Benny The Butcher and DJ Premier have linked up for a new single called “Time’s Is Rough” — check out the track’s action-packed video below.
Set to land on Long Live DJ Shay, the Black Soprano Family’s upcoming compilation album inspired by the late DJ Shay, the track hears the Griselda rapper and his B$F brothers Heem and Rick Hyde dish out street tales over Preemo’s soulful cuts.
Accompanied by a Willc and Richie 4k-directed visual, the visual sees Benny and the crew switching locations between the streets, a heavily tagged bathroom and a room full of expensive champagne.
Check out the video — which also includes a shot of a DJ Kay Slay mural — below:
Set to arrive on September 9, Long Live DJ Shay features appearances from Benny’s Griselda brethren Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine and Armani Caesar, as well as Krayzie Bone, Boldy James, StoveGod Cook$, Cory Gunz and more.
The project will see production from DJ Premier, Alchemist, Jansport J and Rick Hyde, along with a few cuts from the late DJ Shay; it’s mixed by Young Guru.
DJ Shay was the known producer and manager for Griselda Records before unexpectedly dying from COVID-19 in August 2020. He worked with the collective for a decade and was a respected figure in Buffalo Hip Hop.
“We put so much into this knowing he is watching down on us, and I know this is gonna wake everyone up,” Benny said of Shay in a statement. “B$F is the biggest. I promise you we them ones. The album is top-notch; from production to the rhymes and it’s entirely mixed by the legendary Young Guru, so I know it’s gone pop out ya speakers the right way.”
While Benny dropped of Tana Talk 4 in March, DJ Premier was recently chosen by Mass Appeal to craft a five-track tape called Hip Hop 50 Vol. 1 ahead of Hip Hop’s 50th anniversary in 2023.
“I remember when I came outside [in New York] — I was about 11 — they had some B-boys breaking for money with a guitar case open,” Premier recalled in a chat with Fader. “They were poppin’ and lockin’, had the matching outfits and the big boombox with the stickers all over it, and I was amazed.”
He continued: “One guy had a turntable. It wasn’t a 1200 yet, just a belt-drive, the Technics. And I’m like, ‘Yo, how is he making the record do that and it’s not scratching the record up?’ I didn’t know it was called scratching yet. I was like, ‘Man, this is where I’m coming.’”