At this point, Griselda is a gigantic force within both mainstream and underground rap, and the growing collective remains almost too prolific. There's a lot of good stuff that's come out of the Griselda camp in the past few years, and one of the very best releases is Benny the Butcher's 2019 project The Plugs I Met. It perfectly captures Benny and his pals' abilities to tap into gritty '90s New York boom bap in a way that rivals their forebears and feels vintage and modern at the same time. Benny went in a smoother, more polished direction on last year's Burden of Proof -- an album that's excellent in a totally different way -- and we now know that at the same time he recorded that album, he recorded a sequel to The Plugs I Met. Burden of Proof was recorded entirely with producer Hit-Boy in California, while Plugs 2 was done in Brooklyn with Harry Fraud, and as Benny says, "you can hear that influence." Plugs 2 has a different cast of collaborators than Plugs 1 (which was produced by Alchemist, Daringer, Beat Butcha, and the late DJ Shay and featured Black Thought, Jadakiss, Pusha T, and more), but it captures that same grimy feel of pre-Jiggy Era New York. Harry Fraud taps into that sound perfectly, and guests like New York vets Fat Joe and Jim Jones, as well as the versatile 2 Chainz, fit right in. Like on all of his projects, though, the star is always Benny himself. He has a seemingly endless arsenal of knockout punchlines, and he brings plenty of them to this new record.
The Plugs I Met 2 is out now via Benny's Black Soprano Family label, and you can stream it below, along with the new video for "Plug Talk" featuring 2 Chainz.