There are pretty much two reactions when someone mentions Danny Brown: “Who?” and “Is he that rapper with the weird haircut who got a blowjob onstage?” Yes, yes he is. And he’s also one of the best rappers out there.
Danny Brown has definitely matured over the course of his four albums and numerous EPs and mixtapes. 2011’s "XXX" may be the perfect haphazardly produced, trashy rap to dilate your pupils to, but his newest stuff is even better. "Old", his latest album, is a 19-song trip and the soundtrack to your walk home, your pregame, your smoking session and your take-home midterm all at once. In his own words, “If people are just looking for dick–sucking jokes, there isn’t too many of them.” Bummer. But there are definitely a lot of lines about snorting crushed pills and being so high you feel like you’re falling off the earth.The cool thing about Danny Brown is that he’s almost multiple people at once. There’s the Danny Brown that gets his dick sucked onstage and then there’s the Danny Brown that talks circles around a dumbfounded A$AP Rocky and idolizes poets like Arthur Lee. Fittingly, "Old" is divided into two sides a la old school cassette tape. "Side A" is the “artsy” rap: cloudy EDM influences on “25 Bucks,” chilling confrontations of his childhood on “Wonderbread,” softer, alt-pop production on “Lonely.” "Side B" is less academic, a lot louder, and unapologetically explicit. Drugs, sex, and bass, the heavier the better. It’s intoxicating. Just try listening without spending the rest of the day chanting “Dip I dip you dip.”
Then there are his ridiculously amazing collaborations. His latest LP alone features vocals from Purity Ring, Charli XCX, A$AP, Schoolboy Q, and Ab–Soul and beats from A–Trak, BadBadNotGood, and Rustie. It’s cross–genre music geek heaven and he pulls it off without the obnoxiousness of “serious,” Pitchfork–is–my–Bible music geeks.
I could go on forever but I’d just be ranting and you probably wouldn’t read it anyway. Basically, Danny Brown is the shit. He’s a hipster at heart but he can tell you how the streets feel. He’s simultaneously vulgar, introspective, intellectual, and obnoxiously anti-intellectual. What’s best about him, though, is that he’s dishing out zero apologies for any of it. If you don’t know Danny Brown, fix that immediately. If you don’t love him, we can’t be friends.
