Denzel Curry Joins Pain Of Truth Shows, May Pivot To Hardcore

For many years, Florida rap great Denzel Curry has been messing around in the hardcore world. When the teenage Curry first emerged as part of the underground Raider Klan crew, they helped introduce choatic moshpit energy to the rap world. In 2019, Curry covered Rage Against The Machine for Triple J and enlisted Fucked Up for a Bad Brains cover. Curry is a regular presence at festivals like Outbreak. He teamed up with Knocked Loose for the extremely sick collab "Hive Mind" earlier this year, and he'll head out on tour with that band this fall. Now, he says he's "flirting with the idea of creating a hardcore tape."

Curry definitely has the right kind of presence to be a hardcore frontman, and he once again proved it last week. Around the same time that Long Island stompers Pain Of Truth announced their upcoming self-titled album, the band played a quick run of California shows, and Curry joined them for two straight nights.

Last Wednesday, Pain Of Truth played the LA venue Proyecto, and Curry got up with them for "The Test," the anthemic track from the band's 2020 demo No Blame... Just Facts. He showed that he's completely at home in the unstable atmosphere of a real-deal hardcore band, and he brought a whole lot of charisma and conviction. The part where he threw the mic down at the end of the song was beautiful.

Three days later, Pain Of Truth played the Warped Tour in Long Beach, and Curry joined them again.

On Friday, Curry tweeted, "Slowly Flirting With The Idea of Creating A Hardcore Tape, And if that blows up I’ll Probably Flirt with idea of not rapping as much. Who knows." When Anthony Fantano asked Curry what he's listening to, he shouted out Pain Of Truth's new single "Unforgiven" and Drain's 2025 album ...Is Your Friend.