Buffalo, New York emcee Benny the Butcher returning after 9 months for his 9th EP. in the game for 2 decades already, it wouldn’t be until 2016 where he alongside his cousins Westside Gunn & Conway the Machine would take the culture by storm off projects like Tana Talk 3 & The Plugs I Met. Harry Fraud came in for a sequel to the latter following the mature Burden of Proof & finally, Tana Talk 4 took it back to the basement a couple years back. Coming off having Hit-Boy produce half of it & leaving the other half to The Alchemist produce his Def Jam Recordings debut Everybody Can’t Go. Dropping both Summertime Butch & Buffalo Butch back-to-back, Excelsior’s looking to refine the styles of both those predecessors.
After the “Corner” intro, the first song “I’m the Program” is this symphonic boom bap opener suggesting you gotta laugh at life sometimes whereas “Sign Language” works in a vocal sample thanks to Harry Fraud living in the moment since too much going on. “$ & Power” featuring Skylar Blatt dabbles with trap courtesy of Daringer wanting those 2 things while “Duffel Bag Hottie’s Revenge” featuring Boldy James talks about the B$F artist currently behind bars. “Toxic” featuring Styles P returns to the boom bap to unite the Butcher with the Ghost until “B$F” featuring Fuego Base & Sule ends by repping their set.
With Excelsior, Benny continues to cement his place as one of the most important & vital voices in hip hop today continuing his evolution becoming reactivated in summertime mode with the streets watching & the culture listening. Some have jumped off the porch early & understood the game instantly, others took a lil time & some needed their hand held in every aspect & was only good at riding coattails. Then you have got people like him who’re The Chosen Few.
Score: 7/10
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