Danny Brown

Atrocity Exhibition

Further tales of the unexpected from audacious bug-eyed Detroit rapper.

The extrovert freak in hiphop’s leftfield revolution, Danny Brown boasts its most distinctive weapon. His strangled voice is a sharking yelp, pitched somewhere between MC 900 Ft. Jesus and Cypress Hill’s B-Real (who duets on the suitably languid Get Hi) and permanently on the cusp of raging panic. With a title that openly nods to Joy Division and the horror, depravity and hedonism of Brown’s nefarious past, the 35-yearold ex-crack dealer’s vivid narratives are perfectly harmonised by Paul White’s delirious sample-scapes, whether scaling the post-rock guitar dissonance of Downward Spiral, pounding electro of Ain’t It Funny or the jittery grimy jumble of the whirlwind When It Rain. And if not every experiment works, Brown’s twinkling hookup with Kendrick Lamar, AbSoul and Earl Sweatshirt on Really Doe totally surpasses its billing.