A Brief History of Danny Brown's Dance Music Collaborations

During his recent live shows, UK grime producer Darq E Freaker has been making sure to drop a track he has with Danny Brown entitled "Hand Stand" in his sets. When Danny Brown tweeted a clip of this track, he informed the world know that it was forthcoming on his Fool's Gold album Old, which is said to be released in October. This was also one of the first times since 2012 that we'd heard Danny on a proper, massive grime record. Danny's had a history of working outside of the normal, "traditional" confines of hip-hop music (which you could see as part of his progression with The Hybrid). He has a flair for experimentation, and is gifted enough on the mic to find the right pockets and flows to give a beat extra life.

Don't believe us? That's fine. Take a look at some of Danny Brown's dance music collaborations, even if it's just looking at his work from 2011 through today. Here is a brief history of Danny Brown's dance music work.

Back before Flosstradamus became the posterboyz for the trap scene, they were exploring the house and footwork scenes from their native Chicago on their 2011 EP Jubilation. While Danny's lyrics are over some banging beats, it's the warping of his "from the back" over that faster-paced footwork vibe that grabbed us instantly. Fun fact: Danny Brown's "rolled up the grass" ended up being the basis of Flosstradamus' "Rollup."

Many first caught wind of Danny's Bruiser Brigade crew with this SKYWLKR-produced XXX cut, which is as close of a nod to the UK grime scene as we've heard from any American MC in a while. Also proves that you don't need some huge drums to get the bring the intensity.

This could possibly be the best edition of Pitchfork's "Selector" series; some run-down building, Joker with his Purple WOW sound kicking loud and proud for Danny to hop on and kick some raunchy lyrics about getting "head for free?" Extra points for Joker's reactions to some of Danny's bars. Priceless.

In September of 2012, Danny Brown properly introduced us to his Bruiser Brigade crew, with a special EP released in conjunction with Scion A/V. While Ryan Hemsworth got remix duties on "Errthang," Lockah turned in his laidback bounce to "Jooky." In an interesting turn of events, the cat and dog edits on all of the curses add a quirky sensibility to this space-age bounce that Lockah applied to his riddim.

A-Trak knocking out a turnt up, EDM-influenced instrumental for Juicy J and Danny Brown to big up drugs to? It's pretty "trippy!," but also damn catchy. You also have to love that Juicy can ride the beat with his syrupy flow, then Danny gets on it and reps Fool's Gold with the grime-centric rhyme style.

We'd known about Danny's love of the UK grime sound for a while, but hearing this? It was literally like opening the wrapping on a box Christmas Day and getting the gift you'd been waiting for. And it being awesome. Danny's in the pocket on this one, from the turn up in his lyrics to the precision ad-lib game. Danny and Darq E: a match made in grime heaven.

While Danny doesn't spit over anything in this video, this is the third part of his "Back & Forth" conversation with Mike Skinner, where he talks about buying Dizzee Rascal's Boy in da Corner (which turned 10 years old earlier this year) and playing it for the first time, and how he then got into more grime. He even mentions how he was tryin to make a grime track with "Bruiser Brigade." Also some thoughts on how UK MC's rapping double-time is a big part of what sets them apart, especially over these beats.

In August of 2012, Bromance released the Evil Nine/Danny Brown Black Brad Pitt EP. If the original wasn't intense enough, Gesaffelstein (who worked on tracks like "Send It Up" on Yeezus) went in and added some color to the low-end, as well as a number of added blips, bleeps, and high-pitched tones. Enough to rock to but still realize that some other shit is afoot.

And it's one thing to hear Danny on stuff that's influenced by the UK bass music scene, but linking up with The Bug on a true, weighty instrumental? There's been some talk about who ripped this riddim better, Flowdan or Danny. They killed it in their respective styles, but we have a feeling American crews who want to hear Danny massacre these bass-heavy bangers will vote for "Freakshow" over "Dirty."

We'd heard that Darq E Freaker had some beats on Danny's forthcoming album Old, and have been anxiously waiting for a clip like this to hit the 'Net. After threatening to leak Old in August of 2013 (which is interesting, since the album was rumored to be released in August), the album's rumored to be released in October. The clip for "Hand Stand," which finds Danny spitting some raunchy lyrics for ratchet females over an instrumental that Darq E has been spinning for the better part of 2013, is ripped from a recent Boiler Room set of Darq E's. It's a huge tease, but proves what we already knew: Danny's just as amazing when he's spitting over dance music-flavored beats as when he is ripping over more traditional hip-hop beats. We'll still be waiting for a Danny Brown / Darq E Freaker collaborative EP at some point.