On Stardust, Danny Brown Goes Full Daria-Core

Graphic by Téa Sklar

I’d happily have my favorite artists make slightly weaker albums or never release new material if it means finding internal comfort. As much as suffering can lead to great art, listening to projects made out of severe distress can often be quite disheartening. Over a full album, the listening experience can tip from “LOL, this guy’s life sucks” to “Holy fuck dude… I sincerely hope you’re ok”.

For one such example, take Atrocity Exhibition by Danny Brown: a modern experimental classic which chronicles the rapper’s journey through horrific levels of drug abuse. While there is much enjoyment to be had getting lost in Brown’s squawking delivery, fun punchlines, and utterly nightmarish production, you hit a breaking point by your third-or-so listen of “Ain’t It Funny” where you just hope the narrator checks themselves into rehab. 

Thankfully for everyone involved, Danny Brown did so in 2023, and seeing his progression through sobriety and generally more at-ease demeanor across the last few years has been genuinely relieving. It also helps that music still utterly rules, with both his prior solo album Quaranta and delightfully stupid collab project Scaring the Hoes with JPEGMafia absolutely kicking ass.

In recent times, Danny Brown has become an enjoyable podcast figure / bastion of music culture, often utilizing his platforms to highlight up-and-coming artists, particularly in electronica and hyperpop. Like many online, I assumed Danny Brown was simply shouting out some of his favorite artists currently working to show that he “knows his shit”. 

I did not expect the result to be Stardust, a full-length studio album stuffed with  features from several rising hyperpop artists, including Femtanyl, Quadeca, Jane Remover, and underscores (the last two being among my favorite acts working today!)

Unsurprisingly, the project is wildly colorful, energetic, and heartfelt. Danny Brown’s wildly expressive vocal delivery is an absolutely wonderful compliment to his hyperpop producers, while also managing to be the consistent stabilizing presence that holds Stardust together. 

If you’re looking for bangers, this project has them in spades. The tracks with underscores are brilliant, as I would’ve imagined, with “Copycats” in particular being one of the best pop-rap songs of the entire year! “Flowers” with 8485 is an amazing slice of Charli XCX-circa Pop 2 esque club-ready dance-pop (aka the best era of Charli XCX.) I’m quite unfamiliar with the work of Frost Children, so while “Green Light” kinda sounds like a metalcore vocalist forced to do hyperpop, it is weirdly compelling. Finally, the Quadeca produced “Book of Daniel” and “What You See” are gorgeously operatic and probably contain Danny Brown’s most heartfelt lyricism without feeling oversold or melodramatic, which is odd because that’s a common complaint I have of Quadeca’s solo work and his features… go figure.

Unfortunately, there are moments across the tracklist where Danny Brown gets lost in his collaborator’s production style. A common stumbling point I’ve seen with collaboration projects is that the main artist sometimes gets relegated to being a guest on their own album, and I can’t say Stardust avoids such pitfalls. It doesn’t help that certain tracks forgo proper instrumental transitions between choruses and Brown’s verses or even fail to provide him a sufficient pocket to get comfortable within. 

This also puts some of the shakier production choices into question, where even with my concessions for hyperpop and their (let’s say) creative liberties taken with traditional mixing, there are moments where the compression and dynamic ranges can be distracting. 

Finally, this isn’t the most lyrically diverse or introspective work of Danny Brown’s career, which could leave those brought in with projects like Quaranta cold looking for more insightful commentary. At its best, the metatextual narrative of healing through music and community—reflected by the many guest features— is just enough to carry the project across the finish line thematically. 

As such, Stardust is best treated as a glorified mixtape, where you’ll find the best tracks that’ll enter your regular rotation, or at least find the song with your favorite collaborator and enjoy the novelty. To that extent, Danny Brown and his team of oddities delivers quite handsomely. Given his desire to uplift the newest generation of artists, I can get behind this project on those merits alone.