Name: Danny Brown on The Downside of Rap
Uploaded: 2022-11-23T18:37:37.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Danny Brown on The Downside of Rap' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-11-23. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Danny Brown on The Downside of Rap' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-11-23. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan experience. My rap career is a total different world than what
this is.
Of course. My rap career, I would say, what made that bad is that I started a
little too old.
So I didn't really get recognition or, you know, till I was 30 years old. And
you got to think I've
been trying to do this my entire 20s. So when I started to be a rapper, get
recognition for it,
and being that, I had a bitter attitude towards it. You get what I'm saying?
Because it took
so long for it to happen. And then now I'm 30 years old. It's a 30 year old
rapper. It's
like a ticking time bomb at that point. Like how much time you got. So I'm
already in my
head. Like, I will say, a lot of people say like being a rapper is dangerous,
like, you
know, because all the killings and shit. But I would say being a rapper is
dangerous in the
sense. Because once you do it, you can't do nothing else. It ruins you.
How so?
So let's just say, okay, let's just say I was a rapper and then it failed. Then
I got
to go get a normal job.
Well, if anything fails.
But I had minimal success. You saw my video somewhere. I had a couple of views.
Yeah.
And now I'm working at a job with you. Now you're like, oh, you blah, blah.
Yeah. So that and
everywhere you go, somebody, oh, you. That's true. So you always recognize.
That's
true. So you're always getting acknowledged for your failures. But that's true.
Every
time someone. So just imagine every time someone recognizes you, they're
acknowledging your failure.
That hurts. It hurts. Of course it does.
But that's what happens in all walks of life. Anytime when you fail and people
get to
get to on you and if you're a public person. If you work fries at McDonald's,
no one cares.
Don't you remember Gary Coleman? Gary Coleman from Different Strokes? I don't
know.
He started working as a security guard and people would just on him relentlessly.
And like, imagine that. Because if he was just a security guard, no one would
care.
You would never walk up to a security guard and go, look at this fucking loser.
You're a security guard.
That's exactly what I'm saying.
It's the same thing with actors.
So me being Danny Brown, I can never go back to being a normal. I can never go
back to being
Daniel. Danny, you don't have to, first of all. And don't. And don't even think
about it.
Don't even think about it. You don't have to. You're never going to have to do
that.
I know what you're saying, but you can't think about like worst case scenario
and dwell on it like
that. You are of personality and the personality can do anything it wants to do.
You're a fun guy.
I think about that and I love that too. Because you got to think the last album
I put out was 2019.
Yeah, you were saying that. And that was um, you're torn infrequently.
No, I worked on that album with Q-tip from, you know, just to be able to work
with Q-tip
was such a fucking big deal to me. For sure.
And you know, it, it, it gave me confidence in my music to be in the fact that
A Trap Called Quest was my dad's favorite rap group.
Wow. I remember going, my dad taking me to
a fucking preschool. I mean, I'm preschool. It wasn't that early, but whatever.
Whatever.
But elementary school, my dad taking me to school and he listening to A Trap
Called Quest.
And before I know it, one day I'm sitting in the studio with Q-tip every day
working on the album.
So it was fucking, it was a big deal. You know what I'm saying? It was a big
deal for me. And you know,
we made that album and I guess think, um, the world of music have changed so
much. Where like, um,
a 10 second tick tock beat means way more than you putting out a single.
You understand what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Like that whole changed. So the way I grew up, the way I grew up, like me, my
favorite rapper is Nas.
And Nas just put on a new album and that album is fucking amazing.
And you know why that album is amazing? It's because Nas is having fucking fun.
And Nas is able to make music without any fucking, you gotta think.
Well, Nas is really rich. Like he's got a bunch of different businesses.
It wasn't always like that though.
No, but I'm saying like right now, if he's doing rap right now, it's because he
wants to do it.
Yes, but it wasn't always like that.
Right, of course.
He had the whole situation of what he went through.
