“Everybody can’t be Lil’ Wayne,” Danny Brown says bluntly, just a couple hours before his set at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Brown makes this statement in relation to the online music community’s incessant demand for content that forces artists young and old to flood the web with new music and videos. While Danny Brown understands how things work in the Internet age, he’s committed to not basing his own creative output on the speed of music blogs.
“I get it,” he says, his voice growing more excited. “I’m a rapper and this shit is so ‘Internet genre.’ My favorite rapper of all time is Nas and he didn’t release an album til at least every two years. And that’s why he’s still releasing albums now. You got these kids and they release 100 mixtapes a year and don’t nobody want to hear you after that year.”
Since the release of his breakthrough mixtape, XXX, Danny has been select in the music he’s released. Aside from a few guest verses here and there, an appearance on the Alchemist’s new album, and the viral hit “Grown Up”, Danny’s releases have been minimal, despite an ever-growing demand. Still, “quality more so than quantity,” is Danny Brown’s motto. “People don’t get it,” he says. “I ain’t drop shit since August. I don’t have to drop nothing this year. I bet when I still drop, I’m busting ass.”
Even though we haven’t heard a lot of new records from Danny Brown, that doesn’t mean he’s not working on it. Danny told me that he’s in the writing stages of a new album, once again getting the bulk of production from his in-house producer, SKYWLKR. Similar to working on his own timetable, he also works to his own tastes. He is definitely aware that he has a larger audience now as well as higher expectations, and while some artists can let their fans subconsciously slip into the booth with them and affect their music, Brown says he is avoiding that pitfall.
“I still really make music for myself and what I feel comfortable releasing,” he explains. “I can’t really think about what another person will like. I just know what I like. That’s how a lot of artists fuck up, making something they think somebody will like. You should never think about what people will like,” He says before adding, “I don’t care how I’m being perceived. I do everything for me. I think that’s why I’m here, that’s why I prospered.”
Danny is certainly prospering right now. He turned in one of the best sets at Pitchfork earlier this month, and also just announced a fall tour with A$AP Rocky and ScHoolboy Q. Maybe we’ll have some new music from Danny around that time, then again, we may not. As he told me at the end of our interview, “If it happens it happens. I do everything off feeling. There’s no strategic marketing, strategy and shit. When it’s time to hear some new Danny Brown, new Danny Brown will come out.”
Indeed.