EP by Benny the Butcher. The production is handled by DJ Shay, Daringer, Beat Butcha and Alchemist. Guests are Black Thought, 38 Spesh, Jadakiss, RJ Payne, Conway the Machine, Pusha T, and India. The title is taken from a line of "Broken Bottles", a track from "Tana Talk 3" (2018). The cover represents an image taken from "Scarface" (1983), in which Tony Montana meets Alejandro Sosa in his villa in Bolivia. The back cover boasts another image from Brian De Palma's masterpiece, in which Omar Suárez, chief of Montana under Frank Lopez, is hanged from a helicopter because he's deemed a police informant by Sosa. They're both covers appropriate to the context of the album, because they are plugs that Tony meets first entering the drug trade (Suárez) and then expanding its distribution to become independent (Sosa).
Skit, then comes one of the best cuts of the year, "Crowns for Kings". DJ Shay's production is brilliant: drum uptempo, lively, serene, dirty, wonderful sample from "Look What You Done for Me" by Al Green, which gives the song a cheerful and carefree, sunny sound, even if the vocal sample gives it a melancholy aftertaste. Benny delivers at best, smooth, technical, dope. Splendid bridge after the verse, then Black Thought destroys the track with an amazing verse and unstoppable, excellent flow. Daringer signs the "Sunday School" musical carpet, providing frantic piano keys on a downtempo drum: it's a nice beat, but it feels distant from his best works. Long verse by the main rapper, which he delivers with good confident flow, then plays a long hook that's effective, but is as long as a verse. On the second stanza, 38 Spesh kills the cut with a strong attack and great bars, delivering with a smooth, raw flow. Hook, then Jadakiss closes the piece with his slow, fluid, lively style. Daringer delivers the dark jazzy midtempo beat of "Dirty Harry" alongside Beat Butcha, RJ Payne opens the song with good aggressive slow delivery; Benny continues, Conway completes the track.
The Alchemist makes the only solo song of this extended play essential, "Took the Money to the Plug's House": The Butcher sounds very well on this beautiful production, perfect midtempo drum, trumphet sample looped in the background, few sad and elegant piano keys, ethereal, fantastic soundscape. Two stanzas with an effortlessly velvet flow, in which the author shows a fondness for long choruses. "18 Wheeler" is track number six. Sublime rhythm of DJ Shay, his work is at the height of the best producers in the game in this project: dusty, dirty, uptempo drum machine, tight dark jazzy boom bap, great, smooth delivery by Benny, it close Pusha-T with a dope rapping. The album concludes with "5 to 50", three tight stanzas by Benny the Butcher on an immaculate production by Alchemist, providing a jazzy boom bap with downtempo drum, distant snare backing, enveloping and melodic loop. The spoken interludes of India give greater authenticity to one of the most cinematic songs of the project.
Seven tracks, just under twenty-five minutes. In this EP, Benny the Butcher confronts some of the best MCs such as Black Thought and Pusha T, and he comes out fortified with greater legitimacy in the game. 38 Spesh and Conway the Machine do a great job, I place RJ Payne and Jadakiss a step down. The boom bap production, provided by the Griselda boys and the group's affiliates, is commendable and the author's lyricism focuses mainly on drugs, crime, and violence. In summary, it's one of the best gangsta rap albums of the year.
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