Oh yeah.
With his divorces and all, but what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was all public.
Yes.
He's the best lyricist ever, in my opinion.
He's, his fucking shit is so complicated.
The way he does things back, what's that one song where he does backwards?
Rewind.
Rewind.
That's a brilliant song.
You want to have this coming?
Bro, we don't want to talk about this.
All right.
Just for me.
Nas is like, and I've had the opportunity to meet Nas a lot.
Like, I wouldn't say a lot, but he knows what he means to me.
You get what I'm saying?
Yes.
So, actually, he wanted to sign me to his label.
I didn't sign to him because, I mean, whatever.
I mean, money, man, money, money, man.
Yeah, I get it.
The other contract was more money, man.
Yeah, I get it.
And that's what it is.
But sometimes I think about that.
Did I make a mistake?
I'd be like, damn.
Just because the artist that I looked up to my entire life that made me be a
rapper tried to sign me,
and I didn't sign with him, all because of money.
And now, I'm not saying I feel any way about being with Warp.
Like, I love Warp.
Warp is, you know, they've done.
Part two, Warp has made me a better artist than what I actually am.
How's that?
Because, like, okay, it's deceiving now.
Like, the album that I just, I made an album during COVID, obviously.
We were sitting around when nobody could do nothing.
And I just felt like, oh, I ain't.
So, I just started going to the studio and just started recording songs, making
music,
record the album.
And this is the album that we're going to release.
But the album been done for, like, three years.
Like, you know?
Well, what's been the holdup?
You don't know?
So, it's on them?
That's what happened when you signed the record labels.
Oh, Jesus.
Bro, you want to hear it?
Bro.
All right, you want to hear it?
All right, let me give you my rundown story.
Three years?
I might need another drink.
I think you need another drink.
I might need another drink, yeah.
All right, so check this out.
Danny Brown, being a regular rapper from Detroit, whatever.
All right, whatever.
Cheers, sir.
Thank you.
Cheers.
I'm not even going to go into Tony A.O. and G on their all weird shit.
Just to get to the point of it.
So, I remember being, it's a festival in New York at the time.
It was called CMJ Festival, which was, like, cool.
It was, like, you know, same thing as South by Southwest with it to Texas.
That's what it was for New York.
And they had this festival, CMJ Festival.
And at one of these shows, they had, at Brooklyn Bowl, Fools Go Records, do a
show.
And Kanye showed up.
And it shut the whole shit down, like, and I couldn't go.
I couldn't get in.
I was like, and to me, I was like, man, Fools Go Records, like, man, they like
the hellest shit.
Like, if I could ever be cool with Fools Go Records, like, whatever I can do to
be down with Fools Go Records, I would do.
You know what I'm saying?
Type of shit.
So, then, shit goes on years.
I ended up getting in a situation.
I started talking to Fools Go.
And I don't think they were really into signing me at the time.
But Q-Tip from a tribe called Quest was real close with A-Track, who's one of
the owners of Fools Go.
And they hung out.
And A-Track was like, man, we're thinking about signing Denny Brown.
And Q-Tip was like, nigga, thinking?
Are you retarded?
Like, this is one of the illest things.
He broke it down to him, like, what makes me so ill?
Which I can, we can talk about.
That has to be nice.
No, I'm literally, like, super ill.
Like, when it comes to, like, rap, like, it's like cheating.
Like, I'm, like, steroid.
Like, it's super ill.
Like, I can cheat.
Like, it's super ill.
So then, to them, he was like, fuck it.
Yeah, I'm going to sign it, because.
So then I already knew I was going to get signed to Fools Go.
We already had this to each other.
So it was no negotiation on what the shit was.
So I was going to interviews already.
Like, I would do interviews, and they'd be like, what's going to happen?
And I'd be like, oh, I'm signing to Fools Go.
So, boom.
To say that, we signed a contract.
I signed for $5,000.
Literally, $5,000.
And it was South by Southwest happening the next week.
