Song Exploder - Danny Brown - Y.B.P. (feat. Bruiser Wolf)

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Danny Brown started his career in 2007 by handing out mixtapes in Detroit, where he’s from. In 2011, he put out his acclaimed second album, XXX. Since then, he’s collaborated with rappers like Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky and JPEGMafia, but he’s also worked with electronic bands like Purity Ring and The Avalanches, and he did a verse on a remix for Korn. When I first heard him, around when XXX came out, I was really drawn to his voice. And I also appreciated that, given how young so many artists are now when they get really famous, Danny Brown’s career really started taking off in his 30s. He put out his sixth album, Quaranta, in 2023. And for this episode, I talked to him about one of the songs from that album, called “Y.B.P.," which features guest vocals from Bruiser Wolf. For more, visit songexploder.net/danny-brown.

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. This episode contains explicit language. Danny Brown started his career in 2007 by handing out mixtapes in Detroit, where he's from. In 2011, he put out his acclaimed second album, Triple X. Since then, he's collaborated with rappers like Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky, and JPEG Mafia, but he's also worked with electronic bands like Purity Ring and the Avalanches,

and he did a verse on a remix for corn. When I first heard him around when Triple X came out, I was really drawn to his voice. And I also appreciated that, given how young so many artists are now when they get really famous, Danny Brown's career really started taking off in his 30s. He put out his sixth album, Quaranta, in 2023. And for this episode, I talked to him about one of the songs from that album,

called YBP, which features guest vocals from Bruiser Wolf. My name's Danny Brown. When I created this song, I was in Detroit. I was really in a dark time in my life. I just went through a real bad breakup. I was living in a house in the suburbs. And so I decided to move downtown because it was lively down there. You know, it was just a lot of new restaurants, new nightclubs.

So I moved down there with the intentions I'm partying and being single, you know. And then the quarantine and pandemic and everything happened, so everything was just shut down. So now I'm in this penthouse apartment by myself and just lonely. And I was just drinking a lot. And I figured the best way for me to get myself out of this funk was just to work it out. Start back creating music again. So when I started on this album, it was just really just getting my feelings out. So my friend Skywalker, you know, I just told him to give me some beats, you know, just seeing what he got.

And then he gave me the beat for this song. I really love a good chop. Like, if somebody can chop up a good sample, it's like, oh, man. And it gave me, like, a happy feeling. I kind of like to make music with my heart and not my brain, and not really think too much about it and just do it to make me feel. And with this song, the feeling was like, I was back in Detroit. And I always wanted to tell those stories of where I came from.

I really like to wake up first thing in the morning because I was, like, smoking a lot of weed then. drinking a lot. So, you know, waking up fresh, just get a cup of coffee, cut on some beats, and see what happened. And I just wrote like one verse to it. When we changed the channel with the pliers, wet clothes on the porch, we ain't have a dry, spending food stamps wait till you leave a stove.

Too many in the bed had to sleep on the float. When we changed the channel with the pliers, back in those days, we always had like the good TV downstairs. Then the TV in my bedroom will always be some old raggedy television. and it had like knobs. And after you used the knob for so long, sometimes it'll break off. So then you got to turn the actual knob with the pliers.

You know, the pliers will be always right by the TV. And the good thing about living in Detroit was that we're so close to Canada, we were all to get the Canadian stations. I'd be always up that night. I would watch a lot of Mr. Bean. Mr. Bean and like kids in the hall. If you lose the pliers, you're stuck on that channel. You just got to watch hockey now.

You're like, oh, man, we're watching hockey tonight, I guess. My favorite line in that song, I was writing it in a penthouse apartment, but I had a line where I say, Spending food stamps wait till you lead a stove. My mom would give us food stamps or something, and then we'll, like, go to school and all the kids being in there, like, spending real money. And if they see you spending food stamps, they're like joke on you in school and stuff. So I always have to, like, wait around in the store and wait to everybody else, bought their stuff and leave out the stove, then sneak and spend.

So I was like, I was spending food stamps, but I'll wait till you leave the stove. I didn't even know we were poor. I would say my parents did a great job of taking care of me. But because also, growing up in Detroit, it's always somebody doing worse than you. So we was poor, but I didn't never feel that way because I always knew it was kids in my neighborhood that was doing worse. It would be like kids knocking on your door asking for sugar or do you got some bread so we can make some sandwiches. I was never one of those kids, you know. And my mom always made sure we ate good every night.

But she had four kids and my parents had me real young. My dad was 16. My mom was 18. And I look at my dad all the time. Like, you're crazy, man. You were 21 years old with four kids. Like, what was your life, man? You know?

I definitely wasn't mature enough. And I'm pretty sure he wasn't. So that's why I say kids raising kids. And we all trying to be grown. Kids raising kids are all trying to be grown. Things never fix when we come from broken homes. We was young, black and poor being raised in Detroit. You can never learn where that nigger been taught.

