Danny Brown: All Grown Up

Danny Brown released a new album less than a month ago, but you wouldn’t have known it from his knockout performance at Emo’s last night.

Logic dictated the Detroit native blast out of the gate with a banger off his newest release to get the audience acclimated to the new tracks live. Instead, the 35-year-old MC eschewed headliner etiquette during his hour-long set. Anyway, fourth LP Atrocity Exhibition lacks conventional hits capable of igniting a sleepy Sunday night.

Sure, the hell-fire horns of “Ain’t it Funny” and tribal percussion samples on “Dance in the Water” explode with manic energy. For the most part, however, Brown’s uncompromising account of his tailspin into depravity comes powered by acid rock instrumentals and chilling auxiliary sonic textures. What’s a rapper to do, then?

Locally, the solution was to start from the bottom. Flanked by DJ Skywlkr and a hype man, the gangly, leather-clad main attraction opened the set with eight consecutive tracks off his critically acclaimed, highly autobiographical sophomore album, 2011’s XXX, barely pausing to catch a breath between each song. He predicted his own demise on “Die Like a Rockstar,” chronicled his copious drug use on “Blunt After Blunt,” and boasted in excruciating detail about his cunnilingual abilities on “I Will,” flashing the sign of the horns and sticking his tongue out through a devilish, gap-toothed grin.

“Austin, Texas! What the fuck is up in this motherfucker?” he finally asked six songs in, and then, in his brattiest, most nasally whine, “My name is Daaannniiieeelll!”

If the first act of Brown’s performance geared toward diehards, then act two catered to a demographic that’s catapulted him from the mean streets of Motown to festival stages around the world: white teens and twentysomethings with a taste for EDM-tinged drinking anthems. The uniformly pasty audience raged to “Smokin & Drinkin” and “Dip” off 2013’s Old, which bowed at No. 18 on the Billboard 200. Brown upped the energy accordingly, doing the Monkey dance – as in the Sixties fad – and jogging across the stage to the tune of explosive synths and eardrum-rattling bass drops.

In the hands of a lesser entertainer, Old tracks might appear a regression, pandering to the lowest common denominator getting blasted in frat houses across the nation. Yet even at their most deceptively catchy, Brown’s songs offer harrowing accounts of his own depression, anxiety, and addiction. He stood front-and-centerstage for the somber, contemplative one-two punch of “25 Bucks” and “Float On,” rapping plaintively on the verses and letting the pop hooks – courtesy of Purity Ring and Charli XCX, respectively – ring out in all their melancholic glory.

After flicking off two more stray singles (“Grown Up” and Rustie’s “Attak”) to satisfy diehards and newcomers alike, Brown only unveiled cuts from Atrocity Exhibition at the very last, beginning with the Kendrick Lamar-assisted “Really Doe.” Fans in the throes of the mosh pit bounced dutifully to “When it Rain” and “Pneumonia,” as those in the back nodded politely or simply stared at the stage with glazed-over eyes.

Danny Brown would have benefited from sequencing the set according to theme or dynamic, rather than giving a strictly chronological career retrospective. Regardless, as the drug-dealer-turned-rap-star left the stage, houselights flickered on amidst a sea of groans from an audience that roared for an encore. The object of their affection chose to employ the golden rule of show business: Always leave them wanting more.

Emo’s set-list, 10.23.16

“Die Like a Rockstar”
“Lie4”
“I Will”
“Bruiser Brigade”
“Monopoly”
“Outer Space”
“Adderall Admiral”
“Blunt After Blunt”
“Side B (Dope Song)”
“Smokin & Drinkin”
“Break It (Go)”
“Handstand”
“Dip”
“25 Bucks”
“Float On”
“Grown Up”
“Attak”
“Really Doe”
“When it Rain”
“Dance in the Water”
“Pneumonia”