Break The Song Down: D’Lo Brown, “Danger At The Door”

Being old as hell, I remember spending many afternoons with my friend, playing the WrestleMania 2000 video game that he had stolen from his job at Blockbuster. And when it came to lock in—case matches were a pain in the ass!—my buddy, a die-hard Triple H fan, would put on WWF The Music: Volume 4, and jump to track 12: “My Time.”

That’s usually when I would blast the first few seconds of D'Lo Brown's “Danger at the Door,” having ripped a copy for myself. He’d scream in frustration while furiously mashing the N64’s buttons, furiously trying to pin “Stone Cold” Steve Austin or Edge.

Despite my friend���s hatred of it, “Danger at the Door” has since become one of WWE's most iconic themes. You know it once you hear that needle scratch at the start, followed by the opening line announcing that we, the WWF fans, are indeed looking at the real deal now.

And D’Lo was the real deal. After first working under the name A.C. Connor (a version of his birth name, Accie), he rebranded himself as “Downtown” D’Lo Brown when joining Smoky Mountain Wrestling as part of The Gangstas. Who knew that head-shaking D’Lo first made waves alongside Mustafa Saeed and New Jack?

Whereas the Gangstas were destined for Philly’s ECW, D’Lo went further north to New York, joining the WWF as one of the original members of Farooq’s Nation of Domination. This not-so-thinly veiled Nation of Islam allegory got Farooq out of his silly gladiator costume. It helped launch one of the WWE’s biggest Superstars when it turned the rudderless and reviled Rocky Maivia into The Rock.

The Nation also changed Kama into The Godfather and Mark Henry into “Sexual Chocolate.”

It also helped D’Lo from stoic acolyte to a cocky, head-wobbling heel, rocking a chest protector that helped him secure four European Championship reigns (including a dual reign with the Intercontinental title).

The Song: “Danger At The Door”

First, we must ask: Is this a Jim Johnston Jam? And it certainly is.

From the looks of it, D’Lo Brown began using “Danger at the Door” around June 1999. “Originally, that song, that track, was for Mark Henry and myself,” D’Lo told Chris Van Vliet in 2022. “The original version was a tag team version.”

By October 1998, The Nation was done. The Rock would cement his main-eventer status at Survivor Series a month later. The Godfather was the Godfather; D’Lo got tangled up with Pretty Mean Sisters (Terri Runnels, Jacqueline Moore); and Mark embraced being “Sexual Chocolate.”

It seems like D’Lo was in line for a push, as he won his third European title in July 1999. So, Johnston decided to come up with a new theme.

“I remember sitting in the studio and…[Johnston] would sound bites from you, he would get little things from you,” said Brown. “He would sit there and go ‘laugh for me,’ [and] hit a button. ‘Just go woo for me.’ Hit a button. And he’d be, ‘alright, hold on a second.”

After getting D’Lo’s approval on the rough copy, Johnston worked on a final version. “And a week later,” says Brown, “he came back with ‘Danger at the Door.’ And I was like, wow. I can’t believe that’s my music.”

It truly is D’Lo’s music. I don’t remember D’Lo using “You Better Recognize,” his post-Nation of Domination theme. It’s like a funky NOD remix that just doesn’t fit. To me, D’Lo is “Danger at the Door.”

Breaking It Down:

But, at its heart, the “Danger at the Door” is a great thirty-second composition.

The problem is that the song is over three minutes long.

You have the opening needle-scratch: a repeating single synth note, mimicking a security alarm to put us on high alert; a police siren wails in the background; an ascending-descending guitar riff dances along to the thumping bass that shakes the ground.

At the 1:13 mark, Johnston adds in some more synth notes. They’re a basic addition to the song, as they mimic the ascending-descending guitar riff—they go high-low-high, low-high-low. Repeat. I wonder if that was intentional, considering D’Lo’s reputation as a high-flyer. High Lo High, Lo High Lo.

I’d call “Danger at the Door” a rap-rock hybrid, though a thin one at best. Johnston knew he had to up the energy from the plodding funk of “You Better Recognize.” And he did. But I wish he’d gone deeper. The production doesn’t stray far from Johnston’s comfort zone, and it barely dips its toes into the excitement of ’90s hip-hop.

Still, it’s a good, versatile theme. It could pop a crowd when D’Lo was a face, or make them groan when he was a heel.

What? The Lyrics:

So, take the lyrics from the version released on WWF The Music: Vol. 4:

You're looking at the real deal now / Gonna kick your sorry ass out on the street / You used to think you own the streets / Well pack your bags, your ass is dead meat / Victory's sweet (Bring it on) / Here's the receipt (Bring it on)

This rhyme scheme is basic as hell. Street. Streets. Meat. Sweet. Receipt. And repeat.

Was someone poorly freestyling? Why is the “Here’s the receipt” off the beat? Why doesn’t it make any specific reference to D’Lo?

What makes this verse even weaker is the original “Danger at the Door,” the one meant for D’Lo and Mark Henry.

D’Lo debuted that version in June 1999, and it was included in WrestleMania 2000. In that version, not only do you get the titular line (“You have to know that there’s danger at the door / because we ain’t playing games anymore”), but there’s a line about D’Lo and Mark:

There’s new sheriffs in town / You can call me Mr. Henry / and call me Mr. Brown

Except, these new sheriffs weren’t in town for long. Less than three months after debuting “Danger at the Door,” Mark Henry turned on D’Lo at Summer Slam, causing him to lose the WWF Intercontinental and European championships to Jeff Jarrett.

This resulted in the neutered version, with its truncated verse, a few weeks later. But you can hear a remnant of that original at the 0:34 mark, when there is a faint “Call Me Mr. Brown.” Sigh.

Summer Slam 1999 was the peak of D’Lo’s initial run with the WWF/E. Afterwards, he had personal tragedies (the accident that permanently disabled Darren “Droz” Drosdov) and professional lulls (Lo Down, being relegated to OVW). When he returned to the Fed for a brief stint in 2008, his theme underwent a slight revision. It’s nothing to note, but I mention it here for posterity.

The 1-2-3 Second Rule:

“That record scratch of mine, people loved it,” D’Lo told Van Vliet. “And the minute you walked out, they let you know how they felt, whether they liked you or not, you knew instantly. Eighteen to twenty thousand people are going to let you know how they felt about you.”

I credit Jim Johnston. The man conducts audiences and reactions. And he’s great at it, especially here with “Danger at the Door.”

“His concept was you should know who’s coming to the ring within two seconds of hearing the beginning of their music,” said D’Lo. And Johnston nails it.

FINAL VERDICT

In 2002, WWE released The Anthology, a three-disc set full of theme songs. D’Lo’s theme is renamed “The Real Deal,” even though it’s still “Danger at the Door” from WWF The Music: Vol. 4. I don’t know why, other than to possibly hide that there was once an awesome version of D’Lo’s theme that we never got?

Had the WWF/E salvaged most of the original “Danger at the Door,” it would be practically perfect. D’Lo was a solid midcarder who deserved a great theme. The lack of personalization in his solo “Danger at the Door” really hurt it. It’s still good, but it isn’t great.

The Vol. 4 edition? 4/5 BAH GAWDS. The original wobbles its head to 4.5.

Now, let’s get D’Lo into the Hall of Fame.

Read our previous entrance theme breakdowns for Batista and the Honky Tonk Man.