B.E.N.N.Y. the Butcher

Lauded for his vivid stories and proficiency on the mic, Jeremie Damon Pennick (born November 27, 1984), best known as Benny The Butcher, is a rapper from East Side Buffalo, New York. Associated with Griselda Records, which he officially became part of in 2016, Benny draws most of his inspiration from the New York rap scene of the 90s. Like his collaborators (and first-cousins) Westside Gunn and Conway The Machine, Benny cites Rakim, Nas, Father MC, JAY-Z, Mobb Deep, and Wu-Tang Clan as major influences. Benny started rapping in 1999 as part of the group Killer Brown, which he had formed with his high school friends. In 2003, his career was cut short after he was charged with false identification and sent to federal prison. While serving his sentence, Benny competed in rap battles and cyphers with the other inmates. After he was released, Benny adopted the moniker “B.E.N.N.Y."—an acronym for "Best Ever ‘N New York"—and released his debut mixtape Tana Talk in 2004. Benny continued self-releasing projects regularly, but he only took off at a local level with releases such as Tana Talk 2, The Mayor’s Back, and Benny Montana. For a short period, he also went by the name “2 Chain Bennymane,” but ultimately changed back. He would eventually settle on Benny The Butcher—at times capitalized as a callback to his original name. At the start of the 2010s, Benny’s rap career was stifled once more with a two-year bid in prison for a probation violation. He decided to solely focus on music once released and co-founded the label Black Soprano Family in 2012 along with his manager. After steadily releasing material, Benny finally earned commercial and critical attention through a streak of increasingly successful projects, including 2018’s Tana Talk 3 and 2019’s The Plugs I Met. In October 2020, Benny dropped his sophomore studio album, Burden of Proof, which featured high-profile production from Hit-Boy. Despite branching out from his gritty boom-bap sound, Benny received critical acclaim for pushing his boundaries. It took just five months for Benny to return with an EP, The Plugs I Met 2, which dealt with the repercussions of street life and was executively produced by Harry Fraud. Benny’s highly-anticipated third studio album, Tana Talk 4, dropped on March 11, 2022. It was preceded by the J. Cole-assisted single, “Johnny P’s Caddy,” which became Benny’s first entry on the Billboard Hot 100.

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