Despite having a relatively quiet and reserved year for his own solo music in 2021, Danny Brown was busy as could be silently building one of the dopest collectives the hip hop world has seen since people started to catch onto the Griselda wave in 2017-2018.
The first two signees to Bruiser Brigade arrived well before 2021. Frequent collaborator on Danny Brown’s “XXX” Dopehead, was the sole signee to the collective back in 2012 before the charismatic and chaos inducing Zelooperz was added to the roster in 2014 upon the release of his debut album, “HELP.” This seemed to be the roster for the majority of the 2010’s alongside producer SKYWLKR and Chip$ (who also had a feature on “XXX.”)
However, Danny brought this collective of his full circle and allowed it to truly reach full potential just last year. Danny enlisted some incredible talent with Bruiser Wolf the enigma, Fat Ray the bar smith, J.U.S the flow master, Quentin Ahmad the God who is another charismatic and unpredictable vocalist to add to the roster alongside Danny and Zelooperz. Alongside these great rappers, Danny snatched up some of the best producers walking around these days with Raphy the Loop Assassin, Dream Beach, and keeping SKYWLKR within the fold. These three created magic together to build lush and visionary soundscapes for these artists to spit poetry over.
Bruiser Brigade came out swinging with a calculated onslaught of music as soon as the 2021 gates opened with J.U.S’ Brigade debut “GOD GOKU JAY-Z,” A both parts elegant and aggressive mixtape filled with production from Raphy, the legendary Black Noi$e, and SKYWLKR. Danny Brown made guest appearances on every Bruiser artist’s albums that released this year and one of my favorite of his guest verses is on “GOD GOKU JAY-Z” on the track ‘Have Mercy.’ I learned that Brown and J.U.S. have had a relationship for quite some time now as J.U.S was the engineer on Brown’s 2016 magnum opus, “Atrocity Exhibition.” J.U.S has a low-key voice that is borderline monotone but he pulls it off perfectly in a similar vein to Boldy James and the late and great Guru of GangStar. My favorite thing about monotone rappers is that it is so easy to let the flow slip past you and miss bars but when you really dial in and realize how crazy the pockets and lyrics are, you are instantly sucked in. ‘Kash Doll Type Beat,’ on this album consists of an eerie loop provided by Raphy and Bruiser Wolf makes a short appearance that leaves the listener confused and intrigued on just who that man is… But all of our questions were soon answered just two months later with Bruiser Wolf’s earth shattering debut, “Dope Game Stupid.”
Before we got that Bruiser Wolf release though, Fat Ray had to come through and shake the game up. Less than a month since “GOD GOKU JAY-Z,” Ray unleashed his Brigade debut, “Santa Barbara.” We had a brief intro to Fat Ray on the J.U.S album as well on the title track which left me ready to hear more and that was the beauty of this time period, there was always more coming with no delay. For a long while this Fat Ray project was my favorite of the Bruiser Brigade releases because it is just so raw and Fat Ray seems to never run out of funny, hard, and interesting lines to throw down with his crushing delivery over the immaculate Raphy production that dominates the majority of the album. When I listened to this album for the first time, as soon as I heard the beat switch on ‘Flight Risk/Plea the 5th’ I was hooked. Alexa, play some gangster shit… “Okay. Now playing, ‘gangster shit.'” How has no one ever thought of going into a beat change like that? Regardless, I am glad it was these Bruiser Brigade boys that pulled it off. There are so many dope moments throughout this album it is hard to highlight only a few. ‘Old Faithful,’ with Bruiser Wolf is a groovy track with an infectious flow from Ray and some infectious horns looping gracefully across the drums and bassline. Bruiser Wolf skates across this beat as well and delivers some of his unique lyricism.:
“I be with blue faces like Papa Smurf, I was pushing boy and girl like child birth.”
Who thinks of that shit?!
Side note: I really love the unique Bruiser Brigade tags that they apply to all of these releases, the beeping that filters in and out at the beginning and end of tracks and the now iconic “Bruiser Brigade!” exclamation tag.
Fat Ray delves into raw Detroit infused bar rants throughout this entire project, casually tossing around mind bending flows and jaw dropping lines over some of the smoothest beats being made these days.
And just on schedule, about a month after Fat Ray’s album came the now highly anticipated release from Bruiser Wolf. All of these albums were released on Bandcamp on random weekdays with no warning or promotion which made it even more of an exciting time. They were all eventually added to streaming but I bought them because they were equally cheap and well worth the money, plus its good to support underground artists these days.
Bruiser Wolf released his Brigade debut “Dope Game Stupid,” in March and I believe it caught the most traction critically of any Brigade releases of last year. Bruiser Wolf has an interesting delivery. When I was first listening to him it was reminiscent of E-40 meets Griselda type of lyricism (Lots of talk about distributing cocaine) but then I realized it is unfair to compare this guy to anyone, he is truly unique. His delivery is off the wall and his references are deep and often hilarious. Even when he isn’t diving into old hip hop references or crooning about selling drugs and the dope game, his wordplay is outstanding and never misses a beat or punchline. ‘Freak Accident,’ is a great example of Wolf’s ability to string together punchlines and flows with his unique and off kilter delivery. The production on “Dope Game Stupid,” is done entirely by Raphy so, by March of last year, Raphy had already solidified himself as a top producer of the year. The title track off this album features a woozy out of tune guitar riff fitted over a wispy drum beat filled with hi hats. Bruiser Wolf floats over this beat and lays down a simple hook that proved to get stuck in my head for weeks.
“The dope game stupid, but the boy still do it!”
