Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.
Benny the Butcher has shared “Welcome to the States,” a meditation on gun violence in America. The song was recorded in tribute to the victims of the May 14 mass shooting at Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Benny’s hometown. It arrives alongside a limited edition "Pray For Buffalo" T-shirt he’s selling to raise money for the Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund. The T-shirt is available for purchase on BlackSopranoFamily.com, and separate donations to the Survivors Fund can be made to its GoFundMe page, which in three weeks has raised almost $2.5 million of its $3 million goal.
“Welcome to the States” is set to a somber, minor-key piano beat, over which Benny delivers a searing indictment of greedy politicians, white supremacists, and anti-Black bias in the media. Its video is prefaced with the sobering statistic that there has been more than one mass shooting per day in the U.S. so far this year, and continues with bleak, black-and-white footage of back-room deals, Klan rallies, candlelight vigils, and President Biden’s speech following the May 14 shooting, in which he referred to racism as “the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America.” Watch it below.
