Danny Brown on www.hiphopdx.com

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http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/dxnext/id.129/title.danny-brown


Danny Brown
September 17th, 2009 | Author: William E. Ketchum III
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We all know that HipHopDX’s c-section can be bonkers, but few newcomers have had the polarizing effect that Danny Brown has. His songs in the audio section of the site—“My Father’s Gun” [click to listen] and the Elzhi-featured “Contra”—have been loved as much as they’ve been hated. But either way, Brown’s twangy off-kilter delivery and blunt punchlines will make you form an opinion: and that’s the way he likes it.

Brown’s unconventional style has garnered him attention from a fledgling Roc-A-Fella Records, helped him establish a name amongst Detroit’s loaded Hip Hop scene, and have one of the most memorable spots on the posthumously-released J Dilla album, Jay Stay Paid. His Nick Speed-produced album Hot Soup made its rounds on high profile blogs and web sites last year, but Brown plans for his current work in progress, The Hybrid, to turn even more heads. He talked with DXnext about his career highlights, paying an ode to Detroit music, and making himself stand out from his fellow Motor City emcees.

On Working With Roc-A-Fella: "Back in ’03, I had the group Reservoir Dogs, and we had released a local album. We took a couple of CDs out to New York, and it got the attention of a Roc-A-Fella A&R, Travis Cummings. He heard the shit, we hooked up and talked about doing some shit, but nothing really worked out. Then about a year later, I still had his number, and I just hit him up. He’s like, 'What you got for me?' I took him a demo CD of some solo stuff that I had, and he liked it. But he was a new A&R, so I don’t think he had the pull where he could just walk an artist in. But he was working on peoples’ projects, so I was able to get studio time here and there on other peoples’ budget. We would go and record these songs here and there, and that’s how you got the Detroit State of Mind mixtapes.

It was humbling in some sense, because these niggas are prime time. These are official niggas. I remember when Joe Budden [click to read] first got signed, going to his listening party and shit like that. I went to the Fade To Black movie premier, and I was just some bum ass nigga from Detroit. I was able to see what was going on, but niggas wasn’t really looking at me. Niggas didn’t really understand what the fuck I was all about. I had a country accent to them, and south shit was popping at the time, but I was all about J Dilla and backpack shit. They didn’t know how to take me: they just knew that I knew how to rap."

On His Breakthrough Album, the Nick Speed-produced Hot Soup: "What inspired Hot Soup was Detroit. And I can also say [Nas'] Illmatic—not music-wise, but mentality-wise. When I listen to Illmatic, being a seventh grader in my room listening to a fuckin’ tape every night, he used to put me in Queensbridge projects. What I wanted to do with Hot Soup is put you in Detroit the exact same way. Music-wise, I was just trying to make shit that makes m'fuckas dance. Still be underground, and still be Hip Hop, but still have that bop to it. And I was trying to add all the elements of Detroit music at the same time. A song like 'Whutupdoe,' that’s my Techno shit. then you take a song like '10 G’s A Week,' that’s me giving props to MC Breed. The song 'Dance' is from some indie label in Detroit that Nick Speed knew that he just got a 45 from, and we just looped their record. 'Sittin’ So High' is Eminem-influenced to me. 'Swagger To The Max' and 'Head' were real J Dilla and Marvin Gaye-influenced. 'Squeeze Precisely,' 'Gun In Yo Mouf,' and 'Reservoir Dogs' bring the open mic element to the shit of where we come from. 'Let’s Go' was giving props to (slain Detroit rapper) Blade Icewood. And the last two songs, 'Two Steps Back' and 'Work Song' are just lettin’ niggas know how I feel about situations."

On Standing Out In Detroit’s Prolific Hip Hop Scene: "I took a different route, and did shows that other people wouldn’t normally do. A lot of people here only do Hip Hop shit, and that’s it. But I figured out what my lane was. I did a lot of shows with Rock bands, Funk nights—other shit that didn’t have anything to do with Hip Hop. I was able to gain a lot of suburban fans, and people that wouldn’t have even heard about Danny Brown’s music. … That’s something that’s kind of missing from Detroit Hip Hop, [those fans] get kind of alienated. But think, we’re Michigan: Detroit is only one place with black people, everywhere else is white people. That’s what my whole market was; not saying that my music is made toward them, but I reached out to them and did shows with them and made myself visible to them to say, 'I fuck with y’all niggas. And it’s cool to fuck with my shit, too