Danny Brown - XXX
Fool’s Gold
Danny Brown's seminal second album turns 10. This was one of the first albums that the Dead End Hip Hop crew put me onto around 2012 or so. It was also one of the first rap albums that I fully invested my time in. The beginning of a lifetime of love for Danny Brown.
Brown takes you on a trip through Detroit and its seedy underbelly on XXX. The narrative is split in two halves. The first half of the records paints pictures of drug-fueled escapades. VIP areas and their extravagance being a common thread. The never coming down self inflicted psychosis laced within the high life is the price paid for such indulgence. Every coin has its flipside. The party must come to an end, as is life. Nobody makes it out unscathed. The material takes a more mature tone as the second half gets underway with 'DNA' welcoming a lesson-like Brown taking control of the wheel. A warning of sorts for the risks of life in the fast lane. Nobody brings the same satirical yet straight up serious edge as Danny Brown. Not many artists have as many faces to their act. Brown's a bit of a Swiss knife when it comes to the rap game.
Production from skywlkr, Paul White, Quelle Chris and Brandun Deshay, to name a few, give XXX an experimental edge which in turn gives Brown the platform to really break through. It's the perfect coming together of 'out there'. Adderall Admiral brings English experimental rock outfit, This Heat, into Detroit. The sample used comes from their 'Horizontal Hold' track. It's one of the more forward thinking pieces of material recorded since the dawn of time and Danny Brown does his thing over it with relative ease. The sky really is the limit for a dude like Brown. His place in the rap world is finely cemented at this stage but albums like XXX served as large stepping stones to an immortality of sorts. It's garnered major attention over the last few years especially after his 2016 album, Atrocity Exhibition, blew the Danny Brown name out of the water so to speak. His unique qualities were always going to come up for air. It's weird done well. A welcome trait when true to the character. Some people are left of center, then there's Danny Brown.
XXXX is supposedly on its way. Great news for Danny Brown fans. I bought a copy of XXX on Amazon back in the day. It never turned up for some reason. Some lucky mailman is bumping it as I type.
Favourite Track: DNA, Pac Blood
Aug 15th, 2011
