Danny Brown - uknowhatimsayin? [2019]

Atrocity Exhibition, Danny Brown’s 2016 project, was a landmark project for hip-hop both underground and experimental. It was the combination of a unique delivery from Danny Brown, who’s nasally and shrill yelps set him apart from almost everyone else in the genre, and excellent spread of otherworldly instrumentals from the likes of Paul White that elevated this album from abrasive and annoying to forward-thinking and unexpectedly deep. Full disclosure: whenever Atrocity Exhibition debuted, I was not a fan. At all. It was only recently, knowing that Brown was dropping another project (and remembering how much I fucking loved Really Doe), that caused me to reexamine the project. I’m not going to say I’ve done a 180 on the project, but I for damn sure have come to appreciate the nuances and ideas presented there. With Atrocity Exhibition fresh on my taste buds, and, while not liking Dirty Laundry and having a lukewarm response to Best Life, but loving the shit out of 3 Tearz, I was ready for uknowhatimsayin¿.

Danny Brown’s spirit animal is a glitchy Windows 95 OS

uknowhatimsayin¿ is a remarkably stripped back album experience for Danny Brown, both instrumentally and in regards to vocal delivery. You will not find tracks like Ain’t It Funny and When it Rains on this album, but rather you will be met by more measured vocals and more subtle instrumentals that at times can be strangely… relaxing? I seems that, while Atrocity Exhibition was actively trying to instill anxiousness in the listener, uknowhatimsayin¿ is leaning more on reflective lethargy by slowing down tempos, making many samples softer on the ears, and, most importantly, by reining Danny in a little to where his delivery is more on par with a “weird” delivery like Westside Gunn rather than just-shy-of-annoying overexaggerated shrieking. I think that Danny composing himself this way puts so much more emphasis on his lyrics, whereas before the spectacle of his delivery may have been distracting from the overall message of a track. Tracks like Dirty Laundry, Best Life, and Shine are more palatable as storytelling tracks due to this change in delivery, simply rapping a story to you rather than *performing* a story for you with the reckless vocal inflections. Don’t get it twisted though, whenever Danny goes for the pained delivery on uknowhatimsayin¿ (which is only a few times), it goes over spectacularly, like on 3 Tearz and Negro Spiritual. However, there are a few tracks where he goes too far in calming himself down, like the title track and Belly of the Beast, where, despite the latter being hilarious to listen to, are ultimately uninteresting due to almost no agency in Danny’s voice. This is especially true in the case of the title track, with the incessant refrain of “uknowhatimsayin¿”, which honestly is a chore to listen to.

While I do like Danny’s performance on most of the tracks and appreciate this direction he’s gone in, I daresay I might appreciate the beats on uknowhatimsayin¿ more. While Atrocity Exhibition may have been more diverse with it’s insane highs and withdrawal-like lows, uknowhatimsayin¿ is a more sonically consistent album. With Q-Tip taking the reins of an executive producer, the influence in clear in not just the tracks he produced directly (Dirty Laundry, Best Life, & Combat), but also other selections like Change Up, 3 Tears, the title track, and Negro Spiritual, all of which contain more traditional sampling choices and more golden-age inspired drum patterns. The album never dips into the sonic garishness that Atrocity Exhibition was so happy to throw around but sticks to its subdued guns. The Blood Orange assisted Shine sounds like it would have fit comfortably on Danny’s Old album, but the track is underwhelming for me instrumentally (the lyrics are fantastic), and is not the level of quality I expected from Dev and Standing on the Corner. Theme Song is a standout from a sampling standpoint, lacing a sharp string sample amongst random A$AP Ferg adlibs, and it’s minimal drums and basswork is fantastic. My favorite instrumental on this thing is Savage Nomad, that I was amazed was not an Alchemist beat but rather a Playa Haze cut. The track is a soaring electric guitar lick looped over sharp rolling boombap drums; an excellent high point centered in the middle of the record.

I do have bones to pick with this album, and they mainly boil down to several tracks being duds that needed to go back to the drawing board. Change Up works as a track, but the instrumental gets stale quickly, and Danny doesn’t do much with the beat; in the face of the demented Downward Spiral on Atrocity Exhibition, I expected much more out of the intro to uknowhatimsayin¿. Belly of the Beast is another one where the beat lets me down, being so skeletal and hands off that the snail-slow flow from Danny does little to grab your attention, and it’s only the disgustingly hilarious subject matter that keeps me coming back to it. But the track with the most problems is the title track, uknowhatimsayin¿, being the only track that is outright bad in my opinion. The beat sounds like Mario 64 just locked up and now you have to restart your Nintendo, and Danny’s performance is comatose in delivery with almost no flow and a constant repetition. The other issue with the track is one that I have with most of the album, and that’s features. Obongjayar is just not what I want to hear, and doesn’t fit with Danny’s style at all. JPEGMAFIA may have dropped a fire beat on here but I needed more than a hook from him on the feature. I’m not a fan of Blood Orange, enough said. Run the Jewels and Q-Tip are the only ok ones (Q-Tip being uncredited on Combat), but I really wanted more from this album from the guests overall.

Danny seems to have reached the point in his career where his fanbase is established and it probably won’t grow too much more, so he’s indulging in making music that appeals to him. I mean the fact that he just put out an album with Q-Tip at the helm would be any other rappers wet dream, and that Danny is so well respected that he was able to pull this off should be a source of pride for him. uknowhatimsayin¿ turned out well enough, especially when looked in the context of his previous records being so different and genre pushing, and I think it puts Danny in a great position to be able to make the music he wants from here on out. At the very least, no matter what direction Danny Brown decides to go in, there will be no one that sounds quite like him.

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