{"id":8620,"date":"2025-11-16T21:42:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T02:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=8620"},"modified":"2025-11-16T21:42:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T02:42:59","slug":"album-review-danny-brown-stardust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/16\/album-review-danny-brown-stardust\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Danny Brown &#8211; Stardust"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hey, we got a Danny Brown project out this year.<\/p>\n<p>No, this isn&#8217;t the much anticipated <em>Scaring the Hoes, Pt. 2 <\/em>but this is something that we&#8217;ve been speculating about Danny&#8217;s recent music output. You see after the release of both <em>Scaring the Hoes<\/em> and <em>Quaranta<\/em>, Danny&#8217;s been collaborating with a bunch of artists in the alternative pop\/hyperpop\/electronic\/digicore scene like Alice Longyu Gao, Frost Children, Jane Remover, 8485, and Femtanyl &#8212; some of which helped produce this album.<\/p>\n<p>He also stated that he wanted to make this the &#8220;most different music he ever did&#8221; and shock people. Looking back at his past albums, I see his point. Not to mention, it&#8217;s his first album he&#8217;s done fully sober as he also wants to disprove the idea that once you&#8217;ve sober, your music quality declines. I&#8217;m just gonna say this: whether the music quality declines or not, I&#8217;m glad he&#8217;s doing better with being sober.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the singles released, &#8220;Starburst&#8221; and &#8220;Copycats,&#8221; illustrate that this is going to some different territory than usual and knowing Danny Brown, I expected things to be somewhat different. So what did I get out of <em>Stardust?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CAzmJ99gbGg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, I got a different experience listening to this Danny Brown album. Is it an instant favorite? Not really. Did I enjoy my time with it? Yes.<\/p>\n<p>Notice how I said it&#8217;s not an\u00a0<em>instant<\/em> favorite but as usual, I gave it some more listens, and when it hits&#8230; well, you know the rest. For one thing, this is Danny Brown we&#8217;re talking about &#8212; this is <em>not<\/em> going to be your average hip-hop record or at least your average fusion-rap type of album. As previously mentioned, he actually has producers from the hyperpop world to provide beats for him, and each of them has a unique sound. For starters, &#8220;The Book of Daniel&#8221; has this guitar-laden beat coming from Quadeca &#8211; who began his career as a YouTuber around 2012 and moved on to music around 2015 &#8211; and we got some nice bars coming from Danny:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37525874\/Danny-brown-and-quadeca-book-of-daniel\/Before-they-chisel-the-last-four-numbers-on-my-tombstone-know-i-left-so-many-sons-behind-could-fill-a-group-home-inspired-your-favorite-so-label-me-the-greatest-this-road-was-filled-with-potholes-til-i-came-through-and-paved-it\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">Before they chisel the last four numbers on my tombstone<br \/>\nKnow I left so many sons behind, could fill a group home<br \/>\nInspired your favorite, so label me the greatest<br \/>\nThis road was filled with potholes &#8217;til I came through and paved it<\/span><\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37529536\/Danny-brown-and-quadeca-book-of-daniel\/Made-it-out-a-city-where-most-just-give-up\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">Made it out a city where most just give up<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nDownplay the hard work and say it&#8217;s just good luck<br \/>\nUsed to write rhymes &#8217;til I start to tear up<br \/>\nLost a couple punchline &#8217;cause the ink smeared up<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37511165\/Danny-brown-and-quadeca-book-of-daniel\/Now-i-made-it-past-a-decade-who-the-top-dot-and-thebe-and-thats-me-the-big-three-dont-give-a-fuck-what-they-say\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">Now I made it past a decade, who the top? Dot and Thebe<br \/>\nAnd that&#8217;s m\u0435, the big three, don&#8217;t give a fuck what they say<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Actually, he has good references in &#8220;1999&#8221;&#8230;.