Danny Brown
Daniel Dewan Sewell, better known by his stage name Danny Brown, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor and podcaster.
Born and raised in Detroit, Brown began rapping at a young age and was influenced by his father, a DJ who introduced him to hip-hop and house music. He began his music career in 2003, performing with local hip-hop groups while supporting himself by selling drugs. In 2007, Brown served eight months in jail after violating his probation for a drug-related case. After his release he continued his music career, self-releasing several mixtapes including Hot Soup and Hawaiian Snow with Tony Yayo. His debut studio album The Hybrid was released in 2010.
In 2011, Brown signed to Fool's Gold Records and achieved his first major breakthrough with the mixtape XXX, which received critical acclaim and significant attention from online music outlets, leading to him being named "Artist of the Year" by Spin and the Metro Times. The highly successful non-album single "Grown Up" followed in 2012. His second studio album Old received further critical acclaim and was commercially successful, reaching number 18 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and spawning the singles "Dip", "25 Bucks" and "Smokin & Drinkin".
In 2016, Brown signed with Warp Records and released the studio albums Atrocity Exhibition and UKnoWhatImSayin?, to continued critical acclaim, although with reduced commercial sales. His collaborative album with JPEGMafia, Scaring the Hoes, and his fifth studio album Quaranta, were both released in 2023. Following a stint in rehab during which he became sober, Brown released his sixth studio album, the hyperpop-inspired Stardust in 2025.
Brown is known for his distinctive high-pitched vocal delivery, unconventional fashion sense and experimental approach to hip-hop. He was described by MTV in 2011 as "one of rap's most unique figures in recent memory" and by the Detroit Metro Times as "the most eccentric emcee ever born on Detroit soil".
Early life
Brown was born Daniel Dewan Sewell in Detroit on March 16, 1981, the son of an 18-year-old mother and 16-year-old father. His father is half Filipino, and growing up Brown would attend a Filipino church in Detroit with his grandmother. His talent for rhyming came at a very young age, as his mother would read Dr. Seuss books to him as a child; when he began to speak, he would talk in rhyme. His father was a house DJ who exposed him to all the music he would spin, as well as music from the likes of Roy Ayers, LL Cool J, Esham, and A Tribe Called Quest. For as long as he could remember, Brown had always wanted to be a rapper: "In kindergarten I'd say I wanted to be a rapper and people'd just laugh at me. 'That's a pretty funny job,' they'd say."Brown's young parents did their best to shelter him from the Detroit street crime and gang life: "My parents ain't really want me out the house. They did as much as they possibly could to keep me in the house with whatever the newest video game was. But you know you can only keep a kid in for so long. Plus that had me sheltered, so once I did get away I used to disappear for like four days." His two grandmothers helped provide for his family. His maternal grandmother worked for Chrysler, and she bought four to five houses: "To this day we still got those houses. She owns three houses in a row on that block. She raised her three children and a host of others in the middle house; the one to the left she paid cash for in the '90s from her long time neighbor; and the one on the right was her parents' home that she inherited when they died." She also owned two other homes on the east side of Detroit, one in which Brown was raised. The fifth house, also located on the east side, was occupied by his aunt and her family. Originally from the Dexter-Linwood way of Detroit, he later moved to Hamtramck. He heavily associates with Detroit in his music.
At age 18, Brown became a drug dealer: "Once I got above a certain age, all that parent shit stopped. My mom and my pops split up. Once my pops left, I was the man of the house. I always told myself I was going to be a rapper my whole life. I was selling drugs since that's what all my friends were doing. And it was kind of like something to rap about maybe." Although his intentions were to stop once he got in trouble with the law, Brown was already too accustomed to the lifestyle: "I always told myself once I got my first case I was gonna stop. Then I got my first case, but I didn't stop. I got distribution and manufacturing and possession with intent to distribute. I was 19." His run-ins with the law didn't stop there: "I caught my second case loitering with some weed, but it violated my probation but I ran and I didn't go to court. I just ran for like at least five years. But once I got caught I had to do eight months. I had nothing else, so I just started going back to studying music and trying to become a rapper." After his release from jail in 2002, he began to take his passion seriously and turn it into a career: "I had more confidence when I got out of jail because the day when I got out of jail I started selling weed. I ain't had no money after the first two months, like, 'I was way better off in jail.' By then I was already making my New York trips and going to recording studios so I was already serious when I got locked up."
