Written By: Mike Double G
Grade = 85% or 4 ⭐️
Intro
Mobbin (Chase Fetti, Heem, Billy V, & Benny the Butcher) ✅
Element of Surprise (Lloyd Banks) ⭐️
Ain’t Hit Nobody (Flee Lord, Eto, & Westside Gunn) ⭐️
Pride (Ransom) ❌
Welcome Home DMX (Dave East & Jonezy) ✅
Squaaaaad (El Camino, Rick Hyde, & Smoke DZA) ❌
3:30 In Houston (Benny the Butcher) ⭐️
Voices (Heem, Boldy James, & Chase Fetti) ⭐️
Rank (YN Billy) ✅
I’m Not The Enemy (Skit)
Nerve of You (Armani Caesar) ✅
Conflicted (Flee Lord) ✅
Mission Accomplished (Westside Gunn, Armani Caesar, & Benny the Butcher) ⭐️
The Hurt Business (Westside Gunn, Smoke DZA, & Wale) ✅
Another strong effort from Griselda and its associates. We see the Griselda regulars Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher, Armani Caesar, and Boldy James. As well as frequent collaborators Flee Lord, Eto, and Elcamino. If you are not in tuned, BSF stands for Black Soprano Family which is Benny the Butchers label. The BSF members on the project are Heem and Rick Hyde. Along with the guys you would expect there are some more familiar faces with a little more star power in Dave East, Wale, and Smoke DZA. This is also the second time we see Lloyd Banks on a Griselda project. He is solo on Element of Surprise and it turns out being one of the best songs on the entire project. The one knock I have is there is no songs with Conway the Machine who is arguably the best member of the group.
As expected this project is the gritty street rap that you would expect from a group that is putting New York street rap back on the map. There success and age (all in there late 30s) is making the members of Dipset, G-Unit, and The Lox relative again. Before Griselda started making a big splash in the main stream in 2019 a lot of people may have looked at guys like Lloyd Banks and Jim Jones as washed up. Take a look at Jim Jones on El Capo and it proves that this genre of music is “back in” and not just with the “Old Heads”. Not to take credit away from Jim but Griselda should be given some credit for that.
Most of the best tracks are by the Griselda members. Songs like Mission Accomplished could have easily been put on a Griselda LP and I wouldn’t be surprised if 3:30 in Houston was an extra from Benny’s LP Burden of Proof. If you like Griselda or New York street rap this project is for you. My least favorite tracks was Pride by Ransom and Squaaaaad by Elcamino, Rick Hyde, & Smoke DZA. Everything other track was really good or at least solid.
After watching the movie (POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!) it doesn’t compare to Eminem’s 8 Mile or 50 Cents Get Rich or Die Tryin but it’s definitely worth watching if your a Griselda fan or hip hop fan in general. Benny had a pretty big role in the movie and is actually a much better actor than I thought he would be. I could see him doing a lot more acting in the future. We also see Westside Gunn in a couple scenes but not Conway. This is probably the reason why Conway didn’t make the soundtrack. I would have still liked to see him on a track seeing that a lot of the guys on the soundtrack were not in the movie.
After watching the movie I enjoyed the soundtrack even more because most of the songs played during the film. At the end it said “to be continued...”. As promoted this is just the first movie to begin a series. Westside Gunn was in the last scene so I expect him to have a bigger role in the next film. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Conway makes the next film and if Benny reappears as a different character.
Best Song = “Mission Accomplished” by Westside Gunn, Armani Caesar, & Benny the Butcher
Download: “Conflicted” Soundtrack