SPEAKER_02 0:33

How many more minutes you how much more do you need to do? Thirty minutes to set it up. No, we we're gonna miss that. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Artist to Artist, where we like to say this is a conversation that needs to be heard. And we all know that all my guests are special friends of mine and special guests to me. Today we have a very special guest. Uh go by the name of Benny Butcher. Yes, sir. Benny the Butcher Party. Benny the Butcher. What's happening with you, big bro? How you feeling, guys? Man, I'm good. Welcome to the book. Grinded, man. Welcome to Artists of Artists, world to you by Playmaker, of course. Shout out to Poppy Cheese Steaks. You know they catered us tonight. We always got to shout out Playmaker, because if the plays don't get made, then we don't get paid, is what I like to say. But how you been, my brother? Grinded, man, working. I'm saying I've been seeing you everywhere in the past few years, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Hell yeah, man. That's the only way I know how to do it, man. That's what served me. That's the only way I know how to do it.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

So what I like to do here is uh kind of get people to get to know you in a different way. I mean, I know you've done millions of interviews. Um I want people to get up and close to know a little bit about where you're from, how you started, uh, when your love of music started. So where are you from?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

From Buffalo, New York. I'm saying. Born and raised? Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Montana Avenue. Uh lived in Lanefield Projects for a while. I'm saying, then moved back on Montana over there. Montana Avenue. You went to school out there, high school? Yeah, I went to Emerson. I went to culinary school. Ain't no wrong with that. Did you get the finish? I didn't. Didn't get the finish? No, I went back and got my GD though. You know what I'm saying? Definitely. Honorable, honorable. You know what I'm saying? Honorable, honorable. Uh so how was Buffalo coming up? You know, Buffalo, a blue-collar, a blue-collar place. You know what I'm saying? We get on these records and we, you know what I'm saying, we talk our uh experience from Buffalo, but man, it's a different side to it that, you know what I'm saying? You could raise a family there. You know what I'm saying? It's just the east side is so poverty stricken and it's been like that. You know what I'm saying? It's it's like uh was in a rust belt, like from Pit uh Pittsburgh and Cleveland and all of that. So when the still mills went down, like the rest of the country, you know what I'm saying, the Great Depression and all that, you know, Buffalo used to be a poppin' city, you know what I'm saying? So it's like a poverty city on the east side, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, the the regular things, you know what I'm saying. But the schools was good, you know what I'm saying? But you know, it's just the poison of the. Culinary school, do you know how to cook? I don't know how to cook shit. I don't know how to cook shit. That's a crazy thing. I do not know how to cook, I don't cook at all. So that school was for that, though. It taught you you were supposed to. It was, it was. We was baking bread and shit in there. We was doing all types of shit, but I never took it with me. I ain't lasted so long. I lasted about a year and a half. I ain't never took nothing with me. But it's like a legendary school, Emerson Heights, Emerson Vocational. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 4:01

So we all hear your raps and you uh talk heavy about uh things you had to go through for survival, uh selling drugs and going through the ups and downs of what the streets have to offer, like a lot of us have done. So how how old were you when uh the streets got a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 4:20

I would say, I would say uh 14 years old. You know what I'm saying? And it's crazy because this was my man, my man Happy. He probably know, you know, you know Happy, your promoter from Buffalo, you probably know him. This is what he called it. He called it the summer in Miami, you know what I'm saying? That's the c when you jump off the porch. You know what I'm saying? That was my summer, 1999. I was 14 years old, jumped off the porch. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Summer Miami. Jumped off the porch. Uh did that have any effect on you in school? Was that one of the reasons why you didn't get to finish school? Because you were so worried about the streets.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

No, later, later it would have that effect. But earlier it didn't, you know what I'm saying? I always was a bright student, you know what I'm saying? But I did let things around me corrupt me and stare me different. But you know what I mean? It's like I had plans on going back to school. I never did, but I got my GED. I made sure I done that, you know what I'm saying, just so I could show my kids. You know what I'm saying? I got my GD. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 5:15

So hustling was out of survival or was it the alore of how it looked?

