Who Is Danny Brown?

The Adderall Admiral talks about making his album XXX, growing up in Detroit, and a little drug called Molly.

Not Available Lead
Image via Complex Original
Not Available Lead

Intro

Not Available Interstitial

Growing Up In Detroit

Not Available Interstitial

Growing Up In Detroit

Danny Brown: “I was born and raised in Detroit. My parents had me when they was young, my pops was 16 and my mom was 18. Detroit is really crazy. It was worse back then but it’s more fucked up now, economically.

“When I was a kid it was a lot of money floating around, so it was just a lot more contract killing. Now it’s just random; somebody smacked somebody’s glasses and they get killed. Back then it was more disciplined.

“I had a good-ass childhood because my parents was young so they knew what was hip. I would get all the new hip-hop from my dad. My dad was a house DJ so I was getting all that shit too. Plus they knew I liked music, so they always encouraged me to do music.


 

On the East Side, I used to get beat up all the time. [Laughs.] I had nobody over there and I’m the oldest with two brothers. And I’m kind of not really gangster like that.


 

“My parents ain’t really want me out the house. They did as much as they possibly could to keep me in the house with whatever the newest video game was. But you know you can only keep a kid in for so long. Plus that had me sheltered, so once I did get away I used to disappear for like four days.

“My grandma—my mom’s mom—worked at Chrysler pretty much all her life. Through working at Chrysler, she bought like four or five houses. I came from Chrysler/GM money.

“To this day we still got those houses. She owns three houses in a row on that block and she owned them since the ‘70s, so it’s really our block. If we didn’t have those houses, I don’t know what we’d do. That’s actually houses you’ve seen in the video for ‘Re-Up.’

“[Those houses were on the West Side.] On the East Side, I used to get beat up all the time. [Laughs.] I had nobody over there and I’m the oldest with two brothers. And I’m kind of not really gangster like that. [Laughs.]

“We was the kids that had more than what the average kid would have. We never came out the house. When we did come out the house, we came with better looking clothes, better looking shoes. That was the West Side mentality.

“But on the East Side, everybody over there was really dirty. They had money but they didn’t focus on being fresh. The whole shit over there is about being gangster. You don’t go buy outfits and shit. You get money over there and you buy guns and you get chains.”

Filipino

Not Available Interstitial

Growing Up Part-Filipino

Danny Brown: “My pops is half Filipino. You probably don’t know that [I’m a quarter Filipino] but my grandma met a dude in the Peace Corps in the ’60s. He moved to Detroit and he ended up being a crazy alcoholic [and] abusive. He used to beat her and shit. He got super wasted and died of alcohol poisoning.


 

I used to go to a Filipino church when I was a kid because of my grandma. That was weird growing up because you’re in a predominantly black city and you’ve got a Filipino grandma.


 

“So she came all the way from the Philippines to Detroit and she’s got two boys and you know, nothing—so she built her shit up all the way from the beginning. But my moms is straight nigga, straight ghetto. [Laughs.]

“My pops really don’t have no family here, but there was a lot of Filipinos around. I used to go to a Filipino church when I was a kid because of my grandma. We were always with my grandma. Even to this day, my brothers stay with my Filipino grandma. That was weird growing up because you’re in a predominantly black city and you’ve got a Filipino grandma.”

Learning To Rap

Not Available Interstitial

Learning To Rap

Danny Brown: “I never learned how to rap. As long as I could remember, I knew how to rap. When I was a baby my mama always used to take me with her to the laundromat. She would take mad Dr. Seuss books and she would just read Dr. Seuss books to me over and over again.

“So when I first started talking, I talked in rhymes. Like when I said ‘Dad’ I would be like ‘Dad, bad.’ I guess I was like a child prodigy rapper or something but I’m glad I’m not like Bow Wow. I’m glad I didn’t get discovered as a kid.

“Another story is, my cousin used to rap. One day, I tried to rap too and it all worked and he gave me the craziest look. He was like, ‘He know how to rap!’ I don’t even remember that. I was too young to remember.


 

I never learned how to rap. As long as I could remember, I knew how to rap. When I first started talking, I talked in rhymes.


