Danny Brown does not shy away from getting weird. But even the most devout fans of the oddball rapper likely wouldn’t have guessed that he’d willingly do a cover of Korn’s “Freak on a Leash” during a performance at last night’s Red Bull SoundClash in Chicago.
Brown went head-to-head with fellow rapper Rico Nasty in the live event, a battle that includes a covers portion in its array of various music-related tasks. While Rico did a rendition of Chief Keef’s certified crowd-pleaser “Faneto,” Brown went the complete opposite route by covering the nu-metal icons’ hit off 1998’s Follow the Leader.
Did Brown do an objectively good job trying to emulate Korn frontman Jonathan Davis’ grisly belt? Absolutely not. But, like the most entertaining karaoke performance you’ve ever seen, Brown put his full heart into it — which arguably makes his version much more punk than the original.
The rapper has previously spoken about how Korn’s 1999 record Issues (and eventually meeting Davis) helped him through a particularly low point in his personal life, so the cover is especially heartwarming, too. See fan-captured footage of Brown covering “Freak on a Leash” below, which includes a surprise appearance from an unidentified Davis lookalike.
Along with some one-off collaborations with the likes of The Alchemist and BROCKHAMPTON this year, Brown also released the compilation album TV62 via his own Bruiser Brigade Records this past May. His last proper studio album was 2019’s uknowwhatimsayin¿. Meanwhile, Korn are getting ready to embark on a massive tour in early 2022. Get tickets over at Ticketmaster.
