By Jamil Weeks

Throughout the history of hip hop as a musical genre, there have been select crews/groups that have led powerful movements that defined a particular era in the game. In the 80s, there was the Juice Crew. In the 90s, the Wu-Tang Clan took the world by storm. In the 2000s, Dip Set bridged the gap between New York City and the South. In the 2010s, a Buffalo, New York trio took the underground by storm and continued the boom bap tradition created by the five boroughs. With their brand of gutter, dusty beats, Griselda became more than just a record label. These brothers gained a grassroots following that breathed new energy into the underground. Roc Marci is the godfather of the modern-day underground sound with his brand of psychedelic, 70s-infused records. Other notable underground legends, like Hus Kingpin and Planet Asia, also made key contributions to hip hop’s underground movement. However, Griselda picked up the ball in the mid-2010s to become the face of the underground. As the mainstream all but abandoned the vintage boom bap formula and became a haven for trap artists, Griselda kept the underground thriving while putting Buffalo on the map as a new headquarters for hip hop. Under the leadership of Westside Gunn, with Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine being the flagship artists, Griselda has blossomed into a robust label for burgeoning lyricists. Some of today’s dopest spitters call Griselda home today, such as Armani Caesar, Boldy James, Estee Nack, Jay Worthy, Mach-Hommy, Rome Streetz, and Stove God Cooks. Griselda has been a major player in the past 10 years helping to carry the underground on their backs.

Westside Gunn and Conway have been making music going all the way back to the 2000s. However, for many of us, our official introduction to them was on Big Ghost Ltd’s, Griselda Ghost EP. Most people may remember Big Ghost from his blogging days where he had a parody Twitter account of Ghostface Killah. Around 2016, he took his talents in the musical arena, introducing many rap fans to artists like ANKHLEJOHN, CRIMEAPPLE, and Vic Spencer. Griselda Ghost was his first musical collaboration and proved to be a game changer. Like Wu-Tang, Griselda sounded like nothing out there and had a nostalgic, throwback sound to their music. For those individuals who championed that golden era 90s sound, Griselda kept their famished bellies fed. I spent the next couple of years going down a rabbit hole on platforms like Youtube listening to their music. Coincidentally, streaming becoming more prevalent in the digital age contributed to my binging of Griselda mixtapes. I started with Conway’s Reject 2, G.O.A.T., and The Blakk Tape. With in-house producers, Camouflage Monk and Daringer, Griselda created a sound that restored faith in a lot of rap fans who felt left behind by the current climate of hip hop. The fans who grew up on Kool G. Rap, Biggie, Jay-Z, Nas, Mobb Deep, Wu, Rakim, the LOX, Capone N Noreaga, Gangstarr, etc. Over the next few years, Griselda would relentlessly drop an onslaught of bar-heavy mixtapes and albums that would garner the attention from mainstream rappers, athletes, and entertainers.

Griselda has amassed an exceptional body of work in recent years. However, there were three albums that solidified my Griselda fandom: Westside Gunn’s Flygod and Supreme Blientele and Benny’s Tana Talk 3. Many fans consider these three albums to be classics and are the benchmarks in the Griselda catalog. These albums did a couple of key things. For one, they established Gunn as a curator. Gunn became a highly sought after executive producer for up-and-coming artists following his work on these albums. Gunn may not be the most lyrically gifted artist in Griselda, but he has an uncanny ear for beats, introducing many of us to the likes of Conductor Williams, Denny LaFlare, and Sadhugold. Those three albums also catered to the 90s babies with beats from veteran producers like 9th Wonder, Pete Rock and The Alchemist. While most rappers began to distance themselves from that 90s sound, Griselda ran back towards those golden era producers, leading to future collaborations with DJ Premier, Large Professor, and Rza. These albums also helped establish Benny and Conway as two of the deadliest emcees of their era. For the past five years or so, Benny and Conway have consistently kept themselves in the conversation as being in the top five current rappers lists. Finally, these three albums brought the art back to the forefront of hip hop. From the album covers, to Griselda’s trademark sound, to the bars, Griselda’s influence began to permeate the mainstream. Suddenly, rappers started popping up with Griselda-like album covers. As the collective continued to pump out quality music, they started to get the co-sign from every major rap legend, from Jay-Z to Eminem to Nas. Just this past year, current elite mainstream rappers like Drake and J. Cole used that Griselda sound (thanks to Conductor and Alchemist) to gain momentum for their projects. Griselda’s art-first mantra was a refreshing departure from the business-first model of mainstream rap.