 

“My earliest recollection [of rapping] was me going hard writing raps in the third grade. I know I had my own rap notebook in third grade and I rapped at my fifth grade graduation. By the time I was in the sixth grade I already thought I was a rapper. [Laughs.]

“By high school, I already knew song structure and all that shit. I wasn’t as good as I am now. At that time, I didn’t know how to be myself. I was still a kid and I was growing up, so I had to find myself.

“What I’m doing now [I’m doing] because I know how to be myself and I know how to make music. When you a kid making music, you’re just trying to make what you hear. I was just trying to be like Nas at that time and I had a wack rap name like [Dee Luciano]. I dunno, it was some dumb shit. I was just trying to be like a karaoke machine tape. [Laughs.]

“I’m like a forgotten generation. I’m the first generation of hip-hop kids that grew up with nothing but hip-hop. They forgot about us cause by the time it was time for us to start rapping they was already old in the game and rich. They just wanted to keep the job instead of just passing it on to us. Now the money all gone and spent up and we got the Internet and that’s pretty much all it is.”

Influences

Not Available Interstitial

Influences

Danny Brown: “My influences are a lot of different people and a lot of different things so I’ll just timeline it.

“When I was in kindergarten, my mom used to send my cousin’s cousin to babysit us. He was maybe like 19, and he came to pick me up from school. I remember, my mom just had my sister.

“It was raining like a motherfucker and he was like, ‘You gotta run though cause it’s raining hard. Plus I just got this new LL Cool J and I’m trying to bump this shit man. I ain’ttrying to bullshit with you.’


 

I was looking at the cover, reading the credits—I could nearly read them. It was LL Cool J’s Radio. He threw that shit on and from the first beat, I knew a rapper was what I wanted to be.


 

“We ran home. He knew I liked rap so he fucked with me. We went in the basement. He ain’t even cracked the plastic off the [vinyl] yet. He got a razor blade and took the plastic off. I was looking at the cover, reading the credits—I could nearly read them. It was LL Cool J’s Radio.

“He threw that shit on and from the first beat, I knew that was what I wanted to be.

“We listened to it in its entirety and he smoked a joint. He was like, ‘Don’t be touching my record when I’m gone.’ As soon as he left, I was right in that basement listening to that shit.

“I remember whenever my pops picked me up from school, he was always listening to the newest, hottest shit in his car. He used to pick me up and bump Ice-T’s ‘Pusha Man’ all the time. I used to find N.W.A and Too $hort tapes in his car but he would never play shit around me but I knew that shit was dope because I could just look at the artwork like, ‘What is this?!’

“I remember he started playing A Tribe Called Quest a lot around me like, ‘Listen to this.’ Then I started seeing my friends have other music I had never heard of. I remember my friend first gave me Spice 1 and I just went crazy like, ‘Oh my fucking God you gotta give me [a copy] of this shit.’

‘[Because of Spice 1] I thought I was from Cali. I was wearing flannels and Dickies and Chucks and getting my hair braided. I didn’t even have enough hair to braid yet. I went through that phase and I think my pops didn’t like that shit because he knew what that was planting in my brain.


 

Whenever my pops picked me up from school, he was always listening to the newest, hottest shit in his car. He used to pick me up and bump Ice-T’s ‘Pusha Man’ all the time. 


 

“One day my pops came in—this was when Discmans with CDs first came out—he gave me a CD of Wu-Tang Clan’s 36 Chambers. I was the first nigga in the hood with a CD. I checked it out the first time and I was like, ‘Ehh whatever.’ But something eventually clicked with me and I was like, ‘Oh my God this is amazing.’ From that time I started wearing bubble coats and Timbs and shit. [Laughs.]

“That’s when I wanted to study more about New York rap. Everybody was listening to Tupac and I started listening to Nas and Wu-Tang. I was just going through my East Coast phase, that went through all the way through until I dropped out of high school.

“My parents kept us in the house so we got the Internet when it first came out. We got Napster and I was downloading free music like crazy. So I started to get more and more up on underground music, I started getting into Def Jux. From that, I started reading Blender magazine. I started listening to Grime.

