Griselda Announces Shady Records Debut, WWCD w/Tracklist & Documentary Trailer

It’s a busy week, so while press releases continue to pour in, emails about the holidays, black Friday deals, and shit like that have also worked their way into the mix.  Those of us who collect vinyl, might even be looking to the list of releases for this year’s Record Store Day Black Friday event.  Or, maybe you’re browsing the internet for recipes and/or fighting your way through the local super market looking to stuff that turducken.  So much is happening this week that it can be easy to let something slip by you, let alone a new album release that, up until now, hasn’t gotten a whole lot of mainstream hype and is slated to launch in the midst of all of this other chaos with only a matter of days for the build up.  That being said, whether you’re ready for it or not, a storm is coming and, once the brand new effort by Buffalo‘s Griselda Records crew drops on the 29th, I’m expecting it to hit the music world dead in the throat.

Named for Columbian drug lord, Griselda Blanco aka “The Cocaine Godmother,” Griselda Records was launched in 2014 by rapper/entrepreneur, Westside Gunn, but the foundation was being built well before that.  2012 wasn’t only the year that the label’s namesake was murdered by a gunshot in the head at a butcher shop, it was also the year that Westside dropped the first of his ongoing Hitler Wears Hermes mixtapes, as well as the year that his older brother Conway The Machine took some bullets to the skull, himself.  A highly lyrical and promising rapper, Conway fought his way back from a situation that, by all accounts, should have taken him out for good, learning to spit bars again through a face that is now half paralyzed from bell’s palsy.  Gunn didn’t start off with aspirations of a rap career, at first, but his skill set is diverse with his GXFR (Griselda Fashion Rebels) clothing line, and more recent ventures into releasing art prints and beyond.  Griselda has always expressed an affinity for professional wrestling, using related imagery and references in their albums.  That’s why it isn’t surprising to see him team up with Master P on his HOG wrestling league.  Along with roster member, Benny The Butcher, in the fold, the Griselda crew has carved an incredible lane for themselves in the underground that isn’t quite like anything else that I’ve ever witnessed before.

In early 2017, the Griselda boys signed a deal with Eminem‘s Shady Records, which stated their intention was to release both joint and solo efforts by Westside Gunn and Conway.  For many of us who’d been following their progression and evolution, the merger raised a number of questions.  Why Em would swoop in to sign them seemed obvious, the noise surrounding their movement was undeniable and only getting louder.  Plus, plenty of OGs and legends in the game had been recognizing their skills and accomplishments for quite awhile.  Early on, Conway and Gunn were already pulling in features by veterans like Roc Marciano, Skyzoo, Vast Aire, Sean Price, and Prodigy.  They were also dropping classics, like Westside Gunn‘s breakout Flygod album in 2016, which included such notables as Danny Brown, Action Bronson, Meyhem Lauren, and DJ Qbert.  The project saw guest production by artists like Appollo Brown, Statik Selectah, and Alchemist alongside Griselda‘s in house producer, Daringer, who has been responsible for providing the label with its distinctly ominous and grimy trademark sound.  Every time a vinyl release drops from these guys, it sells out in minutes.  Every time a new GXFR garment drops, they sell out almost as quickly.  These guys already had money. They had the respect from their peers. They were putting Buffalo on the map and staying true to where they came from, while pumping out an endless supply of bangers.  Most impressive of all is that they were doing it all by themselves.    So we get why someone would be trying to sing them and latch onto an already fervent and established fanbase, but how would signing to a major effect their own grind and what they’d carved for themselves?  It turns out that the answer to that question is “not a whole lot.”  They aren’t fools and the deals that they sign only expand their reach and capabilities.

