Music
Can hyperpop star Rico Nasty outshine underground rap legend Danny Brown?
Journalists analyze which of these two distinct hip-hop talents will win over the Chicago crowd at the final Red Bull SoundClash.
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Rico Nasty and Danny Brown will be battling on stage in Chicago for Red Bull SoundClash on Dec. 15—and who will win?
Danny is a veteran in the rap game. As the leader of Detroit collective Bruiser Brigade, the 40-year-old internet, underground rapper has a bit of an edge on Rico, if only because of his experience. He’s won the respect of established hip-hop pioneers like Q-Tip and Kendrick Lamar, and younger artists, like JPEG Mafia and Earl Sweatshirt. A well-rounded and heartfelt lyricist, Danny’s career has had a solid trajectory since releasing his debut album The Hybrid in 2010, and his critically-acclaimed 2011 offering XXX. He’s now taken on the role of an elder statesman through his Bruiser Brigade label, and by mentoring young artists and supporting his community.
Rico, conversely, is a newcomer who has proven she has range and isn’t one to be pigeonholed. Her fans have grown with her since the age of 17, when she dropped Summer’s Eve, and as she developed her Sugar Trap sound. Now, she’s become something of a hyper-pop sensation, who lives on the cusp of the Gen Z crowd and Millennials. Her expansive palette caters to both groups and continues to expand as she gets older, her music a united front for those who stray from the norm. She’s a true chameleon in terms of genre, melding rap, pop, metal, punk, grime, and more together.
Journalists and hip-hop aficionados Tara Chandra Mahadevan and Leor Galil take up the case. Check out their conversation below, where Tara argues for Rico Nasty and Leor, for Danny Brown.
Danny Brown
© Pooneh Ghana
Tara: I feel like Rico would win the crowd over because of her versatility. She has the ability to sway her audience with her pop, punk ballads and hype them up with her mosh-rap anthems—all that sort of brazen, audacious energy.
Leor: Totally. I think Danny can meet Rico as far as that amped up energy. In the early 2010's, when he was working with some more dance-oriented producers who really kind of throttled listeners with synth and basslines—he figured out how to make his cartoonish voice even more aggressive and loud. So he wasn't getting drowned out by the noise and also gave it a little bit of flavor. And I think that both, he and Rico have that in common.
Tara: Now that you're talking more about his background, I do see where their sounds overlap. Rico, we know her for that electrifying screamo rap, but even more recently she’s dropped new songs from her next album, RX. The song “Magic,” in particular, is very sweet. I saw a video of her sitting on a stool and singing into the mic—that's just not the Rico I’m used to. I know her as this nu-metal princess, but it seems as of late that she's really leaning into that pop element that we've seen in her music—just really honing in on that.
Leor: She's got a real sweetness in some of her pop songwriting, which I think Danny doesn't quite have. He knows how to be vulnerable. He knows how to open himself up and let listeners in in a way that the best sweet pop songs can. Rico—that is one of her strengths. I think she has a great ability to cross over. Danny doesn't really have that interest whatsoever. He's more than happy to be in his own strange lane. I think that goes to his advantage too. If they’re playing to a crowd that is more pop-oriented, that wants a little bit of everything—I do think that is an area that Rico has an advantage. She's just got so much flavor and intensity. And I realize I'm arguing against myself.
Tara: Well to that point—in the spirit of arguing against ourselves—Danny's made an interesting segue into comedy. He opened for Hannibal Buress down in Texas.
Leor: He brought Hannibal out to the Bruiser Thanksgiving concert this year.
Tara: I love that alignment.
Rico Nasty
© Courtesy: Atlantic Records
Leor: There's a certain Midwest pride in that. I love the fact that Danny obviously reps Detroit pretty hard—and I say that as somebody who grew up in the same region as Rico.
Tara: Same. It's hard for me to really argue against somebody who's from the Midwest, being from St. Louis. But I picked my side.
Leor: I love both of them for those different things, which is why this is so challenging.
Tara: I know. They’re both just weird. I was watching Rico’s videos. Her aesthetic, how she dresses is just as elemental to her artistry as is her softness and her ability to be commanding. Even doing a deeper dive and looking at all the producers she's worked with—her versatility is endless. She maintains this sort of balance between her artistic personas.
Leor: She's figured out what it means to be a pop star.
Tara: On her own terms!
Leor: Yeah, which is amazing. Part of what I love about Danny is that he looks like he just rolled out of bed.
Tara: That’s a vibe.
Leor: I don’t want to say anti-pop star vibe, but you can tell where his concerns are.
Tara: He definitely doesn’t have the same concerns as Rico.
Leor: He’s less focused on the whole package in the same way Rico is. I don't think that's to his detriment necessarily. I think he’s still able to be himself outside of that world—be magnetic. But as far as visual aesthetics, it is kind of night and day between the two of them.
Tara: They are just both so themselves. I feel like they give all of themselves to their art, but the way it manifests is just so interesting. I feel like there’s no real facade. Everything feels very real. Now I realize we're not arguing against anything. But the winner is also contingent on who shows up to the show.
Leor: I think if it’s an older crowd, in their 30s and up, Danny Brown has that. I think he also captured—I hate to use this phrase—the alternative rap aesthetic in the 2010s. He was a figurehead to that too, and a figurehead as part of a crossover rapper among the indie subset in the way that Rico is starting to do now.
Tara: Rico’s young, 24. She started putting out music when she was 17. Charting that growth so early on—she’s changed so much. The Rico we heard at 17 isn’t Rico at 24. I keep coming back to her song “Magic”; in the cover art, she’s full-on glam. She’s an R&B singer.
Rico Nasty
© Courtesy: Atlantic Records
Leor: She’s got a good grasp on novelty. She sounds like she’s able to pioneer newer sounds while still maintaining her own perspective. She both has that shine of a brand-new artist and can still grab younger listeners.
Tara: Her aesthetic, her sound—nothing is played out. Nothing sounds untrue to herself. It seems like she is always who she is, whether she’s snarling on a record or she sounds like a cartoon character—almost like Danny. I feel like they both have mastered interesting flows over peculiar beats. And her work with Kenny Beats is particularly great. He called their joint project, Anger Management, a temper tantrum. She starts out super thrasher, screamo rap, typical Rico, and finishes out calm. I think Kenny’s production definitely pulls that out of her too; their energy is well-matched.
Leor: That kind of breadth is really fantastic if you’re able to pull that off, and she clearly does. What’s interesting about Danny recently is he’s honing his skills as a producer, both for the other Bruiser Brigade folks, and for himself. He leans a little bit more into grit and sample-based, soulful sounds that are really beautiful. The colorfulness of that is limited versus Rico, but there is such care and feeling that he can really make that feel as big as the world. That is what you want in a rapper—that is what you want in any artist, to feel like this is the only music that matters.
Tara: I feel like they both do that: they create their own worlds and welcome us in. It’ll be interesting to see which world the audience is more captivated by.
Leor: Right, which also makes me wonder when they’re going to collaborate.
Tara: Hey, that would be crazy.
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