Say, we was young, black and poor being raised in Detroit. You can never learn where that nigger been taught. I'm not that good at hooks. I'm cool enough to admit that the hooks are like my weakest in my writing game. But working with JPEC Mafia on the last album, he kind of taught me a way to get around that. And you're just like, just write the longest verse as possible. And eventually a hook presented itself in that long verse.

Then you can edit the rest of the stuff around and make a verse out of all that stuff. We was young, black, and poor being raised in Detroit. You can never learn what that nigga been taught. Say, we were young, black and poor, being raised in Detroit. You can never learn. Where that nigger been taught? What's pretty much just saying, like,

all the stuff that I've been through is what made me who I am today, and everything that I learned, you can't teach that. You just have to experience it. When I create these songs with just like simple loops like that, it's almost just like me with like an acoustic guitar. Then once I get them to like an executive producer

or something like that, they bring the full band in and bring everything into it. There's like a moment in the... Let me play this. Okay, so like the drums change here? And it gets real 80s? Yeah. That was really Kasa overall, who's my label mate,

who I really consider to be like the MVP of this album because he took a lot of my ideas and took him to places that I couldn't have did on my own, you know? And I'm glad he was able to pull that out of it. Like, we were talking about my childhood and stuff, and he was able to just tap into that. And he gave it that feeling, man, and it's so dope. Detroit City.

That's where I live. It's like poetic justice. You get killed after driving. Who won't front you some work? Who will front you some words? We be fresh from the dirt. Put you on a t-shirt. The newest guy in our crew is Bruiser Wolf.

When I first heard him rap, it was just like a breath of fresh air for me, you know? I wanted to get him on his song, and he actually, like, the next day, wrote a verse. It was a dope verse, but, you know, I think he was just trying to be cool and just say some dope stuff. I was like, nah, man, I want you tap in more, man. Like, you got to reach into your soul, man.

and like just talk to the city, like, let them know where we come from. What was his reaction to that when you gave him that direction? I don't think he was too happy, to be honest, because I know he worked on that verse, and he just knew it was dope. It was dope, but it just didn't work for this song. But when he did redo it, and when we played it back, and he was like, man, he was right. And then he just had so many Detroit references in that verse. Like, a lot of people in the outside world probably wouldn't get half the stuff he's saying, like, layman, like a lot of our sports heroes that we grew up watching,

and Rodney Pete, who played for the Lions and Barry Sanders, you know. Want to run like Barry? Shoot like Zeke, but in the hood with a nine on me like Rodney Pete. Motor City, the Motown, the Fav, police violence. That's how, Malice Green, Dad. Talking about Malice Green, which was a guy that got beat by the police and they murdered him that happened back in the day. That was like a big deal in Detroit.

One of my favorite lines on this album is from him on that song, which was Axom Y, Beard. like Bush Jones. They want to be us when they grown, but asked them why. Bia, like B. Jones. And B. Jones was a leader of a gang in the 80s of Detroit called Y B.I, which stands for Young Boys Incorporated. And he was like the leader of all these young kids, you know, that was doing wrong. But in that line, he said, they want to be us when they grown, but ask them why, B.I.

And it's like that double entangra, why be I? Like, why would you want to be me if I ain't doing nothing right for the community? I feel like his other verse where he was trying to relate more to the people on the outside world. This time, he just talked to the people in the city. My city show no love. It's hard to fit in the murder mitten like O.J. Glove. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, man, I don't feel like even, because what made it so hard, I was just struggling with addiction at that time. And I was just looking at my career. It was almost to the point, I was like, I don't even want to do this no more.

I was just like, I hate this. But he made me do it. So I went and recorded in Austin. I just ended up getting super drunk. Went to the studio. It wasn't a good day, to be honest. It really wasn't a good day. But I sent in the song, and he was like, yeah, that was just what I needed.

So I was like, I did me. my job, you know. Stuck in the middle between Blade and Dilla, surrounded by killers couldn't see the big picture from a bird's eye view. We ain't had no clue. Didn't know what was true. Had nothing to lose. You know, I say stuck in the middle between Blade and Dilla.

Blade Icewood was like a street rapper in Detroit, and of course everybody know Jay Diller. And I always felt like I was just in the middle of that. Like I wasn't always like the more traditional hip hop style. And then the street rappers who, you know, pretty much is drug dealers that raping in free time, you know. I always felt like I was in the middle of those because I wasn't necessarily accepted by either crowd, but I was able to play in both arenas. I just feel like a nomad in some sense, you know, coming up early days, you know, I was pretty much just like everybody else that starts out. I didn't have a voice yet. I would go to New York all the time and, you know,

I was trying to get a record deal and stuff. So they would try to like make me like rap over like Nelly beats or stuff like that. And of course I was doing it because I was doing it because I I wanted to get a record deal, but at the end of the day, that wasn't me. So I was like, I need to go back home and make a name for myself first. And then when I went back, I started to rap over that more Dilla-esque stuff. Because then I looked at it like, that's our sound. I'm from Detroit. That's what I need to be doing.