SPEAKER_00 5:21

It was, it was uh both. You know what I'm saying? You know, I was saying this the other day. Everybody liked to say, man, we had to do this, we had to do that. We ain't really have to do that, you know what I'm saying? It's kind of like the lifestyle and the allure, but I always say this. I come from a legendary block where it was going on every day, $20,000, $30,000 a day. As I'm a kid walking to the bus stop, I'm seeing this, you know what I'm saying? Uh I used to go to church. I used to go to church three times a week. You know what I'm saying? I used to, I used to look at those dudes like, man, they going to hell, man. You know what I'm saying? Then those end of being my guys, you know what I'm saying? And I got old enough and I was doing the same thing they was doing. You know what I'm saying? So it was like, it was almost, it's fucked up to say, but it was almost like tradition. You know how this shit goes. You know what I'm saying? It's like that's funny.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

It's funny you said you used to go to church because I grew up in a church also, and I know how it feels to go to church two, three times a week and go to New Converse class and all night prayer meeting and revivals and all that. Revival and all that type of shit. But it was crazy because it felt so restricted. And then whenever I would go to church, I was trying to find ways. I used to play hooky from church, so we get in church about nine, ten in the morning to do Sunday school. Then service will start like 11 o'clock. Then when they doing the testimonies, we'll bust a move. We get on the train, going down to 42nd Street, and then we gotta be back by like 1:30 before church let out and shit like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

My Aunt Lawney, she was on me. My Aunt Lonnie, I couldn't, I couldn't do nothing. I couldn't go no.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Our church, we had one of the we had one of the biggest churches in Harlem. So our church spanned a whole block. So it was it used to be an old high school, so it was like, it just was a lot going on. But I I respect when people are Godfaring people because I know they have a sense of morals that a lot of people don't.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

100%, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

And I believe that that sense of morals is some of the things that probably got you here today, no matter all your ups and downs that you've been through. And I hear you talk about that you uh been incarcerated due to your run-ins with the street. Yeah. And um I asked everybody this do you think uh you being incarcerated was a bit of a blessing more than it was a stressing?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

It was definitely a stressing. You know what I'm saying? I can't lie, it was it was a stressing a thousand percent, but I gotta say. And and and I almost hate to say it, but anytime that I got sat down, I needed it. You know what I'm saying? It uh it focused me up. You know what I mean? It focused me up. You know, people, a lot of us don't change until we feel, until we feel a reason to change. We don't change our habits until we got a reason to, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, those felonies kind of gave me a reason to, you know, kind of move different. You know what I'm saying? Because I was I'm a nigga like who moved reckless. I'm one of them type of niggas.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

So was there any time that you got locked up, gave you that decision, like I gotta get out and start being serious about music, or did that come after?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

That was all during, you know what I'm saying? That was all during, you know what I'm saying? I uh like I said, I put out a I put out a mixtape in Buffalo in 2005. You know what I'm saying? That really took me on a took me on a different, you know what I'm saying, as a local, you know what I'm saying? How old were you when you say you started your love for music? I would say I had to be like five, six years old. Rapping? No, not rapping. I I probably was like nine years old, ten rapping. Stop rapping. You gotta rem I always say Sheen Gun, West Side, and Conway is three, four years older than me. So they when they 12, I'm nine. We're gonna get into that too. So I'm doing all of that.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

So I started early. I had Conway up here, he broke it down. I'm like, yo, niggas is real cousins, like me and my cousins. Like, this is the craziest shit ever. We're gonna get it. We're gonna we gonna get into that later. So when did you really start taking rap seriously like yo, bro? I might, I might, I might do something with this shit.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Uh I started maybe when I was about 15. Because it's like, even even the the the hustling shit is legacy on my block. Rapping is too. It's a uh Conway's cousin, you know what I'm saying, is from my block, you know what I'm saying? And uh they called the Killer Browns, they uh performed at the Apollo and everything. You know, that's big in Buffalo. Niggas performed at the Apollo in the 90s and didn't get booed off. It was from my hood. You know what I'm saying? They used to do like the jamborees, that's our version of uh Summer Jam, you know what I'm saying? Niggas from my hood. I used to watch him do it. I remember the first time where I got they okay, it was like, no, he's nice. That's when you couldn't tell me nothing, you know what I'm saying? Had the guys behind me, it was over after that. Real shit. So that, so how did you get to New York?