“A little bit before that phase I had started listening to Korn and Rage Against the Machine because I wanted to see what rock music was about—just to train my ear to listen to that type of shit. Now I can listen to something like Joy Division and all type of crazy rock. I was training myself in music in general, I knew what I was doing.”

E-40 & Dizzee Rascal

Not Available Interstitial

E-40 & Dizzee Rascal

Danny Brown: “I didn’t get into E-40 until I started selling drugs. E-40 was saying everything I was doing. He was giving you game moreso than promoting. He would say little slick shit and it would sound like advice to me. [I started listening to E-40 around the time] the Internet started coming around, like Napster and all that shit.


 

I learned a lot from Dizzee Rascal. That was when I was already thinking I’m a rapper and I know everything about songwriting. He showed me I wasn’t good at all because his songwriting was so next level.


 

“When Dizzee came around, his album probably spoke to me more so than any album. It sounded like no other rap that I heard before. I was always struck by that. I can’t believe I heard an album that doesn’t sound like nothing else and it’s still like that 10 years later.

 “It just had that affect on me through my whole life. His subject matters and the way he sequences albums, I learned a lot from him. That was when I was already thinking I’m a rapper and I know everything about songwriting. He showed me I wasn’t good at all because his songwriting was so next level—and he was only 19 years old.

“His [entire] verses were like hooks. It’s hard for me to come up with a nice catchy hook and he’s coming up with like 15 catchy hooks in one song. A lot of people don’t always see that about Dizzee Rascal. Now he rich probably just chilling.”

RELATED: E-40 BREAKS DOWN HIS 25 MOST ESSENTIAL SONGS

Taking Rap Seriously

Not Available Interstitial

Taking Rap Seriously

Danny Brown: “I ain’t start selling drugs until I was like 18. In high school, my crew, we thought [drug dealing] was wack. We was all about getting fly. Once I got above a certain age, all that parent shit stopped. My mom and my pops split up. Once my pops left, I was the man of the house.

“I always told myself I was going to be a rapper my whole life. I was selling drugs since that’s what all my friends were doing. And it was kind of like something to rap about maybe.

“I always told myself once I got my first case I was gonna stop. Then I got my first case but I didn’t stop. I got distribution and manufacturing and possession with intent to distribute. I was 19 [at the time].


 

I was selling drugs since that’s what all my friends were doing. And it was kind of like something to rap about maybe. I always told myself once I got my first case I was gonna stop. Then I got my first case but I didn’t stop.


 

“I caught my second case loitering with some weed but it violated my probation but I ran and I didn’t go to court. I just ran for like at least 5 years. But once I got caught I had to do 8 months.

“When I violated my probation, I got my second case and I was scared. I had warrants so I couldn’t really slang like that cause I didn’t wanna go to jail. I was broke in the hood. I had nothing else, so I just started going back to studying music and trying to become a rapper.

“I got out of jail in ’07. I took it serious from that time but it took a lot of shit to happen in my life to get me confident to know I could do it. I had more confidence when I got out of jail because the day when I got out of jail I started selling weed. I ain’t had no money after the first two months, like, ‘I was way better off in jail.’

“By then I was already making my New York trips and going to recording studios so I was already serious when I got locked up. When I got out it was like, ‘It’s now or never.’”

Messing With G-Unit & Rocafella

Not Available Interstitial

Messing With G-Unit & Rocafella

Danny Brown: “In 2003 when I first started going up to New York, my homie that used to help me put out my projects—like printing up my CDs and shit like that—[brought my shit to Def Jam].

“We ended up meeting this one A&R named Travis Cummins from Rocafella around 2005 and shit. He fucked with us. We got a meeting the next day but during the meeting we said some dumb shit. They were like, ‘Get out of here,’ and that was pretty much it.


 

They used to play [Dame Dash my] music all the time. No one was fucking with it. But at the time I was a bum-ass nigga from Detroit with fucked up teeth and nappy braids. [I didn’t sign to The Roc but] Damon Dash met me one time. He told me, ‘Good luck, get money.’


