An Ahead-of-its-Time Fusion of Guitar, Rap, and DIY Ambition, the Collection is Reborn for Streaming Audiences
Restlessly inventive artist goodie has announced that he is revisiting the roots of his creative identity with the release of goodie: The Early Years pt I, a newly re-mixed and remastered collection drawn from the first two albums he recorded between 2010 and 2011. Available on all major streaming platforms starting Friday, December 19, the album presents a curated snapshot of a teenage artist experimenting freely at the crossroads of guitar-driven songwriting and hip-hop.
Before goodie had a name or a defined sound, its creator was a classically trained kid—piano at age five, violin through middle school—who found his real musical voice after picking up a guitar on Christmas Day 2007. Writing songs alone in his bedroom quickly turned into a compulsion, driven more by emotion than technique. That trajectory shifted when a high-school friend, Matthew Molina (aka R1CAN), invited him into the world of DIY rap recording, cutting verses over YouTube beats with minimal equipment. The collaboration introduced goodie to rapping and self-recording—two practices that would become central to his approach.
Growing up in Atlanta public schools, goodie absorbed the city’s hip-hop culture while also being shaped by the genre-blending influence of Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. The result was an instinctive pull toward rapping over guitars—often solo, over sampled drums rather than with a full band. While that fusion-based sound existed at the time, the collection highlights an early, individual take that feels quietly forward-looking in retrospect.
Originally recorded with limited production knowledge, the songs lived for years in their raw form on Bandcamp. As goodie’s technical skills developed, the idea of revisiting the material became increasingly compelling. With the original session files intact, he returned to the tracks to give them fuller, warmer mixes—bringing clarity and dimension without sanding down their rough edges. A pause in making new music ultimately provided the space to complete the project.
Curated as a representative “tasting menu,” The Early Years pt I spans acoustic singer-songwriter cuts, guitar-driven rap tracks, and early experiments that resist clean categorization. The lyrics—often centered on youth, relationships, and underage drinking—are unpretentious but honest, capturing the mindset of a creatively restless teenager with no commercial agenda and few inhibitions.
“These songs are a perfect snapshot of who I was at that time in my life, both for better and for worse,” said goodie. “I don’t have a ton in common with that person now, but then again, as I was working on the project, I would catch a lyric here and there that made me think, ‘Jesus, I’m still struggling with that’ or ‘Wow, I already thought that at 18 years old?’ In both good and bad ways.”
The official tracklisting for The Early Years pt I is as follows:
“intro (chillin’ hard)”
“hardheaded woman”
“bullseye furk”
“havin’ a ball”
“happy song (bad week)”
“blackcloud”
“light me”
“interlude”
“little league”
“sorry in advance”
“no problem”
“it wasn’t enough (hope and luck)”
“tell ya friends”
“all i know”
“talkin’ shit”
“bittersweet (see you soon)”
Rather than nostalgia, The Early Years pt I functions as a document: outsider art preserved as-is, now placed alongside the wider streaming canon. It’s a reminder of how much ambition can exist before refinement—and how those early impulses often shape everything that follows.
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Credits
Written, recorded, mixed, and mastered by goodie (Benton Oliver)
- “hardheaded woman” – Chorus and chord progression written by Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)
- “light me” – Chorus and chord progression written by Jean Anthony Greif
- “little league” – R1CAN verse written by Matthew Molina
- “bittersweet (see you soon)” – Chorus and chord progression written by Thomas Callaway (CeeLo Green) and Brian Burton (Danger Mouse)
About goodie
goodie is a project by music industry professional Benton Oliver, who works in management helping artists, bands, and producer clients manage their careers. Oliver has also worked with live music organizations including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Preservation Hall, and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra.
Oliver unveiled the project goodie in the early 2010s, after developing his sound outside of traditional band structures. Blending rap vocals with guitars, samples and whatever instruments were available, he was guided more by instinct and creative urgency than by genre rules or commercial ambition.
At the core of goodie is a commitment to outsider art: self-written, self-recorded, and self-produced music made without creative guardrails. The lyrics often reflect youthful restlessness and self-examination, focusing on relationships, indulgence, and internal contradictions, delivered with candor rather than polish. Early recordings prioritize momentum over technical refinement-, they reveal an artist driven by curiosity, density of thought, and a willingness to try anything once.
Rather than chasing trends, goodie documents moments—capturing who he is at a given point in time and moving on when that chapter feels complete. His catalog reflects growth through experimentation, and his recent work revisiting early material underscores a broader artistic throughline: ambition first, refinement later, and honesty always.