EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,038 words- 0:00 – 1:58
Art vs. commerce: being successful on your own terms
- JRJoe Rogan
(drumming music plays) Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out.
- NANarrator
The Joe Rogan Experience.
- JRJoe Rogan
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays)
- DBDanny Brown
And, but then you thinking like that, that's, like-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's the curse of being successful, though. Right? Like, people lean on you.
- DBDanny Brown
I'm successful, but on my own terms.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. But that's still successful.
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah. But-
- JRJoe Rogan
You're on your own terms is great.
- DBDanny Brown
Because, see, my shit was the music industry and the music industry is one of those type of situations where you can be as creative as you want to be, but does that make you money? You know? So, you have this whole fucking, like, angel and devil on your shoulder, like, "Make a hit song." Or-
- JRJoe Rogan
Hm.
- DBDanny Brown
... "Be creative as you wanna be."
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DBDanny Brown
You know what I'm saying?
- JRJoe Rogan
Do what you wanna do or do what you think is gonna sell.
- DBDanny Brown
In my whole entire career, I just did what I wanted to do.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
And, but at this point, after 10 years, I sit back sometimes and I think about, like, "Damn, did I make a mistake?" Because, you know, it's still a lot of people in my family that struggle. It's like, "Fuck." You know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Well-
- DBDanny Brown
But if I just didn't care about being Danny Brown and being so cool and trying to make the most experimental music I could possibly make, fucking just don't give a fuck. Make that fucking hit song.
- JRJoe Rogan
But isn't that you though?
- DBDanny Brown
But I can do it.
- JRJoe Rogan
You could do both.
- DBDanny Brown
That's the whole thing of what makes you a great artist. See, like a person like Jay-Z. He does both.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Both. Does both, yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
I don't know if I can do both because it's such a drastic, it's such a drastic change of, from what I love as underground music-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
... and what is commercially considered to be pop music. It's such a drastic, it's such a fucking ... You know what I'm saying? So, I don't know-
- JRJoe Rogan
I do.
- DBDanny Brown
... if I can ever make ... It's like, would Patrice O'Neal (laughs) would he have ever been a fucking, like ... You get what I'm saying? Commercial, like, stand up com-
- 1:58 – 3:55
Patrice O’Neal as a blueprint (and the album-title origin)
- DBDanny Brown
That's the one person that I look up to.
- JRJoe Rogan
He was amazing.
- DBDanny Brown
So, I look up to him so much and-
- JRJoe Rogan
I mean, it would, it would... He had... Everybody would have forced it through. Like, even if he couldn't get on the television show, even if nothing ever happened for him like that, we would've all had him on podcasts.
- DBDanny Brown
'Cause even with my rap career and just how I look at, like, making music, I look at him as like a super inspiration. Like, it was, um, my last album, um, which was called You Know What I'm Sayin'? Which was actually, um, from Tom and Christina 'cause they had this bit.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
But they would have this bit where they had niggas, and you know niggas be, "You know what I'm saying?" You know.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
Even me, I say, "You know what I'm saying?" like, a lot. Like a... But before that, the name of the album was The Patrice O'Neal Theory.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- DBDanny Brown
Because Patrice O'Neal, he had this theory where he'd talk about, like, men has periods.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
But we don't necessarily have periods. We just wanna fuck another bitch.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- DBDanny Brown
So, every time you mad at your girl, like, "Uh." And she's like all on you and she's like, "Uh." You're like, "Uh." You're like, "Uh." My, my woman is beautiful. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, being... But you're like, "Bitch." You still gotta... 'Cause you just want another taste of something.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
You get what I'm saying? (laughs) And when you get that, like, like it's to the point where you, if you've been so, faithful for so long, you're like, "I'll fuck a homeless bitch on the corner."
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
You get what I'm saying? But if I did that, it's gonna make me love you so much more. Like, I won't have this attitude with you, this whole attitude I got with you. You think, "Why you like, why you so mad? Why you acting like this?" Uh. 'Cause I need some new pussy. And that's all that is. But I do-
- JRJoe Rogan
The Patrice O'Neal Theory.
- DBDanny Brown
That's the Patrice O'Neal theory.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) He had a lot of great theories.
- DBDanny Brown
But I would say, listen. I'm gonna say this 'cause I love my girl at home. I know she probably listening to this. I love you, baby. (blows kiss) (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
But no. I'm out of that. I don't, I don't have that. Uh, my dick don't get hard at, at, like that no more. I'm 40 years old.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
It's like, come on. This motherfucker has been burnt out. They've been hitting this motherfucker. Bitch been speed bagging this dick. I've been getting-
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah.
