Hip-hop

"Side A" is more reflective, "Side B" is more just trying to party and bullshit, but there's a significant amount of both in each half. If you're not sold on danny brown's style, this probably won't convert you, but if you like him at all, this album's great. He's definitely his high-pitched, lecherous, vulgar, shit talking, bleak, pull no punches self. But he shows a lot of range both within that and somewhat outside of it. The album has a bunch of different producers and sounds, but it's well sequenced and it's cohesive sonically and thematically despite all the participants. It leans more towards synths than samples, but it's got plenty of both (and the production quality is very good throughout).

Case includes an FCC clean copy which is marked as such (though track 16 might be iffy based solely on subject matter and detail, listen to that one yourself and decide). The clean disc's white, the real album is black.

Recommended if you like: Danny Brown, Esham, Action Bronson

1: fast, aggressive. echo-y snares. rhythm guitar in the background for melody, with fuzz that occasionally gets turned up. occasional synth washes. lyrics about what listeners expect from him.
2: mellow, thick bassline, laid back drums. some flute on the verses, some sitar on the hooks. funky. lyrics allude to "return of the g" (by outkast). freddie gibbs guest verse.
3: slow rolling, synth keys and trap-y 808s. sung female vocals on the hook. purity ring guesting (production and singing).
4: upbeat, skipping drums, flute, occasional wah-wah guitar stabs. seeing fucked up shit go down on the way to get some bread from the store. quick shout out to "a young kathy griffin."
5: upbeat, funky, tense. falling victim to temptations, .
6: stop/start beat, opens with everything way overdriven and blown out but turned down a bit for the first few bars. heavy and halting kicks, trap-y cymbals and woodblocks. vaguely mechanical noises in the background. some handclaps towards the end. danny brown and schoolboy q talk shit for a couple minutes.
7: medium tempo, deliberate, heavy kicks, constant rolling cymbals. PTSD-ish symptoms and selling drugs as a result of growing up in a poor and dysfunctional family. a bit of angry guitar in the background towards the end.
8: upbeat, acoustic-sounding sampled drum loop, sunny guitar. some echo effects and backmasking as occasional production flourishes. rapping as an escape from problems growing up. shouts out radiohead and brandy and weed as escapes too. "hipster by heart, but i can tell you how the streets feel."
9: boomy sampled drums, vocodered vocal sample in the background, untreated version of the sample weaved in occasionally (sounds like it could be from a psych rock song). bass line sounds like a bass guitar. lyrics about realizing it's time to rein in some bad habits and be responsible for people depending on you.
10: bouncy, uptempo, electronic beat, a tinge of miami bass to the drum programming. mellow textured synth stabs chopped in throughout. muffled/filtered horn samples in the background. generally explaining how he's not scared and he'll do what it takes, so you probably shouldn't get in his way.
11: marks the start of "side b". big sinister beat, like the darker and synthier tendencies of three 6 or mannie fresh.
12: it's called dubstep, but it actually kind of splits the difference between mount kimbie and araabmuzik's mellower moments. really great fuzzed out nonsense synth vocal in background. title's a double entendre for slangin from the porch ("got them dubs on the step"). guest grime MC.
13: trap-y 808s, some arpeggiated 303 on the high end of the melody. drums occasionally get more frenetic and rush in. reminder that haters should watch out and that ladies love danny brown.
14: production from a-trak. dark, steadily rising beat. about smokin and drinkin (and doing other stuff).
15: one for the ladies (who are on bath salts).
16: for the girls that are still a little tweaked out, here's another. corkscrewing synth and slow-rolling 808s. might not actually be FCC safe, despite being totally edited of FCC words.
17: booming, slightly blown out kicks. descending chiptune-ish (but thick) bassline, bleeps in the background. short, sampled laughs (low in the mix). produced by rustie. about getting way higher than everyone else.
18: mostly slow 808 beat that occasionally gets frenetic for a few bars. some castlevania-esque synths. mostly a weed anthem. asap rocky guest spot (and a guy that sounds a little like spaceghostpurrp, but who isn't spaceghostpurrp).
19: heavy, intermittent kicks. shifting handclap and snare and cymbal patterns. ethereal mid-range pads. high female backup vocals. the contemplative hopeful closer (nails it). callbacks to other parts of the album. really ties the room together.

recommended: 12, 19, 10, 8, 2, 3, 6, 17