Pitchfork placed the album at number 19 on its list of the "Top 50 albums of 2011",while SPIN named it the top hip-hop album of 2011. This album was released as a free download by Brooklyn, New York based rap label Fool's Gold Records. Brown cited XXX as his attempt at "experimenting and seeing how far [he] could push listeners" with his music. Brown explains that XXX is an attempt 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.