In his own words, it’s the best Def Jam Records album since DMX’s 1998 album, »It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot«. Benny The Butcher is certainly not one of the rap game’s shrinking violets. This is a trait of the business. It probably dates back to his »career« before he became a rapper. This didn’t happen in the studio vocal booth, but on Montana Avenue in Buffalo, New York, and landed him in jail several times. The rest of the story is legend: Benny meets Westside Gunn, forms Griselda with Conway The Machine, and after countless mixtapes, EPs and albums, releases _»Everybody Can’t Go«_, his first album for Def Jam. It is Benny’s fourth studio album. He worked exclusively with producer duo The Alchemist and Hit-Boy on the album. Benny The Butcher made »Burden Of Proof« with the latter three years ago and ever since »Tana Talk 3«, The Alchemist has been one of his closest production allies. Leaving aside the usual »album of the year« promo talk, the LP contains 12 songs—five produced by Alchemist and seven by Hit-Boy. The Butcher shows that he is one of the best in the genre when it comes to rapping skills, even if the narrative tracks about drug barons and street hustlers are pretty much old hat. All in all, »Everybody Can’t Go« is solid material throughout and it definitely belongs in the upper echelon of Griselda’s quarterly releases. After several listens, however, only a handful of songs really stick in your mind of which »Bron«, »TMVTL« or »Griselda Express« stand out most.
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