- DBDanny Brown
This dick been getting speed bagged for the last 10 years. So, yeah.
- 3:55 – 6:40
How Danny fell into podcasts—and ended up hosting one
- JRJoe Rogan
When, when did you decide to do this podcast at your doing with Your Moms House 'cause it's hilarious?
- DBDanny Brown
Uh, no. The, the thing was is that, um... Oh, you know Uncle Joey. Like, it started with, um, I will-
- JRJoe Rogan
He started like you on him doing a podcast stuff?
- DBDanny Brown
No. You want me to bring it? 'Cause it, 'cause, 'cause it, it goes back into me just being a rapper and just me being on some rap shit and I was on tour. I was on tour for a long part of time and being on tour, you get bored. And I'm a gamer, so I buy a lot of video games. And guess what? I bought UFC. Before the good UFCs. This is a-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
... a whatever UFC video game. So, I'm playing that and you were the fucking, um, announcer on it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- DBDanny Brown
So, I'm playing that and, you know, and you're an announcer now. I'm on tour. And then I guess, I don't know, some type of way I was watching UFC or some shit, and then I seen you on there. And it was like, "Oh. This the nigga from the video game."
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
Is this not hilarious to you? Like, this is how I got up on this whole shit. So, I'm like, "This the nigga from the video game! Joe Rogan!" So, then I started listening to Joe Rogan shit and then from seeing Joe Rogan shit, I seen Uncle Joey on there. Then I see Uncle Ro- Uncle Joey on there, and I seen that, and then just started going through the fucking, um, the rabbit hole of y'all shit. Like, even the shit of fucking, uh, fucking Red Band dumbass always talking about fucking Olive Garden and shit like that.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
Like, like, the fucking, like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Olive Garden of buttholes.
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah. Like the Justin TV day. Like, I, I, I've ... So, so, I've been, like, I w- I will credit you to fucking up my fucking music career in some sense.
- JRJoe Rogan
No.
- DBDanny Brown
I will say that because it got to the point where all I did was, all I ever did in my life was listen to music. Like, it did... I was one of those people where I would like, um, be like, "Man, people don't really listen to music. They just listen to music in their cars or when they got,"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
"function." Let's say, like, I'm the type of person-
- JRJoe Rogan
Not just sit down listening.
- DBDanny Brown
... that listen to music 24/7s a day. Whatever new, uh.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DBDanny Brown
But then I started getting into podcasts and, and listening to your shit and doing that and all that, and all that. So, um, just being into podcasts and then listening to y'all shit. You know, fucking with Uncle Joey and all that shit. And then I got into, um, Why I Made Shit, listening to they shit. And then, uh-You know, just, Tom hit me up, like, "Come through." But when Tom hit me up, he didn't know how much of a fan boy I was of this shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
So when I came through, I was hitting him with all this shit, you know, all the fucking why me shit, like, you know, straight real mommy shit. You get what I'm saying? Like-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) Genes.
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah. So the genes ...
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
So that's what happened. The genes, the whole ... The fan base of the whole shit fucked with me. They knew I was, like, real in this shit. So they embraced me with that shit. So Tom will always hit me up and talk about it. He be like, "Man ..." Because me and Tom would, like, FaceTime and, like, talk to each other and go through some real friend shit. It ain't had nothing to do with no business or nothing else. And Tom always be like, "Man, you should do a podcast. I'm telling you, you would be good at doing podcasts."
- JRJoe Rogan
I'm glad he told you that.
- 6:40 – 9:35
What makes a podcast great: authenticity vs. overproduction
- DBDanny Brown
And this and that. And ... But my whole shit with, with him, and I was like, "Man, no." Being good at podcasts is good, but the actual production of it what makes podcasts good. Because I can set up a fucking camera and a fucking microphone in my bedroom and start talking shit in front of the camera. But is that going to be good?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. Danny, it would be good.
- DBDanny Brown
But I was like, "No-"
- JRJoe Rogan
It's ... Listen. It's ... All of it's good.
- DBDanny Brown
I get that-
- JRJoe Rogan
It just captures you. It's nice to have great production, and the way they do it at your mom's house is awesome. You have, like, a real professional studio. I went over there and visited.
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah, yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's beautiful. The whole setup is beautiful.
- DBDanny Brown
But that's my whole shit. I was like, "I'm not going to do it unless it's like that."
- JRJoe Rogan
But you can do it on FaceTime. It doesn't matter.