Rap legends from the 90s embraced Griselda as they ascended the success ladder. Before their sudden deaths, Prodigy and Sean Price were among the first rap vets to collaborate with Griselda. The unapologetic hardcore vibe of Griselda music gravitated rap veterans to the Griselda camp almost like a natural reflex. You can make the argument that Griselda helped breathe new life into the careers of many rap legends. Griselda carried that vintage hip hop torch that reinvigorated the boom bap aesthetic, creating a lane for new artists while simultaneously helping to extend the careers of rap veterans who mastered that sound. Griselda artists began to be featured on albums by Busta Rhymes, DMX, and Large Professor. The buzz circulating around the Griselda label grew so big that Eminem signed Gunn and Conway to Shady Records, while Jay-Z recruited them to Roc Nation to sign management deals with them. From co-signs to deals, Griselda gained the respect from your favorite rappers for not compromising the integrity of their music for the sake of sales.

Under the Griselda regime, Buffalo has now become a hub for hip hop. The unofficial Griselda ally, El Camino, is a Buffalo artist who was featured on countless Griselda projects that he used to springboard his own rap career. The momentum Griselda achieved from consistently releasing quality music led to Benny and Conway landing their own labels, with B$F Records and Drumwork Music respectively, to extend the ever-growing Griselda Family tree. Benny and Conway used their labels to promote Buffalo artists, such as 7xvethegenius, Heem, Jae Skeese, and Rick Hyde. The B$F label exclusively featured production from the late great, DJ Shay, another Buffalo native. In addition to 7xvethegenius, Griselda promoted female artists just as much as their male counterparts. Outside of the trio, we were introduced to Keisha Plum, with her sinister brand of poetry. Griselda also featured frequent collaborations with Che Noir and signed Armani Caesar as the first lady of Griselda. Benny, Conway, and Gunn never forgot where they came from and put a big spotlight on the emerging talent from Buffalo. New York City was no longer the only city in the state of New York to be a major force in the game as rappers started popping up all over upstate New York, from Buffalo to Rochester to Syracuse.

The success of Griselda can ultimately be measured in impact over sales. While they may not have scored that signature hit record or platinum plaque, you can argue that Griselda may have had the biggest influence in the game in the past five to 10 years. From rappers mimicking their signature style sonically to expanding their fan base from regionally to worldwide. Today, Griselda boasts three of today’s premier talents in Benny, Conway, and Rome. They have expanded their roster from Buffalo to Detroit and Los Angeles with the signings of Boldy and Jay Worthy. Their work with Sauce Walka will see them tap into the southern demographic. Gunn has even offered a departure in the boom bap style his music is known for with the experimental And Then You Pray For Me album that has dropped this year. Their hard work has paid off as Benny was able to sign a deal with the iconic Def Jam Records, which will be coming out first thing in 2024. There is a lot to still look forward to coming from the Griselda members. One cannot help but be happy for Gunn and company seeing how they rose out of the trenches to make history by officially turning Buffalo into fertile ground for cultivating new homegrown talent. The collective should be commended for spending decades building up their fan base methodically and organically. Like AZ eloquently stated, Griselda is destined to live the dream for all their peeps who never made it. R.I.P. to DJ Shay and Machine Gun Black. Long live Big Griselda!