Detroit MC Danny Brown believes that beloved rap legend The Notorious B.I.G. finally has a successor.

During a recent interview with XXL backstage at the magazine’s Kendrick Lamar Hennesey show in New York City, Brown proclaimed fellow up-and-comer Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire the next B.I.G.

“Nobody even said it, but to me eXquire is the new Biggie Smalls—Biggie before Puffy touched him,” he said. “[He's a] Big Brooklyn nigga with bars. The verse from [his track] ‘The Song That Never Ends’ is the best verse of the year. Real recognize real. He’s the new Biggie for New York. I see it.” [Watch below]

Hailing from the Crown Heights section of BK, eXquire has been building quite a buzz for himself over the last year with his 2011 mixtape, Lost in Translation, and his holiday tape, Merry Christmas, Suck My Dick.

But it was the grimy video for his song, “Huzzah,” that put X on the map. The clip for the song’s remix, “The Last Huzzah”—which also features Danny, El-P, Despot and Das Racist—also made noise with its play on the classic “Flava In Your Ear” video (another Biggie connection).

“I feel how other people fear it ’cause [I’m] just someone coming from Detroit, but I guess we on the outside looking in,” Danny added about his Mfn eX comparison to Biggie. —Jesse Gissen (@JesseXXL) and Mark Lelinwalla (@XXL_Mark)