For almost any artist a collaboration with Jay-Z would be a big deal and Benny The Butcher is no different. The Griselda rapper came tantalizingly close to making a song with Jay-Z, but it ended up falling through. In 2019 Benny signed a management deal with Jay-Z's Roc Nation and the rapper gave him some advice. “He was basically just telling me … basically trying to keep Griselda together," Benny said in an interview at the time. He seems to have taken Jay's advice as he continues to frequently collaborate with fellow Griselda members Westside Gunn and Conway The Machine.
In a new interview with Joe Budden, Benny goes into more detail on how a planned collab between him and Jay-Z ultimately fell through. “They hit me and was like, ‘Hov got an idea of a song he wanted you to do.” Benny flies out and ends up waiting for days to hear back about the planned collaboration. "And then the day that I linked up with him, I’m just kicking it with him and we having drinks and sh*t and he didn’t mention the song." But once the idea of the song finally arrives, something comes up that grabs all of Jay's attention. "And as soon as he said that, somebody was like, ‘Yo, we need you,’ and they called him over, and he left and it never got brought up again. This like, two, three years ago.”
Benny The Butcher Missed Out On Jay-Z Song
While this story took place a few years ago, clearly its a missed opportunity that Benny The Butcher still thinks about. It hasn't stopped Benny from prolifically releasing music though. He has a number of projects under his belt in the past few years, most recently 2022's Tana Talk 4. If this story sounds familiar, its because Benny recently told a similar story of a Drake collab that didn't pan out.
Thankfully, Benny The Butcher was able to pull off a J. Cole feature. That resulted in Benny's most well-known song "Johnny P's Caddy." He recently reflected on the track in a different conversation with Joe Budden. Tell us what you think a potential Benny and Jay-Z collab might have sounded like in the comments below.
