How Planta Industrial Met
Saso and Akathedarknight met in high school but didn’t become close until after graduation. At the time, they were on very different paths. Akathedarknight focused on fashion, while Saso prepared for law school. “So then, once it turned for me, taking music seriously,” Saso explains, everything shifted. Akathedarknight was already involved behind the scenes. “AKA was always helping me, not only with music production but also with lyrics, directing, editing, wearing a lot of hats, and my operation,” Saso adds.
When they realized they were both actively making music, they decided to collaborate. Their first song together was “That’s My Bitch,” which led to the journey they are on right now. “It’s like, finally, putting together the peanut butter and the jelly. You can eat jelly by itself and peanut butter, but we just did something that just really hit, and I guess the rest will be history,” akathedarknight says.
Despite industry advice to push one song for a year in exchange for streams, which was “That’s My Bitch,” Planta Industrial chose a different path. “Why not give you more songs so you could feel like you were part of us? That’s what we wanted. We didn’t want everyone to just know ‘That’s My Bitch’ for a year. It just didn’t feel right,” akathedarknight explains. This decision gave us hits such as “Teteo in The Bronx” and “Arthur Ave,” to name a few.
Arthur Ave, Big Pun, and the Bronx
“Arthur Ave” feels like a love letter to their neighborhood, their upbringing, and Big Pun. As their TikTok caption, “Dominicans From the Bronx,” began gaining traction, the song became a way to honor where they come from. “Big Pun was such a big staple. He’s one of the most lyrical hip-hop artists of all time, right? He’s really up there. And we just wanted to pay homage to our borough,” akathedarknight says. The song represents unity as well. “It wasn’t more so about being Dominican. It was more about the Bronx. Big Pun is Puerto Rican, and where we grew up, everyone was one. And it didn’t matter if you were Dominican, Puerto Rican, Mexican, or whatever we were; if you’re in the Bronx, we’re all one family.”
Sampling Big Pun was also intentional in this song. Saso explains that it’s one of those lines DJs stop the record for, where the whole room chants along. Instead of using it conventionally, Planta Industrial flipped the approach. “We decided not make it the conventional use of the sample. We did Prodigy breakbeats again; it’s just building the soundscape of what Planta can offer and work with. It’s like what hasn’t been done before. No one’s ever done it in that way,” akathedarknight says.