I think my absolute favorite track on this release is ‘OT For A Day,’ the beat is incredible and stayed stuck in my head and Bruiser Wolf rips this one apart, gliding across it with an animated flow that you can’t help but bob your head with.
“I got stripes like a zebra wearing Adidas, keep a scale like I’m a Libra, 5th on my hip ring like a beeper.”
If you haven’t checked out any of these Bruiser Brigade albums yet you are in for an incredible treat with this album alone. This never left my rotation the entire year even after some crazy drops came out in the summer and fall.
Bruiser Wolf also has an outstanding moment of introspection to close out the album with the track, ‘Mama Was a Dopefiend.’ He croons a solemn hook out over a sparse woodwind based beat and slowly ties rhymes together in his verses detailing growing up with his mother while she was on drugs and mental battle he has to struggle through because he is also selling the pain that she consumes.
The Brigade took the month of April off but for good reason. In May they unleashed an insane group album. This was easily one of the best days of my year last year because I was just getting into all three of these new Bruiser Brigade artists that had dropped in the first few months of the year and then they sprang a group effort, fitted with tons of appearances from Danny Brown and Zelooperz, and I was already a huge fan of both of them. This was a dream come true and I felt blessed by the Brigade.
“TV62,” is easily one of the best label/group collective albums that’s come out in recent memory. The production is heavily provided by Raphy again but there are some notable beat placements from J.U.S himself, Gulley, and Dream Beach. There are tons of highlights on this album. ‘Ask Hex,’ a solo Fat Ray track goes absolutely bezerk after the beat fully come in, Bruiser Wolf lays down some demonic and violent bars on ‘Everything,’ Danny Brown raps over one of the coolest beats of the entire year, consisting of strange flourishes of flute breaking through every few bars and a driving, anxiety-inducing drum beat, on the closing track, ‘The Ends,’ (produced by Playa Haze). There is also a really tough Zelooperz and Fat Ray collab on here with ‘Superhero.’
“Tv62,” is a very entertaining listen and all of the members of the Brigade bring something different to the table to mesh with the off the wall production and clashing attitudes and moods.
Zelooperz arrived in early July to deliver his longest and most diverse project yet with “Van Gogh’s Left Ear.” This got a lot of praise for the constantly varying production and his signature off the wall flow and pitch changing vocals on every other song. The craziest thing about Zelooperz is everything is authentic, his wailing shrieks on tracks like, ‘Battery,’ and ‘Bash Bandicoot,’ is a voice he is just as capable of creating as his deeper voiced croons on tracks like ‘Andrea Bocelli,’ and ‘Bluez.’ I witnessed this man perform his ass off live opening for JPEGMAFIA a few months after the release of this album and his energy and breath control are truly a sight to behold. Zelooperz is building an incredible discography currently with his past classics on top of “Van Gogh,” and the “GeT Wet Radio,” project he released earlier this year.
Zelooperz put frequent collaborators RXK Nephew and Quadie Diesel on an absolute slapper on this album titled “Paranormal Snaptivity,” with a contorting beat crafted by WhoTheHellisCarlo featuring all three rappers delivering unique and quotable verses. Zel twists and bends his flow to adapt to strange beats throughout the album like ‘Mechanic,’ an industrial and off time beat with random instruments diving through the gaps in the bass heavy track.
To put together the final piece of puzzle, Zelooperz created an incredible and fitting painting to be the cover for this album, depicting himself standing in front of Starry Night by Van Gogh with the infamous left ear chopped off.
The Brigade stayed quiet for a few months following this Zelooperz release but couldn’t bring in the end of the year without applying a few more bruises to this year that they had already beat to hell. Quentin Ahmad the God, who appeared on a the “TV62,” album a few times and had features sparsed throughout his other label mates projects earlier in the year was given his time to shine with his Bruiser debut in September titled, “N.O.A.H.”
I really enjoyed this album although I have probably revisited it the least out of the 2021 releases from the label. The track, ‘Bounties,’ on this album however, has one of the best beats that Raphy made all year and Quentin goes in over it. There is also a great track on here with Bruiser Wolf titled ‘Swamp Water.’
Quentin Ahmad has an aggressive delivery and a vocal tone that lies somewhere between J.U.S and Zelooperz. His flow is really great and his lyricism is often potent and full of aggression.
And just for one final kick at 2021 while it was down, the Brigade unleashed a second J.U.S album in December before the year came to a close. I actually enjoyed the December release, “GoFundMe Corvette,” even more than the earlier, “GOD GOKU JAY-Z.” There are some dope concept songs on here like ‘Fan Duel,’ in which J.U.S just lays out all the dope shit he could buy if his sports bets hit and makes big money. Also, my favorite J.U.S track so far is on this tape with the BMO assisted ‘Honestly,’ which had J.U.S rapping solemnly over a dreamy beat fittingly produced by Dream Beach himself. ‘Potholes,’ also has a jazzy beat courtesy of Raphy (who else?) and great verses from both Bruiser Wolf and J.U.S. This track sounds like these two are rapping to me as we ascend an elevator high up to a penthouse. Like they are just rapping over the best elevator music on earth.
Bruiser Brigade established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in just twelve short months after nearly a decade of being a loose collective, Danny Brown really took the steps to get all of his protégées in a big house and let the creativity roam. This is just one of the best methods of putting out great and inspired music, keeping yourself in that creative space and surrounded by creative people something great is bound to come from it and in Bruiser Brigade’s case, seven outstanding albums were the result. I’m eagerly anticipating their next run if it is anything as exciting and filled with great music as this last one was.
Peace to your Mental,
STEVE
The First Spin 