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Like, how did you get the eyes on y'all that made people start to focus on who are these kids from Buffalo?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Man, with uh with Wes, I feel like Wes linking with uh Sky Zoo, you know what I'm saying, and action around that time, you know what I'm saying, and Rock Mars. I'm saying around that time could kind of put people's eyes on us. You know, you know, the underground fans is really not too judgy how the how the different fans be. So honestly, you know, the door is kind of like, it was at that time a little bit more, it was open, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, people thirsty for new music. I remember like people listening to my shit that I'm just putting on YouTube and I'm still living in the projects and they commenting and they doing shit. So I guess it was, they heard West and they were just thirsty for new music, you know what I'm saying? Conway was doing his shit. These niggas was doing this shit out of nowhere, you know what I'm saying? One day I'm seeing these niggas and they one way, then I'm next, I'm checking out niggas jewelry and checking out niggas gear.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

And I'm like, You're younger than everybody.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

Yeah, hell yeah. And I'm thinking like, what these niggas doing? You know what I'm saying? Then I'm like, oh, this nigga, this rap shit is paying off for these niggas. They really didn't, they really didn't tell me up front, you know what I'm saying? I had to learn for myself and figure it out. People hit me on the gram like Benny, one of the illest. I'm like, who the fuck is these people? But I'm it come it's coming from features that I'm doing for them niggas. You know what I'm saying? Real shit.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

So for those who don't know, uh I had Carway up here uh not too long ago. Um well all of these guys are cousins. Westside, Conway, Benny, they like real cousins. Like grew up every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, they from the same neighborhood, jumping niggas, hustling to get like exactly right. So just to hear you telling the story, to hear Conway tell the same story is crazy because I got like my cousin I grew up with was right here, also, and shit like that. So when I was asking him about the rifts that y'all was going through, and then he was like, bro, we real cousins, bro. That shit don't really be about nothing. You heard like this, like this shit's we real cousins, bro. Like that shit ain't like how people perceive it to be. Like, we really cousins, like we go back home, auntie, nigga. Thanks, like this is real family shit here.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

We ain't worried about that shit that's how the internet be doing. I I talked to that nigga the other day, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

And and and that, but that was before I actually knew that your cousins now I felt what he was saying, like, bro, we don't even care about that shit, bro. You know what I mean? So, but for the fans, the fans don't be knowing it in the the in the twine. So, and you were the younger cousin. So, how was it like growing up watching them hustling and running around the streets before you had your chance to get outside?

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Uh, you know, this this is like totally off the record, you know what I'm saying? But it's on the record. Allegedly. I said that in a song already that was years ago, you know, got the first, got my first you know, gun from Conway. You know what I'm saying? Allegedly. You know, allegedly. Water gun. Summer in Miami. That 1999 nerf gun. That 1999 summer. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, reluctantly, you know what I'm saying? I I hustled with Wes and done shit like that. You know what I mean? Wes got knocked in the trap house that I had. He's coming over there getting money. Wes got locked up before.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Before that, nigga, how was the Christmases when you niggas was nine and ten and eleven, man?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Go to West house because he got all the he's getting all the fucking games.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

We're gonna get oh Wes was a small cousin? Of course. He's gonna be amazing.

unknown 13:27

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

We trying to see what the fuck he got. Cause he's gonna get new shit and it's gonna be shit he don't want over there. You know what I'm saying? That's Wes. We're trying to get the fuck over there and we're trying to stay the night.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

It's crazy because I know how to spend the night with cousins is legendary, bro. Like, what? That's how you shape that, that's how you shape your man kind of any type of tough cut.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

And that's how I got on the music, you know what I'm saying? Seeing them boys listen to music. I remember, I remember like, you know what I'm saying, you know, it's 1996. I was I was 12 years old, you know what I'm saying? But I'm watching Wes get Muddy Waters Red Man tape for Christmas. You feel what I'm saying? Um we in Atlanta, it's like 90, it's like 97 or 98, we in Atlanta, you know what I'm saying? He listening to, he listening to the Wu-Tang, you know what I'm saying, listening to ODB. You know what I'm saying? And I'm borrowing it. Let me borrow this. He had the Father MC tape, he let me borrow that. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

So Father MC talking that shit right there.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

100%, you know what I mean? Listen to that shit in my walkman, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 14:26

So how how easy was it? How accessible was the music from New York City for y'all in Buffalo coming up? Like, was it easy?