After signing with Em; Westside, Conway, and Benny stood behind him and took part in the Shady Cypher during the 2017 BET awards that brought the Detroit rap legend attention for his freestyle directed at Trump.  Em has further repped his signees by making such moves as wearing a Westside Gunn HWH2 shirt live on stage during a performance with Dr Dre.  But, aside from the random updates specifically mentioning their signing and the fact that they had a record at varying points of production, which would eventually be dropping on Shady, Griselda has continued to operate within their own world as a very specific entity unto themselves.  Within this buildup period, Conway has dropped over half a dozen albums, including his critically acclaimed 3-part Everybody Is Food series, which saw him trading bars with both Elzhi, and Busta Rhymes.  Along with his business ventures, like his more recent 4th Rope wrestling themed apparel, Westside Gunn has put out 3 or 4 new installments of Hitler Wears Hermes and found himself on numerous best of 2018 lists for his Supreme Blientele album.  He even dropped a collaborative project with the elusive mastermind, MF DOOM.  Although, Benny started putting out material 15 years ago, he found his opportunity to shine as a solo artist with Griselda a little later than his cohorts.  That being said, once he did get his moment, he came hard, putting his name in everyone’s mouth with last year’s Tana Talk 3.  One of the biggest releases to come out of their camp, it created enough of a buzz to yield cameos from names like Blackthought and Pusha T on the follow up EP, The Plugs I Met.  These guys have worked with Pete Rock and they’ve recorded and made a video with DJ Premier, but Daringer is as much part of the Griselda formula as anyone.  That’s why it was great to see him be invited to do a Baker’s Dozen instrumental record with Fat Beats this year.  Folks from Bun B to Wu Tang continue to give props to the Buffalo Kids and there’s no question that it’s the power and excitement of their movement that makes everyone want to be a part of it.  It’s why someone like Em would be willing to sign them to a contract which appears to put absolutely no restrictions on their ability to continuously push their own product on the side.  The leverage is definitely on their side.  A deal like that is relatively unheard of.

Today we finally get some definitive details about the big Shady debut that we’ve been hearing about intermittently over the last 2.5 years.  What we already knew was that it would be an album that presented Westside Gunn, Conway, and Benny as a singular unit, introducing the more mainstream world to them under the collective of the Griselda moniker.  Of course, Daringer would also be heavily involved, handling the lion share of the production work, while being joined in the effort by Beat Butcha.  The album title will be WWCD, which stands for What Would Chine Gunn Do?, a reference to Benny‘s half brother / Westside‘s first cousin, Machine Gunn Black, who was murdered before he could ever see the extent of their successes.  Chine Gunn has been a major guding force and inspiration impacting Griselda‘s continued development and the members that love and respected him.  A rendering of Machine Gunn‘s baby picture was even painted for use as the Tana Talk 3 album cover, as well as on one of Westside Gunn‘s diamond medallions.  Previously released are a pair of tracks from the new LP titled “Dr Birds” and “Chef Dreds.”  Each of those can be heard below.

Now, about the new info that we didn’t know. The album will total 13 tracks and includes features by Eminem, 50 Cent, and Raekwon.  The cover art was also surprising, consisting of a black and white portrait of an infamous local Buffalo pandhandler/fiend named Claire.  Her inclusion can only be viewed as yet another nod to their home town of Buffalo, a place that has, historically, never been given much attention for their rap scene.  The GXFR hustle is informed by this fact that there has never been any foundation for those who inspired to make it out of their crime ridden environment, especially as rap artists.  What Westside Gunn and his crew have done is nothing short of miraculous, and they’ve continued to do it with full awareness that they are putting their city on the map and creating a foundation for those around them to follow.  They know that they are the underdogs.  It fuels them and they grind through it, driven by the knowledge that they are both offering and creating opportunity to the future of their community that they, themselves, were never afforded.

In conjunction with these details, a new 4-part documentary series highlighting Griselda‘s backstory has also been announced.  Each episode will be dedicated to focusing on the backstory and rise of each of the individual GXFR artists.  Each member is so different, that this entire project should be fairly compelling.  Westside Gunn is forever a fashion hound, all about style and rapping about fly shit; while Conway The Machine is a straight lyricist firing off about the grime of the streets; and Benny The Butcher‘s bread and butter is visceral descriptions about slanging and the drug game.  Daringer gets his own episode, where he can be expected to lay out his production style, how he came to it, and how his path intersected with these other dudes in the first place.

With Jay Z and Roc Nation coming into the picture for a management deal, we can only imagine what the next chapter for Griselda will hold.  What I do know is that, toward the end of every year, Westside Gunn has promised that the following one would only hold more for the label and that bigger and better things were on the horizon.  They were only getting started, he’ll claim, and each and every time, he has proven himself to never exaggerate.  In their short 5 years of existence, there was been over 20 mixtapes alone released between Gunn, Conway, and Benny.  With the momentum and connections they have behind them now… who’s telling what they could accomplish in another 5.  All that we know is that it’s going to be huge.  A storm is coming and the whole game is about to be shook.

Digital pre-orders for WWCD are up now on the Shady Records site as part of a bundle that includes a limited edition T-shirt designed by Westside Gunn.  Only available for 3 days leading up to the Black Friday drop, there’s actually a countdown clock gradually ticking away before the shirts disappear.

WWCD TRACKLISTING