When Griselda Records announced that they added rapper Armani Caesar to their roster, some fans assumed that her roots in Buffalo may have had something to do with her becoming a new member of the gritty rap crew. But few knew exactly how deep the connection went.

Towards the end of the aughts, Armani met Benny the Butcher and Conway the Machine at Buff City Studios in Buffalo as a teenager. She was checking the place out, and wrote a verse while waiting for the owner to show up. That verse impressed Benny enough to land her a place alongside him and Conway—then rapping as “Jimmy Conway”—in the Buff City Records family. Westside Gunn, on a hiatus from rapping that would last another few years, was nonetheless “always around” at the time, Armani remembers, and she formed a lasting connection with him as well. She released her debut mixtape Bath & Body Work in early 2009, with features from both Benny and Conway.