Words by: Laura Weber
Danny Brown is a ferocious Detroit MC whose myriad metaphors are packed in a clip for his lyrical disposal. His eight bars on eLZhi’s recent The Preface stood out as he blasted with, “Hit the trees hard like George In The Jungle…” Danny’s effortless juxtaposition of attraction to grizzled street life and youthful pleasantries is what makes him a force in a city full of tough lyricists.
His first album — the recent Hot Soup, with producer Nick Speed – was a runaway underground success in Michigan. The only thing glaringly un-Detroit about the album is on the inside of the cover; in the picture, Danny sits at a table in a restaurant in direct competition with Detroit Hip-Hop’s favored greasy spoon, Lafayette Coney Island.
Q: I have to ask — why are you sitting at the American Coney Island and not Lafayette Coney Island in that picture on the inside of your album?
A: Because that’s where they allowed us to shoot at, and we had to work with what we had to work with… It was too crazy in [Lafayette.] You know how [American Coney Island] always be extra empty — wasn’t no one in there on a Sunday morning. [Lafayette] was packed because a Tiger game had just got out, or some shit.
Q: On a Sunday morning?
A: Yeah, I mean, it was morning to me, but I guess maybe not to other people. Three o’clock is morning to me. I’ve just been in the studio so much working on the new album; I’ve been working 14-hour days.
Q: That’s crazy. Where have you been going with your sound for the new album versus Hot Soup?
A: You know, Hot Soup was really to make our sound more relatable to more people. But with this album? I really didn’t care what people thought, or nothing like that. I just made what I wanted to hear — what me and my friends wanted to listen to. That was a big complaint from a lot of my friends.
Q: What was the complaint from them about Hot Soup?
A: It was a little too soft for them. They wanted me to get back to that hard street shit that I used to do… I’ve already got like a lot of the songs recorded, but right now the one they lack is a cohesiveness. So I need to figure out how to tie it all together. But I would say that one song on this album is better than all of Hot Soup.
Q: When are you trying to put the new album out?
A: We’re trying to work that out because it’s not going to be any free download shit. I don’t want to put anything out too quick. I have a habit of counting my chickens before they hatch, so I’m going to be cautious.
Q: Did you find in making Hot Soup so accessible on the Internet, that worked to your advantage?
A: Yeah, I think so. There were a lot of people who heard it who probably wouldn’t have heard it if I was just selling CDs out of my book bag… I mean, I got responses from Italy, from France, from fucking London — there’s no way people overseas could have got it, you see what I’m saying? So that seemed like that was the best way to go. But there’s a lot of people following that trend.
Q: It seems like a limited release of the hard copy was beneficial, because I had to beg, borrow and steal to get mine…
A: Yeah, and I can’t keep a copy of the shit. It just flies off. It just disappears. [laughs] It’s the magic CD — it just disappears on its own… I made that album for all the people in Detroit who still listen to funk and actually still go collect vinyl… Now with this album [The Hybrid] it’s a whole different thing. It’s like an out of body experience. It’s much more lyrical. What people don’t realize with Hot Soup is that I was holding back.
Q: How do you mean?
A: I mean, I wasn’t really being lyrical on that. I was really dumbed down.
Q: Yeah, but your metaphors are so crazy.
A: Yeah, but at the same time, it’s stupid too. You see what I’m saying? Like there’s a lot of shit purposely to make people say, “Dang, you’re fucking wack!” Like, I got a lot of flack for Hot Soup — I’ve heard I have the most annoying voice in the world, I’m not believable, there’s nothing exciting about me pretty much. That’s what a lot of people were saying. But, I mean, I think the only person to say some shit like that is a person who hasn’t been around my way.