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Bitch, this Big Bruiser, we like\u00a0<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37535927\/Danny-brown-and-johnnascus-1999\/Yakuza-kuza\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">Yakuza (\u2018Kuza),<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and this ain&#8217;t what you used to<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37515861\/Danny-brown-and-johnnascus-1999\/My-bitch-be-thick-like-mewtwo\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">My bitch be thick like Mewtwo<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37513493\/Danny-brown-and-johnnascus-1999\/On-everyone-phone-like-u2\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">on everyone phone like U2<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(Style)<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37515363\/Danny-brown-and-johnnascus-1999\/I-pull-up-wit-that-doot-doot-then-start-a-riot-like-zoot-suit-doot-doot\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">I pull up wit\u2019 that doot-doot then start a riot like Zoot Suit (Doot-doot)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37513574\/Danny-brown-and-johnnascus-1999\/Heard-it-all-before-aint-no-sunshine-like-anderson\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">(Heard it all before) Ain&#8217;t no sunshine like Anderson<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;Along with this skeletal digital Y2K abrasiveness courtesy of JOHNNASCUS. &#8220;Flowers&#8221; has the sound of an ongoing rave, and it works with Danny&#8217;s lyrics and additional vocals from 8485. Then in comes &#8220;Lift You Up&#8221; with that glam club vibe and such a danceable beat\/groove to it. One of the reoccurring producers on here is Holly, a Portuguese DJ and music producer who once helped co-produce Baauer&#8217;s 2020 album <em>Planet&#8217;s Mad.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Green Light&#8221; has this lullaby-esque production with a punk vibe coming from Lulu Prost of the duo Frost Children (the other half being Angel Prost aka Angel Emoji, who was doing bits of poetry at the end of some tracks earlier), and I didn&#8217;t click with it at first but with further listens I was vibing with it. Then in comes &#8220;What You See&#8221; with Quadeca returning in both production and vocals; in this one, Danny gets into some introspective bars with his flow being more the normal-voiced Danny. As I mentioned before, this is his first album done completely sober, so you see what he&#8217;s going through.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LmO4w_V1yCA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37515727\/Danny-brown-and-quadeca-what-you-see\/Snoop-dogg-said-they-all-hoes-and-tricks-was-just-a-teenager-only-thinking-with-my-dick-got-my-heart-broke-once-and-havent-recovered-since-after-that-i-said-that-i-would-never-be-faithful-again-uh-uh\" rel=\"noopener\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">Snoop Dogg said they all hoes and tricks<br \/>\nWas just a teenager only thinking with my dick<br \/>\nGot my heart broke once and haven&#8217;t recovered since<br \/>\nAfter that, I said that I would never be faithful again (Uh-uh)<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nUsed to, fuck &#8217;em and leave &#8217;em, why would they believe &#8217;em? (Nah)<br \/>\nWould say anything to get my face up in their cleavage (Uh-huh)<br \/>\nA hit dog holler, so I was at your daughter&#8217;s<br \/>\nDoing anything I can just to try to get their bra off<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37515769\/Danny-brown-and-quadeca-what-you-see\/Im-sorry-ms-jackson-sorry-just-wanted-satisfaction-yeah\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">I&#8217;m sorry Ms. Jackson (Sorry), just wanted satisfaction (Yeah)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Self-sabotage, I thought it was a mirage, uh<br \/>\nPlayer for life, but it was all a facade (Facade)<br \/>\nHow could you love someone that don&#8217;t even love theyself? (How?)<br \/>\nCopin&#8217; mechanism with drugs, thought it would help (Hey)<br \/>\nBut you never gave up (How?), how did you put up? (Uh)<br \/>\nWith all the lies I was livin&#8217;, how could you even trust?<br \/>\nI was stuck, down and out, now see what love is about<br \/>\nNursed all my hurt, now them rainy days is a drought<br \/>\nBehind every good man, yeah, you know the rest (Uh-huh)<br \/>\nWhen I was doing bad, the right one couldn&#8217;t accept<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I can&#8217;t say I was vibing with &#8220;baby&#8221; as much; it&#8217;s not a bad track but I&#8217;m kinda not feeling it as much listening to it. That&#8217;s not the case for &#8220;Whatever The Case&#8221; with ISSBROKIE, as this is just as chaotic and extravagant as I imagined it would be, and ISSBROKIE&#8217;s verse did caught my eye. &#8220;1L0v3myL1f3!&#8221; has Danny collaborating with femtanyl, and it is monstrous in its sounds, especially with the beat drop and how the chorus kicks in.