Aaron The Villain has released his new single “Benzo”. The song features background vocals by associated artist Profae and is produced by Scottie Flames. The single is a part of a journey Aaron The Villain plans to take his fans on, leading up to the release of his EP, The Transporter. Aaron The Villain is coming off of a fresh rebrand. Once performing under the moniker P.R.N.G. (acronym for Poetic, Ruthless, Nostalgic, and Genuine), Aaron The Villain wanted to embrace a name that better explains his past and reality. “I felt like the new name is a representation of what I was dealing with,” he states. “There’s so many things in my past that I didn’t get to talk about, but my team put me in a place where I can finally tell these truths.” He continues, explaining how the record surfaced. “It was actually intended for my boy Profae to keep for his future project. But when I heard it, I knew I could remake it into something diabolical, so I had to have it.”
Aaron The Villain is a Miami based artist with family ties to Alabama and Tennessee. While performing under his previous moniker, he developed a fanbase he didn’t know he had. “Maybe six or so months after I’m dropping music in 2020, I’m at the Miami Design District minding my business when these kids approach me. One of them turns his phone around and has my Spotify for P.R.N.G. up, asking if it’s me. It was a weird yet joyous feeling at the same time because they were talking about how they couldn’t find me on social media.” But now, Aaron claims he will make himself more accessible to potential fans online. “I’m not much of an internet guy these days, but now I will at least leave myself out there for fans to put a face to the music.”
“Benzo”, Aaron The Villain says, is a record that showcases the recklessness and irresponsibility of a young man trying to navigate in the fast paced, high dollar world of Miami, where he resides. “I didn’t grow up there,” he states, “But I’ve made it into a home with people I’ve built solid relationships with.” He also holds himself responsible for mixing his own projects, keeping a close relationship with his mastering engineer. “Once I have a record written, I will sit down and go through ideas of how I can pan vocals with different parts of the track. Sometimes producers will hear my version of a record over their beat and hear things I’ve rearranged or reproduced. I’ve tried using external mix engineers in the past and no one could really get my vision down the way I wanted, so now I just do it myself.”
Aaron The Villain also points out something unique about this record that contributes to the feel of the song. “I was sitting there reading a book about Dr. Dre in the studio, and he pointed out that for the longest he used a tape machine to record Eminem’s & 50 Cent’s albums, claiming that the tape machine brought sonics and colors that gave their songs this aggression that he wanted. I wanted to replicate that so I found a studio in Memphis, Tennessee that still tracked to tape and it was heaven.” He continues, “Nothing about this record is digital, all the effects and mixing were done on hardware units. At first the engineers and owner didn’t think I knew what I was doing, but when they came into the final mix session and heard it, they were blown away. [laughing] Now I’m allowed there whenever I want to go there.”
Listen to “Benzo” by Aaron The Villain on Spotify.