Danny Brown on newfound sobriety, collaboration, and seventh solo album 'Stardust' • Interview • DIY Magazine

Danny Brown is the very definition of a man energised. Even on a distant phone line from his home in Austin, Texas, his larger-than-life energy hits like a burst of warm sunshine. “I’ve never been this happy in my entire life, man,” the generational rapper beams, shortly before explaining he’s spent the best part of his day avoiding the internet.

I think the best thing you can do is just get off social media right now,” he says. “I feel like that’s the poison, get away from it and start experiencing life again.” He’s even resisting a cursory glance at the comments section on his recent singles. “Back in the day, artists put out music and wouldn’t know what the hell people thought until they played a show. I think I want to have that old school reaction going into this album when I take it out on the road.”

When he does get out on tour across the States this month to support his seventh solo LP ‘Stardust’, you can’t help but feel that the reaction will be well worth the wait. Perhaps his most innovative and experimental body of work to date, this album marks a whole new dawn both in a sonic sense, and also as the first album he has ever made completely sober.

He says going into the project with a clear head was, unsurprisingly, daunting at first. “I’ve been making music for over ten years fucked up so knew it would be a struggle. I had to relearn how to make music sober again.” Despite those initial reservations, Danny quickly ended up surprising himself as he began to feel more inspired and driven than ever before.

“I read a book called The Artist’s Way and it was written by somebody going through sobriety who was learning how to write again as well. I just did a lot of the exercises in the book and before I knew it, things were clicking again and I was having fun. I was a maniac with it, I got infatuated with the music and I put a lot of time into the whole project.”

You only need to hear the album’s shape-shifting lead single ‘Starburst’ to feel that liberation. The track brings worlds colliding as Danny raps over glitchy hyperpop before euphoric rave and wild vocal segments weave in. There’s a lot going on, yet he pulls it all together with a razor-sharp delivery that speaks to his own journey: “I’m lockin’ up the game like punishment from your mama / Trauma I went through just made me stronger than ever.”

Despite the immediate sense of freedom and fun across the album, which is loaded with experimental pop and underground electronics, there’s still an honest, reflective side to ‘Stardust’. Having already purged grief and trauma via this album’s predecessor, 2023’s ‘Quaranta’, Danny says he didn’t want to completely abandon those very real themes.

“It really took me getting help and going to rehab to even learn about what was going on. You have fun with drinking and all that shit, but you don’t even know why you’re doing it. I had a lot of underlying trauma and once I was able to discover the root of it, I was able to overcome it and now I understand.”

“I couldn’t not acknowledge that journey on this album, it would have been a disservice to anyone who has been following my music for so long because they know that’s what it’s rooted in. This time, I definitely had to update them on where I was at mentally and just in my life generally. I wanted to touch on those topics but I didn’t want people to leave this record feeling sad.”

“I’ve never been this happy in my entire life.”

Crucially for ‘Stardust’, Danny has enlisted an array of younger artists from beyond the rap world to help push himself forward. “I was just so honoured to be working with all of these artists I’d been a fan of for such a long time,” he says. “I was excited more than anything because I knew what they did was dope. I wasn’t second guessing anything, I definitely had a lot of confidence going into this project.”

Given his address book, you could forgive Danny for opting for established names rather than the next generation coming through, but at this point, his appreciation for newer artists feels even more healthy. Just take his new favourite pop innovators Frost Children or experimental indie act Quadeca who are heard across the album, pulling his sound in weird and wonderful new directions.

“I’m a huge sports fan and I look at it from a basketball perspective,” he says. “I feel like I was more the veteran in the locker room in a team full of young guys.” With such a diverse spectrum of talent, he says keeping an open mind was crucial. “I came into the project saying, ‘what d’yall want me to do?’ It was me trusting in them, then when they passed me the ball, I got an open shot. It helped me to concentrate on rapping.”

In many ways, you can trace his raw appreciation for what’s new and next throughout Danny’s career, right back to his early days starting out in Detroit. When it comes to being inspired by what’s around him, he does see the parallels between then and now. “I think earlier in my music career, I was making a lot of stuff that was influenced by East Coast-based music, then I discovered J Dilla and all that and I wanted to be more of a part of the Detroit sound. Eventually when I started playing with other sounds, that’s when it all started working for me. That gave me the confidence to experiment more and push myself.”

