Danny Brown is one of those rappers who can be interesting in entirely different ways from track to track.

Whether pleasingly rabid on ‘Monopoly’, or riding the beat on ‘I Will’, Brown used XXX to flaunt his versatility. ‘Baseline’, one of three bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of XXX, sees him trying out a new kind of intonation, a sort of halting wait-where-am-I? approach to phrasing. Aside from the formal experimentation, he’s still as pithy as ever: “me on the beat, that’s a hate crime/ With black ink I murder white lines”

The instrumental doesn’t quite match up to the best moments on XXX, but it does benefit from a fascinating metallic shake-and-rattle that occasionally drifts to the front of the mix: Brown sounds a little like he’s spitting in chainmail. ‘Baseline’, as ever, shows Brown coming out swinging.

XXX: Deluxe Edition is available now via Fools Gold.

Joseph Morpurgo