Griselda
Hip-hop group, Griselda, comprised of rappers Westside Gunn, Conway, and Benny the Butcher continues to make a name for themselves in 2019, closing the decade with their first album, WWCD (2019). The group’s sound is described as pure and bone-deep, receiving reviews in high esteem.
At the same time, Griselda’s Benny The Butcher is making strides as a solo artist. On June 21st, 2019 Benny released The Plugs I Met. Firstly, the album is a 7 song EP featuring Pusha T, Black Thought, Jadakiss, Conway, 38 Spesh, Rj Payne, and India. Following this, the Buffalo rapper embodies an ‘underground’ sound throughout the project with precise, elite lyricism over boom-bap instrumentals. Contributing to the album’s success, producers Daringer, The Alchemist, and DJ Shay took the lead for the project, creating perfect beats for Benny. The project played through is very smooth and focused, with no straying off into different areas.
The lyricism presented throughout the project is nothing but top tier excellence. There are only 7 songs on the EP, so with little room to slip up, Benny didn’t miss. Standout feature performances from Pusha T on “18 Wheeler” and Black Thought on “Crowns For Kings” highlight the EP. Also tracks like “Dirty Harry”, “Took the Money to the Plug’s House”, and “5 to 50” make great additions to the project. Luckily, Benny did not stop there in 2019 as he released a collab album with rapper Smoke Dza titled Statue of Limitations in Oct. of 2019.
Benny The Butcher is signed to Griselda Records, Black Soprano Family, and most recently Roc Nation. Griselda was founded by label mate Westside Gunn in 2014 which includes his brother Conway aswell. The trio has been making music since the late 2000s but has recently found larger commercial success with help from many co-signs around the hip-hop world. For example, Eminem signed Griselda to Shady Records in 2017 which gave the group a larger audience to build on. During the following year in 2018, Benny released his debut studio album Tana Talk 3. Which is the critically acclaimed third extension of the series. Due to their work ethic, all three members of Griselda have a massive catalogue of features, mixtapes, EPs, and albums. In 2019 alone, Griselda was responsible for 11 projects between the three of them including their group collab album WWCD which dropped in late Nov.
@Debatinghiphop_ opinion: The Plugs I Met currently sits underneath Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s Bandana for my second best project in 2019.
(Album and song ratings are compared to other releases in the year)
Song by Song Ratings:
Crowns For Kings: 10/10
Sunday School: 9.5/10
Dirty Harry: 10/10
Took The Money To The Plug’s House: 10/10
18 Wheeler: 10/10
5 to 50: 9.5/10
Album Rating: 9/10
