Ominous basslines duel with screeching rock and roll organs on “Cruiser Weight Coke,” bolstering Conway’s drug-catalog bars before Benny slides through with a refined and focused flow switch. It’s as much a character as the antiheroes themselves, the mis-en-scene. Cinematic production, cousin both to grindhouse cinema and Hitchcockian film noir, sets backdrops befitting of the visceral slices of life as presented. “The most sought-after, bar after bar after bar after.”Īs with all things under the Griselda banner, cohesion is of the utmost importance. “We the upper echelon of the hard rappers,” he spits, without breaking a sweat. Conway’s closing verse packs all the more blunt force after Gunn and Benny’s one-two punch, his bars rattling with confidence and gravitas. Channeling the spirit of The Lox, or the closer-to-home tandem of Ghostface and Rae, Gunn and Benny trade-off bars with effortless chemistry there’s little in the way of one-upmanship, with verses being crafted for the song’s strategic benefit.
“Hanging out the Royce with the Russian, everybody duckin’, only five n***as got hit - fuck it,” he snarls, buried beneath endearing gunshot onomatopoeias. And though they’ve been self-actualizing for years now, WWCD feels like not only a step, but a statement.įrom the onset of “Chef Dred’s,” Westside Gunn’s feverish imagery pulls listeners headlong into his concrete realm. Remaining unwavering in their approach to lyricism, the grassroots movement has risen into the only entity to work in tandem with both Jay-Z and Eminem on management and distribution respectively. Long have people frivolously wished for a return to “real hip-hop,” perhaps uncertain of what such a harbinger would actually look like, and yet wishing all the same! Perhaps the Griselda trifecta, along with the integral Daringer and Beat Butcha, are the closest manifestation thus far. Not only have both parties quietly established themselves as two of the year’s sharpest lyricists, but they’ve managed to prove one integral truth: real, while rare, can thrive in today’s market. While it’s time to start recognizing him as one of the game’s great visionaries, the stalwart work of Conway and Benny The Butcher are tantamount in elevating the brand’s excellence. Decked in a Balenciaga trench coat and a ski-mask, Westside’s reign will be one of high thread count and fast-flung lead.
Griselda’s What Would Chinegun Do, their first project distributed by Eminem’s Shady Records, is but another chapter in Gunn’s long-plotted out saga. For Westside Gunn, who once spoke of becoming hip-hop’s greatest orchestrator, the scope of his vision is only beginning to manifest. For those who value the style of hip-hop that Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, and Benny The Butcher deal in, Raekwon’s co-sign is a reiteration of a well-established fact. One that marked mutual respect from a legendary emcee to a group of battle-hardened visionaries. A symbolic transition from the slums of Shaolin to the streets of Buffalo.
During the Griselda On Steroids tour, Raekwon declared that the torch had been passed.