00:00Hello, my name is Danny Brown.
00:14I guess my evolution throughout the years is just like anybody else would grow, you know?
00:19I mean, I came into this doing it at 30, so I started really late.
00:23So I was just, you know, my second childhood kind of thing.
00:26It gave me that thing that I didn't really have to grow up.
00:29Nah, so I started to wild out a little bit and have a lot of fun and make up for lost time.
00:34You know what I'm saying? My 20s suck.
00:35I guess I think it's just like anybody else's process.
00:38Maybe mine just went a little slower than others because I'm damn near 40 now.
00:45I like to change up almost with every album, but with the hair thing, man, I didn't have no choice.
00:51When I did the Unwhite Boy Rick movie, I just showed up one day like, we cutting your hair off.
00:54That's when I had dreads. I'm like, what the, you know? I just got this.
00:58Like, you know what I'm saying?
00:59And then I got my teeth fixed. That was a health thing, you know?
01:01They were telling me that the route I'm going, by the time I'm 40, I was going to be indentures, you know?
01:06And I was having that immature way about like, you know what?
01:08I'll just put a grill on the dentures then, you know what I'm saying?
01:10And we'll just rock like that.
01:11But I was like, you know what? You got to stop being stupid.
01:13But I had to, it took a long time.
01:15It was a lot. I took, I had to take a lot of work.
01:17So, you know, but now, I'm back.
01:26I mean, I had a chance to hang out with Nas and we had a nice conversation.
01:30And he just gave me the best advice was just to rap.
01:32Like, stop thinking too hard about everything.
01:34Stop trying to make a song for this or do this for that.
01:37Just dope beats and raps.
01:39That's all it really boils down to.
01:40You thinking too hard about doing this, coming up with a concept, let the music make itself.
01:44Because at the end of the day, you're not responsible for it.
01:46It's coming from like a higher place.
01:48So, it ain't, you know, it ain't no big deal for you to stress about it.
01:51Because it ain't you doing it anyway.
01:53So, embrace the muse, you know?
01:55I mean, I always was into stand-up comedy.
02:06Like, it got to the point where I have more stand-up comedy friends than I have rap friends.
02:11And I guess when I did the White Boy Rick movie, I kind of got the bug a little bit.
02:14It was just fun, you know?
02:15And I was in high school, I used to skip every class but go to drama.
02:18But me and my drama teacher fell out because he always wanted me to get plays and shit.
02:21And I was like, man, that's lame. I don't want to be on no play.
02:23So, he would get mad at me like, ugh, you don't really know.
02:26You're not taking advantage of your talents and stuff like that.
02:29Because I would go in there and do sketches. I love doing like improv sketches.
02:32Like, even if I wasn't a rapper or something, I'd probably be at like Second City or something like that.
02:36You know what I'm saying? That would have been fun for me.
02:42Everybody's trying too hard to be a little weird or to be just a little too out there now.
02:47We're starting to be a little try hard.
02:49I'm not a hater about it. Like, the way I came out, I didn't kind of have a choice.
02:52I had a miss and two. You know, so I had to just embrace a look that I knew that, you know, the normal.
02:57I didn't look normal anyway.
02:58So, there wasn't no way for me to just try to act like I'm, you know, a regular rapper and just be normal about it.
03:03So, I feel like, you know, I was probably, I'm probably the reason a lot of people being they self now.
03:08Like, you don't have to be the super hard rapper. You don't got to be the super conscious.
03:12You can be all that and still look the way you want to look.
03:14And if I did that for hip-hop, then that's a blessing. I'm happy for that. I can ride with that legacy.
03:22Well, I really like playing Afropunk because, you know, I don't know, man. You know black excellent shit.
03:29You know what I'm saying? We're doing it for the brothers, man. For us buyers type shit. You feel me?
03:33Afropunk has always supported me since the beginning of my shit. So, anytime they reach out, I'm, you know, I'm there. I'm running to perform. You know what I'm saying?
