Benny The Butcher has no shortage of heavyweight collaborations in his catalog, yet his unreleased song with Drake continues to be a source of frustration.
The Buffalo, New York native was asked about the track during an interview with Joe Budden on his Amazon Amp show Conversation Lovers Only, where he admitted he was “pissed” it never received an official release.
AD LOADING...
“I was pissed, I’m not gonna lie. I was pissed, man,” he vented. “It’s a fucking Drake record! It was surely my biggest record … And the record’s just sitting in my pocket.”
When quizzed by Budden about why exactly the song got shelved, Benny struggled to come up with an answer, but said he “understands” the mechanics behind music releases — especially when it involves arguably the biggest rapper on the planet.
AD LOADING...
“I don’t know [what happened] neither,” he replied. “I can’t speak for [Drake] and his team … I got schedules. I might do a feature for somebody and they be like, ‘Benny, we ready to drop this Tuesday.’ And I’m like, ‘N-gga, you ain’t dropping that Tuesday ’cause we holding off, I got this.’
“That’s the biggest artist in the world so I understand his release schedule might be hectic or he might have people that be like, ‘We can’t drop that right now because we doing this.’ I understand that. He’s the name, but he represents a lot of people that he works with and his moves affect a lot of people, so I understand that part.”
AD LOADING...
Benny also made it clear that he harbors no ill will towards Drake for their collaboration never coming out, and appreciates that the OVO hitmaker reached out to work with him regardless.
“I don’t take it to heart,” he added. “No way did I take it like, ‘Damn, he fucked me over!’ I swear to God, I don’t take it like that because this is muthafucking Drake, the biggest artist in the world. Even for him to hit me up personally, that lets me know where he at.”
Although it has yet to be officially released, Benny The Butcher and Drake’s track leaked online in September 2021 under the name “Buffalo Freestyle.”
“I’m iller than the illnesses that these people wish me/ Drake be joshing around but life wasn’t Nickelodeon or Disney, is you kidding me?/ My résumé is thicker than Nicki, I’m busy, busy/ I remember doing half-time at Jackson, Mississippi/ Wasn’t driving Cadillac then, but shit still found a way to escalate quickly/ Wanted people to miss me, changed shit after Nipsey,” Drizzy rapped on the song.
Benny, meanwhile, served up more potent plug talk with lines like: “Had to hide so many stacks in my crib, I got it booby trapped/ My closet look like an Off-White vs. Louis match/ All that jealousy obvious, I got hip to it/ Even your compliments starting to sound like bitterness/ All the pressure I’m living with, every line delivered with hunger/ My flow is a sure thing like a death certificate.”
There may yet be hope that music from the pair will see the light of day as Benny revealed during an interview with Bootleg Kev in 2021 that he and Drake have recorded multiple songs together.
AD LOADING...
The Griselda MC hasn’t let the lack of a Drizzy collaboration halt his momentum, though, as he’s continued to drop stellar projects and establish his Black Soprano Family crew while trading bars with the likes of J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Black Thought, Jadakiss and the late DMX.
Next up for Benny is his eagerly anticipated Def Jam debut, Everybody Can’t Go, which is due out August 11 and will be produced by frequent collaborators Hit-Boy and The Alchemist.
