The Making of Benny the Butcher and Harry Fraud's 'The Plugs I Met 2'

Benny the Butcher and Harry Fraud sit for an interview and give a track-by-track breakdown of each song on their new project 'The Plugs I Met 2.'

Benny the Butcher
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Photo by Cam Kirk

Benny the Butcher

If Benny the Butcher’s breakout The Plugs I Met EP represented his rise, where he jumped into many fans’ top fives with a seven-track display of deft lyricism and grizzled storytelling, The Plugs I Met 2 represents the fallout of that ascent. On the nine-track project, he discusses survivor’s remorse, ungrateful friends, and more non-forecasted travails over a perfectly scored Harry Fraud soundscape.

If The Plugs I Met 2 was a crime film, it would be Godfather 2, with endless assonance, the beyond-the-grave presence of the late Chinx, and Benny’s “No Instructions” threat of a “clip long enough to do a drive-by for two blocks straight.”

Speaking with Complex before the album’s release, Benny reminds us multiple times that while his previous work is a reflection of what he’s been through, this EP is what he’s going through. The adage is “heavy is the head that wears the crown,” and on The Plugs I Met 2, Benny delves into the weight of his past and present, ounce-by-ounce, with the help of Harry.

Benny and Harry say they’ve been working on a project since 2017 (before the first The Plugs I Met). Benny eventually realized the vibe of their Brooklyn studio sessions was so similar to those of the original The Plugs I Met that he wanted to bestow their project with the name.

“After we started recording a couple of songs, it just felt like it,” Benny reveals, reflecting on sessions with other producers, artists, and friends who helped build an atmosphere conducive to creativity. 

“When Benny put us in that direction, I looked at it like, ‘Okay, cool,’” Harry says. “But I also knew what came with that, like, ‘OK, I better fucking show out every chance and really give this guy that feeling, so that he could write his best stuff.’”

Benny the Butcher

Harry says his creative process was shaped by conversations with Benny’s Griselda comrades, like producer Daringer and the late DJ Shay, who told him stories about the Griselda movement that helped The Plugs I Met 2 become a chronicle of an era of New York rap with Chinx, Jim Jones, French Montana, and Fat Joe features. 

“I knew we were like-minded when he came through with some Tiger Bone when we went to the first session,” Harry fondly recalls of Shay. “And then just sitting in there with him, he would play me beats and tell me the lineage of everything, and how he had connected with French and Chinx back in the day. That gave us inspiration for lining things up and making those connections, because this is The Plugs I Met. It’s telling the story of Benny along the way.”

Harry says he would craft beats whenever he knew Benny was set to come to Brooklyn, and he’d make sure to have “a little clip to run through” for those sessions. 

“Harry’s the type of person where he works with a lot of artists, so he can hear you on something,” Benny explains. “Even if he’s got a thousand beats, he’ll probably pick out of that thousand and only play what he hears me on.”

The project exhibits a synergy of shared work ethic, musical tastes, and as our phone call reveals, a shared worldview that made the project a genuine collaboration. 

“I’ve got to catch a real vibe with you to really work,” Harry says. “So I think we started all the way back then, and then we started building that momentum. The songs kept getting better and better, and really coalesced.”

Benny the Butcher

Many artist-producer collaborations result in dozens of recorded songs that get whittled down to a select few that make the project, but Benny and Harry recorded with the efficiency of an NBA duo that never played together but know the game so well they fit like puzzle pieces. 

“We might be nine for nine on this,” Benny proclaims. “I recorded it over a period of time, but it’s not that we needed all that time—it was just whenever I was in the city, I would lock in. I had a project or two coming out before that, so I got the chance to let this project marinate, and that’s what I love about all my projects.”

That patience led to a worthy sequel to one of Benny’s most beloved projects, which just may be a prelude to another sequel down the line. When asked about his next music plans, Benny doesn’t say much, but says enough: “Tana Talk 4, we’ll see when I come.” 


For now, The Plugs I Met 2 is here. Read below for a track-by-track breakdown.

