TOKEN

Token is the stage name of Benjamin David Goldberg (born September 24, 1998), a rapper, singer, and record producer from Marblehead, Massachusetts, with early-career ties to the Greater Boston scene. (Some early-2016 press and one database field cite Salem, Massachusetts — including an internal inconsistency inside Token's own Wikipedia article, whose opening sentence names Salem while its own infobox, early-life narrative and category all say Marblehead. The Boston Globe's dedicated 2017 profile, the deepest reporting found on his background, also confirms Marblehead — this page follows that stronger sourcing.)

Introduced to hip hop at age 6 by his older sister, he began writing raps around age 10, recording over GarageBand beats — what he has described as "self-therapy sessions set to music." He chose the name Token in 5th grade and adopted it officially by 8th grade. T-Pain shared one of his early videos when he was 14.

On July 1, 2012, at age 13, Token approached rapper Hopsin outside The Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and asked to freestyle for him. Hopsin's response — "I see what you're doing, and it's sick. You have the techniques, but sometimes take it slower" — became, in Token's own words years later, "the night of my life for years." The Boston Globe frames the encounter as the galvanizing moment of his early career; it later led to a tour-opening slot for Hopsin.

"No Sucka MC's" (October 2015), filmed walking through Marblehead, drew over 500,000 views in three days and attention from Fred Durst, Mark Wahlberg, and T-Pain — it remains the breakout moment most closely associated with his early career. On April 1, 2016, at 17, he freestyled on Sway in the Morning's "Friday Fire Cypher" over the beat of Lil Wayne's "Believe Me," a performance AllHipHop reported drew 1.4 million Facebook views.

Mark Wahlberg's public support followed shortly after — he called Fred Durst to ask about Token, then reached out directly, leading to a Wahlburgers appearance (November 2016) and a role in Patriots Day (December 2016) as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college roommate.

Token released his debut album, Eraser Shavings, in September 2016 — self-released on his own Token, LLC. Between Somewhere followed in December 2018, and was expanded two months later with the bonus track "Youtube Rapper" featuring Tech N9ne — which went on to become, by a wide margin, his most-viewed video ever (roughly 27.5 million views), still ahead of anything he has released since.

In 2020, Goldberg founded Never Too Different — in his own words, "I wanted to have an imprint, have my own things fans could relate to bigger than Token." The same year, it entered a distribution partnership with Atlantic Records; Pink Is Better (2022, led by "Boom" featuring J.I.D) carries an Atlantic Recording Corporation copyright credit. MNRK (the 2021 rebrand of eOne Music) is documented in connection with a 2022 single release.

Both of Token's most recent albums — I'm Not Supposed to Be Here (2025) and I'm Leaving Soon (2026) — carry only a Never Too Different copyright credit, with no Atlantic or MNRK line. This marks a real shift in the release credits; the current digital distributor for that later work is not independently confirmed.

I'm Leaving Soon (July 2026) is a 20-track solo album written around his father's death and health scares, released on Never Too Different, with a different featured guest on most (not all) tracks — Pouya, Connor Price, Lil Darkie, Jasiah, Terror Reid, and others each appear on a single song, not as co-equal album partners. It followed I'm Not Supposed to Be Here (June 2025).

Token is currently touring behind I'm Leaving Soon — a 21-date U.S. run (October–November 2026) that closed with a sold-out hometown show at Brighton Music Hall, Boston, on November 28, 2026, which sold out two months in advance for what he called, on his own account, the first time.