Danny Brown has developed into something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde character; the persona that receives the attention nowadays is the maniacally-laughing party monster whose GIFs already span far across the internet. On the other side of the coin is the “old‰” Danny Brown: the smooth-voiced soothsayer from Detroit who released The Hybrid in 2010. Old attempts to fuse these musical identities into a comprehensive portrait of the artist… and it succeeds marvelously.

“Side A (Old)‰” marks the first half of the album as the return to Danny Brown‰’s origins in gangster rap. “They want that old Danny Brown, to bag up and sell a whole pound. Might have to go and get my braids back, matter of fact, go and bring them AKs back,‰” he says in the chorus. Old Danny Brown remains our narrator for this first handful of songs.

“Gunshots outside was sorta like fireworks. We know they ain‰’t fireworks, it‰’s December 21st,‰” he raps on “Torture‰” where he offers a glimpse of his youth in Detroit. The loss of innocence is also a theme in “Gremlins‰” which is about a boy who falls into the usual set of reckless games.

The bass really kicks in around “Side B (Dope Song)‰” which begins with a Zelda-esque fanfare. The party rages through “Dip,‰” which is either a celebration or a cry of help (though it‰’s probably both). Check out the music video for “Dip‰” below, but beware of strobe effects:

In Old, Danny Brown manages to appease his two different fan bases through unifying his styles. The amount of personal content within the lyrics also ties the record together and adds a layer of intimacy to the listening experience.

The line: “pray I get old just to hear I been the future, just to see my influence in this genre of music,‰” from “Float On,‰” shows that Brown‰’s ambitions for his work are lofty. However, if this masterpiece is any indication of his artistic insight moving forward, he might be closer to his goal than he thinks.