Before labels came calling and major artists slid into his DMs, Cole Bennett was just a teenager from Plano, Illinois, making trippy music videos for local rappers and uploading them to a little YouTube channel called Lyrical Lemonade. At the time, it looked like a side hustle. In hindsight? It was the early blueprint of a digital movement.

Now, after winning Video Director of the Year at the 2024 BET Awards, Bennett has cemented himself as the visual voice of his generation—an auteur with a distinct style who helped reshape how music videos are made, discovered, and consumed.

Bennett's early work wasn’t polished. It wasn’t glossy. It looked like it was made on a cracked laptop—and that’s exactly why it worked. He embraced jump cuts, hand-drawn animations, surreal edits, and budget-friendly green screens with an infectious energy that matched the SoundCloud wave.

He wasn’t trying to mimic the high-budget directors from MTV or Hype-era BET. He was building a new visual language for a new breed of artists—DIY kids who didn’t have a budget but had something to say. That rawness? It became his signature.

It was “Lucid Dreams” in 2018 that changed everything. The video—shot in a single day, edited on Bennett’s home computer—blew up fast. Juice WRLD became a household name, and Cole Bennett became the go-to for any artist trying to level up while staying authentic.

From there, he built a visual résumé that reads like a who's-who of modern hip hop: Lil Tecca, NLE Choppa, Polo G, Jack Harlow, Lil Durk, Ski Mask the Slump God, and more. If you were an artist on the cusp, a Cole Bennett video wasn’t just an aesthetic choice—it was a rite of passage.

More than a director, Bennett became a curator. Lyrical Lemonade isn’t just a channel—it’s a brand, a tastemaker, a launching pad. He treated his platform like a label without the contracts, offering artists a digital stage with millions of eyes and no corporate interference.

Festivals, merch, short films, and full-blown cultural moments followed. His creative independence stayed intact. His taste became trusted. And his videos? They kept pushing boundaries—mixing anime references with streetwear visuals, lo-fi effects with cinematic pacing.

Bennett’s visuals always feel young, but never childish. His color palettes pop. His transitions hit. His pacing matches TikTok scroll culture without feeling gimmicky. Somehow, he captures the exact energy of a track—and then stretches it into something bigger.

Where other directors chase the mainstream, Bennett filters it through his own lens. That’s how you get artists like Eminem, Cordae, and even pop crossovers trusting his vision.

Winning Video Director of the Year in 2024 wasn’t just overdue—it was validation from an industry he helped disrupt. What Bennett built didn’t come from inside the machine. He made the machine come to him.

Now with Lyrical Lemonade continuing to evolve, and his influence seeping into how Gen Z watches, shares, and talks about music, one thing is clear: Cole Bennett isn’t just capturing culture. He’s engineering it.

TL;DR:
From editing in his bedroom to directing viral videos that break careers, Cole Bennett has redefined what it means to be a music video director in the digital age. And the best part? He’s just getting started.

Watch the BET Awards 2025 on June 9th at 8PM ET only on BET!