During the 2019 Holiday Season, Drake spoke rather highly of the Griselda movement during his interview with Rap Radar. "In a mainstream space I feel like the art of bars and that traditional long verse is kind of going extinct," he reflected, chopping it up with Elliot Wilson and B. Dot Miller. "Then you got guys like Griselda making it wavy again to be on your gutter, straight rap shit. The interesting structures -- that gutter shit." When Miller asked if a Drake and Benny The Butcher collaboration was a possibility, Drizzy took a sip of his wine. "I'm down. Benny showed me love one time in an interview. He did show me love."
Though Westside Gunn, Conway, and Benny are used to high-profile co-signs -- they've already been endorsed by Eminem, J. Cole, Jay-Z, Raekwon, Royce Da 5'9", and Ghostface -- many were excited to see Drake showing love to such a bar-centric collective. Especially those who value Drake getting back on his BS, spazzing on lyrical slow burners like "Omerta." While there's certainly a strategic benefit of securing the Drake feature, as seen for Lil Baby, Blocboy JB, and even Migos, the Griselda trifecta have already established themselves as key players in the game without Aubrey's blessing. Be that as it may, the idea of these particular worlds colliding is enticing on a purely stylistic level.
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As luck would have it, what started as a what-if fantasy has become a reality. Seizing the opportunity presented by Drake's Rap Radar interview, Benny The Butcher stepped up and slid an instrumental to Drizzy's camp, the confirmation of a full-scale collaboration all but locked in. Taking to social media to fan the flames of hype, The Butcher made is known that the wheels are in motion. "Sent Drake a record and I kno imma wanna drop it as soon as he send it back," he wrote, in a screencap captured by Elliot Wilson (the man who may have inadvertently helped spark this unexpected friendship in the first place).
To make things even more exciting, Drake slid into the comments with a simple Typewriter emoji, roughly translated to "I'm writing as we speak." Of course, going toe to toe on wax with Benny The Butcher is no easy feat -- one must bring their best bars to the table, and in no small dose. Benny is used to lyrically trading with the likes of Conway The Machine, another formidable wordsmith. While Drake is certainly competitive, a collaboration with Benny might be the biggest challenge he's faced in a minute. On the other hand, it might be exactly what the game needs right now -- a reminder that when inspired to do so, the 6ix God can spit at elite levels. No matter how things turn out, it'll be exciting to see whether he's capable of keeping strides with The Butcher on Benny's home turf.
Concrete details surrounding the track are scarce. We can speculate that it will be produced by Daringer or Alchemist, but that's about it. All we know is that, much like The Butcher himself, it's coming.