The Weekly Coos

Manifesting himself into someone more refreshed and new, Benny the Butcher strives ignorantly through his new album Everybody Can’t Go. After doubling down on his status and reminding us of his roots with his last album, the fourth installment in his Tana Talk series, Benny is taking it all in and giving us music where he takes us back to the beginning, where he spits the same diatribe, with some fantastic lyricism and excellent beats. Though the idea is a familiar retread of Benny rapping about the drug trade and his lavish lifestyle via braggadocio lyrics, Benny the Butcher still focuses on keeping the cohesion and flow of music at a high peak. Still, it suffers from mild pacing issues, three nonmemorable songs, and a few features that dilute the impact because of its placement or result within the bigger picture. Benefiting him is having a direct line of producers with a fluidity that can sometimes get lost within an amassed collection of producers on an album; here, it’s only three: Hit-Boy, Corbett, and The Alchemist. The synergy is natural, never deflating to aim for more of a universal appeal and keeping it 100 from beginning to end, despite specific skips.

Everybody Can’t Go opens with a declaration from Benny the Butcher about his character in the song “Jermaine’s Graduation,” with the Butch rapping, “There’s a story behind that name when they call me the Pyrex Man/Like them two bricks from Doug and papis from Kazakhstan;” that declaration immediately leads to explanations and ideas that come with the status built as a rapper from the ground up. So when Drake rapped, “Started from the bottom, Now we here,” Benny came through, said, “Hold my beer,” and starts firing on varying cylinders. Unfortunately, not all cylinders are clean, as some of the concoctions that get infused within make what comes out a slight disappointment, and more so after Benny comes with a fantastic three-track run to begin the album. From “Jermaine’s Graduation” to “Big Dog,” Benny the Butcher delivers an immersive flow of characterizations that personify who he is, eclipsing with “Big Dog,” which continues that formative potency that we heard last year on their collaboration in ColleGrove 2. After such, the music fluctuates, sometimes retreading familiarity that has been heard better on past albums. Benny the Butcher delivers on what he sets out to do, but it starts stumbling with “Everybody Can’t Go,” the title track.

Wobbling due to a basic and predictable chorus on the title track, “Everybody Can’t Go,” you get how it misses modestly upon getting hit with the great, rustic, gritty bap track that flips beats twice to tell a story in “TMVTL,” we get some mild disappointment with tracks “Back Again,” “One Foot In,” and “Buffalo Kitchen Club.” The former has Snoop Dogg in as a glorified guide without giving much of an effort to have his presence known, and as it has been more constant than not, is the lack of him giving a proper verse; the song has those solid elements from the beat and Benny’s rapping, it has little to offer like the two songs that follow, which retreads the simple formulaic back and forth on raps about the drug trade and or being braggadocio with how they proceed in their astuteness. Though these tracks aren’t bad comparatively, they don’t have the potency from previous collaborations like “Hunnit Dolla Hiccup” off Armani Caesar’s last album or one of the many Benny the Butcher / Stove God Cooks collaborations. It makes the middle of the album more of a disappointment, despite not being overall bad.

None of the features I’ve mentioned prior are bad, more so unmemorable, like Babyface Ray on “Pillow Talk & Slander,” where his flow lacks the standout appeal to match the intensity of Benny the Butcher and the slow, grim flow of Jadakiss, who’s continuing a consistent streak of delivering great verses. The same goes for the Black Sopranos Family posse cut “Griselda Express,” where the synergy and verses push it to an all-time memorable high from the main three WSG, Conway and Benny, alongside member Rick Hyde. It all ends on a significant high with “Big Tymers,” where Peezy shines, becoming one of my favorite features on the album. As is with the quality of features, the production by Hit-Boy and Alchemist keeps the album flowing strong, especially with some of the percussion-heavy tracks like “TMVTL,” “Bron,” and “One Foot In,” for example, where each brings something unique to the table with the subtle adages from other instrumentations and sounds, allowing for a differentiating cadence to the tones. “Bron” has more of a lavish flair that helps Benny correlate with the namesake of its title, while the latter has more tonal grit, adding to the buoying bravado behind Benny’s flows.

As it closes, it all culminates in another solid Benny the Butcher album, where the product shines with the consistency of the past. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, retreading familiarity without much oomph, but Benny the Butcher stands on his laurels, and the quality remains modestly high. I was a fan of this album, though maybe not to the extent of his short collab tapes, but enough to make it a repeatable spin before 2024 starts kicking. Everybody Can’t Go is worth the listen, especially as a Hip-Hop fan, as those reservations don’t get met here that you’d be glad you heard Benny spit more authenticity through the aforementioned cylinders.