'Texts from Bennett' might not be fake after all: A Q&A with creator Mac Lethal

No sooner did the tumblr blog “Texts From Bennett”  -- which showcases the bizarre worldview of a 17-year-old wannabe thug in the Midwest – go viral then reports surfaced from The Smoking Gun alleging that the entire thing was a fake, concocted by 30-year-old rapper Mac Lethal (real name David Sheldon). Metro ran with the story, declaring that "anyone with a brain" could have figured that the blog was false.

Lethal, however, has condemned the Smoking Gun report as false and malicious. Now, he speaks to Metro, telling us that that the blog is 100% real, he just doesn't want to sell out his family to confirm it.

Metro: Is Texts From Bennett fake?

Lethal: First and foremost, it's actually 100% not fake. The Smoking Gun called my father, and my dad wouldn't tell him who Bennett was. His first name isn’t Bennett, and we're not going to give out [his] telephone number, home address or legal birth name. We’re not going to do that. We're protecting a family member, who we think is very funny. I'm not going to sell out my family members. Nobody would.

But aren’t you already doing that by putting his texts online?

OK, but let me ask you this: Based on the texts that I'm putting out, can you go find him? Can you exploit my family's information that way? No, you can't.

You can't. But the blog does say his girlfriend’s name.

His girlfriend's name is not Mercedes. That's her nickname. That's the thing that people aren't understanding. He's completely protected.

It says he works at Amoco.

No, not now. He doesn't have a job right now. But regardless of whether or not people think it's morally reprehensible for me to be putting his text messages online, whether or not I’m selling him out, that is yet to be determined. That's fine. I'll take that. But the idea that I would give people his personal information, to let him get reached by reporters…?

Does he know about the blog?

He's unaware of the blog. He lives in a low-income neighborhood called Argentine in Kansas City, KS, in Wyanndotte County. And he doesn't have the Internet. This is apparently surprising to people from outside the Midwest or aren't from areas that have low-income people.

How did you decided to start the site?

I used to get on Facebook, with the fans of my music, I would type these quotes that my cousin would text message me. And then I decided to put them over on tumblr, because people wanted to read the quotes. I never thought this was going to get big. I always thought it would be for a few of my fans, and they would think it was funny. It was never a thing where it was like, "I'm going to get a book deal!" There were no real intentions behind it at all.

Do you understand how people would be suspicious, though? The Internet is full of these fake text message jokes.

Being suspicious of something is one thing. Reporting it, [as the Smoking Gun did,] that the site confirmed to be fake is a different thing, especially when the parties concerned are saying it's not. They didn't confirm anything!

It seems like they are saying the burden of proof is on you to prove that it's real, where you're saying the burden is on them to prove it's false.

They're putting out information that I think is false. They just want a story.  Why take something that people think is funny, where there's a mystery to it, and question it? I want it to be up to people to make up their own minds.

But now saying you want people to make up their own minds, when you are also saying on the site that it's 100% real, isn't that a little fishy?

What I'm saying is, in terms of how I present the blog, I'm never going to go out of my way to prove it's real. I had a picture of [Bennett] up and I took it down, because I don't want that picture to be on the Internet. I realized how dangerous that was. But whether or not someone thinks [the site] is fishy is fine.

It does seem a little too perfect. Does he know that he's being funny? Is he playing up his own character?

He's a very, very arrogant person. I post the things that are funny. They’re not the only things we text. It's a 24-hour-a-day thing. There's so much [stuff] that he says that doesn't work. Of course certain things are going to be funny. But that requires hours of me sitting here, entertaining conversation. I couldn't write this sort of stuff.

But it's a little suspicious that he's texting his cousin who happens to be a comedian.

I'm not a comedian.

You write funny raps.

But they're not funny like that. They're more angry. Here's the bottom line. I was upset because people were calling my dad, trying to look for members of my family, and it's just a [crappy] deal. But you know? It's my fault.

Do you regret making the blog?

The other night I was debating taking it down. [Bennett’s] mom is on disability, and if someone finds out who she is or where she is, they could really do some damage to her. I've battled with it, but at the same time, it's gotten this big now. I’m not going to not let people enjoy it, people who don't really want think about it. They don't want to look into whether it's fake or not. And if they do, they can think on their own. They can use their own heads for that. I can't 100% confirm everything, and that's fine. I'm not looking for people to go "Oh, OK! I believe!" 

What do you think? Is Texts from Bennett real after all? Does Metro have egg on our faces?