Black and Brown

If any of you are regulars here at still.grimey you'll know that we're major Danny Brown fans. After a strong 2010 with his first album The Hybrid Brown and his record earned accolades and was considered a rising star in the Detroit and underground rap game.The Danny Brown hype train continued to rise in 2011 with offers from G-Unit(that he ultimately turned down) and various features and leaks for his second album, XXX, left fans salivating.

When XXX was finally released it was either celebrated for Brown's willingness to expand his creative horizons

or was panned for the exact same reasons. I was firmly in the second camp. I know dude is free to do what he wants and I commend him for exploring his creativity, but XXX was just too god damn out there and Brown overused his crazy high-pitched voice about 5-6 songs too many making it hard for me to even make it pass the first four or five songs. The second half the album gets better, but by the time I got there I was too burned out to even enjoy it. Overall a major disappointment because Brown went full force with what some consider the most polarizing part of his steez and beats that just didn't do it for me. I can only imagine what first time listeners of Brown thought when they heard the album.

Fast forward about two months later and my homie from Fat Beats Records dropped some knowledge about another Danny Brown project due on November 1st which he described as being more in line with The Hybrid. And after hearing the stream for the album Black and Brown , my faith in Danny Brown has been restored. With XXX I felt the album was poorly arranged, produced and rapped. While Black and Brown is the exact opposite. The Black Milk produced album is cohesive, but varies just enough to serve as pleasant background to Brown's delivery rather than being a huge distraction. Danny Brown also continues to bring the heat on Black and Brown dropping grimey ass bars and punchlines that are as raunchy as ever. However this time around they take center stage and aren't drowned out by Brown's crazy voice or overly experimental beats. The EP is only 10 songs long leaving me wanting more especially after how long XXX was, but I guess I can deal with Danny Brown releasing something like XXX as long as he follows it up with something as good as Black and Brown every time.

So if you were a Danny Brown fan until XXX, give Black and Brown a chance cause you faith may be restored. Or if you haven't heard of Danny Brown then Black and Brown is easily his most accessible release to date.

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