Benjamin Starr speaks softly when he's not in a recording booth. His words are regularly full of emotion but sound as if they were chosen prudently. Starr's tactful diction and cool mood out of the spotlight stand in contrast to his talkative vigor on stage and his take-no-prisoners attitude in the rhyme book.
Maybe it's his adaptability, maybe it's his peaceful confrontation of social injustice, or maybe it's just his beats and words, but Starr knows how to captivate a room. And that's a skill he will put to good use with his latest release, titled A Water Album.
The new LP is not a live album in the traditional sense. Yes, Starr will record a performance of a show in front of eager fans, but every song is new and unheard. A Water Album is the long-awaited follow-up to 2015's Free Lunch.
"I think the best way for me to capture all of those things, that mental, spiritual, emotional connection with the people in the city where I wrote this album is to do it live, and bring people into that recording process," says Starr.