 

“We still had Travis number and we called Trav maybe four or five months later and we were like, ‘Yo we got some new shit we want you to hear.’ He was like, ‘Come through.’ So we went back out to New York.

“We went back up to Rocafella and played him the shit and he like, ‘Oh, this shit dope!’ That’s when he started fucking with me. He took me down to the studio in Queens and all that shit started happening. Once all that Rocafella shit happened, he got fired from Rocafella and he started DJing for Juelz Santana.

“They used to play [Dame Dash my] music all the time. They would try. No one was fucking with it. But at the time I was a bum-ass nigga from Detroit with fucked up teeth and nappy braids. [I didn’t sign to The Roc but] Damon Dash met me one time. He told me, ‘Good luck, get money.’

“I was doing that ’05 and ’06. I got locked up ’07 and I came back out in the ’07 and I went back out there and recorded Detroit State of Mind 2 and 3 and I stopped going back to New York.

“I first went to New York in ’03 and I’d go back and record in studios whenever I could. Then in ’05 we started recording at Fire and Ice studios in Queens and that’s when I met Nicki Minaj, Stack Bundles, Gravy.


 

I was Yayo’s homeboy so Yayo took me to 50 Cent. 50 was with the music, he didn’t just fuck with the look.


 

“That’s how I met Doughboy from G-Unit. That’s really how I met Tony Yayo and G-Unit in general. When I was back in Detroit, Yayo got casted to be in some movie in Detroit and he came out there. Doughboy hit me up like, ‘Yo I’m out here with Yayo.’ I met Yayo at the movie set and I would fuck with them niggas—I would be getting them weed.

“I showed Yayo the “Re-up” video and he went crazy. He flew me out to New York. [Laughs.] I was Yayo’s homeboy so Yayo took me to 50 Cent. 50 was with the music, he didn’t just fuck with the look.

“I don’t want that to be coming out wrong: At the end of the day, 50 a good nigga. I don’t got no bad feeling about that because I always knew what I was doing. They didn’t know what I was doing. They didn’t understand me getting high reviews in Pitchfork for The Hybrid. They don’t know what the fuck Pitchfork was.

Blu

Not Available Interstitial

Blu

Danny Brown: “I had a show in Illinois and I met Blu and we hit it off. He was like, ‘If you ever come out to L.A., holler at us.’ So I had a show in San Diego in 2008 and Fat Beats heard I was in San Diego and they asked me to come through and do a little set in L.A. So I went to L.A., did the Fat Beats set, and stayed out there for three months. [Laughs.]


 

That was my first time going out there and being around model bitches and crazy pool parties with white bitches sniffing coke. I’d never really seen this type of shit. So it was like, ‘Oh my God! This is me! This is like my calling.’ 


 

“This was when Blu first got signed to Warner Brothers so he just had a lot of money. [Laughs.] They were just balling and we were just recording and I ended up recording a whole project during that process, its’ called It’s An Art.

“We were just doing drugs and partying. We did all types of dumb shit. But it opened up my mind to a lot of shit being with them for those three months though.

“That was my first time going out there and being around model bitches and crazy pool parties with white bitches sniffing coke. I’d never really seen this type of shit. So it was like, ‘Oh my God! This is me! This is like my calling.’ [Laughs.] I used to be in the hood and I used to always see shit like that but I never knew that shit was like what it really is. I was like, ‘This is my lifestyle right here.’

“Me, Blu, and Mainframe tripped out on E one day and we just decided to go to Coachella. It was the day of Coachella, we just decided like, ‘Fuck that, let’s just go!’ [We went] from L.A. to wherever Coachella was at. We’re like, ‘Fuck it.’


 

Me, Blu, and Mainframe tripped out on E one day and we just decided to go to Coachella.


 

“So we randomly go shopping, everybody buys new clothes, and we hop in the car. It was like a long-ass ride so we just took mad Ecstasy tablets and go straight up to Coachella. By the time we get up there, I’m tripping. [Laughs.]

