Griselda - Wwcd [2019]

Griselda, both in idea and as a proper record label, founded by Westside Gunn in the earlier part of this decade, will go down as one of the most influential movements in hip-hop. The story behind the three rapping members, Gunn, Conway (Gunn’s brother), and Benny (Gunn and Conway’s cousin), and the longtime production arm in Daringer, is as compelling of a come-up that you can get in this genre. Through all of the trials and tribulations that these men have gone through in their long careers (the dudes are all over 35), all of their grinding in the mixtape and merch scenes on the streets of Buffalo, and all of the cosigns and collaborations they have garnered in the 5 years since they have “blown”, Griselda is finally able to release a full debut album. Wwcd (which is a acronym for What Would Chinegun Do) the debut studio album for Griselda as a group, is the very long awaited culmination of the work that has been put in, and results in a magnificent distillation of what made the Buffalo boys so intriguing in the first place: the lyrical griminess of the rappers, and the perfectly sinister beat loops and samples provided by Daringer.

Griselda Blanco, who’s namesake and personality make up the foundation of Griselda as an artistic movement

“Griselda” is a reference to the infamous drug kingpin Griselda Blanco, who over the course of decades here in America made a fortune in the cocaine game, before eventually being incarcerated, released, deported, and later assassinated. Her life is a story of a person who was the pinnacle in three different aspects: fashion, art, and the streets. The streets are an obvious connection; she sold cocaine through a system of cartels and drug-runners, even while in prison for those crimes. But Blanco was also known for her acquisition of art pieces, and her unique clothing and jewelry she would don while out conducting business. Griselda as a movement, both in terms of music and fashion, is an embodiment of the tenants of Blanco’s life, and Westside Gunn, as its founder, has shown himself to be a visionary in cultivating and maintaining this incredibly lucrative brand. From the very beginning, with the highly stylized and iconographic clothing lines, the numerous bars of drug-deals being conducted in the streets of Buffalo, the news clips that peppers the discographies of the members describing the lawlessness that runs through their city, and the music production styles that run the gamut from nocturnal hellscapes to high-class exercising of the best of soul-sampling, Griselda have taken this character of Griselda Blanco and applied her to all aspects of their organization.

But Griselda goes beyond merely copying the steez of a mythical drug-lord; the Buffalo boys have stories of their own to tell, and origin stories that come together into a common narrative. The keystone to the foundation of the group is a man named Machinegun Black, who would have served as the fourth member of Griselda had he not been murdered. The four together has plans of taking over this rap shit; but with Chinegun’s death, Westside being locked up twice, Benny being locked up, and Conway being shot in his head at a traffic stop, things did not seem to work out in their favor at all. But the thing about Griselda, and, in a large part about Westside Gunn as a person, is that the grind to succeed, and the knowledge that what Griselda had to offer was bigger than fashion and bigger than rap, is the overwhelming force behind the label. That grind and that vision is what led them through their hardship, it’s what got them the incredible critical success with their earlier records in ~2015, it’s what got them at the signing table with Jay-Z and Eminem, signing deals with both Roc Nation and Shady Records, it’s what has earned them the distinction of being one of the foremost purveyors of collectable vinyl and merchandise in the game right now, and it is what has led them to this point in their careers: the release of their debut studio album Wwcd.

The Flygod has always been one for outrageous attire

Let’s dig into the individual members for a second, starting with Griselda’s own kingpin, Westside Gunn. Called the FLYGOD, his knack for fashion sense is what has truly led to the success that the group has seen. Exclusive merchandise, limited drops of both clothing and music, and uniquely designed pieces have drawn the collector masses into his fold, to the point to where he is basically a god of underground rap. But, in the world of music, while being the glue that binds the group together, he isn’t the talent that Conway the Benny are. This sounds like me being harsh, but the man has said so himself! The fact is that Gunn never meant to be the “lyricist” of the group, relegating the heavy punchlines and flows to the other two members, while Gunn was the creator of the ambiance. Through his relentless “doo doo doo doo doo doo doo” and “skkkkkkkkkkkkkrt” and “boom boom boom boom boom boom” adlibs, Gunn’s verses are cluttered messes of sound, with the cherry on top being his nasal and high-pitched screech of a voice spitting sweet nothings into your ears of his crazy clothing options, shooting motherfuckers with his insane arsenal of weaponry, and dealing every drug known to man in the mean streets of Buffalo. In a lot of ways the man reminds me of a mid-career Ghostface Killah: his bars don’t follow any sort of story or flow, it’s stream of conscious and entertaining, and his voice follows in a similar vocal quality. Like I’ve said, he isn’t the best rapper in the group, but he’s simply fun to listen to (although I can seen him being an acquired taste), and he adds a lot to the group by maintaining those core aspects of Griselda in everything that he raps: fashion, art, and the streets. The best thing he does on Wwcd (besides his standout grimy performance on May Store) is having multiple verses on here where he goes back and forth with another member, whether that’s him and Conway trading bars on Scottie or him and Benny doing the same on the Bang Remix.

