Within the last month, a number of mass casualty incidents have taken hold of the news cycle. Last weekend, at least three people were killed and 11 more were injured during a mass shooting in Philadelphia. Days earlier, more than a dozen children and educators were killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Not to mention, a shooting at a church in Nigeria has left at least 50 people dead. In the midst of all of that, a community in Buffalo remained in mourning.
On May 14, 2022, a shooter entered a Tops Friendly Markets store in a predominantly Black area of Buffalo, New York and opened fire. Ultimately, ten people were killed and at least three more were injured. Eighteen year old Payton S. Gendron has been taken into custody alive and charged with first-degree murder.
In the aftermath of the mass shooting, President Joe Biden has visited Buffalo, members of the Bills have volunteered and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement as well. Now, Buffalo native Benny The Butcher has released a new track called “Welcome To The States.” Rapping over Kendrick Lamar’s “We Cry Together” production, Benny The Butcher touches on a number of systemic injustices plaguing American society.
“Welcome to the states, where we dyin’ of our skin color and race/Ideologies formed of hate, now the grocery stores ain’t safe/They shoot us unarmed but they took and paintin’ it without a scrape,” he raps.
In addition to releasing new music, Benny The Butcher is also raising funds for the “Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund.” Thus far, the Buffalo native has raised nearly $4,000. Check out the visual fundraiser below.
