Danny Brown has always been one of the most innovative and genre-bending rappers since the day he arrived on the scene, bringing hip-hop to avant-garde territories that had never been explored or even thought about. Even if he were to retire today, he would go down in history as one of the most imaginative and pioneering rappers of all time. Yet he keeps finding more and more new ways of surprising his fans (and detractors), with his recent performance at The Bellwether on November 26, 2025 being absolute concrete proof that he has no plans of slowing down this innovation anytime soon.
Rather than having other rappers or hip-hop DJs open, Danny Brown made the genius and risky choice of recruiting recent hyperpop collaborators femtanyl and underscores. The Bellwether could not have been a more suitable venue for this experimental hodge podge of a lineup with its futuristic club-like atmosphere, especially considering how the entire night felt like experiencing a performance straight from outer space in the visual setting, but more importantly in the hyper-electronic music that filled the venue all night.
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One of the first things that one would notice upon entering The Bellweather that night is that this was NOT a hip-hop crowd, at all. And I can’t stress that enough. The venue was filled with ravers sporting LED gloves and furry tails, and the openers femtanyl and underscores were arguably the main draw of the night over Danny Brown for many there. While most headliners, especially rappers, would have way too massive of an ego to allow the spotlight to be put anywhere else; this was a genius move on Danny’s part, as he was reaching a new audience who may not have been as familiar with his work before. Also, this crowd was there to dance. With Danny’s history of playing shows with hardcore punk and electronic artists, he wants the audience to be as hype as possible during his set which isn’t always possible with the stoner nature of hip-hop audiences.
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In fact, many of these new audience members might have never attended a hip-hop show in their life if it weren’t for this thoughtfully curated lineup. When bills are constructed this way with hype openers catering to a younger audience, there’s often the fear that many in attendance will walk out before the headliner starts. Danny Brown’s reputation for incorporating the avant-garde and experimental elements of electronic music into his music speaks for itself, and even those who weren’t there to see him specifically were curious about what he would bring to the stage.
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Kicking off the evening was femtanyl, one of the most promising and hyperactive hyperpop artists right now. While sounding completely original with their incorporations of house music and drum n bass, femtanyl’s high-speed rapid chaotic energy resembles 100 Gecs on methamphetamine and their crowd was just as rowdy as you could expect with that description. With their first song premiering in 2023 and not yet having any full albums out yet, their set was incredibly short clocking in under 30 minutes. The fans were aware of this however, and knew that they had to go extra wild to make up for this short time-frame. It really felt like a punk or hardcore set with how short and how feverous the crowd was for them.
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Hyperpop is a genre that is constantly transforming with the stars of the scene constantly being switched out like a revolving door. femtanyl’s unique blend of electronic sounds and ability to command a crowd into such a riotous energy are signs that they are here to stick around in the scene for a while, but the versatility of their madness gives them the freedom to experiment with any genre they want to. Their debut album is about to be absolutely insane whenever it comes out.
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Underscores was next, bringing a bit more of a pop-star sort of energy than the punk rock chaos of femtanyl. However, the sassy rebellion of her set had the audience jumping everywhere in the same rowdy manner. It was remarkable how effortlessly she acted as a puppet master dictating the waves of movement throughout The Bellwether. The amount of genres and sounds that she incorporates into her music is wild, jumping from emo vocals to melodic poppy choruses to upbeat house music breaks. She appears on Danny Brown’s newest album Stardust multiple times and Danny is clearly impressed with her ability to collect so many influences in her signature sound.
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Similar to femtanyl, she is a newer artist with little material so the set was also around 20 minutes. With the amount of energy felt between these two sets, you would have never guessed that the show had been less than an hour, so far. The night could have ended there with everybody satisfied, but Danny Brown was about to change up the energy completely and bring a theatrical showmanship to contrast with the rave-like experience we had experienced up to that point.
Before Danny Brown even hit the stage, a massive glowing cube could be seen changing colors as the DJ on stage played an ominous tone, really bringing the anticipation in the room to an all-time high. There are so many rappers that phone-in their live shows and just dance around while their songs play, but Danny Brown is built different. For the hyperpop fans in the room that were skeptical of seeing a hip-hop artist live, the giant cube told them everything that they needed to know; this would be a high-production, high-effort, high-intensity live show. It was as if the cube represented genres as a whole, and the desire to place artists into boxes. Danny Brown did head straight for the box as the audience roared and performed his opening track “Stardust” within the light cube. He performed mostly outside of the box for the rest of the set however; personifying how he will never allow himself to be confined or restrained into any one specific scene.
