Danny Brown Releases "ODB" Video

posted in: Music News • Pop • Urban

There has been a growing distaste of mainstream hip-hop in recent months, with artists and fans alike complaining about the seemingly endless fascination and celebration of the party lifestyle. Be it talk of molly, throwing bands to make girls dance, or simply boasting about your possessions, it’s hard to look at the Billboard urban charts and find someone with anything original to say. That may soon change, however, and the world has Detroit native Danny Brown to thank.

Having built a reputation as one of the wildest lyricists in the game through his time on the mixtape circuit, Danny Brown spent the majority of the past year recording, inching his way towards becoming a household name. And 2013 has found Brown releasing a plethora of singles without making any available for download or purchase – almost unheard of in the modern music industry – but still his notoriety has continued to spread. Next month, his long-awaited debut album finally hits stores, and this morning, Brown kept anticipation high with the release of a new music video.

“ODB” is a typical Danny Brown track, which means for the unsuspecting hip-hop fan it might play a bit like a shock of high wattage electricity. Featuring a throwback hip-hop beat with thick and sinister-sounding synth lines adding melody, the track serves as a platform for Danny Brown to showcase his superb ability to manipulate language in ways not offered by other emcees in the game today. Even when the subject matter changes to the aforementioned well-worn territory of party life, Brown manages to make it feel new once more with original metaphors and seamless transitioning between topics.

For the “ODB” video, Brown partnered with producer Paul White to create a visual experience that matches the trippy-meets-surreal feel of Brown’s music. Danny appears in a dimly lit basement with a variety of blue, red, and green light layers applied in post rotating over the visuals. Mixed in with all of this is a series of video distortions, stretching and shrinking in the frame, and hand drawn scribbles that appear intermittently throughout the video. It’s a bit disorienting, but in the best possible way. You can view the clip below.

Danny Brown will release his new album, Old, on September 30.