And I had, like, two shows.
That's all about it.
So I literally spent the entire signing bonus at South by Southwest the next
week.
So I had no money.
Super broke.
Whatever the fuck.
I'm living off my girl.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, her banking on me, making it as a rapper kind of situation.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
So we do whatever we do.
We get that.
But then the album comes out, and at the time, no one really thought about the
album.
I would think no one, I did.
But at that time, no one thought that the album would be, like, a big deal.
Ended up, the album would come out at one album of the year in Spin Magazine.
It ended up being one of the best albums I ever had in my career.
Like, but when you think about it, it's like a person back against the wall.
When you listen to the album, I back against the wall.
Right.
And the whole concept of the album is, you know, rap music is all about being
young, 20-year-olds.
The album is called 30.
This is an album about a 30-year-old rapper just now starting to get a break
and how he feels.
You know?
Yeah.
So, yeah.
And the album did good.
It did good.
Congratulations.
It did good.
It did good.
I'm saying not, like, sales-wise or anything like that, but culturally.
Mm-hmm.
It did good.
And it got recognition.
So, I was able to get a lot of shit from that.
And, you know, I got a lot of deals and signed a lot of shit.
And then my next album, after that, was Old.
It's called Old.
But that charted Billboard.
But it was a lot of money.
Like, I spent, like, it was a lot of money spent in that.
I say that to say this, okay.
As me, as a kid.
From Detroit.
Got good at rap.
All right.
I know how to rap.
A record label signs me.
I rap for this record label.
Make an album.
In my head, as when you start to make music, you want to be as experimental and
to be you as much as
point.
You don't understand it's the thing called music business.
So, you're not thinking about business.
You're just thinking about art.
I'm just trying to make the best.
Me, Illmatic was the greatest album I ever heard in my life.
So, to me, it's like Illmatic.
And the other one is Cannibal Ox, Colvain.
Like, so, to me, it's like, I'm trying to make albums to mirror those.
I'm just trying to like, as me as a rapper or as an artist or a musician, just
trying to like,
shit that I was influenced by, like, try to make a piece of art that could
stand next to that.
You get what I'm saying?
But, at this point in life now, that shit don't matter no more.
Because it's too much money to be made behind this shit.
You get what I'm saying?
So, I didn't care about this shit.
And then now...
So, do you think that by trying to make something that stands next to that,
somehow or another,
you'll lose money?
Definitely.
How come?
Because time changed.
Time changes how?
The shit that we liked in 1994, we don't like it in 2004.
I still do.
I think there's a lot of people that still do.
Yeah, we do, but we gotta think about the kids.
Dude, I still listen to Cool G rap.
Have you listened to Playboi Carti?
No.
See?
Well, I don't listen to anything.
Playboi Carti...
I can't know everything.
I don't have enough time.
Bro, Playboi Carti can shut down this whole shit.
I'm being honest with you.
Can we play some of it?
Can we play some of it?
We can play some of it, right?
You probably...
What?
Which...
No.
No?
No.
Why?
Just some...
See, look, I'm gonna be a hater now by saying no.
But no.
No.
No.
We're not gonna play no Playboi Carti.
Why?
Cuz this is my Joe Rogan interview.
Okay.
Let him know about the fucking game of Playboi.
It's not gonna hurt you if he gets a little love.
All right.
You just gave him some.
Playboi Carti does not mean no love.
I'll tell you.
We'll play that.
We'll play a little of that just to educate me.
And educate the people that are listening.
Oh.
And then we'll play...
Play Playboi Carti.
Give me a Danny Brown track.
No.
Give me a Danny Brown track that you like.
I definitely don't want to hear mine after this.
Play Playboi Carti.
No.
Stop breathing.
Bro, you don't get it.
I don't get it.
Help me out.
My music is like stand-up comedy in that sense.
Oh, you want to hear some of my stand-up comedy rap?
Sure.
We'll do that.
We'll do that.