I need to be making that kind of music. And so I didn't find this Danny Brown voice until 30, to be honest. Back to the wall, we ain't had no plan. Everything about the city made me who I am. You can make it here. Yeah, yeah, you know the rest. Every day was like a test if you fail as death. But I feel like I just got caught up in what a lot of artists probably get caught up in.

You know, we create these personas for ourselves. And, you know, with rap is almost like creating this character that's bigger than life. You know, you're always going to over-glorify your lifestyle or, you know, try to make yourself like this big superhero kind of character. And in the midst of that, I'd stop being Daniel and started being Danny Brown. And Danny Brown wasn't happy. It wasn't a healthy lifestyle that anyone should be living. But thank God, you know,

was able to get some help and, you know, going to rehab and stuff. And you realize that you deal with a lot of underlying trauma. You realize why you do it in the first place. It starts out fun and, you know, hanging with your friends and just having a good time. But it still stems from something else deeper and darker that you're trying to escape from, you know?

How to system may the vision, but it don't add up. from the hood, never given back to us. How the system made the vision, but it don't add up. Take away from the hood, never giving back to us. I have a sense of who this song is for, and that's for like any kid right now that's going through that same thing. And then they can listen to something like this. I'm like, look, he's been through this.

Look where he had today. And for my childhood self, too. And just for me to just kind of remind myself to where I came from and where I'm at right now in my life. Like, man, you blessed. You did it. The thing that you wanted to do as a childhood kid, when you would tell your teachers, like,

I want to be a rapper, and a whole class I laugh at you, you know? But you did it. Like, you should be proud of yourself. I never was able to pat myself on the back and be like, be happy for where you came, you know? You can never learn. Say, we be young black and poor.

Coming up, you'll hear how all of these ideas and elements came together in the final song. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists,

and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album

with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Malina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin, and more, they're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishi-cage.co. Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's song-exploder.net slash live.

Thanks. And now here's YBP by Danny Brown featuring Bruiser Wolf in its entirety. Do it What? When we change the channel with the plies, wet clothes on the porch, we ain't have a dry, spending food stamps wait till you leave the stove. Too many in the big had to sleep on the flow, cause my cousin always peeed, getting whipped in the morning, every night can't sleep, got me tossing and turning,

late night in the kitchen, here I'm always fussing, got my ass beat, I ain't even do nothing, seen her crying in the kitchen, and I don't know why. My aunt smoking crack, and she got a black eye. Living north focus, hope, and we're trying to get by, zipping on with juice, Douche-down with chili fried. Homers shot at the colony. Hope we survive. Only go to church when someone die.

Kids raising kids all trying to be grown. Things never fixed when we come from broken homes. We were young, black and poor paying in Detroit. You can never learn what a nigger's been taught. So you were young black and poor being raised in Detroit. You can never learn what a nigger been taught. See, young black and poor being raped in Detroit.

You can never learn what a nigger been taught. Yeah. You can never learn what a nigger been taught. You can ever learn what a nigger can talk Detroit City That's where I live It's like poetic justice You get killed at the driving

Who gonna find you some work Who will find you some work We be fresh from the dirt Put you on a t-shirt Wanna run like Barry Shoot like Zeke But in the hood With a nine on me like Rodney Pete

Motor City the Motown The Fav Fav Police violence that's how Malice Green guy Callman Young Dennis Archer Kill Patrick Pissy Mattress In the alley doing backflips All these holes ratchets that he's absent

But the kids here's doing wrong They want to be us when they grown, but asked them why, be out like Butch Jones. My city show no love. It's hard to fit in the murder mittin like O.J. You can never learn what a nigger been taught so you was young black and poor being away to Detroit. You can never learn what a nigger been talked to you're young black and poor being away to Detroit. You can never learn what a nigger been talked. You can never learn what a nigger been talked.

Stuck in the middle between Blay and Della. Stuck in the middle between Blay and Della. Surrounded by killers couldn't see the big picture from a bird's eye view We ain't had no clue didn't know what was true had nothing to lose Where the heart is but where's the love feeling lost in the world? They don't care about us back to the war we ain't had no plan Everything about the city made me who I am you can make it here yeah yeah you know the rest Every day was like a test if you fail as death or trip the Wayne County hope you don't

get into Jackson middleman tax into the story just a fraction Hone does have to make the vision but it don't add up take away from the hood never given back to us Systemate the vision, but it don't add up. Take away from the hood, never giving back to us. buy or stream YBP, and you can watch the music video. If you like this episode, you might also like the episode with Meek Mill from 2019. You'll find that and all the other episodes of the show at songexploder.net. This episode was produced by Craig Ely, Theo Balcom, Kathleen Smith, Mary Dolan, and myself.

Special thanks to Chris Goodwin. The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made the show's theme music and logo. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about all our shows at Radiotopia.fm. You can follow me on social media at Rishi Hereway, and you can follow the show at Song Exploder. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at songexploder.net slash shirt.

I'm Rishi-Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening. Radiotopia.