He also perfectly fits my criteria for making a certain kind of misshapedmixtape magic. Coz man, with just a little tweaking of his latest album, “XXX” (cutting out some excess / re-sequencing), you’ve got a flat-out classic.
So yeah, Danny Brown will be the first of my “rEProduced” misshapedmixtapes. See what I did there? I used capital letters in the middle to imply that it’s gonna be an EP (length). I’m meta-lame. And I used my recycle bin liberally in making this mixtape (but not enough when typing this post), so you’re left with a lean 32 minutes of buttery hotness. Yeah, your fingers might get sticky. But it’s nasty goodness.
So, um… it’s hard for me to draw comparisons between Danny Brown and another artist. He often raps in a shrill super-high-pitched voice, makes associations between tropical fruit skittles and his manpiece, does a lot of drugs (and raps about that), and then will go on another level and tackle a subject like hustling by collecting (ahem… stealing) scrap metal. And he’s funny as hell. So yeah, instead of comparing him to an individual, I’m going to draw a parallel between him and a classic group: The Pharcyde.
That’s high praise for a comparison (and no, I’m not placing them side-by-side just because two of Pharcyde’s MCs [Slimkid & Imani] have weird high-pitched voices too). Anyway, what I mean is that Pharcyde is elite company. Coz yeah, they’re like ridiculously ridiculous (How ridiculous? Um… they ripped the stage WAY harder than A Tribe Called Quest at 2008’s Rock The Bells show in my ears). But that’s another tangent.
The main point is that you can’t get any more “left field awesome” circa early-to-mid-nineties than The Pharcyde… unless you cast yr sights north to the Bay Area at that time (Barry Bonds [pre-steroids]… or Del... if we’re still talking about hip-hop).
What was I talking about? Oh yeah, to preface all this silliness you should listen to Pharcyde’s song “Oh Shit.” Coz that song, in three parts, pretty well sums up Danny Brown’s latest album.
Got it? Done. Okay, now here’s a mini-review of Danny Brown’s “XXX,” the follow-up to last year’s “The Hybrid,” in the form of a GRE cheat sheet:
Exhibit 1A… First third : “XXX” :: First verse : “Oh Shit”
SLIMKID:
Like a kill thriller driller tiller out with the miller brew
Filler up, took it 'til the damn Dutch puked
Filler up, took it 'til the damn Dutch puked
The wordplay throughout “XXX” is special. Free-associative, fun and often triggering “a pause and go back 10 seconds” reflex to double-check if Mr. Danny actually just said that which I think he might have said… and how the shit did he end up there? The title track (album opener) is plain silly. And yeah, from there it keeps going. And a lot of the songs are about substance abuse too. Not “miller brew” so much as… um… everything else.
Exhibit 2X… Middle third : “XXX” :: Second verse : “Oh Shit”
IMANI:
Imani and your mom sittin' in a tree,
K I S S I N G
I have to admit, the second verse of “Oh Shit” always makes me squirm a bit. Imani's lyric (above) segue ways right into some major filf about mom love (Samberg and Timberlake didn’t go NEARLY this far on their SNL song). Coincidentally, the buttermilk raunchyness of “XXX” became harder for me to stomach as it ratcheted up in the middle third (especially upon multiple listens). So yeah (spoiler alert), for the sake of my rEProduced mix I scrapped a lot of the middle third. But YOU should listen to the whole “XXX” album after you spin my take on it (Danny Brown’s giving it away for free anyway), and there’s at least one gem of a line on each track that I cut.
Exhibit 3F… Final third : “XXX” :: Third verse : “Oh Shit”
FATLIP:
Rollin' in a purple Samurai Suzuki
Dookie braids was an aid to her sex appeal
Ok. So 13 tracks into his 19 track odyssey Danny hits the patch where he abandons his helium squeekies and starts rapping in a vulnerable everyman voice. He gets poignant. And focused. And dips into str8 storytelling mode. He’s at his best (Pharcyde’s best = Fatlip). He talks about how substance abuse is in his “DNA.” It’s really, really good stuff. So yeah, just when I had gotten dangerously close to OD-ing on his over-the-toppedness, he brought it back to an organic heart place. The last seven tracks are all dope. Though he doesn't hook up with a transvestite in any of those songs (like Fatlip).
So here is, “Danny Brown - XXX rEProduced (a mishapedmixtape)” [check for download link in comments… and the original “XXX” track number is listed below in parentheses]:
01 : XXX (1)
02 : Die Like A Rockstar (2)
03 : Pac Blood (3)
04 : Radio Song (4)
05 : Outer Space (11)
06 : 30 (19)
07 : Scrap Or Die (18)
08 : DNA (13)
09 : Nosebleeds (14)
10 : Party All The Time (15)
11 : EWNESW (16)
12 : Fields (17)
12 : Fields (17)