“I’m freaking out but we meet my homegirl—some baller, whatever—and she took us to this T-Mobile party. The party is built like a big-ass carnival with free everything. The party was at the motherfucking hanger and there was this fucking big-ass jet in the middle of the party. We go on the jet and motherfuckers are sniffing coke on the jet! That was just crazy man.

“We got mad bitches and we ended up going to somebody’s crib in Palm Springs. I don’t really remember too much [after that]. [Laughs.] But I remember enough and that was the craziest for me.”

Hairstyle & Missing Teeth

Not Available Interstitial

Hairstyle & Missing Teeth

Danny Brown: “I didn’t wanna lose my hair but I wanted to cut my hair. I was tired of getting my hair braided. That’s why you see old videos and I had nappy-ass braids—I didn’t care about getting no crispy braids. I thought [about cutting it for as] long as hell.


 

I always try to do shit playing with racism because I feel like if a white nigga was to [cut his hair] like that, it’s normal. But if a black nigga do some shit like that, he gay. I'm not gay at all my nigga.


 

“To me I always try to do shit playing with racism because I feel like if a white nigga was to do some shit like that, it’s normal. But if a black nigga do some shit like that, he gay. I'm not gay at all my nigga.

“At the end of the day, the way I dress and look is because I do what the fuck I want to do. I feel like this shit is a lame detector, because if a nigga don’t fuck with me because of my hair or the way I look, then you the type of nigga I don’t need to fuck with anyway—so you’re saving me the trouble.

“[As far as my teeth], I mean I got hit by a car [when I was in the sixth grade] and I lost my teeth. I got this shit fixed but I got into a fight with my cousin and I chipped one and then playing basketball I got elbowed in the mouth and broke the other one. I had two chipped teeth and they [eventually] fell out.”

The Hybrid

Not Available Interstitial

Working On The Hybrid & Finding His (High-Pitched) Voice

Danny Brown: “The high-pitched voice I use when I rap] is actually a part of my voice in some sense. It comes out when it comes out, so it’s always a part of my personality. I think that’s some Detroit nigga shit anyways.

“When I was around OG niggas, and we got excited about shit, or when we were talking in general, we get high-pitched like, ‘Nigga what the fuck you talking bout!’ I think it developed from being around crackheads. I like to show my emotion in my vocals.


 

When I was around OG niggas, and we got excited about shit, or when we talking in general we get high-pitched, like, ‘Nigga what the fuck you talking bout!’ I think it developed from being around crackheads.


 

“The first song that I ever rapped [with the high-pitched voice] was ‘The Hybrid,’ that’s why we called it ‘The Hybrid.’ I think that was [when I found my voice]. That was the statement that I can rap and I can do every style of rap. That was The Hybrid, and XXX was about, this is where I’m at with rapping.

The Hybrid started out because I started working with Hex Murder. Hex was managing me at the time and I had started recording in Black Milk’s studio. We were working on a project and I had came up with the song ‘The Hybrid,’ so that gave me my whole intent on what I wanted to do with my next project. I started writing a new album and that’s the album that I wrote.

“Then I hooked up with my homie Magnetic and he would just look out for me and gave me free studio time—so I would go record from 3 in the morning til 6 in the morning, because we were using the free time when nobody was there.

“Then I hooked up with Frank from Rappers I Know. I liked what he was doing with his blog. He looked out for me and helped me out a lot and then we put it out and the rest is history.”

Adderall

Not Available Interstitial

Adderall

Danny Brown:“[In high school] the niggas that smoked weed and got high was always like the bummy dirty niggas so we thought that shit wasn’t cool. I started smoking weed at 18 just from listening to Nas and Mobb Deep and hearing them talk about it. I was thinking [it could make my rapping better] but then it got to the point I wasn’t writing raps cause I was smoking weed.


 

My thing is Adderall. When I wrote the song ‘The Hybrid’ that was the first time I ever took Adderall. That whole voice and everything—that came from Adderall. I thought I wrote the best rap I ever wrote in my life.


 

“I never really [liked coke because I never] liked putting shit in my nose. I got into a fight one time and I broke my nose and my shit is all fucked up. So putting shit in my nose is not really my thing. But I really like girls who sniff coke. But I’m starting not to like that shit because I’m starting to realize they just talk too much.

