Pardon The Introduction: Danny Brown Talks Fool's Gold, Adderall And Why His Clothes Are Meaningless [PT.2]
You signed to Fool's Gold not too long ago, what made you decide to sign with them?
I'm just a fan of risk takers and you can tell which labels are really doing what they want to do, instead of doing what they think the public probably wants to hear.
There's a lot of bugged out artists on Fool's Gold.
I'm bugged out myself, so I fit right in.
You might be the first rapper to advocate Adderall usage. Weed is usually the drug of choice.
I fuck with the weed too but Adderall's more of a working thing. You could be a lazy stoner that's doing nothing, but you know you gotta balance it out.
Who introduced you to it?
Some white chick. Oh no, actually, I saw an MTV documentary, the True Life shits. I was like 'damn, this shit ain't even that bad' (laughs)
I think that was meant to be more of a cautionary tale...
Yeah but that seemed like it would help with the music. Trying to smoke 20 blunts a day, you'll fuck around and fall asleep at 9 o' clock. Adderall keep you up.
You said on Twitter that you knocked out 17 tracks last night, is that true?
It was just, you know, one of them nights. I gotta go back and listen to them. It was a lot of shit that I was (already) working on.
What's the difference between your albums and mixtapes?
Every album, I'll eventually grow but with every previous project you'll see a glimpse of what's to come. With the Hybrid there were certain songs that just stuck out that were newer to me doing, so I was learning that. I get bored quick. That's why I take adderol (laughs).
Your style is pretty abrasive, how'd you develop that style?
Just being from Detroit, the whole open mic scene. When you only got 16 bars to get your point across, you've got to leave an impression.
A lot of wild rappers like ODB are always respected but never considered for top 5 lists. You're also a wild rapper with a song called "greatest rapper alive", why shouldn’t people overlook you?
At the end of the day, I gotta put the work out to back it up. Mothafuckas think Dave Chappelle crazy. All geniuses are crazy.
Probably.
But if you look at what I've been doing, I've been doing what I want to. Ain't no crazy co-signs, you know, I fucked with (Tony) Yayo and my peer group but I feel like I had an organic buzz. It was nothing really fake about what I'm doing. One thing with rappers is you either wanna be that person or you believe them.
Unlike a lot of these new rappers, you're a big advocate of writing and taking care with your rhymes. How long does your writing process take?
I would say they happen pretty quickly. it's more so about how long it takes to do the song. The writing process takes a long time, I'll rewrite a song about three or four times. It'll take me about ten or fifteen minutes.
The tracks come out sounding effortless, which song did you have a lot of difficulty with?
I'd say that "Lincoln Contintental" song. They actually put it on the Hybrid itunes version. It took me 45 minutes just to do the adlibs (laughs).
I think everybody wants to know but is afraid to ask, what happened to your front teeth?
I got hit by a car. I was in middle school, the other one broke while playing basketball.
Thought it might have been a fight or something.
Nah, wrong place at the wrong time
You get respect from cats like Sean Price who don't usually associate with skinny jean rappers, can you explain why that is?
(Laughs) I mean at the end of the day, if you meet me and get to know me, appearances don't really mean shit. I'm a hood ass nigga. I'm from the D (Detroit). I just don't want to get put in any box. You see me next year, I'm going to look a whole different way. I keep changing.
