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Benny The Butcher Names The MCs That Inspire Him
Though the process of ranking has always been a cornerstone of hip-hop discourse, opinions tend to hold a lot more credibility when they come from an authoritative source. Often times, those very sources are top tier, elite-level emcees — a testament to the mentality that real recognize real. It goes without saying that Benny The Butcher has earned his place among the game’s top tier spitters, a fact made wholly evident with the release of Burden Of Proof. That is if Tana Talk 3 and The Plugs I Met didn’t already make that fact abundantly clear.
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Having secured collaborations with the likes of Eminem, Royce Da 5’9″, Black Thought, Ghostface Killah, Lil Wayne, Tip Harris, and more, one has to wonder when Benny’s name will carry such weight to rising emcees on the come-up. In the meantime, we had a chance to chop it up with The Butcher about the current rappers that inspire him.
“Freddie Gibbs,” he names first, showing major love to his Alfredo collaborator, with whom he worked on “Frank Lucas.” Russ gets the next selection; while that may prove surprising to some, it should be noted that Benny and Russ go way back, having collaborated on “I Thought You Got Me.” Not to mention the fact that Benny was originally supposed to open for Russ in a major stadium tour, though COVID-19 swept those plans aside with haste. “Conway too, I feel like sometimes he don’t get the credit,” continues Benny, looking within his own crew. “Who else? There’s a lot of us, man, we be knocking on the door. There’s a bunch of us.”
For more insight from The Butcher, including some of his bucket list collaborations, the history behind his Butcher moniker, and more, be sure to check out our complete interview with the Burden Of Proof rapper right here. Are you surprised by the rappers he named?
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