“My thing is Adderall. That’s really just a working thing. If I’m doing shows and I wanna stay up, I take Adderall. When I wrote the song ‘The Hybrid’ that was the first time I ever took Adderall. That whole voice and everything—that came from Adderall. I thought I wrote the best rap I ever wrote in my life [when I wrote that]. That’s where everything came from, that one song.

“I was was like, ‘I would’ve never wrote that shit if I wasn’t on Adderall.’ Every time I write some shit on Addy [it’s like that]. It’s like words come together crazy. I don’t even want to tell my secret. This shit is about to be like steroids in the rap game.

“The thing is, there’s an Adderall shortage right now so it’s like mad hard to find Adderall right now, so I haven’t been writing any raps. I mean. If there’s money on the table then I’m for sure able to kick out a 16 or do what I gotta do without Adderall.


 

I wrote half of XXX not on Adderall. I wrote half of it on it, and half of it not to prove it to myself that I can do without it. The songs on XXX you think I wrote on Adderall, I didn’t.


 

“I wrote half of XXX not on Adderall. I wrote half of it on it, and half of it not to prove it to myself that I can do without it. The songs on XXX you think I wrote on Adderall, I didn’t. ‘Die Like A Rockstar’ I wrote on Adderall. ‘Radio Song,’ I didn’t write that on Adderall.

“The first time I ever took it, it was just a new style in my chamber. I learned it like a skateboarder learning a new trick. Now I got a new voice actually and I feel like it’s a voice I never use. That’s the voice on ‘Blunt After Blunt.’ That’s the new voice on this album. I might only rap like that next album.

“If you go like three or four days not sleeping and taking Adderall, when you come down from that it’s the worse shit in the world. [During the come-down] I don’t feel right. I feel like I’m not alive. I feel like I’m out of body. I know I’m alive but my soul on the side of me.

“The ecstasy come-down is terrible too, but the Adderall come-down is probably the worst. But Adderall is just so good in what it’s for, you can’t hate on it. [Laughs.]”

Molly

Not Available Interstitial

Molly

Danny Brown: “Also, a drug that I really like that I don’t need to have around me like that is molly. [Ed. note—Molly is pure MDMA. While MDMA in pill form is known as ecstasy, MDMA in it’s crystalline or powder form is known as Molly.] Molly could get bad for me if I could keep fucking with that shit. [Laughs.] It’s just easy. It’s just a powder, you put it under your tongue and it’s on and popping.


 

During the Das Racist tour there was a lot of Molly action. I know if Molly is around I’m gonna take it. It’s not like a drug that you can just find everywhere. But if I was to find some and there was a lot of it, I don’t know what I would do. Like, I’m scared for myself.


 

“Using Molly just pretty much came from the rave scene in Detroit. That was just what was around, that was the party drug. In any hipster rave scene, niggas ain’t doing ecstasy no more, niggas is doing molly. Straight powder. Some people sniff it, some people put it in they drinks, some people just put it on they tongue. And they got pills of it too. But I just fuck with the powder form.

“Molly is a pure form of ecstasy. I mean the thing about ecstasy is it’s cool, it’s straight and shit, but that come-down is a motherfucker—just like Adderall. But Molly has no comedown, it’s straight pure ecstasy. You can do what the fuck you wanna do and tomorrow you won’t be mad at the world.

“[I been using Molly] like the last couple years. During the Das Racist tour there was a lot of Molly action. I know if Molly is around I’m gonna take it. It’s not like a drug that you can just find everywhere. But if I was to find some and there was a lot of it, I don’t know what I would do. Like, I’m scared for myself.”

Fools Gold

Not Available Interstitial

Signing To Fool’s Gold

Danny Brown: “My manager [Emeka Obi] asked me who I wanted to sign to and I said there’s two labels I want to sign to: XL or Fool’s Gold. He knew [people at] Fool’s Gold. He saw Nick Catchdubs in a burrito spot, asked him about it, and Nick said he’d get back to him.