Reject 2 is where a lot of the major Griselda buzz started, where that trademark Daringer sound started in earnest, and where everyone learned about Conway’s compelling past

Conway the Machine, who is Westside Gunn’s biological brother, is the grime and soul of Griselda, with his trademark delivery and unreal wordplay being a rock-solid anchor into 90’s hip-hop. Conway also plays a huge part into the street credibility of the group, having suffered greatly in pursuit of the dream. While stopped at a traffic light, some chicken-shit motherfuckers rolled up alongside his vehicle and unloaded, hitting Conway in the back of his head and neck; the attack didn’t kill him, but as a result he suffered permanent nerve damage in the form of what’s called Bells Palsy, which rendered the left side of his face paralyzed. Whenever Conway raps nowadays, you can feel the struggle in not only his vivid bars, but also the physical act of getting words on wax; he’s breathy and airy, and the faster and more complex his flow gets the more you can hear the effort, increasing the emotion and ferocity behind the bars. I can tell that Conway’s pool of influence includes the LOX heavily, with Jadakiss and Styles P being huge influences on his wordplay. But that delivery, even before he was shot, is Kool G Rap to the core, with his spit-flinging intensity paying major homage to him. Across Wwcd, Conway doesn’t have as many standout “holy shit” moments as he has unflinchingly solid and consistent performances, each one reinforcing the notion that he’s one of the best rappers out today, period. He goes insane on Dr Birds, bringing the best verse out of the three, and shows up 50 Cent in supreme fashion on City On the Map.

Benny’s freestyles on radio stations like Sway in the Morning exposed him to a wider audience, but The Plugs I Met really put this dude on everyone’s radar with monster bars and killer features

Benny the Butcher, a cousin to both Conway the Westside, and the biological brother to the late Machinegun Black, is the third piece to the Griselda puzzle, bringing a cutthroat energy that the other’s can only hint at. Benny is a child of the 90’s, yes, but he also has shades of cats like 50-Cent, Lloyd Banks, and even some Lil Wayne in the way he structures his incredibly thoughtful punchlines. This dude has some of the best wordplay amongst the Griselda members, a junk-yard dog way of attacking the mic with absolutely no-holds-barred, and is also slightly more experimental with his flows. He has the typical Conway flow on lock with that one-two punch, but he can also adapt more to a triplet flow like he does on Cruiser Weight Coke. Some of the stuff he says on this album is hype inducing to the max; the way this dude can stunt and flash in his bars are reminiscent of Pusha T. Overall, I think Benny is the strongest straightforward rapper of the bunch, and he ground the group in the more traditional “bars for bars sake” roots that the instrumentals are so clever at evoking.

While the rapping is normally only half of the experience of a hip-hop record, I’d say on Wwcd it’s more like ¾’s. Daringer produces every track in the listing, front to back, and with help from Shady’s own Beat Butcha crafts an instrumental soundscape that is very rooted in the early days of the Griselda collective. If you went back and listened to the earlier Hitler Wears Hermes series, Conway’s Reject 2, Hall N Nash projects (Gunn and Conway together), you’ll hear a slow, dissociative, and tense production style that Daringer used to build up Griselda in an entirely unique way. With it’s minimal drums, tight punchy beat loops, low-fi and obscure samples, and nocturnal instrument choices, the group set itself apart from the rappers out there trying to replicate the boom-bap of the 90’s. However, I think that, while Wwcd is almost like a time capsule looking back at the earliest days of Griselda, it feels slightly awkward knowing that the group has grown to embrace so many other moods and atmospheres amongst their discographies, and we’re returning to this sound that almost feels… dated dare I say. Don’t get me wrong, I still love this project and what Daringer has done to curate the quintessential Griselda sound, but listening to Hitler Wears Hermes 7 (which came out less than a month ago), I can’t help but feel like I appreciated the instrumental diversity that that project presented over Wwcd’s diehard commitment to it’s motif.

