On this indie-rap summit, Motor City madman Danny Brown squawks over a menacing, hookless grind from buzzed-over producer AraabMUZIK, his flow relentless and, as usual, comically perverse: After lines riffing off "hair," "Cher," "day care," "Rocawear" and so on, he rhymes "watch Colbert" with "never sober." Heads up, Comedy Central. 

Listen to "Molly Ringwald":

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"