“Q-Tip and A-Trak went and ate lunch around last March. A-Trak told Q-Tip he was thinking about signing me and Q-Tip told him to do it. A-Trak called me and signed me.

“I met Q-Tip but I know Ali Shaheed more. Ali Shaheed is kind of like a mentor to me. Around the time of The Hybrid, I met him through Frank from Rappers I Know and he just started showing me love. We talk on the phone a lot.”

XXX

Not Available Interstitial

 

XXX

Danny Brown: “With XXX, I knew what I was gonna do before I did it. It was like I wrote all the songs from January to March and I started recording and they was done by August. It wasn’t really a hard process because I’ve been doing this a long time. I think XXX was the first time I was seasoned in making music. I found myself musically and what I wanna do with my music.

“[Since its release] people recognize what I already knew, so it’s not really like a big deal to me. If people like, ‘He’s crazy!’ I already knew that my whole life. I already been wanting to do this shit. To me this feels like the tip of the iceberg. This ain’t nowhere close to what I’m gonna do musically. To me it’s just another step to get to the top.

“I wasn’t on a timeline. I wasn’t never tripping on [being 30]. I would still do this whether I was talking to you or not. The whole point of why it took so long [for me to pop off] is like before the Internet you couldn’t get in this hip-hop shit. You really gotta blame hip-hop. You can’t blame me because I been dope. So you really gotta blame the hip-hop business.”

RELATED: CLICK HERE TO STREAM ALL OF DANNY BROWN'S XXX

Working With A$AP Rocky & Black Milk

Not Available Interstitial

Working With A$AP Rocky & Black Milk

Danny Brown: “My manager is cool with [A$AP Rocky’s] peoples and that’s pretty much it. We all hang out all the time, smoking weed and kicking it. [That’s how he ended up directing the video for ‘Blunt After Blunt’]

“I was a fan of Black Milk’s music and I met him through Hex Murder. Black is from Detroit so I’ve seen him around. I didn’t know about Black Milk until I got out of jail. We would be around the same spots. I fucked with his music when I [used to just] see him but I ain’t start fucking with him [personally] until Hex [introduced us].

“[That Black and Brown project] was Hex’s idea. I didn’t even record it—those vocals are from when I was recording back then in their studio and they just remixed it and made that. I did a couple new [vocals] because he hit me up and was like, ‘Yo I just need a couple new shits.’ So I did a couple new ones and pushed them together.”

Mac Miller

Not Available Interstitial

His Comments On Mac Miller

Danny Brown: “I don’t really know what way to put [what I said about Mac Miller] besides what that is. He cool or whatever but… [Laughs.] You like Mac Miller? You know how hard [it was] for Eminem to get on? Being a white rapper? Don’t you think Em went through a lot of shit to be a white rapper?

“That was a time when it wasn’t even cool to be a white rapper. I just feel like the quality of being a white boy rapper should be a little bit higher than what it is—he opened the door for him. We gotta wrap this interview up…"

The Future

Not Available Interstitial

The Future

Danny Brown: “I always liked style niggas. If you look at somebody like Cam’ron, he didn’t rap the same way every album—he was switching his style with every album. I was always a style nigga.

“I was a lyric nigga but I’m a style nigga too. Like lyrics go a long way but style go a long way too. So if you got different styles you can freak it—Ghostface was a style master. Freaking that shit with different styles, that’s ill to me.


 

I don’t know nothing [about the future], I just live day by day. Take Adderall, let it happen. I don’t plan for the future, I’m too old for that. The future is here.


 

“[For my next album] I’m experimenting more with double time. It’s me trying to find ways to incorporate a lot of crazy word play and punch lines—like do the same shit I would do in The Hybird but rap in double time.

“So that’s just bigger and faster and more power, that’s steroids and nitro. That’s me challenging myself; that’s like doing a 360. Just trying to figure that out, to just rush into it and using different voices in one verse. That type of shit where you can go, ‘Damn, that’s the same nigga that did that one verse.’ That shit is kind of ill to me now.

“I don’t know nothing [about the future], I just live day by day. Take Adderall, let it happen. I don’t plan for the future, I’m too old for that. The future is here.”

Latest in Music