“When Tony Met Sosa”

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Benny The Butcher: When that shit first comes on, it gives me that feeling. It’s introductory. It’s the way he made that beat. It’s just the shit I was saying on there. It just feels right. When I listen to my album before it comes out, I try to hear it how the people are going to hear it. I hear nostalgia crawling out the speakers when this shit comes on and you hear my voice and you know that’s Plugs 2. I think it’s going to be received very well.

Harry Fraud: It’s funny, because we recorded it once we already had some songs under the belt. I remember I made the beat knowing that he was coming the next day. It was definitely very deliberate, and it made it easy for me to do a beat that was like, “Okay, cool, let me encapsulate all the elements of the album now. Let me glue all this together right here and do something that fits in all the tones of the album.” That’s why there’s a lot of dope change-ups, the vocals coming in, Benny’s blacking out in all these different pockets and setting the tone, like, “Yeah, I’m coming.” You hear him come on that record and you know he’s not here for play.

Benny: [The beat] was pulling me in, and I felt like it would pull other people in. After I recorded on it, shit just sounded crazy, and I knew that was it. 

“Overall” f/ Chinx

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Benny: I was already in love with the song, and then Harry shot that idea at me. I thought about it and it almost ain’t register. Then when he put it together and I heard it, I’m like, “Damn, that’s crazy.” And I fuck with [Chinx]. He was always just standing by. I ran into him even before I got this little fame or whatever. So after he put the hook in that shit, put the verse on that shit, I’m like, “Damn, that’s special.” I know people going to love that shit. I’m just happy that I could have him on that project and bring him back. The streets gonna be playin’ that. 

Harry: With Shay giving me the background, just learning, being around the God, and understanding their come-up… Those were the things that sparked ideas like [adding Chinx]. When he had laid that record, I was holding on to that Chinx verse, knowing I needed something really special, because it was a really special verse, and the hook. Then it locked in so easy. I knew. It’s those moments like that, where you don’t got to tweak nothing, it just locked it. I was like, “This was always supposed to be like this.” It sounds like they’re in the studio together. And I’m going to tell you, I’ve had to do this a lot, obviously. I want to put Chinx’s name in the right places, but that one right there was so easy, bro.

Benny: The Coke Boys was in town doing a show [in 2011]. We had mutual friends, and I reached out. I was like, “Yo, I want to get French on something.” And then [Chinx] came through with his Boys and shit. Me and French was doing a record [“Bout Money”] and then Chinx pulled me aside. He was like, “Yo, you don’t mind if I get on this record?” I was like, “Nah, go crazy.” He was like, “I’m going to go crazy on this shit.” Shit came out crazy, and I liked that about him. I tell that to my artists right now. And I’ve even done that, I learned from that. I got on a whole bunch of songs like that, even when the record’s not meant for you to get on—get on there and write something anyway. You never know. 

“Plug Talk” f/ 2 Chainz

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Benny: I came [into the studio] when they played that shit. And I think I was like [recites cadence] “interviews talking Plug.” I was saying some shit, and I’m like, “You know what? Let me sleep on it, come back tomorrow.” And Harry’s like, “Nah, that sounds like that’s it right there.” That was around the time me and Chainz was kicking it, so I’m like, “You know what? I might have the perfect record to send him.” So I sent it to him and he gave me that flavor on that. He gave me that sauce. He delivered. Shit’s fire. 

Harry: Tity Boi pulled up.

“Live By It”

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Benny: This one’s just basically—the streets is what it is. They teach you a lot of character and they put a lot of things in perspective. But guess what? It’s a double-edged sword. You live by it, most likely, you’re going to die by it. And that’s just the message I wanted to give people. It’s like, why I call these albums The Plugs I Met and all that, it’s not a hidden message in it. It’s really a blatant message. I’m really telling you things that happened, and that’s what I’m rapping about. I came from there. I just was there four years ago. I’m one of the most freshest street niggas who was dealing with that in the game right now. Fresh mind from the streets and what it was like. Getting that message to people was important to me. You live by it, you die by it.

Harry: We all know when you tackle a topic record like that, they can go left really easy. The artist can go off on a tangent or not necessarily have the balance of delivering it in a way that’s digestible. But I think the way that Benny put it together, how he’s weaving in and out of these stories but still catching this really important message, it’s like what he just described. That’s how you give people jewels. If you give people jewels in a way that’s too preachy, they’re not going to take it the right way. So once he came at that first verse, I was like, “Oh my God. This is going so crazy.”

