Danny Brown (2) – Atrocity Exhibition

"The worst nightmare is for me a normal dream"
– "Downward Spiral"

    This is, without a doubt, one of the best hip hop albums of the last week and century. Even if some years have gone by ever since it was released, and I am not really up to date regarding new launches, it is incredible how fresh it still sounds and how easy it is to listen to it over and over again. To me, it constitutes a turning point. From hardcore rap to experimental hip hop, but, pf… How do we define the latter?
Taking a title of Ballard (that I haven’t read yet) as an inspiration - even though, should you want sex and violence mixed with car accidents, check out the film Crash and that one from Cronenberg -, what this album narrates is the downfall and misfortunes that will occur when you deal with drugs, lost ambitions and all the problems surrounding them and the risks you’re exposed to when you’re raised in the poorer areas of town.
I love the way Danny raps, with that Snoop Dogg-ish nasal tone and his ability to not only go crazily fast, but also to pull off slower or mid-tempo tracks flawlessly. He can show both calm and serenity - as if someone got their fix or is able to see things in perspective - and an absolute frenzy, a suppressed nervousness and a double meaning of disquiet and transgression that is well reflected on the cover. As for the flow itself… Pff, it is u-n-r-e-a-l and it adapts to every beat you could possibly imagine. Tracks like Ain’t it funny, pf… they are incredible, as well as Really Does, where he collaborates with people like Kendrick Lamar - you should absolutely check out The Blacker the Berry or his verses at Conrad Tokyo with ATCQ if you want some political hip hop that would make Public Enemy proud -, Downward Spiral, White Lines… The flow, his way of blending with the instrumental part and the bases, is absolutelly mental. I couldn’t compare it to anything else if I tried. I can’t stress enough that the voices might be difficult to stomach at first, but you should still give them a try. The lyrics are dirty, related to the aforementioned realities, with puns, slang and similar delicacies. You won’t find them in the booklet, as it is the case with many hip hop albums, so you will have to get your hands on them somehow and assimilate them calmly.
As for instrumental songs… Fuck, I’ve been listening to Spanish hip hop half of my life. Public Enemy knocked for a loop including more layers and sounds in their bases, but this is a whole new level of nuances, arrangements, details, bass… Completely out of control, on top of their rather organic sound and their neat production. The shifts in tempo, the cohesion all throughout the album, the tapping on the table, the tension that delays the bass drops in order to amplify them, the rhymes, how well thought it all is… At first glance, it seems like a quick album, with more chill tracks such as Like a Rolling Stone, mixed with more intimate (and yet lifelike), slum-related songs, such as Tell me that I don’t know, which is a little faster than Bolt Thrower’s epic mid-tempo (?). The best thing is to be able to hum the tracks in your head, so good luck trying to get rid of them. The fact that they pulled off a conceptual album, showing the scars and all… It just pitches in the whole thing and moves it up a notch.
There’s not much left for me to say. I am running out of words to describe it. It is easy to relate to this album: who hasn’t lived or experienced a similar reality? Distortion, madness, illness; not only drugs themselves, but also the addiction to them, seeing your loved ones not making it, even in a graveyard. It isn’t just about the topic itself, because it has been spoken about many times already, but also about the originality and the execution of it. Fuck… I can’t even stay quiet listening to this album, it’s pure energy, maniac, obsessive, it goes for the kill… And I need to get moving.

To sum up: mad respect and iration. And what’s with the colours of the cover? King of kings. It’s one of my favourite hip hop albums alongside with ATCQ’s Midnight Marauders. I don’t know if it’s considered as such already, but I think it has set a milestone that will be difficult to beat due to how perfect it is. A lot of people will probably turn against me, but I think it is last decade’s Wish you were here or even Bitches brew. I hate these comparisons, but everything has a context to it; I don’t know what to say to make you give it a chance, appreciate it or even get rid of your stupid prejudices against hip hop, at least a little bit. If you already like hip hop, I would give it a go without a doubt. When I say experimental, I don’t mean Clipping nor Death Grips: the approach is quite different. If you already like experimental, or want to flirt with different things… I don’t even know how to express it anymore, it is indispensable. It is very rare to find a flawlessly articulate experimentation, but this is the case here: a fucking work of art.
Highlights?: Most of the album. Where do I begin?: Ain’t it funny, Pneumonia, When it rain or White Lines. Should you collapse and be left wanting, you could start from Downward Spiral, climb up the lyrics of When it rain, fall headlong to Ain’t it funny and throw this fanzine out of the window.

Originally published in I Don't Give a Fuck IV "bookazine": https://linktr.ee/IDontGiveaFuckzinelabel

One of the first truly impressive attempts to drag experimental hip hop out of the hyper-aggro Death Grips and into something from which abstract and experimental-ism can go in other directions across the musical scale.

Style: gangsta, abstract. Ha. Guess that sort of sums it up. Love this album, though not a fan of 'Get Hi'

was never really "into" Danny Brown before but i went out and copped AE and it is fantastic, every song just sounded great and it is very well produced, the album art and inner artwork is really unique and quite interesting overall a fantastic album!

Maybe I'm too old school, but this album sucked.
The only song I like is the Black Milk produced "Really Doe".
All this minimalist EDM crap is just plain boring to me.