Danny Brown: XXX

This guy is nutz with a z. He starts off sounding like a hybrid between The Pharcyde and Funkdoobiest. But he mentions both Spongebob and The Matrix within the first minute of the album. Of course this is in a song about how he’s fucked his life by heavily leaning on drugs. He may sound vocally like these other guys, but his irreverence and lyricism is more Kool Keith than anything else I’ve heard of late. Granted he doesn’t have the booger and poop obsession, but he namechecks Nirvana and River Phoenix and all sorts of other white pop cultural soup all between nonsense and “bitch this, bitch that” and of course the obligatory “n” word. He’s a strange one, to be sure, but he’s hard to stop listening to. After all it’s the crazy ones (I’m looking at you Kanye) that make you want to see what they’re going to say next. And mostly what he does say, when you can discern it amongst the wackiness, is that drugs are bad, but are a big part of his life — and of course that record companies suck. If I knew more about mixed tapes and hip-hop I’d say something smarter about this thing, but all I know is that I find it completely entertaining and what I though rap was supposed to be about.