Sure, Benny’s studio debut, Tana Talk 3, was alright, but Daringer really hit his prime in The Plugs I Met EP, which is a damn shame because I would have rather heard an album’s worth of this. There’s a harrowing piano lick that comes out of nowhere at 1:42 on “Dirty Harry” that shows the exact genius that came out of this coke rap project, reverb-laden echo-y beats from Daringer and his peers Alchemist and DJ Shay. The echoes bring the fear. He’s all around. The Butcher’s coming.

And sometimes, you don’t hear his footsteps. The beat on “Sunday School” is much starker, filled with piano ornaments and a sustain pedal that sneaks up on you. The synth-filled beats (like on “18 Wheeler”) reminds me of the score to Scarface (cover art reference?), but slower and more methodical. Thematically, the lyrics to “Crowns for Kings” resonate the most for a scared little asian boy like me who knows nothing about drugs in the hood, since it reminds me that Benny knows the shit he’s rapping about is kinda terrifying. He knows the addiction’s fucked (“You know the feeling, young black male, what y’all dealin’?/Take your whole life to get it, it only last you a minute”) and that shit’s dangerous (“That was us, next to a big like I was Puff/The good die young, all the OGs thirty and up”), rest in peace Ol’ Dirty. But that don’t mean he’ll ever stop rapping the fear into you, both Benny and the featured artists. Push’s verse on “18 Wheeler” is probably the best feature, with all the words seeping out of him slowly. Slow and deep is the name of the game on The Plugs I Met - as deep as the coke problem seeps into poor communities, and as slow as wolf dies licking a blade stabbed into ice (“Intro Skit”). Benny’s been through shit. Never fuck with him, or he’ll keep his foot on your throat like the coke’s strangling you ‘til the day you get dope sick (“Sunday School”). The Butcher’s coming.