“Talkin Back” f/ Fat Joe

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Benny: That’s the first record we recorded together.

Harry: I was just about to say.

Benny: I’m talking big shit on there, standing up, trying to show Harry my work. It got that feel to it and everybody loves that record. It’s definitely got that Harry wave. And then to get Crack on there… I just talked to Crack a couple days ago. We’re supposed to do that video. 

Harry: It was so dope to get that done first. Not out of the way, but to tick that box first. Made shit so easy. Benny ticked that box for, like you said, “that bop, that wave,” whatever you want to call it. And then everything else, we could kind of piece around that, because we had that centerpiece. Easy, out the way. And he put me through the ringer picking that beat, too. [Both laugh] That session I came playing a bunch of slow shit. And he was like, “Nah, I need that, ‘you know.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’”

Benny: [Working with Joe] was crazy, man. You know what I mean? That’s Crack, to be accepted by the legends for doing what they did, that’s a different sentiment. They see us in them. So when you see us with those GOATs, it means ten times more when you see them niggas with another rapper. We’re the guys that they passed the torch to, so to speak. So it’s always good to fuck with dudes like that, especially Crack, somebody who been relevant this long. 

Harry: Seriously. Like, the consistency, that’s incredible. And the other thing is Crack, he’s not going to just do the verse for anybody, because he don’t need to. Crack has been kind of a presence because of coming up with French and that Bronx connection, he’s been a presence with me since the beginning, all the way back from a record that we did called “We Run N.Y.” [in 2010]. So he’s always been a presence with me, and solid to the core. 

When we asked him [to collaborate], he heard it and that’s his thing. He loved it. So he was just like, “Look, you could just make it easy for me, set the studio up, have everything ready for me, boom, boom, boom.” So of course he came, pulled up to Brooklyn. Him and one other guy one day just knocked it out, was ready, prepared, written, everything. Really effortless, as usual, and that was it. Could not have been easier.

“No Instructions”

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Benny: When people see me in my position, they think I wake up and every day is fucking butterflies floating around my head, my life is perfect. My life ain’t perfect. Ain’t nobody life perfect. So I’m just talking about a lot of things that I’m going through. Sometimes I get on these songs, I talk about what I went through, and I like to talk about the current state of what I’m going through. I got my homeboy on there talking jail, prison. That’s somebody who’s been with me every day. And I’m in the middle of learning this game, so it’s a lot of things that I’m right about, and a couple things that I’m wrong about. It’s just me talking my shit, just sitting wearing my heart on my sleeve that day.

Harry: I remember losing my mind when he was in the booth. He hits this part where he’s talking about, “The clip long enough to do a drive-by for two blocks straight” and that whole scheme that he hits in the rhyme, and I was just losing my fucking mind when he was laying it in the booth. I was like, “Wow. This guy.” I remember he was talking to Duffel Bag Hottie on the phone and he was talking his shit, and [we] basically just went in the booth and grabbed some [of the phone call audio] and it fit so perfect to what was going on in the record. Then Daringer and me sauced those drums. I was like, “I need something.” Daringer is so good at taking those drums that are kind of open and have a lot of space, but still keeping them to move forward. He knows how to keep those drums open but still paced. The tempo is not very high on the beats, [so] they have a lot of space in there.

Benny: It’s certain things in my life that I’m not even thinking about talking about. It’s just where it’s at right now, it ain’t make it to a song yet. So when I feel it, that’s when I know it’s a go.

“Longevity” f/ Jim Jones and French Montana

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Benny: Well, I just went in there and that was on my mind that day, how to hustle. Not only hustle longer, but to hustle stronger. We always wanted to get somebody on there, and then we recorded that right when [Jim and French] was squashin’ what they was going through. And Harry was like, “Yo, you know what? We need to get them on this.” And I’m like, “That would be crazy.” Jim smoked that shit, and people are gonna be surprised when they hear French’s verses.