We won't have to.
Bitch, only thing you gotta know.
My dick touched the ground when I'm satin.
I'm in the flow.
See, that's the thing about rap.
Like, you know me.
I was into comedy.
So I took my whole from comedy to where I were rapped.
So what I would do, I would just sit around and write punchlines all the time.
So I write punchlines.
So think about this.
Look, I'm about to give y'all niggas the game.
So it's 16 bars of verse.
It's four punch, it's four lines for a verse.
So let's just say if I sit around, I listen to a Joe Rogan episode.
Someone says an ill punchline on there.
Uncle Joey, he might say some crazy shit.
You get what I'm saying?
Just some crazy shit.
A line.
Just one line.
I can take that one line.
It's four, it's 16 bars.
So one line could create four bars.
So every line I get four bars.
So I need four lines to give me a 16.
Hmm.
Yeah.
No.

Danny Brown on The Downside of Rap

The Joe Rogan experience. My rap career is a total different world than what
this is.
Of course. My rap career, I would say, what made that bad is that I started a
little too old.
So I didn't really get recognition or, you know, till I was 30 years old. And
you got to think I've
been trying to do this my entire 20s. So when I started to be a rapper, get
recognition for it,
and being that, I had a bitter attitude towards it. You get what I'm saying?
Because it took
so long for it to happen. And then now I'm 30 years old. It's a 30 year old
rapper. It's
like a ticking time bomb at that point. Like how much time you got. So I'm
already in my
head. Like, I will say, a lot of people say like being a rapper is dangerous,
like, you
know, because all the killings and shit. But I would say being a rapper is
dangerous in the
sense. Because once you do it, you can't do nothing else. It ruins you.
How so?
So let's just say, okay, let's just say I was a rapper and then it failed. Then
I got
to go get a normal job.
Well, if anything fails.
But I had minimal success. You saw my video somewhere. I had a couple of views.
Yeah.
And now I'm working at a job with you. Now you're like, oh, you blah, blah.
Yeah. So that and
everywhere you go, somebody, oh, you. That's true. So you always recognize.
That's
true. So you're always getting acknowledged for your failures. But that's true.
Every
time someone. So just imagine every time someone recognizes you, they're
acknowledging your failure.
That hurts. It hurts. Of course it does.
But that's what happens in all walks of life. Anytime when you fail and people
get to
get to on you and if you're a public person. If you work fries at McDonald's,
no one cares.
Don't you remember Gary Coleman? Gary Coleman from Different Strokes? I don't
know.
He started working as a security guard and people would just on him relentlessly.
And like, imagine that. Because if he was just a security guard, no one would
care.
You would never walk up to a security guard and go, look at this fucking loser.
You're a security guard.
That's exactly what I'm saying.
It's the same thing with actors.
So me being Danny Brown, I can never go back to being a normal. I can never go
back to being
Daniel. Danny, you don't have to, first of all. And don't. And don't even think
about it.
Don't even think about it. You don't have to. You're never going to have to do
that.
I know what you're saying, but you can't think about like worst case scenario
and dwell on it like
that. You are of personality and the personality can do anything it wants to do.
You're a fun guy.
I think about that and I love that too. Because you got to think the last album
I put out was 2019.
Yeah, you were saying that. And that was um, you're torn infrequently.
No, I worked on that album with Q-tip from, you know, just to be able to work
with Q-tip
was such a fucking big deal to me. For sure.
And you know, it, it, it gave me confidence in my music to be in the fact that
A Trap Called Quest was my dad's favorite rap group.
Wow. I remember going, my dad taking me to
a fucking preschool. I mean, I'm preschool. It wasn't that early, but whatever.
Whatever.
But elementary school, my dad taking me to school and he listening to A Trap
Called Quest.
And before I know it, one day I'm sitting in the studio with Q-tip every day
working on the album.
