The storied Buffalo rap crew Griselda has been on a steady upward trajectory for the past few years, but they’re really on a hot streak now. A few weeks ago, Conway The Machine came out with his stunning album God Don’t Make Mistakes. Today, Conway’s cousin Benny The Butcher has come out with his own album Tana Talk 4, and it’s another great record from a team that’s absolutely in the zone right now.
Tana Talk 4 is the latest entry in a series of Benny The Butcher mixtapes; the last Tana Talk came out in 2018. Early word was that Tana Talk 4 would be produced entirely by the Alchemist. As it turns out, that wasn’t quite accurate. The Alchemist produced seven of the album’s 12 tracks, with longtime Griselda collaborators Daringer and Beat Butcha handling the rest. Still, it’s a sonically cohesive album. All of these tracks hit the same rainswept cinematic groove. Where Conway got tough and introspective on God Don’t Make Mistakes, Tana Talk 4 is mostly just Benny barring out, talking shit, and getting granular about his drug-trade past. That approach is not broken, and he didn’t fix it. This guy is great at barring out, talking shit, and getting granular about his drug-trade past.
Most of the other rappers on Tana Talk 4 are the usual Griselda suspects: Conway, Westside Gunn, Boldy James, Stove God Cooks, 38 Spesh. But we also get J. Cole on the album-opening single “Johnny P’s Caddy,” and we get Diddy, of all possible people, doing hypeman ad-libs on the Biggie-referencing “10 More Commandments.” You won’t hear too many albums that have back-to-back Boldy James and Diddy features. “10 More Commandments” also has a new music video, and you can stream Tana Talk 4 and watch that video below.
Tana Talk 4 is out now on Griselda Records/EMPIRE.
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