(photo: Laura Studarus)
A decade after Atrocity Exhibition cemented Danny Brown as one of experimental rap’s most singular voices, the Detroit MC is finally taking the album on the road in full. Brown has announced four 10th anniversary shows where he’ll perform the 2016 album front-to-back for the first time, alongside limited edition reissues arriving this fall.
The shows will take place Nov. 7 at Catch One in Los Angeles, Nov. 13 at Outset in Chicago, Nov. 19 at Irving Plaza in New York and Dec. 3 at Mohawk in Austin, Tx. Tickets go on sale Thursday (Sept. 24) at 10 a.m. local time.
Released in 2016 as Brown’s first album for Warp Records, Atrocity Exhibition found the rapper pushing his already unorthodox style into even more disorienting territory. With longtime collaborator Paul White handling much of the production, alongside contributions from Evian Christ, Black Milk, the Alchemist and Petite Noir, Brown assembled an unsettling collage of chopped vocals, distorted riffs, electronic blips and industrial textures around his rapid-fire delivery. Kendrick Lamar, Earl Sweatshirt, Ab-Soul, B-Real and Kelela also appear.
SPIN’s original 2016 review called the album “a thrilling, harrowing ride,” describing Brown as an artist caught between “intense lows and overwhelming highs” and praising the record’s ability to balance gritty rap with avant-garde composition. Tracks including “Ain’t It Funny,” “Really Doe,” “When It Rain,” “Golddust,” “Get Hi” and “White Lines” helped make the album a left-field rap touchstone, with Brown’s humor and party instincts providing flashes of levity amid its darker explorations. “Ain’t It Funny” has also found a new audience on Brown’s recent Stardust tour, connecting the vintage album to the glitchy, genre-warping world of his latest music.
Original sleeve designer Ed Davis, formerly of Brain Dead, has created alternate artwork for the reissue. A limited 2LP color-vinyl edition will arrive in shiny silver mirriboard packaging with printed inner sleeves and an eight-page 12-inch booklet, while the CD comes in an eight-panel mirriboard card wallet and includes a bonus disc of previously unreleased instrumental versions of every track.
The instrumentals will also arrive on streaming services for the first time, with the instrumental version of “Ain’t It Funny” already available as a preview. The physical editions are one-time pressings and are due in record stores worldwide Nov. 13.