Griselda Records: The Game’s Cashiers
Family relations often influence and dominate industries, and the hip-hop industry is no exception. The 90s saw cultural domination by the likes of Snoop and Nate Dogg (cousins), Dre and Warren G (stepbrothers), and the Wu-Tang trio of cousins in the shape of RZA, GZA, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Today, Migos may well represent the most well-known family of hip-hop artists, but if Baby Keem continues to release albums of similar quality to The Melodic Blue, it may not be long before Keem and Kendrick’s family ties are top of more than just the morning. Looking to the UK, Skepta and JME provide one of the most successful family connections in rap. Whatever the era, whatever the place, rappers connected by blood have always seemed to have a certain ineffable chemistry.
‘Chemistry’, however, may well be an understatement in the case of Griselda Records. The label is much more than just brothers Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine, and their cousin Benny the Butcher. Mach-Hommy, for instance, joins the brothers and replaces Benny as one of the label’s trio of founding fathers. However, Westside, Conway, and Benny are undoubtedly the main attraction, and their unique sound - highly reminiscent of the era of Wu-Tang Clan supremacy - alongside their business and fashion ventures, have propelled the label from a Buffalo-native organisation to a global movement, influencing mainstream hip-hop in ways the mainstream itself is perhaps not yet fully aware.
The Style
On ‘1985 (Intro to the Fall-Off)’, J. Cole laments the monotony of hip-hop today, claiming that “trap drums is the shit that’s hot now”. Jermaine must not have heard of Griselda. In a recent Twitch rant, so passionate you would think every ‘Lil’’ rapper were his sworn mortal enemy, R&B legend, T-Pain, nearly burst a blood vessel in his forehead complaining about the very same lack of diversity in hip-hop these days. Teddy must not be doing his research.
To be fair, the two are not entirely wrong. Hip-hop does seem to have been nigh on colonised by trap beats in the last five years, and it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between the East and West coasts, especially with Atlanta’s rise to absolute ascendancy. From Carti’s adlibs to Migos’ triplet flow, you could make a fairly convincing argument that hip-hop has somewhat amalgamated into one hot Atlanta-centric, adlibbed, Pierre-Bourne/ Metro Boomin-produced mess.
Enter Griselda Records. What Griselda bring to this colonised hip-hop world - besides quite simply the best adlibs in the game - is a masterful straddling of three different eras. In Westside, Conway and Benny, we see a return of the cocaine cowboys era of the 80’s and 90’s. References to the infamous booger sugar are literally littered over every track, and this is hardly a surprise when you consider the label’s name comes from the Colombian drug lord of the Medellín cartel, Griselda Blanco Restrepo, AKA ‘The Black Widow’. The group’s reverence for Wu-Tang is evident in almost every song, from the subject matter, to the ‘boom-bap’ beats, to the flows, to even the song titles.
At one stage, I was convinced the trio had some agreement to never deviate from this sound and, on one level, I respected any artist in the modern era who refused to budge from their own style. It takes serious willpower to do a Dave Chappelle-ian move and turn down the bags on offer these days, forcing any potential or would-be collaborator to meet you where you stand and not a centimetre closer to the halfway line. On another level, however, I feared the three simply could not make their usual tricks work on any other beat, perhaps literally belonging to an era which has simply had its time. How wrong I was.
Conway and Benny especially have more recently shown their versatility, through well-received collaborations with JID, Denzel Curry, REASON and more, demonstrating how effortless style-switching is for rappers as talented as they are. The current sound of the early 2020s is no challenge for the Griselda boys whenever they wish to stop paying such strict homage to the likes of Raekwon and Ghostface.
Call me cliché, but the third era the Griselda trio have their foot in is the future. If Hitler Wears Hermes 8 is indeed Westside’s final album, before he takes a more concerted step towards curation and executive production, then we have all the evidence that we could possibly need to see that Griselda is here to stay. Hip-hop, like all other industries and cultures, goes through trends, whether that be in dress, in sound, or in personage. What never changes, however, is that those who can truly rock a mic will always have a space in this field.
The Front Three
In every great trio, one of the fundamental pillars of success is the concept of complementary assets. Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez were a fearsome front three, but no player alone was perfect: what CR7 lacked in defensive work-rate, Rooney and Tevez made up for in their bullish, if not ravenous approach to the game. Rodman never needed to worry too much about scoring with Jordan on the team, and Pippen there to play both sides of the court. While Firmino sometimes struggles to put the ball in the back of the net, his weakness is made up for by Salah and Mane’s ridiculous goalscoring exploits, all linked together by Firmino’s swagger on the ball and eye for a killer pass in the final third. Think Wade, Lebron and Bosh, or perhaps Klay, Steph and Draymond (excluding the disaster of the 2016 Finals of course) - would the Splash Brothers have ever been the same without Draymond’s defensive work? If any trio in history has ever possessed truly complementary assets, however, it may well be Westside, Conway, and Benny.