- DBDanny Brown
I know, but I was like-
- JRJoe Rogan
It doesn't ma- You're j- You're just good at it. You, you, you... Because you were a fan of podcasts for so long, I think you were probably talking back in your head.
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah, like, it gotta be big.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
It gotta be, like ... It gotta look ... It gotta look professional. It can't be-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
It can't be fucking ... But see, this is the, the double-edged sword with that with me, because what I loved about podcasting was, like, I was almost like a fly on the wall, like, in seeing, like, friends just hanging out, drinking, and talking shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DBDanny Brown
And now when you watch podcasts, and it's so fucking over-produced. I heard that these niggas is writing scripts now.
- JRJoe Rogan
No.
- DBDanny Brown
I swear I heard some shit like that-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
... where they said these niggas got scripts and they looking at them on a teleprompter.
- JRJoe Rogan
You know what I-
- DBDanny Brown
And they sitting there doing podcasts. They doing scripted podcasts. Podcasts are supposed to be like you just a fly on the wall sitting there in the room with a couple friends, and you hearing them talking shit, and you like, "That's why we love fucking Rogan so much." You get what I'm saying? Like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
In the beginning stages ... Now, this some real shit now. Nah. This is ... You get what I'm saying?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
But in the beginning stages of shit, like, no, we're a fly on the wall. But the point of that, that has turned to what media is in real life now, is, is it makes so much sense when you got ... Fucking, we went through reality TV-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- 9:35 – 10:50
YouTube learning, audio engineering, and skill-building in the internet era
- DBDanny Brown
I mean, no. At the end of the day, um, what I will say that's good about the cameraman shit is that, just like everything else, with DJing, everything with, that comes with internet, everything ... Or even, like, production equipment, all that shit has become so easy to use now.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DBDanny Brown
Where back in the day, it wasn't really like ... I couldn't go on YouTube and s- find an instruction manual to how to use an MPC.
- JRJoe Rogan
You know, Jamey's a audio engineer, like a real audio engineer, who went to school for it.
- NANarrator
Yeah, I had to go to school. There was no YouTube for it. And then, like, the year I graduated, YouTube got invented, and then I had to start all over.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs) So you had to learn all this shit on YouTube at that point.
- DBDanny Brown
So, so yeah. How, how much of, uh, what you learned in school is still valid?
- NANarrator
Uh, it's hard to say, 'cause a lot of ... There's even ... Some of the com- the computer programs, they don't edit for you, but they handle a lot of the shit that's ... that was difficult.
- DBDanny Brown
Oh, yeah?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
You wanna hear the fucked-up part that I think about, is that it, it, it's better in a sense, is because you get a lot of different point of views. Like, if-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
... if I'm a nigga that, I'm trying to learn some shit on YouTube, it's a l- ... And it's a topic that has, has a lot of different people that's talking about it, I'm taking-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
... the best parts of, or whatever identifies with me, I'm like, "Oh, I'm figuring that shit out. Uh. And do it at, like, that," instead of just learning from one person.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. With everything. Yeah.
- 10:50 – 14:55
Muay Thai reality check: classes, pad holding, and the shiny gold shorts incident
- DBDanny Brown
'Cause even ... Oh, you know, I just started ... I, I, I, I've joined a Muay Thai gym.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah?
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Where at?
- DBDanny Brown
I suck. Um, shouts out to all my boys at, um, fucking Ogar Muay Thai. Shout out to my boy Spencer, my boy Dave, all them motherfuckers.
- NANarrator
Nice.
- DBDanny Brown
Chantel, Autumn. Yeah, no. I suck. I actually suck though.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's okay.
- DBDanny Brown
I'm, I'm not-
- JRJoe Rogan
Everybody sucks in the beginning.
- DBDanny Brown
No. Um, I, I'm, I'm chilling out right now. I'm not ... I'll probably go back in a few months.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah?
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
But you were doing it?
- DBDanny Brown
No, I've, I've, um, I've went, uh, three, three, four months hard.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah?
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's good for you, man. It's great to get tension out too.
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah, but it's one of those things-
- JRJoe Rogan
Hit those pads. Pow, pow, pow.
- DBDanny Brown
... you know ... Yeah. But I didn't know that part though, 'cause I was doing privates.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
And that was fun, you know, learning shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
Private's are good. Then you get a coach.
- DBDanny Brown
Then I was like, "You know what? Let me go to real class," and started going to real class.
- JRJoe Rogan
Out sparring with people and shit?
- DBDanny Brown
No. Pad holding.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh.
