For the first time, StockX and Coachella have partnered to pair performers and brands to create one-of-a-kind festival merch. Bringing the heat to the desert, South Central Bricks & Wood teamed up with Griselda mainstay Benny the Butcher for an inspiring collaborative collection.
When it comes to storytelling, Kacey Lynch of Bricks & Wood imbues a sense of community and history into his designs. It’s not just about a good design; it has to be a good story. As Lynch told Cultured Magazine in 2020, “The true DNA of Bricks & Wood: standing behind the story and process before I stand behind a good design.”
For Bricks & Wood, a good collaboration is all about being honest. Partnering with Benny the Butcher felt right. “With Benny, you can tell he’s telling the truth in every single word that he’s expressing through his music,” Lynch explains. As a fan of one of rap’s master storytellers, Lynch has always felt a connection to Benny’s music because of the storytelling that propels Benny’s work. “He tells a very visual story through words, which is super enlightening for me because it draws the listener in,” Lynch says. And, as every good storyteller knows, it’s the details that make the story work.
Lynch and his team focused on Benny’s lyrics to design the collection. “We wanted to take a lot of his descriptions of things that he describes in his music to make it more visual and bring it to life, literally,” Lynch says. Part of the collection features a hat and sweatshirt with Benny’s oft-repeated line “The Butcher’s Coming” stylized in slanted, 1970s-style movie poster font. Lynch says the line “sounds scary but also cool and strong and powerful,” From there, Lynch wanted to “give a direct visual in a witty way through the apparel.”
This attention to story and history comes together in the craziest design in this collection – it’s one of the best tee and hoodie combos at Coachella this year. Bricks & Wood visualized Benny’s latest album, Tana Talk 4, as a vintage movie poster. Lynch says, “It was a vintage Jim Brown movie poster, and we flipped it with the Benny stuff and took all the elements he describes in his music and put it into the poster.” The result is an elaborate design that visually connects Blaxploitation-era cinema with the tropes of contemporary rap.
The rest of the collection is a tongue-in-cheek representation of Benny’s predilection to rap about dealing and hustling. Lynch explains, “Being able to align Bricks & Wood and [Benny the Butcher] talking about pushing bricks and that kind of thing was just exciting.” The excitement and enthusiasm are self-evident in Bricks & Woods’ must-cop tees. One tee flips the Arm & Hammer logo – baking soda being another staple of hardcore rap – with a butcher knife instead of a hammer and replaces the brand name with “Bricks & Wood” and “Benny the Butcher.”
And finally, in the most personal storytelling instance of this collab, Bricks & Wood offers up a tee with the Benny quote, “This Brick Doesn’t Come With Instructions.” It’s more than double-meaning on a t-shirt; it’s pithy wordplay that encompasses two life stories of creating their own lane in search of artistic success.
Click here to shop the DropX™ Exclusive Bricks & Wood x Benny the Butcher x Coachella collaboration on StockX.