“The flyest nigga of all time and y’all know it”
- 'Free Kutter', Westside Gunn
Westside’s bars at times don’t match up to the quality of his brother and cousin, and it would appear he himself acknowledges that. He often leaves the other two to handle freestyles and live performances, like with the 2020 TIDAL live show, Griselda Presents: The Machine and The Butcher, and the group’s appearance on Fire in the Booth (although Westside does provide a beautiful cameo, demonstrating his uncanny likeness to a machine gun). However, sometimes rap isn’t all about bars. The energy an artist brings to a track can be contagious, and that’s exactly what Westside does so well: his delivery will do nothing if not make you feel like you yourself are the FLYGOD, and if you don’t believe his words, you’ll most definitely believe his adlibs.
Artists like Migos, Young Thug, and Carti have grabbed headlines over the last decade for their adlibs - lest we forget Carti’s purely adlibbed feature on ‘RAF’, or Thug’s 11-second “skrr” on ‘Halftime’. Flo Milli’s simple but incredibly effective “Flo Milli shit” is a personal favourite adlib in the game currently (especially when executed right on time with the beat, as she does on tracks like ‘In the Party’). However, if it’s adlibs you’re looking for, look no further than the Griselda boys and Westside Gunn in particular. Nearly every Westside verse I’ve heard has come armed with an artillery full of gunshot adlibs, to the extent he even chucks them in on his mate’s verses as they rap.
However, Westside is far more than a rapper/ machine gun impersonator. His eye for curation is nothing short of exemplary, and if this is the direction his career is heading, he is certainly well-equipped for the challenge. Part of what makes this trio so special is their brilliant beat selection - a crucial element to any rapper’s success. In this department, Westside is the clear frontrunner. All hip-hop heads love a good sample, and while artists such as Kanye West, MF DOOM and others are often praised for their sampling capabilities, songs like ‘Whoopy’, ‘Lucha Bros’, ‘Dear Winter Bloody Fiegs’, and ‘Wrestlemania 20’ demonstrate just how flawless Westside’s ear for a sample is. In the same album, you’ll find yourself transported from a guttural sounding, villainous instrumental, (‘Free Chapo’, ‘Scotties’, or ‘The Old Groove’) to a gorgeous Nina Simone or Aretha Franklin sample, with harps and soft piano loops drifting through your ears (‘Vivian at the Art Basel’ or ‘Ocean Prime’). Who knew gangster rap over the top of beautiful 80s love ballads could sound so good?
Of course, working alongside producers with the quality of Alchemist, Daringer, Conductor Williams and others always helps, but at the end of the day, an artist must make the final decision on which beats to use, and then decide how to approach that beat. In a recent interview for NPR Music’s series, The Formula, Westside even goes as far as to say his is the best ear in the game, detailing how he routinely combs through packs of over 100 beats, only to select as few as 2. In Westside, we truly see a calculated methodology behind almost every beat, perfectly curated to allow him to boastfully declare himself the FLYGOD once again.
“The hooligan, that made rapping on grimy loops cool again”
- 'Gucci Casket', Conway the Machine
Conway brings with him a never-ending roster of NBA-related punchlines and a flow that leaves you begging for more. Many rappers are only capable of approaching a flow in one way. DaBaby, for example, rarely sounds like he’s doing anything other than attacking the beat. On some songs, he doesn’t even wait for the beat to begin, so eager to flood his listener’s eardrums with his (at times) verbal diarrhoea. Other rappers like Smino, Noname and Saba (we’re still waiting on the Ghetto Sage project btw) find it easier to glide over a beat, their flow mixing seamlessly in with the instrumental in a way that makes you close your eyes whilst they lead you on a beautiful musical journey. Conway brings an ability to do both to an extent you wouldn’t believe, and with this flawless flow comes an indisputable intelligence. As Jay Electronica says during his feature on Westside’s most recent album, don’t let the Griselda boys’ adlibs fool you into thinking they’re nothing but cocaine cowboys - this is one of their many faces. Tracks like Conway’s ‘Front Lines’ and Westside’s ‘Michael Irvin’ demonstrate the Griselda boys’ clear ability to speak on the issues we sometimes praise other rappers for speaking on. When we consider the fact that Conway’s wordplay is so consistently hard-hitting that it sounds as though the man’s just walked through a Pack-a-Punch machine every time he steps in the booth, I think we can safely say Conway and co. have more to them than mere cocaine stories.
