"So after 10 yrs is it safe to say that #XXX is a classic?" Danny Brown asked his 464.2k followers on Twitter today. On the ten-year anniversary of his acclaimed second studio album, which arrived on the iconic A-Trak-led Fool's Gold indie record label on August 15, 2011, Danny Brown wants his flowers for XXX, and it's time to give them to him.
XXX housed monstrous tracks that showcased Danny Brown's immaculate lyrical capabilities, channeled the vocal and topical absurdity that artists like Young Thug have heavily leaned into, and painted a brutally honest portrait of the then-30-year-old Detroit rapper. A decade later, the landscape of Hip-Hop has completely changed, and still, XXX sounds as fresh and intriguing as ever.
Danny Brown's underground opus featured so many noteworthy tracks — "XXX," "Detroit187," and "I Will" to name a few — that it was hard to point to one song as the definitive cut of the album. As a result, on the ten-year anniversary of XXX, we revisit one of the album's sole tracks that was accompanied by a music video: "Monopoly."
From dissing his contemporaries for putting out rushed and half-baked projects to once again proving that he's one of the most creative and vicious songwriters in Hip-Hop, "Monopoly" is the brief reminder that you need to go back and revisit Danny Brown's certified classic sophomore album XXX.
Quotable Lyrics
The Hybrid, smoking on papaya
That give you niggas bronchitis, what you write is all vagina
What I write is Wall of China, nigga, that's great
Like eighths of Grape Apes gettin' stuffed in my suitcase
Ready to hit the studio and shit all on your mixtape
Nah, literally, shit all on your mixtape
Wipe with the credits, leave stains on the jewel case