As a trailblazing force who has constantly managed to innovate and change the face of hip hop with his work, was there an element of making all of this new talent feel comfortable? “Absolutely,” he says. “Especially working with someone like Femtanyl who had never been in the studio before. I feel like all of them will have so much more confidence after this album because you know me, I’m their number one cheerleader, I’m the elder statesman.”

These blossoming relationships - which stretch beyond collaboration - even helped Danny find his voice on this record. “They’re my friends now,” he says. “Quadeca came to my crib and we’d just talk. That’s why we have those personal songs because I was still in my sobriety stage where everything was a meeting. I was constantly opening up, healing and being vulnerable.”

A soaring example of this comes in the reflective album opener ‘Book Of Daniel’ in which Danny tells his life story over a jangling Zeppelin-tinged guitar and gospel refrains: “Sleeping real good at night cause I’m proud of myself / Say a prayer when I wake up because the rehab helped / When I didn’t have hope I was turning to dope / Drinking til I passed out cause I just couldn’t cope.”

“I got infatuated with the music and I put a lot of time into the whole project.”

Having emerged unshackled from his battles with depression, addiction, and even imprisonment, when asked if he’s proud of surviving the struggle, Danny brings it back to that inner excitement for what’s next. “I think it really just comes from me being a fan first. I think a lot of people don’t really understand why they make music.”

“For a lot of people it’s probably monetary gain or personal goals but, for me, I think it comes from just being a fan. I’d do this shit for free and I think being able to hold onto that spirit is really important. A lot of people stop having fun but I’ve been lucky enough to make it through that phase. I’ve been so open and people were able to follow me on that journey. If I went through all that shit in private I probably would have just fallen off.”

In terms of discovery, has the way in which he finds new music changed? “I think it’s changed for everybody with these algorithms. I think for the most part you just have to have a hunger for that shit. There will be times where I’m like, ‘I know there’s some dope shit out here dude’. You put it out into the world when you’re hungry for something then that something tends to find its way to you.”

Danny says he learnt to have a level of patience when it came to unearthing and sticking with new music early on in his journey. “I came from the era of getting allowance to buy one tape that you’d be stuck with for one week until you got allowance again and it might be trash. You’re stuck with it though and by the time your next allowance comes in you’ve gotten to love the whole album.”

A great example of that came with Raekwan’s ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’. “I was the biggest Wu-Tang fan in the whole world at the time and when it came out I remember thinking, ‘why has Raekwan been able to get a solo album before Inspectah Deck?’ When I heard it, I was like ‘this is the craziest Wu-Tang album ever’. I remember hearing ‘Glaciers Of Ice’ and being like, ‘there’s a lot going on, this is messy’. Now as a forty year old man, I realise that all I want to make myself is fucking ‘Glaciers Of Ice’.”

“I was just so honoured to be working with all of these artists I’d been a fan of for such a long time.”

Heading into this vivid new era, it’s no exaggeration to suggest that it feels like Danny is still only just getting started. “I feel like when a person has gone through so much shit and heartbreak, you’re thankful to be on the other side of it,” he admits. “Now I’ve got a second chance and I’m not fucking this shit up. I live in Texas, I have a beautiful house, a beautiful wife, I’m in the gym every day, I’m in shape, I’m meditating thirty minutes a day. It’s like, ‘what the fuck, who am I?’”

Considering his highs and lows and arriving at where we are now, would he have done anything differently? “Not really, except beg everybody for the ‘Really Doe’ video,” he cracks in response with a peal of laughter. “That’s the one thing I really feel bad about. I wish I just did it myself and asked Kendrick and put together that video.”

After offering a lightning quick answer, he needs no invitation to offer up a deeper one. “There were a lot of times when I was deep into my alcoholism and shit, I was doing a lot of acting work at the time and I’d get auditions and I’d be going to them drunk. It’s shit like that, I was thinking that it helped me - if I drink a little I’d be funnier - but I could never just drink a little. I wish I’d taken that more seriously because now I really want to get back into that kind of shit you know?”

Right now though, that chapter feels firmly in the rear view mirror heading into ‘Stardust’. “I’m really so proud of it,” he offers. “I’m so thankful for this album because it’s totally changed the way I go about making music now. The album is really about finding your purpose and I want people to get inspired in that way. It took me until I was 44 years old to figure it all out. It’s never too late to find your place, we’re in the new era man, it’s just getting started.”

‘Stardust’ is out now via Warp.

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