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Very, very, very, very accessible. It was very accessible to y'all getting all the mixtapes, everything. 100%, 100%. I don't know how that, as a kid, I don't I don't know how that happened, but it was heavy influenced by all my old heads listen to everybody older than me, just listen to straight New York music. You feel what I'm saying? And that's what we listen to. We got all that, you know what I'm saying? Even like, you know, not even like the super popular shit. You know what I'm saying? We got everything.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

So growing up, who was some of the artists you listened to?

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Man, 100% uh mob deep. You know what I'm saying? 100% the mob. Uh I listen to music my pops listened to. My pops used to listen to Too Short. You know what I'm saying? I listened to Too Short. Uh you know, you know, shit like that, besides the regular shit.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Who was the rapper you thought you was? Because I used to think I was like slick rick. I used to think I was like uh Rock Cam. I was a few rappers I thought I was when I was coming up. Like, bro, you couldn't tell me nothing. I knew all the lyrics couldn't tell me shit. Who I thought I was. You know who nigga because every kid can't. Rappers were superheroes coming up, so we all had that one rapper. We knew all the lyrics. You probably bought something that he had in the video.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Like, you gonna lie. I felt, I felt, it was a time where I felt like I was everybody. I used to write niggas lyrics down, you know what I'm saying? I I wrote uh DMX uh Blood of My Blood Damn that wrote that whole album down, you know what I'm saying? Just so I could recite the words and know it myself. Uh who else I did like that? Man, I did Biggie album like that. Uh ready to do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

When Snoop came out, when Snoop album came out, Doggy Stabb, me and my man Omar, yo, oh, what's up, went to HMV. HMV used to be uh a music store that sold all the CV CDs. Went to HV after school. It was Tuesdays that all the albums used to come out. Stole two copies of the of this of the Snoop Dog joint, went home, listened to that shit 30 times, learned every record. The next day we in school, high school, Julie Richmond quoting every fucking record. But the crazy part was everybody in school was already quoting all the records. Niggas knew that that Snoop, that Snoop album was one of the craziest albums I ever seen come out because of the reaction and how the kids like it's it turned into a Bible damn near overnight. So I know how you felt writing lyrics down this crazy.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

I remember I remember buying uh buying Warren G shit, you know what I'm saying, a regulator single around the time I was in the foster home staying with the staying with the pastors family, you know what I'm saying? And we was on our way, I think we was on our way to an amusement park, and I wasn't, I had my headphones on, you know what I'm saying, my walkman. They found out what I was listening to, took it out, threw that shit right on the highway, smashed it. Regulator.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

Pastors ain't played. So you said you said foster home. So did you uh did you grow up with your moms and your pops?

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah, I grew up with my moms, you know, kind of like halfway, you know what I'm saying? I lived with my moms all the way till I was maybe like nine, then I left for a few years and I came back, you know what I'm saying, in my earlier teenage years. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 17:35

So uh was that separation rough for you at that time?

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Man, it what it didn't feel rough, but looking back, you know, the things that I was doing, it was because that's how I was handling it. Being rebuilt, you know what I'm saying? Because my mom had a close handle on me, but she was going through certain things that she needed to get her life together, but she was one of the few people who I who could shake me up, who I would listen to. You know what I'm saying? I was afraid of my mom. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, I I just felt like I just felt like I was smarter than everybody. You know what I'm saying? I was one of those kids, you know what I'm saying? And you know how I be, man. I I was smarter than a lot of adults. You know what I'm saying? A lot of motherfuckers couldn't read or write, you know what I'm saying? So just having that mentality. I always tell people this, man, that the bad kids is the smart ones. You know what I'm saying? Geniuses. You know what I mean? Because they know something. That's why they question this shit. That's why they, you know what I mean? They they very observant. And I was one of those kids. I wasn't, they say I was disrespectful, but I was just questioning a lot of shit that was going on, you know what I'm saying? Nah, you was curious.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

