Atrocity Exhibition is the fourth studio album by American rapper Danny Brown. It was released on September 27, 2016, by Fool's Gold Records and Warp Records. It is primarily produced by English producer Paul White, and features guest appearances from Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, Earl Sweatshirt, B-Real, Kelela, and Petite Noir.
Atrocity Exhibition was supported by three singles: "When It Rain", "Pneumonia", and "Really Doe". The album received widespread acclaim from critics, appearing on the year-end lists of many publications.
Artwork
The artwork for Atrocity Exhibition was created by Timothy Saccenti. It features a circuit bent image of Danny Brown, who appears to have his skin peeled to bone on his right side.
Release and promotion
On October 28, 2014, Danny Brown announced that he was working on a new album. On April 25, 2015, when asked if his album was done, Brown responded: "Almost, I took a break from it cause I'm so ahead of schedule with it knowing it ain't coming out no time soon."
On June 10, 2016, Brown revealed on his Instagram that he was "putting the final touches" on his fourth album. On June 14, Brown announced that he had signed a deal to Warp Records. On July 17, Brown stated that his new album would be titled Atrocity Exhibition, taking inspiration from both the Joy Division song of the same name and J. G. Ballard's novel of the same name. On August 16, Brown unveiled the album's track-listing and release date. On September 15, Brown was interviewed by NPR Music. He spoke on the creation process of the album and premiered a song, titled "Rolling Stone". On September 21, Brown debuted the track, called "Tell Me What I Don't Know" during his interview on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show. From September 14 to November 5, 2016, Brown embarked on The Exhibition 2016 Tour with special guests Maxo Kream and Zelooperz. On September 27, Brown released the album three days ahead of its schedule at 3:00 p.m. EST.
Singles
The album's lead single, "When It Rain", was released on June 14, 2016, alongside its music video. The song was produced by Paul White. The album's second single, "Pneumonia", was released on August 19, 2016, the song features background vocals from Schoolboy Q and production from Evian Christ. A music video for "Pneumonia" was released on October 13, 2016.
On September 19, 2016, Peter Rosenberg of New York City-based radio station Hot 97, premiered a new Danny Brown song, titled "Really Doe", after given permission from Brown. The track features vocals from Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt, with the production that was handled by Brown's longtime collaborator Black Milk. "Really Doe" was later released as the album's third and final single via digital distribution on September 20. In an interview, Brown revealed that Lamar was responsible for the creation of "Really Doe".
Critical reception
Atrocity Exhibition was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 85, based on 31 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.