XXX (pronounced "triple x" or "30") is the second studio album by American rapper Danny Brown. It was released on August 15, 2011, by Fool's Gold Records. The album's production was handled by Frank Dukes, Brandun DeShay, Skywlkr, Nick Speed, Quelle, Paul White, Squadda Bambino, and DJ House Shoes. The album's only guest appearances come from Brown's Bruiser Brigade cohorts Chips and Dopehead. XXX was released as a free download by Brooklyn, New York-based record label Fool's Gold Records. Brown cited XXX as his attempt at "experimenting and seeing how far could push listeners" with his music. Brown explains that XXX is an effort at a serious concept album with a storyline, citing track 13 "DNA" as the start of Side B: "The cover looked like a vinyl to me, so I was going with that whole vibe". He explained that "the first side is all having fun" before the album takes a serious turn from "DNA" onward. While recording the album, Brown was listening to a lot of Joy Division. He has also stated he recorded XXX with the intent of having it critically acclaimed: "I made XXX with the aim of getting great reviews." XXX received widespread acclaim from critics. On March 13, 2012, the album was re-released on iTunes with three new tracks and a digital booklet included. XXX was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 83, based on nine reviews.