On his follow-up to 2023’s Quaranta, Danny Brown embraces his new status as hyperpop unc. Nearly every track on Stardust features a guest artist from the greater glitch orbit, among them Jane Remover, Underscores, sibling duo Frost Children, and internet rapper-turned-art-pop auteur Quadeca. It’s hardly a left turn for Brown, who was linking up with Charli XCX and Purity Ring before it was cool and signed to Warp for 2016’s Atrocity Exhibition. He’ll still make a meal of any beat that’s thrown his way—only now he’s backed up by an extended universe of collaborators who actually match his freak.
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Armand Hammer & The Alchemist: Mercy [Backwoodz Studioz]
The Alchemist makes beats that keep the kush smell on them no matter how much you shake them out, and when Armand Hammer hop on, the contact high is immediate. On Mercy, their latest collaboration, the artists pick up where they left off and pass you the blunt in the form of reclined basslines, dreamy piano runs, and the effortless storytelling of two of modern hip-hop’s best rappers. Elucid and billy woods trade verses sniping the quick rise of artificial intelligence, memorializing their neighborhoods, and trying to slow the roll of soul-crushing news. “What’s the role of a poet in times like these?” asks Elucid. Surrounded by collaborators Earl Sweatshirt, Cleo Reed, Quelle Chris, Pink Siifu, Silka, and others, Armand Hammer and the Alchemist do their best to find out.
