AOTY #5: Benny the Butcher - The Plugs I Met [2019]

Welcome to my Album of the Year highlights! I’ll give you a little run down with a brief history to start, show you the tracklist (with the tracks in bold being my favorites) with all of the featured guests (if any), give you some descriptors that might make you more inclined to check it out (if my recommendation isn’t ain’t for you), and I’ll provide links to stream/buy the project down at the bottom. Enjoy!

The shortest project in my AOTY is my #5 pick, Benny the Butcher’s The Plugs I Met. Released only a handful of months after his previous album, Tana Talk 3, Benny drop a rock-solid 7 track project (6 with a skit) that pulls no punches, leaves out all of the bullshit, and makes every single word count. Benny is as hungry as they come on the mic, and his ferocity is extended by the unforgettable emcees he chooses to work with here, with people like Black Thought, RJ Payne, and 38 Spesh all trying to contend for verse of the year. If you are looking for that raw, 90’s-sounding, drug kingpin rap then this is that album.

Tracklist

1. Intro Skit

2. Crowns For Kings (Feat. Black Thought)

3. Sunday School (Feat. 38 Spesh & Jadakiss)

4. Dirty Harry (Feat. RJ Payne & Conway the Machine)

5. Took the Money to the Plug’s House

6. 18 Wheeler (Feat. Pusha T)

7. 50 to 50

Benny the Butcher, as you’ve read on AOTY #7, is one third of Griselda with Westside Gunn and Conway the Machine. BUT, he’s also the head of his own label, Black Soprano Family, that currently houses Elcamino, Rick Hyde, & RJ Payne.

Recommended if you like:

Raekwon, aggressive and bloodthirsty delivery, Jadakiss, cold-blooded punchlines, 50 Cent, raps about drug-slinging, Fat Joe, hard hitting sampled beats, Notorious B.I.G., the best spread of features you can find

Here’s my original write-up of The Plugs I Met:

June 2019

↓ Listen to The Plugs I Met ↓

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music