I know how I I feel like uh a lot of the things you're saying, I kind of like been through similar things. Like uh, well, my mom's had me when she was uh 16 or 17, so it's crazy now because as I about to be 50, my mom's gonna be in her 60s. How the fuck crazy is that? You heard? Like you don't even think about that. You think about that, right? So nigga, when I was in my 20s, my mom's in her 30s, but I was so caught up in what I was doing. Like I'm all damn near my sister age, but so when she was younger, I had been through the same trials like you did. I had I didn't never had to go to a I never had to live in no foster house, but my family, I've lived in everywhere, in every auntie and uncle house with my family and shit like that in the same circle to my grandmother took me back and shit like that. So, and I know the type of effect it can have on the kid, as you say, and looking back and shit like that. But I was so crazy that I knew that what that shit was doing to me at that moment. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Man, I didn't. I could I could really say, man, smart as I thought I was, I really didn't see the effects on it, you know what I'm saying? But I could see everything I was doing was was rebelling, and and you know, my mom, she had a she had a tight handle on me, but not that tight where I was being raised under her roof at the time. And it was vital years, you know what I'm saying? Like when I came back that 1999 summer, I was coming back moving with my mom after a few years, you know what I'm saying? So it was like she really trying to be cool with me, lean. My mom was lean as fuck when I came back, you know what I'm saying? My mom was letting me do any the fuck, everything, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 19:59

So nah, so alright, let's let's fast forward a little bit. Uh y'all popping, you and you and you and the cousins is popping, y'all starting to get noticed, and then um y'all get noticed by Rock Nation and ho.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

How does that feel? Man, I feel like a honestly, man, it felt like a moment of validation coming from where we come from. You know what I'm saying? It was a big moment for just so many people. Uh because it was like, it was like back home looking back, okay, they they really in the game. They doing something now. You know what I mean? Because different things, you know, people interpret different things a different way. You might be on, but your kids don't think you're on till they see you with somebody who they know. So when they when people seen us doing that, they like, okay, it's validated. This is real. Because we've been telling people like, yo, this shit real. We we got this going on and that going on. When they seen it for themselves, it was a different thing. So it was big for the city.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

No, I I I I could imagine how that feels to get that is a hell of a validation, especially in this music business, and you trying to get on, and all of a sudden now you're popping. So through everything you've been through thus far in your career, all the ups and downs, do you regret anything that you had to go through to get here?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Man, I don't. You know what I'm saying? I can say, I can honestly say, man, God didn't put me through nothing that I couldn't go, that I couldn't make it through. He ain't never gave me nothing I couldn't handle. You know what I'm saying? So, man, I don't regret nothing. I feel like everything shaped me. Uh, gave me my wit, gave me my patience, gave me my hunger, gave me my understanding, my foresight. So I feel like everything made me. I can't, I can't skip no steps, you know what I'm saying? I wouldn't have the same characteristics as I do today.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Now I see one thing that y'all are very good at, and that is business and hustling. Um and it seems like you're all are great at that from independent lanes of making money from merch to CDs to Music, where did that start from?

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Man, that started like I said, it started from the from the from the hood. You know what I'm saying? It's like we we from them we from them hoods where where they do that, our older homies, you know what I'm saying? Not glorifying in nothing, but I be really explaining this to people, it's like it's almost tradition where we from. You feel what I'm saying? And you know, and it's almost like not a surprise to people from our hood when they see it. Maybe the other people in the city, but people from our hood is like, you know, okay, you know what I'm saying, but you know, Wes, Wes, he he always had things, you know what I'm saying? So, like I say, he was the spoiled cousin, but he ended up hustling, and I mean he ain't never needed that. He ended up spoiling himself, you know what I'm saying, as we could see, not even just before, not even just with the rap shit. Man, he was in the streets hustling, doing shit, chains and shit like that. So, you know, I don't know where that came from, man. You know what I'm saying? I don't know where where his hustle came from, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 22:51

To be honest with you, just like the group, because I see I see y'all very successful, like, and y'all have different lanes of money. So that's very important that I want the artist to know when you come in here and you get in this music and you do catch a buzz, you need to use the music to get all the ancillary money that you can get. Yes, all these different lines of passive income that you could create from being a high artist, and I seeing that this is exactly what you're doing. And I'm saying that because I see uh Peso uh always talk about some of the moves you make when it comes to touring and creating your own tour and going on the road with your own people and just hitting them towns and making a profit out of these towns and shit like that. So you know that I know this it's a whole new wave of how shit is going.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yeah, hell yeah, man. We we built that up like slowly though, like with the analytics, you know what I'm saying, and with the personnel, you know what I'm saying? It's almost like kind of like it's my norm now, but I remember the first one that I did, solo tour, you know what I'm saying? Learning things from going on the Griselda tours, learning things from the road managers, but man, I was blessed to build a team to have some important people on my team that that treat this BSF shit like it's theirs, this Benny the Butcher shit like it's theirs, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, that was important. You know what I'm saying? I might, you know how this game goes. You know, you're dealing with people who who you might not, you know, take a liking to, y'all might not be on the same wavelength. I got people on the team where I could I could sit that person in that chair. It's like, you know, y'all take care of the business. You know what I'm saying? You know, shout out to all my white boys, but I some I call it white boy. You know what I'm saying? You might need a white boy, the white boy with a white boy. We don't mean no harm.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

