Skip to main content

ALBUM REVIEW: uknowhatimsayin? by Danny Brown

Danny Brown is one of the most unique and interesting musicians working today in the rap scene. The combination of his look, his strange and enigmatic style of delivery, and the forward thinking production on his music combine to manifest something greater than the sum of their parts. 2016's Atrocity Exhibition is a shining example of this, an album that manages to be impenetrable, catchy, uncomfortable, disgusting, profound, profane and exciting all at once. It's an album that you will likely need to acclimate to before you are able to really sink into, but once you are in it you will not be able to shake yourself free of its atmosphere.

But it's been three years since Atrocity Exhibition, so what's changed in that time? Well, seemingly not much, but at the same time uknowhatimsayin? is worlds away from Atrocity Exhibition. Let's get this straight immediately, though; this is an awesome album. The most noticeable thing about this album is that it is substantially more accessible that its predecessor. That's not to say that Danny Brown has stated writing pop rap hits, though, he is still operating in that exciting area of hip hop that engages in genre standards while pushing things in new directions. But uknowhatimsain? has a tendency to lean towards more classic hip-hop sounds, and by extension has a very nostalgic sound to it despite its commitment to continue pushing forwards. And it's important to remember that Danny Brown is coming up on 40, so perhaps this shift in sound makes more sense than you might think.


There are a string of exciting features that all add to the experience of the album, effectively shifting the spotlight to themselves and making the most of it before handing it off again to Brown. There is a particularly great feature spot for JPEGMAFIA on 'Negro Spiritual', a track driven by a wonky guitar loop and a venomous delivery from Brown, and Run The Jewels leave their mark on '3 Tearz', a track with some real swagger and killer organ stabs. A real highlight of the album is 'Theme Song'. The production is slick but weirdly creepy, something perpetuated by the off-sounding string loop and unsettling whispers in the middle of the mix.

Compared to Atrocity Exhibition I think this album flows much more freely, and at only 33 minutes gets in and out before you have time to get bored. In this sense I think uknowhatimean? is a step up for Danny Brown. There is a perfect mix of bangers ('Dirty Laundry', 'Savage Nomad' and 'Negro Spiritual' in particular) and moodier cuts, and they are dispersed across the tracklist in a way that keeps the album engaging and exciting.

Danny Brown proves that he is one of the most important voices in hip hop currently with uknowhatimsayin?, and at nearly 40 shows no sign of slowing down or compromising. This is Brown at his most palatable, concise, sharp and witty, and is the latest in a string of excellent hip hip albums under his name. Don't sleep on it.

Rating: A

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Response To 'Christian' Views On Secular Music

Is there such thing as music that Christians shouldn’t listen to? Should we be dismissive of music with either explicit language or sexual, violent or substance oriented themes? Should anyone even be telling anyone else what they can and can’t listen to? These are questions that are thrown around a lot in Christian circles, and given what I do here on this blog and how that overlaps with my job working for the church, I thought I would share my thoughts on this topic. I’ll say this at the outset so that we’re on the same page – I think any attempt to dictate what people should and shouldn’t listen to is stupid and disrespectful on a fundamental level. I’ll go into detail about why I think that later on, but for now here are some thoughts I have on some of the “Christian” opinions I come across pretty regularly. The first and most ludicrous thing that seems to follow me around is the idea that because I listen to underground genres, particularly on the heavy metal
2 comments
Read more

1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

   Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million , because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver , but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought
Post a Comment
Read more

Should Brand New be in my top 20? (CONTENT WARNING: sexual abuse)

    For those who read both top 20 albums lists that I did - one here on thatmusicnerd and one over at Kill Your Stereo - you will have noticed, I'm sure, that one had The Ongoing Concept's album Places at number 1, and the other had Brand New's Science Fiction at the top. Full disclosure, I initially had Brand New at the top of just the one list, but the readership of Kill Your Stereo reacted very strongly against the allegations of sexual misconduct against Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey and so I removed it entirely. In fact, none of the  KYS contributors' top 20 lists featured Science Fiction at all. Of course I was happy to follow the general consensus in regards to whether or not an artist accused of such things should be promoted by a music publication, but I still stand by my opinion that Science Fiction was the best album of 2017 and as such it was number 1 on my thatmusicnerd top 20 list.    2017 has been a pretty crazy year in terms of the fairly b
Post a Comment
Read more