Amir Benjamin (born February 12, 1999) is an American rapper and producer professionally known as Surf (oftentimes SurfSkrt). The Atlanta native earned his call to fame upon the release of his first full length mixtape in 2017, Bad Human. Having battled with depression and the weight of losing loved ones around him, Surf’s rapping serves as genuine motivation to pursue better opportunities in his life.

Surf had always had an affinity for music. Growing up, his grandfather had worked with Reggae multi-intrumentalist Peter Tosh and other small Jamaican bands. By his early teens, he learned how to play the guitar and piano, but only when he started posting his music to his SoundCloud did he begin to gain the attention of larger artists and an ever growing fan base. In an interview with RESPECT., Surf discussed his inspiration, saying:

I was just putting stuff out on SoundCloud and I didn’t have a plan, I didn’t really have any idea what I was doing, I was just making music because I loved to create. I was getting feedback from classmates and people online, but I had a very chill start up and gradual growth to this point.

His audience’s love of his punk influence and trap inspired melodies would lead Surf to release the sequel to Bad Human titled Badder Human on September 20, 2019. The album was met with even more critical acclaim which was helped by the lead single, “Better Days.”

In January 2020, Amir’s mother unfortunately passed away, an unfortunate turn of events that is heavily touched upon in his music. He has continued to poor his pain into his music, determined to make his loved ones proud.

In the coming years, he became known for his extreme commitment to his fanbase, releasing five full length projects in 2021 and six full length in 2022. Surf also regularly released music on a secret SoundCloud account, Secret Surf that gained its own cult following. With each track, it became apparent how talented Amir was as a storyteller, making music look almost effortless to create. Around 2020, he became synonymous for his No Smoke series, loose projects oftentimes featuring production from himself, beginning with No Smoke, Vol. 1 in late 2020 and concluding with NO SMOKE, Vol. 7 in 2025.

In 2021, Surf created the pseudo-collective and clothing brand RUINED., an organization that him and his friends in the industry repped throughout their music. RUINED. is listed as the copyright holder on several of his projects, with a sizable amount of songs containing an audible, “You ruin everything” tag voiced by an unknown woman. The collective dissolved in 2024 around the time that Surf made a decision to change his artist name to “ouid.” Although RUINED. dissolved, the tag can still be heard in recent Surf releases and although the Atlanta rapper never fully adopted the name “ouid,” it remains the name of burner account on Instagram.

In 2022, Surf started making music with darker, rage influenced production from the producer collective Against Cxntrol.

In 2024, Surf concluded his Planet Surf series of projects with Planet Surf 3 and its deluxe version.