So it was fucking, it was a big deal. You know what I'm saying? It was a big
deal for me. And you know,
we made that album and I guess think, um, the world of music have changed so
much. Where like, um,
a 10 second tick tock beat means way more than you putting out a single.
You understand what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Like that whole changed. So the way I grew up, the way I grew up, like me, my
favorite rapper is Nas.
And Nas just put on a new album and that album is fucking amazing.
And you know why that album is amazing? It's because Nas is having fucking fun.
And Nas is able to make music without any fucking, you gotta think.
Well, Nas is really rich. Like he's got a bunch of different businesses.
It wasn't always like that though.
No, but I'm saying like right now, if he's doing rap right now, it's because he
wants to do it.
Yes, but it wasn't always like that.
Right, of course.
He had the whole situation of what he went through.
Oh yeah.
With his divorces and all, but what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was all public.
Yes.
He's the best lyricist ever, in my opinion.
He's, his fucking shit is so complicated.
The way he does things back, what's that one song where he does backwards?
Rewind.
Rewind.
That's a brilliant song.
You want to have this coming?
Bro, we don't want to talk about this.
All right.
Just for me.
Nas is like, and I've had the opportunity to meet Nas a lot.
Like, I wouldn't say a lot, but he knows what he means to me.
You get what I'm saying?
Yes.
So, actually, he wanted to sign me to his label.
I didn't sign to him because, I mean, whatever.
I mean, money, man, money, money, man.
Yeah, I get it.
The other contract was more money, man.
Yeah, I get it.
And that's what it is.
But sometimes I think about that.
Did I make a mistake?
I'd be like, damn.
Just because the artist that I looked up to my entire life that made me be a
rapper tried to sign me,
and I didn't sign with him, all because of money.
And now, I'm not saying I feel any way about being with Warp.
Like, I love Warp.
Warp is, you know, they've done.
Part two, Warp has made me a better artist than what I actually am.
How's that?
Because, like, okay, it's deceiving now.
Like, the album that I just, I made an album during COVID, obviously.
We were sitting around when nobody could do nothing.
And I just felt like, oh, I ain't.
So, I just started going to the studio and just started recording songs, making
music,
record the album.
And this is the album that we're going to release.
But the album been done for, like, three years.
Like, you know?
Well, what's been the holdup?
You don't know?
So, it's on them?
That's what happened when you signed the record labels.
Oh, Jesus.
Bro, you want to hear it?
Bro.
All right, you want to hear it?
All right, let me give you my rundown story.
Three years?
I might need another drink.
I think you need another drink.
I might need another drink, yeah.
All right, so check this out.
Danny Brown, being a regular rapper from Detroit, whatever.
All right, whatever.
Cheers, sir.
Thank you.
Cheers.
I'm not even going to go into Tony A.O. and G on their all weird shit.
Just to get to the point of it.
So, I remember being, it's a festival in New York at the time.
It was called CMJ Festival, which was, like, cool.
It was, like, you know, same thing as South by Southwest with it to Texas.
That's what it was for New York.
And they had this festival, CMJ Festival.
And at one of these shows, they had, at Brooklyn Bowl, Fools Go Records, do a
show.
And Kanye showed up.
And it shut the whole shit down, like, and I couldn't go.
I couldn't get in.
I was like, and to me, I was like, man, Fools Go Records, like, man, they like
the hellest shit.
Like, if I could ever be cool with Fools Go Records, like, whatever I can do to
be down with Fools Go Records, I would do.
You know what I'm saying?
Type of shit.
So, then, shit goes on years.
I ended up getting in a situation.
I started talking to Fools Go.
And I don't think they were really into signing me at the time.
But Q-Tip from a tribe called Quest was real close with A-Track, who's one of
the owners of Fools Go.
And they hung out.
And A-Track was like, man, we're thinking about signing Denny Brown.
And Q-Tip was like, nigga, thinking?
Are you retarded?
Like, this is one of the illest things.
He broke it down to him, like, what makes me so ill?
Which I can, we can talk about.