Harry: Yeah, we got Cocaine City French on there. I remember my man Tommy Tee pulled up one day with this CD that he had found on the street or some shit. And we were just going through it. It was so random. And we found a sample and just started cooking it. I had played it for Benny, he laid his part, and then we were like, “Yeah, we definitely got to go get French and Jim on there,” because just to think about what the hook is saying, it made so much sense to me to put those two on there. And with the story that Benny was telling before, how he [collaborated with] French so early in his career... and then Jim represents the concept of longevity in the game so well, and so does French. I think it just made such perfect sense. Benny is so versatile and can get off on a lot of different beats, so that was one of those him showing that.

“Survivor’s Remorse” f/ Rick Hyde

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Benny: I wrote a lot of this song about what I was going through. Not what I went through. And “survivor’s remorse” is one of the things that I’m going through, that I’m experiencing from making it to a certain level and seeing the difference from being where I’m at. When you’re talking where you come from, a lot of times it’s the norm. And we would love to make it out the hood and do shit like that, but none of us ever made it out the hood, so we don’t know the difference between out the hood and in the hood. I get to see some of my homies who are still doing what they’re doing, ain’t nothing changed. It’s like, damn, that make me feel guilty. If you ever been through some shit like that, that make you feel guilty. I don’t know, it’s weird, but it’s real.

This being The Plugs I Met 2, this has got to have substance, man. A lot of people know, I don’t really do fillers. There was no better way to talk about it. I wanted the people to know that’s what I’m going through. People be surprised by shit like that. So I wanted people to know that’s where I’m at with it. That’s how I’m feeling. 

Harry: [The beat reverse in the third verse] was post-production stuff. We had did a lot of post-production on the album. I’m really big on that, every song has a lot of post-production in it. [Survivor’s remorse] is a concept that, unfortunately, we’re all too familiar with. And even the way that he delivered it right there, what he says on a Harry Fraud beat, like it goes to Chinx, shit like that. It was important for me to frame the different thoughts with their own sauce under it, so you never got lulled into not paying attention to what he was saying. And I think that was an important way to do that, that moment on that verse, he’s saying some shit. So let me kind of jolt you out of the rhythm of what was going on, so your mind wakes back up to pay attention to what’s about to happen with his voice. 

“Thanksgiving”

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Benny: I just felt like there was a few things that I needed to get off my chest before we put the project out. Like I said, a lot of this tape is what I’m going through and not what I went through. Sometimes I just want to hear “thank you” from a lot of people. People make it seem like I work this hard in my life to do them a favor, and really I’m good—I don’t need to do nobody no favors. I don’t owe nobody no favors.

People make you feel guilty about how you spend your money and how you live your life. So sometimes, you’ve just gotta have that aggressive tone with them and be like, “You know what? Fuck ya’ll. Ya’ll should be saying thank you.” People who talk all this dumb shit on the internet, they should just say thank you. 

Harry: What I think makes this album so important to me is Benny touching on so many things that I relate to so heavily. When he came with this, it was just like, “Damn.” It just encapsulates such a relatable thing, such a common thing that we go through as we’re trying to climb up the game. People think it’s all fucking peaches and cream, but it’s a lot that goes with it. So I think that sentiment that he had put on that song, I just connected with it so heavy. That’s more what I remember about it than even making the beat. The beat, I knew I was making for him, and I just knew it was a heater, and he hit me like, “Yo, don’t let that go anywhere.” [Both laugh] So I knew, “OK...”

Benny: With power comes responsibility. A lot of people are gonna say this is what we asked for, but this is not what we asked for. We asked for other shit, but [this] came with the shit that we asked for. So we’re gonna handle it, because people are not going to change. 


Harry: I agree with that. And also I think, knowing Benny, he’s a pure artist and I’m a pure artist, meaning we’re not doing this for thanks. We’re doing this because it’s what we have to do. And I think when you’re doing it from that place, all that other shit, it’s annoying. But when that’s not what you’re placing value on, you can shield yourself from it. Because we know the world is ungrateful. You can’t step onto a baseball field and expect to play soccer. So we know what we’re dealing with out here, and I think we’re going to continue to make art from the right place and put the art first. When you’re doing it, it’s like you’re just standing on that. I’m not standing on what people think about it at the end of the day. Of course, I want them to receive it well. But that’s not what we did it for. We did it because we had to. There’s no other choice.

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