Drego and Beno are Detroit’s Most Menacing Duo

Meet the 21-year-olds at the forefront of a new generation of Detroit street rap
drego and beno

I’ve never felt sympathy for someone getting insulted in a rap verse; disrespect comes with the territory in hip-hop. But then I heard rapper Drego ether some poor soul on “Recipe 2”: “You was skippin’ in the halls, you was an excellent student/Dog, now you the shooter?” The amount of hatred Drego must’ve had in his heart for this unnamed individual—to take to the booth and essentially describe him as Martin Prince from “The Simpsons”—is frightening. That type of biting diss is typical of the duo Drego and Beno, who in the last year have carved out a lane for themselves as Detroit’s most wicked storytellers.

In spring 2018, Drego teamed up with fellow Detroiter Sada Baby to drop the bouncy and highly-quotable “Bloxk Party.” The song and its viral music video were a breakout moment for a Detroit street rap scene that has been steadily building momentum since the influential Doughboyz Cashout crew made a lane for their hood tales in the mid 2000s. In the video, Sada and Drego throw a party for the whole city with notable locals Beno, BandGang Lonnie Bands, and Masoe making cameo appearances. Though the song was a back-and-forth between Sada and Drego, the shirtless dance moves, untamed aggression, and bars likening his product to pop culture like, “Big brick of white look like Brock Lesnar,” made Sada Baby the center of attention. But Drego, with his cool and calm demeanor, was the perfect foil for Sada Baby. Subsequently, when Drego paired with his childhood friend Beno, the duo capitalized off of the “Bloxk Party” hype releasing their mixtape, Sorry For The Get Off that summer.

From the jump on Sorry For The Get Off you’re taken on a wild ride through the streets of Detroit, bearing witness to the drug-dealing madness of Drego and Beno. The beats, some by “Bloxk Party” producer Jose Da Plug and others by a team of Detroit type beat producers, are fiery. The drums hit with impact of battering ram smashing down a door, the funky basslines are hypnotic, and the woozy piano melodies provide the perfect complement.

A common misconception about Detroit street rap is that all the rappers sound the same. That assertion has always been a fallacy, and Drego and Beno, who grew up freestyling together, have distinctly different deliveries. Beno is a character, his verses drip with a smirking cockiness, that makes every threat that leaves his mouth seem believable: “I see the hoe in your eyes boy you really soft/I got the pole in disguise so he don’t see at all.” Meanwhile, Drego’s voice is deeper, his mood darker. He’s perpetually aggravated, not amused like his partner Beno: “I cock the choppa back, a nigga piss me off.”

At 21 years old, Drego and Beno are younger than many of their peers in the Detroit street rap scene. That youthfulness makes their perspective fresher and their references more contemporary. For instance, many of their gripes stem from Instagram beef. On “Calculator,” Drego is fed up at the slick talk in his comments: “Instagram hot as hell I’m ’bout to grab a beeper/Dog talkin’ wet as hell, I’m ’bout to grab the heater.” Then, on “Slatt Season” Beno is similarly tired of the emotions he puts up with on the ’Gram daily over a funk groove: “Get your mans, he all on Instagram/I don’t give a fuck about his chickenhead.”

But it’s the vivid stories Drego and Beno tell in their short and unconventionally structured verses that make them special. Sometimes the duo are struggling to move their latest supply and other times annoyed, explaining to a dude that they weren’t trying to get with his girlfriend, they were just selling her a pack. Their raps play out like a thriller that you can’t turn away from, aware a plot twist is right around the corner. And Drego and Beno are as amazed at their drama-filled lives as we are: “Man, I swear that all my life is like a movie, dog.”