Ashes In The Safe represents the full realization of a creative partnership that had been developing across individual releases and features for several years. Benny the Butcher's position in the current Buffalo-rooted landscape needs no introduction; Fuego Base, from Hartford, Connecticut, has grown from a promising BSF signee on Biggest Since Camby to a genuine co-lead who holds weight on every track he appears on. The album functions as a proper document of their chemistry rather than a loose collection of sessions – the production, which spans haunting and rugged cuts with collaborative cohesion, gives both MCs the structural support for their brand of street-level reflection. "Big Shirley" lands as one of the more triumphant moments on the project: where other tracks operate in grimy or dark registers, this one opens up into something that feels earned. Supporting appearances from OT The Real, Rick Hyde, and Sule keep the BSF circle tight. This is the kind of album that functions as a label statement as much as an artistic one.
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