It's really hard to go wrong when you put one of the most celebrated rappers of his time with one of the most celebrated producers of his time. It’s so difficult that I find it hard to understand how these guys did it. Some of Benny the Butcher's best verses are combined with nine beats produced by J Dilla to create this 26-minute mashup tape. The beats that these guys choose to select from the vast catalog of J Dilla not only aren’t those of “Donuts” — the title could mislead you; the cover is dope, in any case — but neither are some of his best beats or that suit the rapper's style better. A grumpy and at times unacceptable tape comes out, which only a star-level cast with Conway the Machine, Westside Gunn, 38 Spesh, Black Thought and Styles P can hold up.
The first four tracks are just discreet, who knows what happened to "Bars and Man", moment in which these guys decide to abuse a classic which is 38 Spesh's version of "Never Seen a Man Cry", validating the qualities of Spesh as a producer and proving that this song doesn’t work with rhythms that remain below a certain standard of quality. When these guys wake up and decide to choose one of the many fantastic rhythms of Dilla, the tape is over, we're on “All Business Here”, track 7 out of 9. Jay Dee's soundscape is absolutely flawless, soulful, gorgeous, perfect drum, vibrant fat bass line, iconic rhythm, Benny kills the cut, but it's quite sensational that the guys can't even beat Hit-Boy's soundscape for the track from which they take this lyrics, the original "War Paint".
On track eight, there’s the best piece of this mashup, "A Crown for Dilla", directly from "Crown for Kings": Benny the Butcher at his best along with Black Thought on a production finally worthy of the name of J Dilla, but that for some reason doesn’t even come close to the atomic masterpiece that DJ Shay made the year before. The tape ends on a minor note: "Can U C the Pride of the Butcher?" takes the lyrics from "Fast Eddie", one of the songs from the great "Tana Talk 3", nevertheless this work has nothing to do with what Daringer did on the LP.
It’s a very disappointing effort. Cookin "King Midas" Soul has shown us that a forgettable track of Benny the Butcher can become a masterwork, Altered Crates undertake a considerably more difficult task, taking a series of dope tracks and trying to make them dope again, with another rhythm, often completely different, making them forgettable. Not recommending a tape rapped by Benny over the rhythms of J Dilla goes against my religion, but if you arrive with low expectations you can appreciate more the effort of the collective. 4/10.
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