That has to be nice.
No, I'm literally, like, super ill.
Like, when it comes to, like, rap, like, it's like cheating.
Like, I'm, like, steroid.
Like, it's super ill.
Like, I can cheat.
Like, it's super ill.
So then, to them, he was like, fuck it.
Yeah, I'm going to sign it, because.
So then I already knew I was going to get signed to Fools Go.
We already had this to each other.
So it was no negotiation on what the shit was.
So I was going to interviews already.
Like, I would do interviews, and they'd be like, what's going to happen?
And I'd be like, oh, I'm signing to Fools Go.
So, boom.
To say that, we signed a contract.
I signed for $5,000.
Literally, $5,000.
And it was South by Southwest happening the next week.
And I had, like, two shows.
That's all about it.
So I literally spent the entire signing bonus at South by Southwest the next
week.
So I had no money.
Super broke.
Whatever the fuck.
I'm living off my girl.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, her banking on me, making it as a rapper kind of situation.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
So we do whatever we do.
We get that.
But then the album comes out, and at the time, no one really thought about the
album.
I would think no one, I did.
But at that time, no one thought that the album would be, like, a big deal.
Ended up, the album would come out at one album of the year in Spin Magazine.
It ended up being one of the best albums I ever had in my career.
Like, but when you think about it, it's like a person back against the wall.
When you listen to the album, I back against the wall.
Right.
And the whole concept of the album is, you know, rap music is all about being
young, 20-year-olds.
The album is called 30.
This is an album about a 30-year-old rapper just now starting to get a break
and how he feels.
You know?
Yeah.
So, yeah.
And the album did good.
It did good.
Congratulations.
It did good.
It did good.
I'm saying not, like, sales-wise or anything like that, but culturally.
Mm-hmm.
It did good.
And it got recognition.
So, I was able to get a lot of shit from that.
And, you know, I got a lot of deals and signed a lot of shit.
And then my next album, after that, was Old.
It's called Old.
But that charted Billboard.
But it was a lot of money.
Like, I spent, like, it was a lot of money spent in that.
I say that to say this, okay.
As me, as a kid.
From Detroit.
Got good at rap.
All right.
I know how to rap.
A record label signs me.
I rap for this record label.
Make an album.
In my head, as when you start to make music, you want to be as experimental and
to be you as much as
point.
You don't understand it's the thing called music business.
So, you're not thinking about business.
You're just thinking about art.
I'm just trying to make the best.
Me, Illmatic was the greatest album I ever heard in my life.
So, to me, it's like Illmatic.
And the other one is Cannibal Ox, Colvain.
Like, so, to me, it's like, I'm trying to make albums to mirror those.
I'm just trying to like, as me as a rapper or as an artist or a musician, just
trying to like,
shit that I was influenced by, like, try to make a piece of art that could
stand next to that.
You get what I'm saying?
But, at this point in life now, that shit don't matter no more.
Because it's too much money to be made behind this shit.
You get what I'm saying?
So, I didn't care about this shit.
And then now...
So, do you think that by trying to make something that stands next to that,
somehow or another,
you'll lose money?
Definitely.
How come?
Because time changed.
Time changes how?
The shit that we liked in 1994, we don't like it in 2004.
I still do.
I think there's a lot of people that still do.
Yeah, we do, but we gotta think about the kids.
Dude, I still listen to Cool G rap.
Have you listened to Playboi Carti?
No.
See?
Well, I don't listen to anything.
Playboi Carti...
I can't know everything.
I don't have enough time.
Bro, Playboi Carti can shut down this whole shit.
I'm being honest with you.
Can we play some of it?
Can we play some of it?
We can play some of it, right?
You probably...
What?
Which...
No.
No?
No.
Why?
Just some...
See, look, I'm gonna be a hater now by saying no.
But no.
No.
No.
We're not gonna play no Playboi Carti.
Why?
Cuz this is my Joe Rogan interview.
Okay.