In my opinion, Conway is the group’s prized possession, the effortless spitter, the lyrical monster who can silkily skate on a track or mercilessly murder a beat. When you add in the fact he was shot in the neck and shoulder, leaving him with Bell’s Palsy and paralysed in the right side of his face, his lyrical miracles become even more astounding.
“More bars than them niggas who got hit with the Reagan laws”
- 'Crowns for Kings', Benny the Butcher
In Benny, the trio seems to have found its superstar, as he continues to rise to mainstream prominence. As much as I love Westside’s adlibs, Benny may just have the pick of the bunch with his nametag, “the Butcher coming, nigga!” Being the most marketable arm of the trio is what Benny specifically brings to the group, and explains his mainstream success in recent times. As I said earlier, rap isn’t always purely about who has the best bars around. I would be lying if I said Burden of Proof was my favourite project to come from one of the Griselda boys, but it’s quite easy to see why it’s done so well commercially. The features alone are largely big names who immediately take the project away from the purely Wu-Tang sound, into a more recognised listening experience for many hip-hop fans today. We’re all required to code-switch to some extent when we leave the comfort of our own homes and communities and enter our day jobs: Benny just seems to know exactly how to mix his own language with one which a wider audience will relate to and engage with.
Alongside that, let’s not underestimate Benny’s own skill in the game: the only reason I say he’s the second-best spitter in the group is because of Conway’s own excellence. Throughout the project, Benny demonstrated that he can still rock a mic far better than 90% of rappers could ever dream of. The same also goes for Westside. Perhaps I’m just guilty of over-comparing three incredibly talented individuals. As Rio Ferdinand once said, sometimes no comparison is needed: “Just enjoy them, man”.
'The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there'
While some may praise Griselda for their absolute slap in the face return to the 90s, it’s quite easy to see why others instead criticise: when things are left behind in history, it’s often for a reason. It’s fairly apparent that rap remains a genre whose cup runneth over with toxic masculinity, but some notable and significant progress has been made in recent years to diversify the field. This makes it quite easy to accuse artists like the Griselda boys, with their nonstop and highly explicit references to gang violence and drug dealing, of backward motion. One concerning trend the Griselda trio’s music especially emphasises is just how young some boys are when they are groomed into a lifestyle far more unstable and traumatic than anyone would really wish for were they making fully autonomous decisions. Rappers have been accused of ‘glorifying gang violence’ for decades now, and it doesn’t seem likely these accusations, or the causes for them, will stop anytime soon. The subject deserves much deeper discussion than just this article: who’s allowed to have an opinion? Who’s allowed to tell others that they can’t make music that reflects their own reality?
Whatever your stance on the matter, the Griselda boys are worth a listen. Maybe you find having someone scream “DOOT-DOOT-DOOT-DOOT-DOOT-DOOT” in your ear isn’t for you. Fair enough. However, you may also just find yourself yelling “the Butcher coming, nigga!” around your house for the next 18 months. I know which category I fell into.
The Cashiers
Back in 2009, Drake said: “The game need change and I’m the motherfuckin’ cashier”. His diagnosis remains correct: the game is desperately calling out for change in 2021, but its usual heroes don’t seem up to the task. When the world needed him most, Kendrick vanished. When the self-professed cashier was called upon, he released another incredibly commercially successful album, but one which few would look you dead in the eye and argue is album of the year, in any year - even his diehard fans. Meanwhile, as our heroes slumber, Atlanta’s colonisation seems nearly complete, and although the sound certainly brings in the money and mainstream recognition, the game seems to be missing something which once was there.
In my view, Griselda are the game’s true cashiers today. They occupy a somewhat paradoxical, perhaps even oxymoronic space in the contemporary hip-hop world. Very often, the music is a monumental departure from the mainstream sound. As much as the likes of Joey Bada$$, A$AP Rocker (shoutout to Miley) and other recent East coast lyrical giants have carried the East coast’s flag, it is undoubtedly the Griselda boys who, in Joey’s own words, have ‘resurrected boom-bap fromdatomb$’. Simultaneously, however, the Griselda trio looks to pull hip-hop forward, in more ways than just sonically, but in fashion and business too. For those looking for something rather familiar, but also rather new, look no further than Griselda Records.
