was literally because I needed to shed that. I was going through changes as I was turning into a man. I was learning more things about myself, like elevating. I couldn’t attach myself or associate myself with that name anymore, just due to how many relationships have already gone through that name that were just kind of like, I don’t want to say stepping stones. That sounded wrong. But yeah, stepping stones, obstacles that I’ve avoided, or things that I’ve gone through that that name is tied to. And those people and things I didn’t feel like in this new chapter of my life needed to come with me, because my level of artistry is on a different tier now, on a whole different tier and aspect that’s way more personal to who I am as an individual.

So Florence was more for everybody. You know what I’m saying? That sounds crazy. Florence was more for everybody though, like in a sense of, like, I was trying to be the people’s champ. I wasn’t trying to, like, put myself first. I’m not hating on the name, I still love the name. I’m grateful that I went through all the things I did with that name and everybody who cherished the name. But it was time to show people that, yo, I’m not a kid anymore. I got this name when I was 13, I’m an adult. This is my life, this is what I’m gonna die behind. So if I have to have something on my gravestone to be an AKA, I’d rather it be my actual name. I figured like once I’m up enough, people would drop the infinite part.

Okay, so it’s kind of like the name is also just an evolution of yourself, like a visual representation of that. But so, you know, 2024 is coming up really soon. What goals do you have for next year for your music and is there anything people should be looking out for?

BE YOU (side B) for sure. That’s coming out top of next year, not January. I ain’t promising nothing in January. But definitely top of next year, first quarter. It’s going into like spring so I want to match that energy.

All my time is going into getting ready for everybody and then I’m probably gonna be pushing [my next big project] throughout the year, you know all the way through until 2025. If I feel good about what is going on or if you know, I get my accolades from it early, I might drop another project before the year is over. I already have it done. I just don’t know when to let it fly.

I want to make sure that BE YOU, the whole ensemble, both sides is out and everyone’s digested it before I feed this other project out there. But yeah, that’s what I got planned.

And oh, just like for a fun question, choose three people for your dream rotation?

Snoop Dogg for sure. Yes. Yeah. Snoop Dogg. Who would I smoke a blunt with that would be pretty rad? Oh Billie Eilish, I think that would be cool because I think it would just be so fucking weird, but like cool weird. She goofy to where it’d be a funny high, like it’d be a funny high experience. It’d be either awkward as fuck or funny. And then the last person I would want to smoke with, it’d be Kanye. I feel like he would be tweaking on me though. But yeah, those three people, Snoop Dogg, Billie Eilish, and Kanye West.

Okay, my last question, before we end, what is your song of the week this week?

My song of the week has been, I guess, ‘Not a Drill’ by Veeze. But like there’s another song by Jordan Ward called ‘DANCE MACHINE.’ I’ve been fucking with that heavy, so between those two.

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eliastheinfinite
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elias.the.infinite/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Eliasinfinite
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeFeGH-L7nLvbrIhb97P8sg Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2XbXue6ZbOkqWQEJPjhGis
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/elias-the-infinite/1632748731 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/florence_the_infinite