"Bruiser Wolf has a voice that could grab your attention from the other end of a carnival. It's part of the reason he's become one of the more arresting figures in the Detroit scene and a standout among the Danny Brown-led Bruiser Brigade universe. But the years following his 2021 breakout Dope Game Stupid have been a steady search for the right production style to complement his jaunting soliloquies, laced with drug dealing capers and trapdoor metaphors."
"Wolf's earlier 2025 release, Potluck, was an experimental exercise where he rapped like he was shooting the shit in the pool table from The Mack. He tested how his stories and delivery reacted to a range of beats from Harry Fraud, Knxwledge, Nicholas Craven, F1lthy, and Raphy (who produced much of Dope Game Stupid). It never quite established a uniform rhythm but it did inspire his next venture: a full-length collaboration with Fraud."
"Fraud's production creates the sensation of hearing Bruiser yelping from a sky-blue lowrider Impala across the block. The vocal sample on "Layup Lines," which is pleasantly reminiscent of a Voices of East Harlem cut, turns into an angelic, unrelenting chorus of background singers that helps lift Wolf's raps off the ground. The truncated jazz suite that opens "Against the Odds" could soundtrack the credits of Coffy before a rousing organ turns Bruiser's jokes about polygamy and flooding the block into a swirling gospel sermon."
Bruiser Wolf possesses a standout, attention-grabbing voice that has made him a notable figure in the Detroit scene and within the Bruiser Brigade. After 2021's Dope Game Stupid, Wolf searched for production that could match his jaunting, conversational delivery. My Story Got Stories (2024) used restrained samples and conventional structures that risked dulling his eccentricities. Potluck (2025) experimented across producers to test his stories against varied beats and ultimately inspired a full-length collaboration with Harry Fraud. Made by Dope is an 11-track effort that tightens Wolf's conversational writing with lavish, sympathetic production that highlights his quirks without radically innovating.
Read at Pitchfork
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