Yes this is actually Daringer, the man with the plan. Yes, he low-key loks like that Trailer Park Boys dude, but if he could produce like this I’d love him too.

While other releases like HWH7 and Benny’s The Plugs I Met embrace some more soul/jazz samples, with lots of vocal chops and more light-hearted and New York City inspired cuts, Daringer paints a picture that ranges from dark and murky to super dark and super murky. The first two tracks, Chef Dreds and Moselle, are the two lightest tracks in the list, with the former being a old-school bass romp sounding like a classic cypher in some industrial park, and the latter slowing it down significantly but still maintaining the haleness with its piano and wind-chime flourishes. Cruiser Weight Coke eases further into the darkness with evil electric guitars and a cartoonishly sinister sustained key ever-present, but it still feels like we’re in a safe zone. However, from here on out, it drops into the fucking pits of Buffalo, which is a good thing that these are some of the darkest beats the boys have ever rapped over, but also a detriment because the production starts to run together. Dr Birds is absolutely filthy with it’s suuuuuper dusty drums, deep subterranean bassline, and little chime notes that disperse themselves; the whole thing sound like a possessed music box spewing utter nastiness. The Old Groove can get long-winded with its sparse instrumental passages inbetween verses, but those drums and those low-fi key notes create this amazing atmosphere like a soundtrack to a crack den. Scotties has these warped guitar notes, and it’s almost non-existent drums sound like classic Flygod material. City on the Map is a busier cut with a steady rhythm and consistent keyboards creating this strolling beat, but it still maintains the murk of the darker cuts. May Store is one of my favorite beats here, leading into verses with this amazing drum breakdown, accented by these Halloween-esque piano notes plucking along behind the mix; I love how this beat has a lot of different element that change as the song structure forms more, something a lot of beats on Wwcd are won’t to do.

Griselda records are also famous for the collaborations they are able to pull together, with the boys having worked with such names as Busta Rhymes, Royce da 5”9’, Jadakiss, Styles P, Lloyd Banks, Elzhi, Fat Joe, Raekwon, and the list goes on and on. However, and in my biggest criticism of Wwcd, this album completely drops the ball when it comes to both feature selection and placement. There are only a couple of tracks that have people outside of the core three of Griselda on there, and besides Keisha Plum (who may well have dropped my favorite spoken word verse she’s ever done for Griselda on May Store) every one of them would have been better served leaving the feature off. I’ll start with the big dog, Eminem, who comes on the back end of the remix to Bang, which everyone up to this point had assumed was going to be on Conway’s Shady debut. He is so out of place on the Daringer beat that it’s not even funny, distorting his flow into something ugly as he struggles to fit his words into the structure of the bars; but the worst part is that he switches the instrumental to a more trap inspired and mainstream sound that he, admittedly, flows much better on, but is completely inappropriate for a Griselda track. I understand as the face of Shady Records you want to be on the album of your newest and most promising signees, and I’m sure they will see some increased streams because of it, but man I wished Em would have tailored his verse better for this instrumental. Novel on The Old Groove is the exact same way, with a great track leading up to his verse, but then the instrumental changes to a slightly more upbeat tune, and Novel is on here singing away, harmonizing with himself for really no reason at all. Honestly, Novel completely ruins the vibe of the track, and you bet your ass I’m cutting his contributions right out of there. 50 Cent on City On the Map is an ok feature, but he takes a minute to get started into a serviceable flow, and even then it leaves a lot to be desired; it really sounds like he wasn’t interested in doing he verse at all, and the instrumental didn’t fit his style enough to justify his placement. Regardless of the fact that it’s basically a solo Conway track, having a lackluster 50 verse really hurts it’s replayability

Despite the glaring problems with the features on here, Wwcd is an immensely satisfying high point in what will surely go down as one of the legendary runs in modern hip-hop. It is both a culmination of all of the work Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher, and Conway the Machine have put into the game, and a callback to the earlier days of the collective. The three men as emcees complement each other as well as they always have, and their varied bank of 90’s and early 2000’s influences are a train that they have ridden into stardom. Daringer on the beats draws from projects like the early Hiter Wears Hermes tapes and Reject 2 to create a dismal and nocturnal soundscape that consistent to the sounds that Griselda have made their mainstay. The Griselda brand is stronger now than it has ever been, and I hope they can ride off this major label debut and make the 2020’s a playground for classic beats, classic flows, and classic wordplay. The 90’s is still alive and well in Buffalo, but Griselda puts their own grimy and ultraviolent spin on it by asking themselves a simple question every time they get in the booth: What Would Chinegun Do?

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