clean out my closet
Danny Brown has a clearer perspective on life after spending the last year in rehab. The talented Detroit mainstay is telling the truth while still creating rhymes, beats and his acclaimed podcast.
Interview: Joey Echevarria
Editor’s note: This story appears in the Spring 2024 issue of XXL magazine, on shelves now.
Danny Brown is a changed man. Staying clean and sober will do that. However, when it comes to his unique brand of hip-hop—which blends introspective commentary with pure comedy—the 43-year-old rapper hasn’t lost his edge.
The Detroit native established himself early as an alternative hip-hop darling throughout the 2010s with nine mixtapes, four EPs, three collaborative projects and five studio albums. He has earned accolades for fan-favorite projects such as 2012’s “XXX” and 2013’s “Old.”
But as time went on and Danny became more successful, he personally hit rock bottom in the early 2020s. Danny struggled with drug and alcohol addiction while living in Detroit, and he moved to Austin, Texas in 2021 to try to make a change. The move brought the eclectic host closer to his longtime girlfriend, while also providing him with the opportunity to leverage his vibrant personality into a new creative endeavor: hosting a podcast. In 2022, he launched The Danny Brown Show, a weekly podcast described as his exploration of the craziest stories and most mind-boggling stories on the internet through Danny’s hilariously unique perspective corner place. The show has been a huge success for the rapper, giving him the opportunity to connect with new audiences and showcase his engaging personality.
However, Danny refused to give up rapping and just focused on becoming a person with a personality. Last March, he released his joint album “Scaring the Hoes” with JPEGMafia. While Danny’s creativity flourished, his personal inner turmoil continued to intensify. After Brown made some negative comments about his management and label Warp Records in a podcast that same month, he made the bold decision to check himself into a rehab facility for treatment for alcoholism.
A month later, Danny was out of rehab and in a better place. This summer he hit the road with JPEGMafia on the Scaring the Hoes tour before releasing his sixth solo album, Quaranta, last November.
During a Zoom call this past January, Danny openly and honestly discussed his struggles with sobriety, being a podcast host, his passion for creativity and fun personality, the current state of hip-hop, and more, all while caring for his Two chihuahuas and his dog.
XXL: What are your thoughts on the success of The Danny Brown Show podcast over the past two years?
Danny Brown: It’s interesting. I don’t even think about success or nothing. I just really enjoy doing it.
How did you become attracted to the long-form content that podcasts contain? Does it satisfy your creativity?
Yes, absolutely. Because that was never really what I thought. [Comedian and writer] Tom Segura is like one of my closest friends. He always said, “Man, you should do a pod, man. You’d be really funny.” I just said, “I don’t know. Anyone can put a camera and a microphone in a room and say they’re going to To the podcast,” you know? But I was like, “If I could do it with you guys, I’d love to do it.”
And then, you know, they told me they were moving to Austin, Texas. I travel back and forth from Austin because my girlfriend lives here. My life in Detroit was getting crazier and crazier. This is simply a matter of course. I was like, “Fuck it. I’m going to move to Austin, too. And then, we go from there.”
With so many rappers entering the podcast space, do you feel like there’s a degree of oversaturation?
Podcasts in general are oversaturated. The podcast bubble has burst, but I think that’s cool. I know a lot of artists that I’ve loved growing up and I feel like I know them. So, I feel like it connects the fans to the artists more.
You’ve always leaned into comedy through rap lyrics and now your podcast. What is the value to you of incorporating a sense of humor into your work?
It’s a big part of my character. It’s just a big part of who I am. I remember as a kid, I would always say, “I want to be a rapper.” You knew it when the teacher asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up. Mutafkas would laugh at me. Coming to the point, I just started saying I wanted to be a stand-up comedian. This idea has been in my head since I was little.
At the beginning of this year, you decided to try your hand at being a stand-up comedian. Is this still the case?
Uh-huh. I’m at a point right now where some of the people I look up to in comedy keep telling me, “You need to get on stage, man. You just have to do it. The only thing in comedy that really scares me is the music. I know I was going to have to go through about ten years of bombardment, which was already too much emotional stress for me.
I went through it all with rap music. Why would I put myself through that emotional turmoil again? But the thing about comedy is that it’s timeless compared to what rap music is like now, you know?
Your most recent album, Quaranta, deeply embodies the emotional turmoil you speak of. Do you feel like a burden has been lifted when delivering your project?
I know I’m tired of dumping trauma. A lot of people are hurting. You know, in an industry that sells blues or something like that, there’s probably a lot of that in my music. Now I just want to make music that makes people feel good.
