Pitchfork

Over the past couple of years, Danny! has dropped his third album (2006's Charm, a rap opera inspired by the Miracles' 1975 LP City of Angels), been signed to Definitive Jux as part of a talent-search contest, and spent his time in the corner of the public eye, occasionally releasing intriguing scraps of music here and there-- like the self-released Danny Is Dead EP, from which this song originates. You might know the beat already, albeit in a more intact form; this is a Benihana job of Tribe's '98 classic "Find a Way" that preserves the hook and much of the original Ummah production's still-futuristic-sounding soul jazz vibe. Danny! doesn't have a voice as iconic as Tip's, but the fact that he's got a total everyman delivery makes this frustrated love song likeably low-key, and he's as reverential ("Now let's pause for the cause/ One love, my man Dilla...") as he is referential ("Teasin' me just like Janet did Q-Tip/ What the fuck, what is you stupid?").