An interview with Elliot Montanez

By julian harvey

Photo via Lyrical Lemonade

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of sitting down virtually with Elliot Montanez, Director of Operations at Lyrical Lemonade. We discussed his history with the company, making money as an artist, and the bright future of the Chicago music scene.    

Elliot started at Lyrical Lemonade when the whole operation was just a blog run by founder Cole Bennet. As the site expanded, so did his role, but as he explained to me, the growth both in size and vision for Lyrical Lemonade was very organic. “It would sound cool to say that we planned all this from the beginning but we didn’t… We took opportunities as they came along.” Elliot credits some of their early success to luck and good timing. When I asked him what some of the company's breakthrough moments were, he recalled when they brought Philly’s Lil Uzi Vert to Chicago for the first time. When they booked Uzi, they paid only $2,000, a show price that had ballooned to $20,000 by the time they put the concert on.
​
We got a chance to discuss what it takes to turn your art into a career. Merch plays a huge role these days, not just because it’s a way to have money coming in, but because it’s a way for your fans to identify with your work and spread the word. “Stickers, hats, tee-shirts–branding is so important,” Elliot told me. “There was a time when the carton patch hoodie (a simple hoodie with the iconic Lyrical Lemonade logo on the breast) was basically funding the company.” Lyrical Lemonade’s apparel might have had humble beginnings but they’ve since done collabs with everyone from Nike to Poptarts. I learned it was Elliot’s time cutting his teeth at merch tables for Chicago artists like Chance the Rapper that he attributes some of his success to in the apparel world. Chance, of course, might have the only more recognizable logo in Chicago hip-hop–the connection made sense to me.

---

Photo via Lyrical Lemonade

The Lyrical Lemonade media empire is vast. Obviously, Cole Bennet’s music videos are what made them famous but live shows, YouTube videos, and the Lyrical Lemonade blog are also big pieces of the puzzle. This January, Lyrical Lemonade released their first music. The album, “All is Yellow,” features mainstays of the Lyrical Lemonade world like Lil Durk, G Herbo, and Lil Yachty. According to Elliot, “The seed for the album was planted back in 2020.” Montanez told me, “It was only possible because of a lot of great relationships.” Montanez stressed to me the importance of being genuine and how, with a lot of artists, he’s a friend before he is a collaborator.
​
I closed out the interview by asking Elliot who are a few artists to watch out of the city. He gave back two answers. The first is Ausar, a southside artist who has had a few bigger tracks over the years including “Growth” and “Hive,” both of which are stellar and I would highly recommend. The other artist he wanted to recognize was Rogers Park's very own OG Stevo. Steve is an artist I’ve been familiar with since I was a little kid, not because I was a particularly tapped-in 13-year-old but because he was a counselor at my summer camp. Stevo’s melodic style is ripe for mainstream success and it’s only a matter of time before he crosses over. “He’s realistically one big feature away from taking off,” Elliot told me.

---

Photo via Ausar

Photo via OG Stevo

 Thanks to Elliot for sitting down with me and Oliver Olson for making this interview happen.