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37568101\/Danny-brown-and-issbrokie-whatever-the-case\/Yall-get-plays-from-a-bot-just-so-you-can-get-guap-like-ugh\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">Y&#8217;all get plays from a bot just so you can get guap like (Ugh)<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nBitch, you disgust me<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37514908\/Danny-brown-and-issbrokie-whatever-the-case\/How-come-its-politics-whenever-oldheads-discuss-me-uh\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">How come it&#8217;s politics whenever oldheads discuss me? Uh<\/span><\/a><br \/>\nY&#8217;all rappers can&#8217;t touch me<br \/>\nHow you gon&#8217; comment some hater shit, still tryna fuck me? Uh<br \/>\nFor real, it&#8217;s so ugly<br \/>\nI do this shit for the art, it just come with the money, uh<br \/>\nThese hoes wanna suck me<br \/>\n<a class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__ClickTarget-sc-96c7f1dd-0 ikOoaS\" href=\"https:\/\/genius.com\/37515879\/Danny-brown-and-issbrokie-whatever-the-case\/I-put-a-stake-through-they-neck-now-im-lookin-like-buffy-uh-what\" data-ignore-on-click-outside=\"true\"><span class=\"ReferentFragment-desktop__Highlight-sc-96c7f1dd-1 cJztnY\">I put a stake through they neck, now I&#8217;m lookin&#8217; like Buffy, uh (What?)<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We slow things down a bit with &#8220;Right from Wrong&#8221; with NNAMD\u00cf, and while that was solid, the penultimate track &#8220;The End&#8221; ended up being my favorite of the album &#8212; the drum &#8216;n bass section that features vocals from Polish-Ukranian artist Ta Ukrainka in the first part, the 2nd part produced by Cynthon going faster along with Danny getting faster and hearing higher-pitched vocals from Australian rapper Zheani, and of course the 3rd part is spoken word from Angel Emoji. Also, the song&#8217;s about Danny reflecting on his life pre-rehab aka all the drugged out days of his past.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, &#8220;All4U&#8221; closes it out with production and background vocals from Jane Remover as a meditation on his career so far and giving it an euphoric feel as well.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FweQc5g2030?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>All-in-all,\u00a0<em>Stardust<\/em> is another Danny Brown album that feels different than the last one, and it shows from the production from various hyperpop artists (a majority of them being LGBTQ as well) and the subject matter does go from him making it through rehab to thinking about his past and how he&#8217;s not dead. Hell, looking back at his past stuff like <em>Atrocity Exhibition<\/em> and even his appearance on\u00a0<em>Hot Ones<\/em>&#8230; yeah, he&#8217;s still being his natural funny self but I&#8217;m more glad that he&#8217;s still with us and has gotten better. Also, yes, this does disprove that just because you&#8217;re on rehab, doesn&#8217;t mean the quality of the music will go down.<\/p>\n\n<p><em><strong>FINAL VERDICT:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong><em>Stream first then decide to buy it or not. <\/em><\/strong>Look, I don&#8217;t always want to say &#8216;buy it&#8217; every time. It gets boring for a while but yeah, you might not love it at first but you might change your opinion. Oh and\u00a0<em>the stardust will lead you to bigger and brighter skies.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>STARDUST is on Warp Records and right now available on digital download and streaming services. Pre-orders for CD and vinyl are <a href=\"https:\/\/dannybrown.warp.net\/release\/535982-danny-brown-stardust?lang=en_US\">right here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hey, we got a Danny Brown project out this year. No, this isn&#8217;t the much anticipated Scaring the Hoes, Pt. 2 but this \n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/16\/album-review-danny-brown-stardust\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"yes","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"MusicRecording","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[1066,631,1780,302,293,1803,1802,1705],"class_list":["post-8620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-album","tag-album-review","tag-alternative-hip-hop","tag-danny-brown","tag-electronic","tag-hyperpop","tag-stardust","tag-warp-records"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/https___images.genius.com_ffce041a5bdcb0e81e86795f80c2a66b.1000x1000x1.png?fit=430%2C430&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-2f2","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8620"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8629,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8620\/revisions\/8629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}