Pitchfork.TV’s new documentary Danny Brown: Detroit State of Mind is an intimate look into the ordinary life of extraordinary Detroit rapper/style icon/spiritual icon, Danny Brown. The documentary takes you places most rappers won’t let you go–inside their home with their family, inside a car with their friends, inside the studio with near-uncomfortable closeness. Watch a rapper’s brother cut a rapper’s hair. Sit on a rapper’s couch and smoke cigarettes with a rapper’s parents. Drive around Detroit in a snow storm with a rapper and handle business with the Bruiser Brigade. And yes, go to the studio with a rapper and watch him stick out his tongue and rap a rap song.
It’s difficult to capture intimacy on camera. When intimacy situations are approached with intimate eyes, it’s easy for the camera to slip from gentle observation to pornographic exposure. Detroit State of Mind provides an intimate look into some very intimate situations with Danny Brown and the Bruiser Brigade. PitchforkTV achieved authenticity without corn, cliche, or sacrificing the satisfaction of a happy ending that just might make you cry.
