Danny Brown, XXX (Deluxe Edition)
Featured Album
Sometimes when you can't fit in, it's best to stick out
Perhaps because hip-hop was born of urban decay, and often rallies around community action and pride, it abides by a certain rule: You must rep where you’re from. And then there’s Danny Brown, the Detroit rapper whose complicated relationship with his gritty hometown boils down to one part love and one part estrangement. Motor City’s harsh, debilitating atmosphere seeps through Brown’s abrasive delivery and unvarnished take on poverty, but his image and his attitude — he mostly wears skinny jeans, litters tracks with punch lines about performing cunnilingus, and raps in what could best be described as an unhinged howl — remain an odd fit for the city’s hard-nosed, no-thrills aesthetic. Sometimes, though, when you can’t fit in, it’s best to stick out, and Brown, having spent the last decade tenaciously carving out his own little corner of the world, has finally bubbled to the surface.
On his third mixtape, the Fool’s Gold-backed XXX, Brown takes a singular victory lap, unleashing both hilarious quips and depressing anecdotes. On the chorus of “Pac Blood,” Ghandi, the Pope and the Virgin Mary perform lecherous acts, eventually joined by Sarah Palin, in case anyone remained un-offended. “Radio Song,” with one of the least inviting beats on the record, gives a clue to Brown’s basic essence: “There’s no originality/ Carbon copy singles/ He made black and yellow/ I’ma make black and emo.” Brown fleshes out ideas about social class and isolation, softening harsh realities with hilariously depraved puns and a sarcastic take on Detroit’s financially despondent population. See: “Lie4″, where a hard-partying deadbeat dad spends all his money and quips: “Who cares when the kids get grown, better figure out what they gone do” as the chorus chirps “Got that income tax swag.”
What’s really unmentionable for Danny Brown, at least until the last few minutes of the mixtape, is the misery and dedication it took for him to get here: Almost 10 years of thankless work has paid off. Album closer “30″ is Danny Brown at his flagrant best — the beat is a spleen-bursting cacophony — as he boasts about all our favorite underdog qualities: perseverance, resilience and white-hot anger-turned-vengeance. Tipping the weight of his voice between anxiety and focused maturity, Danny ends XXX somewhere between an obituary and a new beginning.