We don't we don't need no mean no harm by that.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

No, we don't mean no harm. We need them white boys, the white boy, you know what I'm saying? You need your cool nigga to to vie with the cool niggas. That's it. You know what I'm saying? Like my boy City Boy, he my best friend. You know what I'm saying? He he from where I'm from. Like when I do business and all the street niggas and all that, they want to deal with City Boy, you know what I'm saying? No, I get it. I get it.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

They want to deal with the delegate the right positions to do and things like that. So I heard you said Griselda. So uh the fans gonna get another Griselda album?

SPEAKER_00 24:49

100%.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 24:51

100%. I know y'all be hearing us say that, man, but you know what I mean? Like 100%, man. Actively talking to the gang and just putting it together. But you know what I'm saying? That's gonna happen. I'm a nigga like I'm like y'all. I feel like it should have been happening, but it's gonna happen though.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Alright, let's get some people commend you for never dumbing down your lyrics. Do you ever consider it seeing the things that go viral these days? Now say that again. People uh they uh appreciate the fact that you keep it real on your lyrics and don't dumb it down for nobody. Um saying that with the climate of everything that goes on in the media, do you ever feel like you should put some shade on your lyrics or should dumb it down a bit?

SPEAKER_00 25:33

You know what I mean? Sometimes I do, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes I do. And it's not about like trying to fit in. But uh, you know how this game goes. Like, when you are artists, it's all types of artists from demographics. Y'all might not even make the same music, but they fuck with you. You know what I'm saying? And they want to get in the studio and do music. So when I would get in the studio and do music with some people, I don't I don't need the Benny to butcher it out all the time. You know what I'm saying? It's okay to have fun. You know, the Griselda fans, they hate that shit. They want me to be motherfucking standing on a corner trapping with a with a shank in my hand, every song, you know what I'm saying? And then when I do it, sometimes they say I make the same song again, but when I do different shit, they like, man, get back on that gritty shit. So they always do that. Yo, what's up with the old gym, yo?

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Real shit. I didn't even know you did a uh an independent movie or short or short film uh called Ashes in the Safe. What made you do that movie? What did how did that come about?

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Man, honestly, I'ma be honest, man. The whole the whole movie and album that I dropped Ashes in the Safe, because it's a short film and album, I'm gonna say, is really just to promote my nigga bass, man, Fuego bass, man. That's my artist. That nigga's crazy. He deserves a shot. And we got songs laying around. We do writing camps. We had like 34 songs from this writing camp. You know what I'm saying? So we throw these songs together. What is a writing camp? Explain it to the people because I want them to. Okay, so a writing camp is when producers, artists, all link up together. Different studio rooms, and they're writing towards a goal. It could be a soundtrack, it could be an album, or it could be just to have songs in a stash. You know what I'm saying? I got three rooms rocking, we in a big building, we in a big studio, we do this all the time. Just to create a cachet of songs. And we created, we got it, we had that, we got that right now. So just listen to them songs. Like, man, we gotta put some of this shit out right now. It's like, man, matter of fact, me and bass, we gonna do this shit. Your album about to drop anyway. This shit gonna sound crazy. And and did a movie and it came out crazy, man. And I'm about to do a real movie. I just did a deal for uh a full-length movie, and that's another reason why I wanted to practice. I wanted to see how it goes I'm saying. So I just did a deal for some. I'm gonna be calling you too.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Incredible. I can't, I can't, I can't wait to act in the movie. Nah, real shit. What's the one mistake you see young rappers making right now that reminds you of you when you were coming up?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Listening to these niggas around them that don't know shit, that ain't been through shit, still trying to, still trying to uh maintain, you know, certain ties, you know what I'm saying, that don't serve them. You know what I'm saying? That, you know what I mean? And you know, and it sounds harsh, but it's just real, because it's gonna do nothing but lead you back where you came from.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