Brown began his career in a hip hop group called Rese'vor Dogs, alongside fellow Detroit-based rappers Chips and Dopehead. In 2003, the trio independently released an album titled Runispokets-N-Dumpemindariva under Ren-A-Sance Entertainment and F.B.C. Records. In the summer of 2003, the group received mild rotation on Detroit radio stations with their lead single, "Yess". After growing up on hip hop and tuning his rhyming skills in the city, Brown landed the attention of Roc-A-Fella Records A&R Travis Cummings, who flew Brown out to New York City, where he began recording in other artists' studios. After a lack of success with Roc-A-Fella, Brown returned to Detroit and eventually linked up with Detroit-based producer Nick Speed.
Career
2010: ''The Hybrid''
In 2010, Brown befriended fellow American rapper Tony Yayo of G-Unit, and they recorded their collaborative album Hawaiian Snow. The G-Unit association led many to wonder if Brown would eventually sign with G-Unit leader 50 Cent's label G-Unit Records. However, he did not fit G-Unit's image as he favors fitted jeans and a vintage rock-inspired wardrobe, with Brown later telling MTV: "It was a real thing. 50 was with it; he just didn't sign me because of my jeans. He liked the music, but he didn't like the way I looked. I understand where they were coming from with that, but you gotta understand where I'm coming from too: I'm from Detroit."After recording and releasing four volumes of his Detroit State of Mind mixtape series and other free self-released mixtapes, Brown released his first solo studio album, The Hybrid, on indie record label Rappers I Know. It was this album where he began to use his trademark high-pitched voice: "The first song that I ever rapped was 'The Hybrid,' that's why we called it 'The Hybrid.' I think that was . That was the statement that I can rap and I can do every style of rap." The album came to fruition after he had written the aforementioned song: "The Hybrid started out because I started working with Hex Murder. Hex was managing me at the time and I had started recording in Black Milk's studio. We were working on a project and I had come up with the song 'The Hybrid,' so that gave me my whole intent on what I wanted to do with my next project. I started writing a new album and that's the album that I wrote. Then I hooked up with my homie Magnetic and he would just look out for me and gave me free studio time—so I would go record from 3 in the morning til 6 in the morning, because we were using the free time when nobody was there. Then I hooked up with Frank from Rappers I Know. I liked what he was doing with his blog. He looked out for me and helped me out a lot and then we put it out and the rest is history."
2011–2012: ''XXX''
In 2011 Brown signed to Brooklyn-based indie record label Fool's Gold Records: "My manager asked me who I wanted to sign to and I said there's two labels I want to sign to: XL or Fool's Gold. He knew Fool's Gold. He saw Nick Catchdubs in a burrito spot, asked him about it, and Nick said he'd get back to him. Q-Tip and A-Trak went and ate lunch around last March. A-Trak told Q-Tip he was thinking about signing me and Q-Tip told him to do it. A-Trak called me and signed me. I met Q-Tip but I know Ali Shaheed more. Ali Shaheed is kind of like a mentor to me. Around the time of The Hybrid, I met him through Frank from Rappers I Know and he just started showing me love. We talk on the phone a lot."Signing to Fool's Gold Records proved to be Brown's biggest commercial and critical move. The label went on to release his eighth mixtape, XXX, as a free download. It received numerous critical accolades, including being named the best hip hop album of the year by Spin. Pitchfork gave his album an 8.2 out of 10, saying, "If XXX was nothing but debauchery and desperation, it would quickly devolve into an endless slog. Thankfully, Brown is also hilariously funny, an endlessly inventive rapper driven to cook up outrageous variations on standard rap boasts." The publication later named XXX the 19th best album of 2011. XXX was also named the 6th-best album of 2011 by Passion of the Weiss, which called it "an uncomfortably honest self-portrait made even more remarkable by the fact that Danny Brown is alive to tell the story."
On November 1, 2011, Brown released his collaborative effort with American record producer Black Milk, an extended play titled Black and Brown!. On November 28, 2011, Brown released the music video for the XXX cut "Blunt After Blunt." The video was directed by fellow American rapper ASAP Rocky, who also made a cameo appearance. In the wake of his success with XXX, Brown began touring with Childish Gambino in March 2012. On March 13, 2012, Brown released the visual treatment for the brandUn DeShay-produced track "Radio Song" from XXX. The video was directed by Alex/2tone.
In 2012, Brown was featured on the cover of XXL as part of its annual "Top 10 Freshmen list" along with fellow then-up-and-coming rappers Hopsin, French Montana, MGK, Iggy Azalea and Roscoe Dash, among others. The Fader enlisted both Kendrick Lamar and Danny Brown to cover the front pages of its 2012 Spring Style issue. In a January 2012 interview, singer Jennifer Herrema revealed that Danny Brown would be featured on the second album by Australian electronic music group The Avalanches. Later in the year, Brown confirmed that he was working with The Avalanches on a song titled "Frankie Sinatra."