Danny Brown’s set did open with material entirely from his newest release Stardust to set a futuristic tone for the evening, but even his OG hip-hop fans are always curious about the next move he’s about to make. He’s created a legacy with his discography where fans are just as excited about the new material as they are for the classics, because they know every experiment he makes becomes a classic inevitably anyways.
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It didn’t take long for him to jump into an explosion of classic hits though, starting with the XXX mixtape songs “Lie4” and “I Will”. While the entire mixtape is one of my favorite hip-hop releases of all time, I don’t think he could have picked much better choices to represent the rebellious attitude of that era. “Lie4” is an absolute party anthem about going out bar-hopping with your mates and getting into fights (clearly written before Danny went sober); and “I Will” is one of the most explicit songs ever, the lyrics being entirely about cunninglingus written in the most shocking and comedic tone you could imagine. It really felt like 2012 again with how hyped up the crowd was for these songs, and how loudly the Day 1 fans were rapping along to every word.
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The XXX fan-favorite tracks were a blast from the past, but he piled onto the nostalgia even further entering the era of his album Old, the first release where he really deeply started experimenting with more electronic rave-influenced sounds. While the trends at the time where based more around mainstream dubstep than the hyperpop influence we see today, the songs still hold up just as well as they did in 2013 with the back-to-back combo of “Smokin and Drinkin” into “Dip” getting the mosh-pits started at any show he plays. Even as Danny Brown reinvents himself as an artist with each album and clearly wanted this tour to be focused around Stardust, he did an incredible job at skimming his back catalog for the fan-favorites that would best suit his newest era.
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After performing the fan-favorites “Ain’t It Funny” and “SCARING THE HOES”, Danny Brown returned to Stardust in a such a smooth manner that even the old-heads in the room were excited to see some of the newer material live after the back-to-back bangers they just witnessed. One of the most brilliant aspects of choosing the hyperpop openers that he did is that both of them appear on multiple tracks on Stardust, allowing him to hype up the newer fans that may have been burnt out on his more hip-hop sounding material. His chemistry with both femtanyl and underscores on stage was so natural that I wouldn’t be surprised if his next album is entirely hyperpop, dropping hip-hop entirely. At this point I believe all of his fans would have complete trust in him to do so, as he has yet to let anybody down with his innovation so far.
Danny Brown made the incredibly artistic choice of ending the evening with the intro track of his newest album, “Book Of Daniel”. On paper, it seems odd to close a concert with an intro song but “Book Of Daniel” is one of the most vulnerable songs he’s ever written; it almost acts as a complete autobiography of his life, career, addictions, views on art, and hopes for the future. He performed this last song kneeling at the very front of the stage and facing the crowd directly, feeling as if he was talking to all of us directly as he poured his heart out. This sort of intimacy is not common at your average hip-hop show, and it should be clear by now that Danny Brown is not your average hip-hop artist. Everything about this last song felt like a grand finale to this massive performance of him showing everybody Danny Brown as a human being rather than Danny Brown as a persona. There was no encore but with how impactful this last song was on everybody in attendance, there didn’t need to be one.
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Danny Brown’s night at The Bellwether was not only a showcase of how experimental and forward-thinking his newest album Stardust is, but it was a statement about how he has always been this avant-garde and “out there” as an artist. femtanyl and underscores are both artists that Danny has shouted out on his podcast multiple times, but the chemistry he has with both of them comes from a genuine love for the scene that they come from. No matter what, Danny Brown is going to keep surprising us and finding new ways to transform his sound into something we’ve never heard before.
Between this Stardust Tour’s openers and his recent tour with Knocked Loose, it’s clear he’s looking outside of hip-hop for the vulnerable influence he’s incorporating into his music. Danny Brown may not need hip-hop moving forward, but hip-hop certainly needs Danny Brown if it’s going to have a future.
Words by Danny Ryan
Photos by Kili Ku’uwehilani and Danny Ryan