I always talk about things I’m going through in life, but I feel like this time, it was more focused on that because I was going through a lot at the time. Just because I was an alcoholic and addicted to drugs and stuff. So, now I’m clean, sober, and life is a lot easier for myself. I was always using drugs and shit and messing myself up all the time as a way to escape. At this point in my life, I don’t seem to focus too much on the negative aspects of everything that’s going on.
When you first came out of rehab, you described the experience as humbling. It’s been almost a year since you quit drinking. Do you still feel this way?
I think it’s great for me to be honest, man. [Before], I really have no basis for it. Especially people from my community, they don’t go to rehab. It was something that was looked down upon, and the only thing I could base it on was, going to jail. I thought, fuck.
Around that time, it was getting closer and closer to me going in and I was getting more fucked up and stuff like that. But I actually had a great time in rehab, as silly as it sounds. Once you realize the source of the trauma and why you’re doing what you’re doing, you can address it. That’s the biggest thing rehab did for me, is make me understand why I do what I do. Once you figure that out, then you can solve the problem in a sense.
What do you think of the current state of hip-hop?
I feel like the space is better now than ever. Now, for these kids, they can post their own content on TikTok or somewhere online, like you like it or you don’t like it. It’s not just what the crowd pushes at you, or what the machines push at you. We just got back to square one and you have to get everybody rocking. There really are no rules now. Now everyone has a chance, so the cream will rise to the top.
Do you follow Detroit rap music?
I love what they’re doing now. Veeze and Babyface Ray, I really like them. I feel like they represent a different side of Detroit that we’ve never seen before, but that’s always been there. There’s always street gangsters and all these super gangsters in Detroit, but they’re just flies, you know? on some players.
There are more of them in Detroit than the overly glorified gangster Mousafkas. [In] All those new guys coming in, you’re going to see the diversity in Detroit. I hope it inspires people in Detroit to see all these different styles and sounds and let them know they don’t have to be a certain way to get their music out now.
Were you on the Scaring the Hoes tour with JPEGMafia last summer? What was that experience like for you?
Well, this was my first sober trip. So, I’m really worried about this and how it’s going to play out. Touring can be boring, it can be lonely, and I’ll be bored all the time because I’m bored. Then, before you know it, you have to mess up again to feel better on stage.
So now you’re in this never-ending revolving door situation. But that tour, I learned that when I get on stage, that’s the most fun I have all day. It’s almost like a form of therapy for me because it makes me feel good. You will feel excited and excited. It was like my drug, being on stage.
This spring, you’re embarking on a quarantine journey with two legs, one in North America and the other in Europe. Are you working on your next project before touring?
I’m in the beginning stages and I’m just talking to people because that’s what I always do. We talk about it and just throw out ideas. I do something musical every day, whether it’s making beats, writing songs or just trying to mix something. Anyway, I love sitting with music. That’s how you know when it’s good. When I can sit down and listen to music, it’s like, okay, I know what to use and what not to use.
Sometimes I like a song and then three months later I’m like, oh no, that’s too bad. There’s nothing worse than posting some shit and then everyone likes that shit, but you don’t like it. Now you’re on stage and you have to perform it and you’re like, F**k, I hate this song. I want to get to the point where I only do what I love.
What else do you need to accomplish in hip-hop? Is there anything you feel you owe yourself?
I want to say a lot. To make the best things I can over time. I think one of the things I’ve really realized is that music is going to live on after I’m gone. These are artists who made an album 50 years ago and we’re still talking about them. I want this legacy project to impact someone 50 years from now. That’s where I am right now, trying to create some legacy.
Musically I leave a lot to be desired. I’m more focused on music production now. I mean, I always made beats and s**t, but I always felt like people made better beats than me.In the years since I’ve lived here [in Texas]just cutting it every day.
So, I feel like I can really start using some of my stuff now. I think it’s more about working with artists from my hometown, all the guys in Bruiser Brigade like Bruiser Wolf, Fat Ray, Quentin Ahmad DaGod, Zeloperz, and you know, just trying to get them more involved. Put more ears and eyes on them.
Listen to Danny Brown’s Quaranta album
Read Danny Brown’s interview in the Spring 2024 issue of XXL Magazine, on newsstands now. The new issue also includes Gunna’s cover story and interviews with Metro Boomin, 42 Dugg, Teezo Touchdown, Jim Jones and Maino aka Lobby Boyz, That Mexican OT, 41, BabyDrill, Rapsody, comedian Druski, actress La La Anthony, BigXthaPlug, Rob49, Reuben Vincent, singer Tyla, actress La La Anthony and producer Tate Kobang. The book also explores how social networks are killing rappers emotionally, how hip-hop in 2024 will have more wins than losses, and how kid rappers can thrive on social media.