I believe so. They don't differentiate diff diff how you say that different, how you say it? Differentiate.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

That's that's true.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Yeah, it's between things they used to do and the business they have at hand right now, you know what I mean? And I believe once they figure that out, it'll be good. Hopefully they don't figure it out too late. Yeah, I also had to figure that out, also.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Yeah, because it's because we all have to figure that out. We all we all find ourselves in that spot, and it's about how you handle it, you know what I'm saying? And about it's about who you got around you and the influence that they got on you and you got on them. It's a balance. You don't need a whole bunch of yes men around you, you know what I'm saying? Not at all. You don't need that, but you but you but you need people you can you can get insight from, you know what I'm saying? You need people who you trust their wisdom, you trust their opinion. You definitely need that. People who can tell you about yourself. I believe in that 100%, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 28:55

So I know you gotta go, so I'm gonna get you out of here a couple questions. Um You've been in the game for a minute, so how do you feel about the state of hip-hop right now?

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Man, I you know, I I I like everything about hip-hop except the stain that people try to give it. You know what I'm saying? It's nothing wrong with hip-hop. It's just at a different phase that maybe we not might be used to, but it is what it is, you know what I'm saying? This is this is this is what they created. This is what y'all created. You know what I'm saying? This is what's going on right now. It's evolving. Uh, I hate when people say, uh, you know, I I feel like I feel like all these, all of these people hate on rappers, you know what I'm saying? But they make money off rappers. They get on, they get on the internet every day, this rap nigga, this, this rap nigga. They can't wait till a nigga eat a chicken wing. They can't wait till a nigga trip or do anything so they can say something about it. They hate nigga, they love niggas so much they hate niggas. I feel like, you know, I got a heavy opinion on this shit. You know what I'm saying? We we talk about this shit all day. I feel like, you know, a lot of people don't don't, they try to, I seen this girl say this on IG. She said, don't y'all feel like celebrities is regular and the regular people is like celebrities, bitch. No. You feel what I'm saying? But they try to, they try to discredit niggas. I see a lot of discrediting going on. I say y'all like to say that.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Social media, bro, they always try to switch the narrative, move the goalposts, try to confuse people and shit like that. Like, it's like, it's so crazy out there. I I feel like the same way. Like, it's just a lot of things have changed coming up, but I think the asset accessibility of anyone be able being able to become a rapper overnight by just uploading your music is what kind of jades everything when people can actually say we're just as important of an established artist. Like, how could that be so?

SPEAKER_00 30:45

So it's like we all are human, but there's levels to this shit when you you know what I mean, when you're in a person, a person of success. That's why I want, that's why I want to tell all the artists, man, just do you, do what you believe in. You know what I'm saying? Keep hustling, keep grinding, do what you believe in, blank out the noise, man, because at the end of the day, it don't matter, man. When you when you're trying to uh when it comes down to the bottom line, it doesn't matter. You know what I'm saying? It's just it's smoke and mirrors, man. Keep grinding is do you.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Any artists you haven't done a feature with that you'd like to do a feature with?

SPEAKER_00 31:14

Uh man, I'm I'm uh Tink. I'm gonna do one with Tink, man. Tank? The RB singing Tink? Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

I mean Tank got a record. I don't know what I he had called me a few months ago to do a record for his album. I don't know what he ever did with that record. That record is kind of fire, too. Yeah, man. I want to do one with Tink, man. I fuck with Tink. Shout out to Tank, man. Shout out to Tink, man. Uh anything that uh fans should look forward uh from you coming out, dropping.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Man, go check out Ashes in the Safe. Uh the film and the album. Uh man, I'm working on this movie, man. If y'all don't see me doing shows this year, man, because I'm locked in. I'm working on this movie, y'all gonna get something real soon, man. That's what I'm working on.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

With that being said, ladies and gentlemen, this has been another episode of Artist to Artist with nothing other than Benny the Butcher. Brought to you by Playmaker.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

If they don't make the plays don't get made, and we don't get paid. You know it. Catch you on the next one. Bye. Hold on, I got a gift for you.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 32:16

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

And that is a wrap.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Yes, sir. Always wanted a pair of these. How long? How long?

SPEAKER_02 32:34

I ain't I haven't changed yet. Oh, I always wanted a pair of these bitches. Damn, cop always wanted a pair of these bitches. It's not gonna it's not gonna change.