Danny Brown LIVE at the o2 Ritz: Stardust Shines in Manchester

Words: Gethin Marshall

Photography: Gethin Marshall

A flying body connects with my left shoulder, catching it against the thronging forms in front of me. Crunch.

Previous readers may have picked up on the fact that I dislocated this shoulder less than two

months before this moment, only two days before seeing Machine Girl perform at this very

venue. As it was, the sling on my arm had prevented me from joining the pit at that show, but by now I was under the impression that my strength would have returned enough to take that risk. There’s no immediate pain, but adrenaline is a strange thing so it’ll be a while until I

know for sure. Anyway, there’s no time to worry or check myself as another stray elbow arcs

towards me. I glance up to the stage, where the shadowy figure of Danny Brown is easily

matching the fervent intensity of the crowd around me. After half a second of respite, the bass returns and vibrates through the sprung floor of the o2 Ritz.

Danny Brown, coming off the release of his sixth studio album, Stardust, last November, is 45 years old, three years sober and in the best shape of his life. Nearly a decade on from the

brilliant, experimental and dark Atrocity Exhibition, Brown has made a pivot towards a much

more electronic, hyperpop-influenced sound, with a whole host of features from prominent

artists in the underground EDM scene, with Jane Remover, underscores and Quadeca to name just a few. For Brown, a rapper who originates in the much more traditional roots of hip hop, to welcome the talents of so many LGBT- and specifically transgender- artists and producers is a bright sign for the music of the future.

You can’t force a moshpit. Really, it’s something that has to develop naturally, the rhythm and

energy of the crowd dictating what happens next. That’s a fact that a couple of people behind

me in the crowd quickly discovered; as Brown walked out onto the stage, an area was opened up in the crowd, but without a heavy drop in sight on the opening track, the two who started it were left in sheepish limbo. This came after the brilliantly creative opening DJ set by Holly, the multi-talented Portuguese producer with multiple credits on Stardust, though even his mastery of mashup was unable to generate a whole lot of movement in the audience.

Thankfully, by now the pit has truly formed around me, the heat rising sharply in the

building as Brown moves through his extensive catalogue of hard hitters. My worries about the crowd have vanished, and the rapid lightshow is only upping the ante. The back lighting leaves Brown’s face in shadow, in a way very reminiscent of Stardust’s album cover. This is almost certainly a meticulous artistic choice, and will most likely be a running feature as his tour runs through Leeds, Glasgow, and Dublin, and then back to the US in April.

Finally, as the short but intense show winds down, the music slows and Brown begins to

communicate directly with the still adrenaline-filled audience. The speech, a reflection on his

sobriety and flowering growth over the past few years, is inspirational and motivational even to a rabid crowd that has just spent the last hour pummelling one another. Danny Brown is, and always has been, at the forefront of experimental music, and it’s clear that now with him in the best place, both physically and mentally, of his life, there is a whole lot to look forward to in the future.