- DBDanny Brown
My nigga.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- 14:55 – 29:10
Why training still matters: humility, fighting myths, and the guns-in-Texas debate
- DBDanny Brown
No, I get it, because even one time we had a conversation, it was like, "Man, you gotta know how to protect yourself." And this, and I'm like, "Nigga, I'm fort... If I hit a nigga, I'm gonna get sued."
- JRJoe Rogan
True.
- DBDanny Brown
And part two, "If a nigga hit me, I'm gonna shoot this nigga."
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
Like guns, y'all forget that guns exist and we live in Texas. I don't give a fuck about how many elbows you throw.
- JRJoe Rogan
Good point.
- DBDanny Brown
There's niggas with big-ass guns.
- JRJoe Rogan
Big-ass guns.
- DBDanny Brown
Especially in the climate, the, the, the situation that I live in, it's not like... You get what I'm saying? Like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- DBDanny Brown
Bro, so me doing Muay Thai or having to... That was, that was literally... I'm 40 years old. I'm not about to fucking fight nobody.
- JRJoe Rogan
I would never think that you would, but-
- DBDanny Brown
But I will, listen-
- JRJoe Rogan
... I think everybody should learn at least some-
- DBDanny Brown
No.
- JRJoe Rogan
... understanding of martial arts.
- DBDanny Brown
Let me tell you this.
- JRJoe Rogan
Be good for everybody.
- DBDanny Brown
One thing it did for me, I don't wanna talk, I hate this, 'cause I'm
- NANarrator
What are you gonna say?
- DBDanny Brown
But what, I had to say it 'cause I will forget. That's my fucked up brain. I know podcasters be, "Oh, you don't talk about the motherfucking..." You know, but I'm sorry. But if I don't say it, I'll forget it. But, um, it humbled the fuck out of me because I'm the type of motherfucker, I talk shit.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
Like, I get drunk, like, "Nigga, nigga, what's up, nigga? What the fuck, nigga?"
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
You know what I'm saying? "Nigga, what? Nigga." I seen people, nigga, nurses, women five foot three.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
140 pounds, kicking a bag. You looking like, "Nigga."
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
What if this... If she hit me with one of these, it's a wrap. You get what I'm saying?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- 29:10 – 41:04
Vegas and gambling: ‘revenge’ spirals and why casinos always win
- DBDanny Brown
Oh, Vegas. I have so many bad memories of Vegas.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DBDanny Brown
I never leave my hotel room in Vegas.
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- DBDanny Brown
No, every time I've been in Vegas, I've just been there and I just do what I got going on and next thing I know-
- JRJoe Rogan
You gamble? Do you gamble at all?
- DBDanny Brown
(sighs) No, I don't gamble. But I-
- JRJoe Rogan
Good.
- DBDanny Brown
I do gamble to lose money.
- JRJoe Rogan
Wanna lose money?
- DBDanny Brown
No, that's the way I gamble.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, you gamble wild.
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
With no intentions of winning.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
So, let's just say, like, if I go to Vegas, I be like, "All right, I'm gonna get 1,000 out," and I just wild out with a little thousand dollars. Once I lose my $1,000, that's a wrap.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
I ain't doing nothing else.
- JRJoe Rogan
I, I played blackjack with my wife. We were in town for something and we played blackjack for, like, an hour, and I said, "All right. I g- I'm gonna... I have, like, 400 bucks on me." I go, "Let's just try that." It was gone in, like, a half an hour. I'm not, I'm not even aggressively betting. I'm just terrible. I don't have any desire, you know?
- DBDanny Brown
No, it... That, that's the whole thing with me. Last time I was in Vegas, I fucking, um... I'm like, "All right. Um, it's time for me to go." So, like, fuck it, let me just throw a little-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
... hundred dollar hand on it. It was time for me to go. Got that motherfucker hit. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, no. Then you're hooked.
- DBDanny Brown
Yes, it is.
- JRJoe Rogan
You see, you see what Drake's been doing?
- DBDanny Brown
So, now, so, look, so, listen, this the fucked up part with me. I get it all... I run it... I'm on a roulette table. I run it all the way up to, like, 10 racks.I put 10 racks on one number.
- JRJoe Rogan
No. Oh my God.
- DBDanny Brown
'Cause I been... I started with a hundred, so my whole shit was like, you know, whatever. So I put the 10 racks on the whole... Obviously I lose.
- JRJoe Rogan
They count on that. That's the whole game.
