The hard truth is that with so many aspiring rappers out there, some just won’t make it. Not because they don’t have the talent but because being in this industry isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes a lot more than skill to carry on when the going gets tough. On your road to success there are sure to be times when you’ll have to check your ego at the door and ask yourself if you can persevere after years of trying. Of course for Danny Brown, being in the game nearly 10 years he should be a veteran by now. But he encountered obstacles that could end any artist’s career; from being rejected by two well known hip hop labels (G-Unit and Roc-A-Fella) and serving a long jail stint. However in spite of that he continued to make music and 8 years later his clever rhymes and eccentric persona caught media attention from Spin and Pitchfork. In 2011, Danny Brown was signed to A-Trak’s label Fools Gold Records. Hailed from Detroit, his intoxicating lyrics are good enough to throw up a covert middle finger at those who doubted him.
- Daniel Sewell aka Danny Brown was born on March 16, 1981 in Detroit, Michigan.
- When he was young, his mother would read Dr. Seuss books to him so rhyming came natural to him.
- Danny knew he wanted to be a rapper since he was in kindergarten.
- He was exposed to the music scene as a teenager due to his father being a DJ.
- Danny was part of a rap group called Rese’vor Dogs with 2 other local rappers named Chip$ and Dopehead.
- In 2003, the Rese’vor Dogs released an indie album called Runispokets-N-Dumpemindariva under Ren-A-Sance Ent. And F.B.C. Records.
- Their single called ‘Yes’ received a mild rotation on Detroit’s hip hop stations.
- After building a local following, Danny and his crew went to New York and started passing out CD’s.
- While in New York passing out CD’s, Danny Brown met an artist signed to DMX’s label who took him to Roc-A-Fella Records.
- His music ended up in the hands of Travis Cummings, A&R for Roc-A-Fella Records.
- Although he was recording in New York for Roc-A-Fella, it turned out to be a dead end situation for him.
- Danny went back to Detroit and ended up getting locked up for a year.
- After getting out of jail he concentrated on making music.
- Danny soon built a relationship with G-Unit producer Nick Speed.
- He says that he made most of his industry connections on Twitter.
- In 2007, he released his first mixtape called Detroit State of Mind.
- In 2008, Danny released 2 mixtapes: Detroit State of Mind 2 and Hot Soup.
- In 2009, He released Detroit State of Mind 3.
- Danny’s connection with G-Unit led to a collaboration with Tony Yayo.
- In 2010, he released an EP with Tony Yayo called Hawaiian Snow.
- He also released 4 mixtapes in 2010: Detroit State of Mind 4, Browntown, It’s a Art, and The Hybrid: Cutting Room Floor.
- His image and fitted jeans look didn’t fit in with G-Unit Records so he was never signed.
- In 2011, he released the EP called The Hybrid.
- Danny Brown was signed to a New York Independent label called Fool’s Gold Records (founded by DJ A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs) in 2011.
- In 2011, he released his second album under Fool’s Gold Records called XXX.
- His album XXX was named Hip Hop Album of the Year by Spin Magazine and Pitchfork gave his album an 8.2 out of 10 rating.
- Pitchfork also ranked the album number 19 of the best albums of 2011.
- Passion of Weiss ranked it number 6 of the best albums of 2011.
- He is currently set to begin touring with Childish Gambino sometime in March 2012.
- He was also part of the 2012 SXSW line up.
- Danny Brown was featured in XXL’s 2012 Freshman Class.
Here are Danny Brown’s thoughts on success and failure in an interview with RubyHornetTV: “I mean at the end of the day if you really look at somebody like just tryin to be a rapper, there’s a lot of people that fail and there’s a lot of people that succeed. It’s like if you fail at that shit, that’s pretty much like a blow to your name for all your life; like you aint never get on, you wack, you wasn’t good enough to go pro. So if you gonna step your foot out there and you gonna say you a rapper, and you gonna do this shit, you better succeed at this shit. Cause it’s your life at the end of the day. You’ll be back in the hood and they gonna be like…. So at the end of the day, you do bet your life when you stick your foot out there and you try to hop in this game. It’s like a lot of people do mixtape shit and a lot of people do whatever… they don’t probably put their whole life on it. They just doin some hobby shit. Just goin in the studio makin some shit. A lot of niggas just go in the studio and don’t even know what the fuck they about to do before they even get there. They just get there and be like alright I’m in the studio. I don’t really get down like that. It’s just like I take this shit a lot more serious.”
Post by: Rosie J – music marketer
@StudioDiva
