Long mixtape made by Benny, rapper from Buffalo, New York. 76 minutes divided into 33 tracks, 11 are skits and interludes. The tape comes out under Buff City Records, as well as the previous one. There are no production credits, and it would be interesting to be able to understand what happened around the middle of the tape: until that moment the album is characterized by bad music and there are almost more skits than tracks, then comes the first of a series of more melodic productions than usual and Benny's rapping improves and appears more fluid.
After "B.E.N.N.Y." there are two more passable songs, then "S.E. Gang Shit", "Karen", "Love of", "The Mayors Home" and "Fresh Out" easily stand out above all the rest. "S.E. Gang Shit" has a celestial melodic sample that legitimizes the entire rhythm among the best of these rapper's first mixtapes. The production of "Karen" also seems to favor the dry style of the Buffalo emcee, and the tidy and precise piece is different from the others. The next cut is the number 23, "Love of": it's opened by a skit, then a wonderful voice launches the track, saying "for the love of money", phrase that is looped in the background to support Benny the Butcher's fresh rapping, accompanied by a quick snare.
At first I couldn't find that sample and for some reason I couldn't explain myself, my brain told me to go listen to Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents 3", however, the track discarded from "American Gangster" does not have this sample. In the end, a simple search leads to "Foe tha Love of Money" by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, which has the sample, and from there it goes back to the homonymous song by Yomo & Maulkie, which presents the original extract, sung directly by Jewell, girl who contributed to the classic records of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and 2Pac. The Bone Thugs track is crucial (in the reasoning that my brain made and that I could only understand later) because it's also sampled from a track I have listened to dozens of times over the past few years, Chamillionaire's version of "Dead Presidents", which begins with just the same line sung by the beautiful voice of Jewell.
"The Mayors Home" boasts the best beat of the entire tape, and elevates the track among the highlights of this first edition of the "American D Boy" mixtape series, Benny is at his best on this triumphant, dusty and dirty boom bap soundscape. "Fresh Out" is another triumphant production that seems to have nothing to do with everything you heard in the first half hour. It's just brilliant, and Benny flies over this rhythm.
These few tracks almost make you forget that there are 27 others (taking out the skits, 16) that don't sound very good. The cover is ok and this is the tightest effort of its series. I think that a fan of the world that Griselda has introduced us to in the last decade can enjoy at least part of the songs that I have highlighted, I don't think that the rest is essential and that the whole tape can hold up the crème section of the discography of this prolific artist.
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