Danny Brown

He's Old, Missing Teeth, and Has a Funny Haircut: He's Danny Brown, Rap's Biggest Deal

Apart from the overcrowding and cost of living, subway ads are one of the most depressing things about New York City. But now, next to the usual ads offering escape in vacation destinations and self-realization in a pair of shoes, you'll find a glimmer of hope in a Uniqlo ad featuring 32-year-old De ... More >>

The Complete Guide to Understanding Lil B

How does one explain God? How does one explain faith? How does one explain Limp Bizkit's cover of George Michael's "Faith?" The answer, of course, is you cannot explain that which is ineffable, and also Fred Durst is playing at a club in Long Island tonight. Either way, the equally ineffable Lil B i ... More >>

When Not Making Rap Hits, Harry Fraud Surfs With Manatees and Rocks Out to Sublime

Editor's note: In Tweets is Watching, Phillip Mlynar asks local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline. Hit man Harry Fraud dropped his new Adrift project yesterday, which the hip-hop producer has teased on Twitter to be a mix of "stuff you may have heard and stuff ... More >>

Shlohmo/Rustie - Output - 3/7/13

Better Than: Spending six hours in a live action arcade game. Last night, from 10 p.m. until 4 in the morning D33J, Jackmaster, Oneman, Rustie and Shlohmo played to a high-spirited Williamsburg crowd which braved terrible weather to support some of the most exciting rising stars in electronic music ... More >>

A$AP Rocky and Danny Brown Have a Shot at Realizing Their Dreams -- with Kathy Griffin

A heartfelt collection of our favorite music stories of the week, as picked by Voice music writers, including a special Valentine's Day meeting between A$AP Rocky, Danny Brown and ... Kathy Griffin, perhaps best known to the two rappers as the old nurse from Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" video. He ... More >>

Will Long.Live.A$AP Be the Biggest Houston Rap Album of 2013?

[Ed. Note: The following post ran on the music blog of the Voice's sister publication Houston Press on Jan. 23. We rerun it here re: relevant to our interests.] By Nathan Smith There are a few things you should know about A$AP Rocky. He's a pretty motherfucker. His new album, Long.Live.A$AP, is a ... More >>

Defend Your Ballot: Andrew Winistorfer, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

An Oral History of the "Super Bowl Shuffle" and Other Links

Over the course of the week we read a lot of music stories. Here are a few we love, love, loved.

Sorry, Haters: Kitty Pryde Is Staying a While

"It's a huge accident." That's how Kitty Beckwith characterizes the fact we're even talking, over chocolate tea at Tarallucci E Vino, about her unlikely success as a rapper. The alleged teenager made waves last year as Kitty Pryde, a Claire's employee from Daytona Beach who appeared, like all viral ... More >>

Who or What Will Chris Brown Fight Next?

When you look at Chris Brown, what do you see? A bully with an entourage all too happy to start a dust-up over a perceived slight or a parking space? An emotionally crippled/stunted young man who is the sad victim of the cycle of domestic abuse? A wanton spreader of pink eye? The boo-hooingest cryba ... More >>

A$AP Rocky Lights Up The City

Harlem's crack-slinging bad boy cleans up, puts New York rap back on the map

Pazz & Jop: Riff Raff Is Keeping It Surreal

He's believable as a hip-hop star because nothing he says is true

11 "Minor League Rappers" We Want To Hear on Hot 97

Last week Hot 97 Program Director Ebro Darden offered a weak explanation about his stations narrow playlist and why they don't play up-and-coming locals, saying--in so many words--that artists not getting spins on the station simply aren't ready for them. They're too underground. They haven't worked ... More >>

Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire is Ready For His Close-Up

Fresh Out the Box

The Many Faces of Danny Brown: His Five Defining Songs

Over the past three years, Detroit MC Danny Brown has been amassing one of rap's most loyal cult followings. A student of the game, his diverse arsenal of styles has proved challenging for some rap listeners to pin down exactly what makes him such an intriguing figure. He's performing at Roseland Ba ... More >>

Live: The Cops Shut Down Fool's Gold Day Off; DJ A-Trak Throws Out More T-Shirts

Check out our slideshow from the party. Fool's Gold Day Off: French Montana, Danny Brown, Brothers Macklovitch, Just Blaze, Flosstradamus, Flatbush Zombies, Nick Catchdubs, Ricky Blaze, Party Supplies, #BEEN #TRILL, Telephoned, and more City Winery Monday, September 3 Better than: Rain. Last yea ... More >>

Danny Brown Calls Playing the Gathering of the Juggalos "Kind of Cool"

The highlights of Danny Brown's 2012 summer performance schedule are fairly predictable bookings for the sort of skinny-jeans Fool's Gold rapper who's a part of what SPIN's taken to calling Rap's New Underground: Berlin's street-fashion orgy Bread & Butter, Chicago's indie party Pitchfork Festival, ... More >>

Geto Boys, Danny Brown, Bobcat Goldthwait Playing the 2012 Gathering of the Juggalos

If the Internet meme machine has seemed a little slow this summer, it's probably because the Gathering of the Juggalos is less than a month away and Insane Clown Posse's industrious label, Psychopathic Records, has yet to release 2012's endlessly watchable Juggomercial. That's already more than a mo ... More >>

JUST A KID

Childish Gambino hits the playground

Live: Kitty Pryde Has A Graduation Party At The Knitting Factory

Kitty Pryde Knitting Factory Friday, June 15 Better than: Karmin. What do you want to know about Kitty Pryde's New York debut that you haven't already read? The Wall Street Journal told you Donald Glover was there somewhere taking pictures, as was Tao Lin, who was tweeting with Kitty backstage und ... More >>

