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Review Summary: While certainly not atrocious, Danny Brown’s fourth studio album fails to deliver any enjoyment whatsoever to casual music listeners intrigued by the zany qualities of indie hip hop. Fewer rappers have caught the attention of independent rap circles quite like Danny Brown. 2011’s XXX introduced the blogosphere to a polarized man who composed songs both about the dangers of drug addiction and the wild, inane fun that can be had when using them. I, for one, enjoyed this two-pronged approach. It properly captured the valleys and crests inherent in a devil-may-care lifestyle. Fast forward to 2016 and Danny Brown became about one thing and one thing only: relentless, unadulterated hedonism. He has foregone the candid introspection of tunes like “Party All the Time” in favor of whole albums made in the image of “Admiral Adderall.”
Atrocity Exhibition's biggest pitfall is its lyrics. At best, they're silly. At worst, they're obnoxious. This is especially so when Danny Brown spews one-liners about pussy, as with the single Pneumonia. In it, he raps: "Slurp that pussy up just like lo mein." Crass lines such as these oversaturate the album, to the detriment of the listener's enjoyment. XXX was about reaching your third decade in life and looking back at your decadent 20s with impressive maturity. Atrocity Exhibition is about relapsing into old habits and treading back into dark territory while in stubborn denial. The production is essentially abstract for abstraction's sake. Most songs consist of tinkering pianos, blurbs and beeps not out of place on an electronica track, and Wilhelm screams thrown in for (seemingly) the heck of it. The mixing, at times, also fails. Danny Brown's vocals and the beat on "Ain't It Funny" clash against each other, creating an indecipherable fuzz. However, Atrocity Exhibition has some highlights. He links up well with Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Earl Sweatshirt on the post-apocalyptic soundscape of "Really Doe."
Make no mistake, I'm a Danny Brown fan. However, his newfound artistic direction post-2011 caters too much to the mindless, reckless party scene he used to write cautionary tales about. This is not inherently bad, but when done with a consistent slew of irreverent lines about having sex and accompanied by beats like the ones on Atrocity Exhibition, the end result is poor. Atrocity Exhibition makes for a crude listen that many casual listeners will find inaccessible. As such, it embodies modern independent hip hop’s biggest flaw—it puts edge first, and musicianship a distant second.
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Album Rating: 4.5
No no no...
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you're going to get eaten alive, mate
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Release the Kraken! I like a lot of Danny Brown but I don't like Old or this album very much.
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This and Old have nothing on XXX.
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i don't think anyone's ever missed the point of anything so hard
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
[2]
Of course, I would also appreciate any and all criticism and feedback.
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my suggestion is read the lyrics again
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
I never said it was made specifically for casual hip hop listeners. I reviewed this from the perspective of one, because that is what I'd consider myself.
@StallionMang
Can you please elaborate?
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might as well be the first (?) to the feeding frenzy i guess
some critiques:
1) you say 'spews one-liners about pussy' like its inherently a bad thing to do that w/o giving any examples - are they poorly made (i.e. bad puns) or do you just personally find them crass?
2) EDM does not sound like the beats on this album. i promise. if this were about Old (esp. the second half, there's a track called dubstep ffs) then this would make more sense
3) Don't tracks like Tell Me What I Don't Know and From the Ground invalidate your point about this album's immaturity? even if you take the lyrics on this album at face value those two tracks are kinda hard to twist as 'immature'
it's fine to not like this album but these things just struck me as odd. props for sharing your opinion my dude, contrarian voices are always welcome (by me, anyways)
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
That's a whilhem scream in this?
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pos because shit hipster rap 'artist..'
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Good dig, butch. Flux is golden
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Sandwich!! yea, I've been on an og hardcore kick.. how is you?
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"Atrocity Exhibition is about relapsing into old habits and treading back into dark territory while in stubborn denial."
idk how he can be in denial when he literally mentions on multiple occasions how his habits are bound to kill him at any moment
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
Also saying that this puts edginess first is kinda a disservice to the album and Danny brown. There's some great compositions and themes in this and just reducing it down to him talking about drugs and pussy is pretty cheap. Not saying he doesn't toot his own horn at times or that your thoughts are invalid but I know for me this album definitely needed to sit with me for a while before I could appreciate and understand it more than I did initially.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
this isn't very good yeah
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Okay, here's my pet peeve. I can't stand rappers who spew lines like "Slurp that pussy up just like lo mein" or any of the gazillion lines on here about raunchy sex, drugs, etc. and expect it to be seen as holding some deeper meaning about why all of this stuff is actually bad. In my opinion, that is a wayyy cheaper cop out and a terrible way to frame a serious issue. An issue personal to me because drugs have had a very negative impact on my life (something made remarkable by the fact I've honestly never done them, ever). I think he disservices hip hop and his discography as a whole by doing this.
@StallionMang
Sure, there are some songs or lines here that bring it back and make him seem like he's self-aware. But that's all they are. Hasty realizations that he'll immediately ignore the next lyric over and go back to the same ol' decadence.
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is your username a reference to vince carter, that pete rock song or the human cannonball from the 30's?
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
It's a reference to Nas's It Ain't Hard to Tell.
"Nas is like the Afro-centric Asian, half man half amazin'"
| | | Album Rating: 4.0
I'm not gonna defend lines like that because I can agree they don't really do anything for me or add to the experience. Pneumonia is one of the weaker songs in my eyes anyway. He tries to combine ideas from songs like I will, nosebleeds, and a lot of others really but it never meshed well for me. I never thought of danny talking about drugs as a cautionary tale though and more of him accepting his own vices and trying to make light of it to cope with his demons.
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