To celebrate his relatively newfound commercial success, Danny Brown will reissue his 2008 mixtape Hot Soup on April 15th, via Street Corner Music. Accompanying the reissue will be seven bonus tracks, one of which is this previously-unreleased version of "Contra," a song from The Daily Bread Mixtape, a 2011 release by Detroit DJs Apollo Brown and House Shoes. Stream it above.
This time around, fellow Detroit rapper Elzhi's verse is nowhere to be found, and is replaced by more lyrics from Danny Brown. Apollo Brown's production on "Contra" is off-kilter and retro, an early indicator of what Danny Brown would sound like rapping over similar beats by Black Milk on 2011's Black And Brown! EP. Brown's second verse contains a both the Konami code and a chilling tribute to Notorious B.I.G. that reminds us how much of his fame came after his death:
"Biggie been sniffing his own pixie dust
I think Biggie said that was rule number five
Never get high on your own supply
But he ain't never listened to Ready To Die
Or Life After Death..."
It's these type of "read-between-the-lines" references (talking about "Ten Crack Commandments" without actually saying it) that, along with the rest of his indisputably unique characteristics, were instrumental in getting Brown signed to Fool's Gold Records later on in 2011.
Preorder the Hot Soup reissue from Street Corner Records, and head over to Danny Brown's Zumic artist page for more of his music, videos and news.