Live: Azealia Banks Enchants Under The Mermaid Ball's Sea Of Balloons And Tickertape

Azealia Banks's Mermaid Ball w/Maluca, Wckids, Tigga Calore, House of Ladosha & Jack Mizrahi Bowery Ballroom Sunday, June 3 Better than: Summer Jam. Azealia Banks has become one of many New York musicians flavoring their music with borrowed vogue culture—particularly from her birth year, 199 ... More >>

Live: Machine Gun Kelly Is The Valedictorian Of XXL's Freshman Class

XXL Freshman Class 2012: Don Trip, Kid Ink, Iggy Azalea, Roscoe Dash, Macklemore, Hopsin, Danny Brown, Future, French Montana, Machine Gun Kelly Best Buy Theater Monday, April 9 Better than: Ten rappers you're completely unfamiliar with. Every year, XXL selects a group of rappers to label as "fres ... More >>

Q&A: Danny Brown On Cataloguing Rhymes, His "Rookie Of The Year" Status, And Joy Division

The way Danny Brown raps isn't identical to the way Danny Brown talks, but in conversation with the Michigan MC, a few similarities pop up: the wheezy hyena chuckles, the dry sense of humor, the easy confidence, the sense that he can murder this interview shit day or night, awake or asleep, braided ... More >>

Action Bronson and Party Supplies Team Up

Cooking with gas on Blue Chips

The Worst Moments From SXSW 2012

Over the last few days, Village Voice Media's music editors have been regaling you with stories of the best from Austin's South By Southwest Festival. But with the best must come the worst, and our critics unfortunately came across the following borefests, technical problems, and insults to their in ... More >>

Five Reasons Why XXL's Freshman Class Issue Is Going To Be A Yearly Ritual For A While

As traditions go, XXL's annual "Freshman Class" issue is neither all that time-honored or worthwhile. The magazine's been putting rappers it calls freshmen on its cover since 2008, but hasn't exactly been kingmaking or future forecasting in doing so: 2008's list featured Crooked I and Joell Ortiz, h ... More >>

Black Milk

RAP 2.0

A$AP Rocky headlines Irving Plaza

Pazz & Jop 2011: Michael Tedder On Fucked Up's Majesty, Danny Brown's Cunning Skills, And The Joy Formidable's Outro Power

To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. Here, Michael Tedder breaks down his entire ballot, and along the way he talks about about the operatic heights of Fucked Up, the shredding ability of Annie Clark and R ... More >>

53 More Great Songs From 2011

Earlier today, Maura offered a list of the 47 songs on her "2011 Awesomeness" Spotify playlist; to complement that, here are the 53 songs from my less cleverly named playlist, "2011." As is the usually the case with these mega-lists, I compiled mine a bit haphazardly, throwing together a substantial ... More >>

Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, The Finale: Jay-Z And Kanye West Fiddle While The Underground Gets Wasted

Smell that money burning. ​This concludes Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, a conversation about pop music in 2011 between Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph. Read it all again. Thanks for the handoff, Nick, and thanks to Katherine, Tom and esp ... More >>

Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire Gets Down With His Duality

​"You got to ask my mother that. You wanna call her? Come on, let's call her." It's a rain-sodden Thanksgiving's eve and Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire's goddaughter has just turned up at his Crown Heights apartment. Her appearance prompts the question of what the rapper himself was like as a kid� ... More >>

Das Racist's Top Ten Tour Memories (So Far)

​Viktor Vazquez has just arrived at a hotel in Seattle and is pining for some noodles. Specifically, he has the hankering for some "fancy ramen noodles." It's a caliber of Japanese wheat-noodle that he has not been able to find since leaving his home in New York City to undertake a vehement 30 ... More >>

Peter Rosenberg's What's Poppin' Vol. 1 Takes The New York Hip-Hop Scene's Pulse

​New York City rappers have been cast as something of the rap world's whipping boys for more than a few years now. Not only is it fashionable to paint the city's scene as still stuck in the '90s—that's, er, despite the man who effectively runs rap, old man Jay-Z, being pretty proud to ha ... More >>

I Don't Go Clubbing, I Go Dancing: Your Labor Day Weekend Guide To New York's Best Nightlife (And Daytime Parties, Too)

​There are a few things we can expect from Labor Day weekend, and the annual Electric Zoo festival is one of them. The massive three-day rave takes over Randall's Island with twelve-hour days that boast a million DJs over four separate stages; you'll hear trance, techno, deep house, electro, d ... More >>

Spaceghostpurrp And ASAP Rocky Will Keep Santos Party House Weird Next Thursday Night

​ When previewing Main Attrakionz's August 26 show at the New Museum, I noted how in recent months the city has become a gathering point for many of the rest of the country's rap weirdos. This trend is likely to continue now that Das Racist's Heems (whose group is bringing Detroit's Danny Brow ... More >>

Das Racist

Q&A: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. On Detroit, Mike Love's Yacht, And Their Google Juice

​At first glance, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. might seem like a gimmick--two guys in racing suits capitalizing on a name-brand stock-car-racing dynasty. Upon listening, however, it's clear their particular type of indie pop is anything but a stunt; the Detroit duo of Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott co ... More >>

2011 Editions of Michelin and Zagat Are Out, Ready to Aid the Numerically Fixated

​It's quite a watershed week for numbers-obsessed diners: Zagat released its 2011 New York City survey today, and tomorrow, the Michelin Guide 2011 will be inflicted upon the public.