It’s noon on the west coast when I start a group facetime call with Jelani Aryeh and Will Pratt of Raised By The Internet. While Will is in New Canaan, Connecticut, Jelani and I coincidentally are both in San Diego, California. Although COVID-19 and quarantine made a virtual chat necessary, Jelani and Will know first hand just how meaningful online interactions can be.
In April 2017, Jelani posted to an Odd Future subreddit in the hopes of connecting with other young and passionate artists. Will Pratt, a producer and music mixer, was one of the promising creatives that replied to this post, and from there a strong friendship formed. While Jelani made several other connections through this internet inquiry, the one he made with Will, and another artist by the name of Jack Kolbe, have proved to be the most long-lasting. Today, they are the three original members of the appropriately named creative collective, Raised By The Internet.
Now you may be wondering, what exactly is Raised By The Internet? Is it a boy band? A rap group? Just a cool squad name? To this Jelani answered “its a fucking family.” More precisely he means 11 good friends with diverse interests, from music to graphic design, all working together to support each other’s artistic endeavors. Jelani sees a group album and tour in their future but currently they’re focused on launching individual centered projects, like Jelani’s new single “Stella Brown” or Gidi’s recent EP Persona. Gidi is among the 7 additional members of RBTI that have been brought on board over the last couple of years. Although there’s no specific genre or artistic style required to join this close-knit creative circle, they only extend membership to those they get along well with and whose contributions they value. “At this point it’s kinda just like if you are the homie to everyone in this group, and you have helped or are constantly helping us in some way, then it’s just like ‘alright, do you wanna be in the group dude?’” explained Will. “Yeah, and just feeling like that same passion is there in them too,” added Jelani.
Despite the benefits of collaboration, Jelani and Will both said that at times it can be difficult to have others involved in your creative process. Particularly, there is an inherent vulnerability that makes sharing creative ideas a challenge. Will mentioned, “I definitely work better when I’m alone” but since living with other members of RBTI, collaboration has gotten easier. Regardless of the initial difficulty, Jelani stated, “ there is something super duper special about creating with other people, it’s just like you couldn’t make that by yourself.”
Jelani and Will both expressed their desires to keep creating and growing as artists. “Just making progress,” Will said, is an essential component of his definition of success. Additionally, Will looks forward to “being good enough to compete with other people at a professional level.” Jelani characterized success as “being able to say what you want, and being able to make what you want to make, and having people accept that.” With over 680,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and several songs with more than a few million streams, it is clear that people have more than just accepted Jelani’s music.
As we wrapped up our facetime call, I asked Jelani and Will how they would finish the sentence “Music is [blank].” Jelani paused for a long time before saying “Damn that’s big” and after several more seconds of silence settled for the statement “Music is an experience”. Will also thought for a while, breaking the silence with “Ugh, I just don’t want to say something corny!” and finally concluding “Music is cool… I like music.” The passion and talent radiating from Jelani and Will, as well as the rest of Raised By The Internet, is clear and evident. The group looks forward to continually creating, and hopes to inspire other young artists to create as well.
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