Adam Wray wrote this inside the Viper Room bathroom, circa 1993.
There’s no rapper working today that’s earned his hype as much as Danny Brown. Since XXX blew up he’s been getting it like he’s lived, crushing each and every track he’s hopped on and leaving a trail of smoked mics, blunts, and groupies in his wake. At this point, if his name appears in a tune’s credits, you know it’s got at least one thing going for it. He may not be the God Emcee, but he’s in the pantheon – he’s more Loki than Odin, a shape-shifting shit-disturber.
“Kush Coma” is the first we’ve heard from OLD, his forth-coming LP, and it does not disappoint. Skywlkr produced the track, and his work here is more sophisticated than any of his still-impressive contributions to XXX. He’s carving out a grimy, dissonant niche for himself. Shrill, horror movie synths hover over firecracker snare rolls and serious sub-bass while Danny goes off in a cascading, double-time flow. Skywlkr and Danny had a great rapport on XXX, and that hasn’t changed – the beat, eerie and claustrophobic, sounds like it’s collapsing on itself, the perfect complement to Danny’s lyrics about the spacey paranoia accompanying another bender. For anyone who’s ever felt like they’ve been punched in the face by weed, “Kush Coma” will resonate immediately. It’s the inevitable comedown to the peaking “Blueberry (Pills & Cocaine)” – every bit as tweaked and druggy, but not nearly as fun. The version that’s slated to appear on OLD will feature a verse from A$AP Rocky, and it’ll be interesting to see what he adds to a track that already feels complete.
We were actually blessed with a second shot of Danny yesterday, too – “Street Lights,” another collaboration with XXX contributor Paul White. “Street Lights” finds Danny in the grim, meditative mode he worked in for most of XXX’s second half, reflecting on the social and infrastructural decaying plaguing Detroit. Danny tweeted that the tune is basically the follow up to XXX standout “Fields” – couldn’t have described it better myself. White’s beats are allegedly all over OLD, so while “Street Lights” won’t appear on the record, we may hear more tracks like it.
With OLD dropping imminently, expect more and more of these teasers and one-offs leading up to its release. No need to worry about saturating the market when your product is so consistently excellent.
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