Danny Brown - Grown Up

The man responsible for one of the greatest lines in rap history. "Stank pussy smells like Cool Ranch Doritos".

Danny Brown is a fucking weirdo. He lost his front teeth in a KFC parking lot and takes lots of drugs and has a lot of sex. He's one of the few rockstars left in music today. Yet, that's the only the second thing you need to know when getting into Danny Brown's music. First and foremost, he can fucking spit like no one else can. A singular voice that recalls the wonder days of Slick Rick, Kool Keith, and Ol' Dirty Bastard. Much like Action Bronson draws comparisons to Ghostface Killah, Danny Brown will draw tons of comparisons to Ol' Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang fame, and much like Bronsolini, these comparisons only ring true superficially (how cool would it be to get together a new Wu-Tang with all these up and coming rappers filling in spots as old Wu members ala Bronson as Ghostface, Danny as ODB, etc.? Just a thought). Sure he's got that eclectic flow and he's a disgusting but lovable goofball, but Danny makes a lane all his own, not emulating ODB or being emulated by anyone else in rap today. And that's the great thing. Danny Brown is an original, from his raps about drug filled hazes and weird fetish sex with A LOT of pussy eating on "XXX" (One of the best projects of 2011 bar none) to his sweet reminisces on childhood and success on the track "Grown Up".

Of course, the video is incredibly awesome, with a young Danny decked in designer fashion and wildin' out across the streets of Detroit, but the song itself eschews Danny usual talk about destroying pussy and popping molly before it was popular for a nostalgic trip of reflection on his childhood and a look back at how even he didn't think he'd be as awesome as he is now. Record scratches heralding back to childhood freestyles in the streets with your schoolyard friends, and the lighthearted beat contrasting with Danny's assertive and joyous flow/voice make this track a head-nodding joy to listen to. It's also a track that does something incredibly annoying, but does it well. It's pretty popular and easy to take some indie pop record or catchy lighthearted electronic record and just use the beat or sample as an interpolation in your song to make it quick radio material. For examples of the lazy fuckers who do this see Mac Miller, Hoodie Allen (I don't even hate this song like that), Chiddy Bang (This neither, shout out to the Lockerz beta), and a slew of other boring rappers. I guess these nasal pitched suburb rappers think they're moving hip-hop along with indie samples and pop culture references in hashtag raps, but it fucking sucks 99% of the time. Grown Up samples the drum loop of the Gorillaz' "Tomorrow Comes Today" and doesn't fall into the trap that the aforementioned songs do. Even with it's piano key breaks (sampled from Lou Reed's David Bowie produced "Take A Walk On The Wild Side") and the laughing of children on a playground, the production maintains its freshness without sounding like those millions of other tracks I mentioned in the suburb rap category.

He's really not the drug-addled freak people make him out to be, he's totally normal. No, seriously.

I could have picked any number of Danny Brown songs, from the hard-hitting schizophrenia of "Monopoly" to the ironic beauty of "Radio Song", but I'll allow you to discover the wonders of Danny Brown yourself.  He has one of the best mixtapes in recent memory with XXX with plenty of other pseudo-albums and mixtapes before that, as well as a great EP with producer Black Milk. He's also friends with a bunch of other cool and poppin up & coming rappers like A$AP Rocky, Schoolboy Q and Action Bronson. All said and done, Danny Brown is that guy, and hopefully he continues to put out original and amazing music in the future.

You can check out the majority of his discography here and a more updated version without downloads here. You can also peep all his hilarious interviews and back and forths with his cool rapper friends on Noisey's channel on Youtube (just search Danny Brown in the channel search box and laugh the night away).

As always, enjoy and spread the love.