Danny Brown’s latest record seems to have been made with the knowledge that staying on the experimental, endearingly wacky path he carved out on XXX wouldn’t necessarily lead to mainstream success. This said, if there’s one song that you ought to listen to if you’re looking for proof of Atrocity Exhibition’s charisma, listen to “Really Doe.” Atrocity Exhibition is perhaps most impressive when placed alongside the material released by Danny Brown’s contemporaries. The soundscape of the record is brooding and dark and in contrast to 2013’s Old, Brown’s growth is definitely apparent in terms of focus. On Atrocity Exhibition, the Detroit rapper has taken his simultaneously aggressive and playful trademark style, and refined it. And the end product delves deeper into the pockets of the cartoonish thuggery (“too much coke, take a sniff need a ski-lift”) that made XXX such an appealing breakout project to begin with.
