About a month after Conway's last release and two weeks after Westside Gunn's third project of the year, Benny the Butcher is back to releasing a solo work 16 months after the last. The record immediately takes on more commercial contours, with guests such as Rick Ross, Freddie Gibbs, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, Dom Kennedy and Queen Nalja, in addition to the Griselda MCs Conway and Gunn; the production is entirely made by Hit-Boy, who during the year worked on the albums of Mick Jenkins, Lil Baby, Jay Electronica, Polo G, Nas, Big Sean, ASAP Ferg and Conway.
The production of Hit-Boy is noticeably cleaner and glossier than the usual rapper's records, the sound is completely different from the typical patented Griselda: the beatmaker tries to attract as many mainstream audiences as possible with his jazzy beats, a functional drum that always changes clothes and decent samples. Overall, the choice of music looks good on the surface, but it's actually a sound carpet that sounds unsuitable and at times pretty weak for the hard bars of the Buffalo MC: Hit-Boy may not completely miss the record, because there are some notable rhythms, but he sure leaves a bad taste in your mouth with an aftertaste that is very similar to what you feel when you listen to Nas' album.
For Benny, on his second official album after "Tana Talk 3", this effort is a simple exercise in style. He doesn't deeply change his lyricism, keeping thug / gangsta, hardcore and braggadocio themes, mainly making a drug rap record with some personal excerpts. Thanks to above-average lyrics, great metric patterns and a flow that continues to be practically flawless, the MC pulls out tight bars with noteworthy rapping style and he creates one of the best records of the year, saving it from a production not great.
Being the Butcher's most prominent album, its flaws are easily exposed: hooks, basically mandatory on a disk that wants to go far in the charts, are still a problem that plagues Griselda records, here they're often wrong, some choices are bad, most of them sound really bad. In the rapping side, some guests don't leave their mark: Rick Ross seems to have just clock out in "Where Would I Go", over a decent commercial boom bap. Big Sean and Lil Wayne add little to "Timeless": the first one closes the cut with a raw style, while Weezy delivers an aggressive, hardcore and flowing verse, good performance delivered in one of his autotune-free moments (although the sound is similar to the autotune).
Dom Kennedy effortlessly plays on some sort of rap rock crossover with heavy beats and great dark samples, Benny kills the cut, but the host is unfit. Other guests perform better: there's a good Queen Naija chorus in one of Benny's more personal choices, and Freddie Gibbs is fit in "One Way Flight", jazzy boom bap with great female soul sample tightly looped in the background and vibrant drum, both rappers deliver bars with a smooth and slow, excellent style. "War Paint" is on a different level than the other tracks: Hit-Boy delivers a beat that closely resembles Alchemist's, female soul sample chopped and looped in the background, jazzy boom bap, drum midtempo, Benny's raw smooth delivery, Westside Gunn's hook, Conway's killer verse, he eliminates the cut, closed by a long funny skit from The Madd Rapper.
As usual, Benny also gives excellent performances as a solo artist: there are few opportunities here to prove it, however, when it happens, the rapper intelligently focuses on personal and thug-braggadocio arguments. The bouncy boom bap with dry drum doesn't help him on the title track, despite the outro of Pain in da Ass, the guy who made several skits on Jay-Z's albums in the early nineties. Instead, in "Legend", Hit-Boy provides a better than usual musical carpet with a dry drum and good jazzy samples, varying the rhythm slightly and several times during the song, without compromising the rapper's delivery.
It's an album similar to Conway's, clearly commercial although managing to maintain an underground soul: 12 cuts, Illmaticly duration. With another producer, it would be an excellent hip-hop album and one of the top ten of the year.
Highlights: "Sly Green", "One Wy Flight", "Famous", "Timeless", "New Streets", "Trade It All", "Thank God I Made It", "War Paint", "Legend".
Rating: 8/10.
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