Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap
Released: 25 June 2008
2008 Badenov Records/1911 Music


It's fitting that, on an album which mutates hip-hop in jokes into lush, solipsistic psychedelia, one of the first lines is a self-serving Def Jux diss. As a production showcase, And I Love H.E.R. may just be the diametric opposite of El-P's sound: fleet and uptempo drums where El-P's lumber murkily, samples pluming like silk here where El-P's stab, whine, and thud. That he casts such lofty contrasts, of course, is Danny Swain's entire intent. As often as his rhymes dip into melancholic self-doubt throughout the record, these starbursts of dusty violins and mariachi horns are the expression of an artist in complete control. Hence these manic flights of artistic whimsy: the Guitar Hero solo on "The Groove," the knowing, indulgent lifts from OutKast and A Tribe Called Quest on "I Want H.E.R. (She's So Heavy)," the audacious syncopation of "Do You." Spaced over 17 tracks and 70 minutes, it's a rich listen, demanding headphones but rewarding the investment. In this regard, it's a release that draws as much from post-millennial Chicago rap (probably the closest scene to which we might peg oddball South Carolinian Danny!) as it does Prince Paul's finest mid-'90s output.


01. Intro
02. Guess Who’s Back (feat. Naledge)
03. I Want H.E.R. (She’s So Heavy) (Feat. Brittany Bosco)
04. At What Price (feat. Maria)
05. Jet Set
06. The Groove
07. Not the One (feat. Kid Syc)
08. Misery (feat. Collette)
09. Intermission (interlude)
10. Wanderland
11. Where You Goin’ (feat. Maria)
12. Never Change (feat. Kid Syc and Branden M. Collins)
13. I Don’t Know (feat. Von Pea and Stephanie Mae)
14. Yoko Ono (feat. Che Grand)
15. Do You
16. After the Love Has Gone
17. Keep Dreamin’