They're always elaborate, they got face paint and beads and dirt in their hair and shit, making them look like something else. "The majority of style right now is to act like you don't have style at all, so most companies are getting rich off clothes that look torn, clothes that look worn. "I think it's real important to show style now," he says. He is presumably the only rapper on earth who collects antique silk scarves.
He has also been seen in a pair of billowing plaid golf pants with bow tie and elaborate pink hat. He chose to promote their last album, 2001's Stankonia, by donning a long platinum wig and a flowery dress - a staggering move given hip hop's famously unenlightened attitude to homosexuality. By Benjamin's standards, this constitutes dressing down. Today he is wearing an outfit that teams a multi-coloured tie-dyed t-shirt with a pea coat monogrammed with his initials. He long ago eschewed the standard hip-hop uniform of sportswear and designer labels in favour of a unique look he dubs the "gentleman rebel". Then there is the small matter of his dress sense. I don't know if he understood it really." There's a pause. "My DJ, y'know, he'd never been to a rock concert before. "I took my DJ to the Strokes concert last Wednesday," Benjamin says, smiling.
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It's money driven, everybody tryin' to make that cheque, nobody putting art in their albums any more." Instead, his tastes currently run to the noisy "drill'n'bass" techno of Squarepusher and the Aphex Twin, the Ramones and the Buzzcocks' stripped-down punk, plus the Strokes and the Hives. He is unimpressed by his fellow rappers: "Hip-hop don't have no fresh energy, none at all. His musical predilections are equally outré by hip-hop standards. In a world of weed-addled, champagne-sipping fast-food lovers, Benjamin is a vegetarian yoga enthusiast who paints in his spare time and has foresworn all intoxicants because "I was abusing it too much, I didn't think I could last long doing that, so I had to chill out". This is not normal behaviour for a rap superstar. His answers are usually preceded by lengthy pauses, during which he sighs, strokes his goatee beard and composes his thoughts. Softly spoken and courteous to a fault, he is delightful company.
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