Westside Gunn was supposed to be done with solo albums. Instead, he and Benny the Butcher dropped new records on the same Friday

Friday 13 November belonged to Buffalo. Westside Gunn and Benny the Butcher, two of the three rappers who built Griselda into one of the most respected names in modern underground rap, both released new albums on the same day.

Westside Gunn’s HEELMATIC runs to 16 tracks. It is his first album for Mass Appeal, the label co-founded by Nas, and comes out with Griselda. Benny’s A Friend of Ours 2 is shorter and tighter: 10 tracks, credited to Benny alongside his Black Soprano Family crew and Fuego Base.

Wasn’t Westside Gunn retiring?

From solo albums, he said he was. Westside Gunn had announced that Awesome God 3 would be his final solo album, and he had been preparing it. In a post on X when he revealed HEELMATIC, he explained that Mass Appeal’s Legend series led him to stop and make an entirely new tape instead.

He said he recorded it in places including the Eiffel Tower and the Acropolis, and described the sound as grime, dust, rawness and jazz, with a comparison to gospel. Awesome God 3 has not been released.

HEELMATIC was announced on 22 October with the single “Zilla”, produced by longtime collaborator Denny LaFlare. The track titles carry Gunn’s love of professional wrestling, where a “heel” is the villain: “Grant Heel”, “Tommy Heelfiger”, “Hurt + Heel” and “Bottom Bunk Legends” sit alongside “Koke Slam”, “Egyptian Cadillac” and the closer “Upstate Farm”.

What is on A Friend of Ours 2?

Benny released the lead single, “Elevate”, produced by Moose Tarantino, with a video on 30 October. It closes the album. Before it, the record leans on his Black Soprano Family: ElCamino appears three times, on “Channel Boots”, “Butch In This Bxtch” and “West End Tavern”, and Rick Hyde, Sule, Flames Dot Malik, Duckman and OT The Real all feature.

The title continues Benny’s A Friend of Ours series, and the album comes through Perfect Time Music Group.

Why does a Griselda double drop matter?

Griselda’s model has always been volume and consistency. Westside Gunn and his brother Conway the Machine took their independent Buffalo, New York, label to a deal with Eminem’s Shady Records in 2017, and with their cousin Benny the Butcher they have kept up a pace of releases few major-label rappers match.

Releasing on the same day is a statement of that depth, but it is also a gamble. This Friday is crowded: Offset’s long-delayed GMFU, Babyface Ray’s Unf*ckwithable 2, Wiz Khalifa’s Cool, Boldy James’s Bentayga Genesis and a 10th anniversary edition of Danny Brown’s Atrocity Exhibition all arrived at the same time. Fans of the hard, sample-heavy sound Griselda helped bring back have a lot to choose from.

Can Australians hear them now?

Yes. US Friday releases go live at midnight on the US east coast, which is 1pm AWST and 4pm AEDT on Friday. Both albums are available on the major streaming services in Australia.

What is still unanswered?

For Westside Gunn, the bigger question remains Awesome God 3. He has not said whether it will still come out, or whether HEELMATIC changes what “final” means.