- 41:04 – 46:00
Comedy aspirations: translating podcast storytelling into stand-up
- DBDanny Brown
Oh, no. Oh, I was just telling him that I feel like when, you know, y'all as comedians and shit, y'all make specials. It's, like, instant gratification in that sense because y'all could do good ... Y'all, I mean, I know y'all worked on a special for years and years, but then y'all actually do it in front of a live audience. Even though the audience know it's a special. I mean, it is what it is, you know? Y'all do the specials.
- JRJoe Rogan
Have you thought about doing specials? I know you're doing a little standup.
- DBDanny Brown
No, I'm not.
- JRJoe Rogan
Not at all? At Kill Tony?
- DBDanny Brown
No, now, I mean, I go in there and I have fun and shit, but-
- JRJoe Rogan
But didn't you stan- didn't you s- do, like, a minute on Kill Tony?
- DBDanny Brown
No.
- JRJoe Rogan
You never did?
- DBDanny Brown
I never did nothing but, um ...
- JRJoe Rogan
You only just sat as a guest?
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Okay. I'm, I'm on.
- DBDanny Brown
But now I'm starting to take it serious because all y'all motherfuckers keep telling me I'm funny.
- JRJoe Rogan
I know what it is, it's Tony. Tony was telling me that he's trying to get you to do it, right?
- DBDanny Brown
No, everybody keep telling me that I'm funny.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
And they like, "You can do it." That's, I guess, is what I'm, I'm talking about.
- JRJoe Rogan
You can do it. You can do it.
- DBDanny Brown
Uh, but, you know, the thing is that I'm a nerd about is the writing aspect of it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Good.
- DBDanny Brown
So, um, I love to write. Uh, even me writing songs, like, I, I always say this all the time, like, I probably ... I don't know. I mean, I'm more, I'm better of a, uh, a writer than I am a rapper. You get what I'm saying? So ...
- JRJoe Rogan
Danny, you're a funny dude.
- DBDanny Brown
I mean-
- JRJoe Rogan
You, you 100% could do standup. You, you just like the way you approach music and the way you now have approached podcasting, you could do standup.
- DBDanny Brown
No, no, I w- See, that's the thing about ... Just the fact that someone like you tell me, someone like Tom, Hanging with Tony.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
So it's like, I'd be a, a dickhead to not try.
- JRJoe Rogan
You have to try.
- DBDanny Brown
And not to do. But-
- JRJoe Rogan
You should do it.
- 46:00 – 48:49
Rap career realities: starting ‘late,’ bitterness, and the trap of public failure
- DBDanny Brown
My rap career, I would say, what made that bad is that I, I started a little too old. So I didn't really get recognition or, you know, 'til I was 30 years old. And you gotta think, I've been trying to do this my entire 20s, so when I started to be a rapper and get recognition for it and being that, I c- I had a bitter attitude towards it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Hmm.
- DBDanny Brown
You get what I'm saying? 'Cause it took-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
... so long for it to happen. And then-
- JRJoe Rogan
That s- that happens to a lot of people.
- DBDanny Brown
And then now I'm, I'm 30 years old, as a 30-year-old rapper, it's like how, the, the, it's like a ticking time bomb at that point, like, how much time you got.
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- DBDanny Brown
So I'm already in my head. Like, I will say, uh, a lot of people say, like, being a rapper is dangerous, like, you know, 'cause all the killings and shit like, but I would say being a rapper is dangerous in a sense because once you do it, you can't do nothing else. It ruins you.
- JRJoe Rogan
How so?
- DBDanny Brown
So let's just say, okay, let's just say I, I was a rapper and then it failed, and then I gotta go get a normal job.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, if anything fails then-
- DBDanny Brown
But I had minimal success. You saw my video somewhere, I had a couple views.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
And now I'm working at a job with you. Now you like, "Oh, you blah, blah. Uh, yeah." So that, and then everywhere you go somebody, "Uh, you was a..."
- JRJoe Rogan
That's true for your acting too.
- DBDanny Brown
So you're always recognized-
- JRJoe Rogan
That's true for your acting too.
- DBDanny Brown
So you're always getting acknowledged for your failures.
- JRJoe Rogan
But that's true of anybody in the public eye now.
- DBDanny Brown
Every time someone... So just imagine, every time someone recognizes you, they're acknowledging your failure. That hurts. It hurts.
- JRJoe Rogan
Of course it does. But th- that's what happens in all walks of life. Anytime when you fail and people get to shit on you-
- DBDanny Brown
How, if you, if you work fries at, if you work-
- JRJoe Rogan
... and if you're public, if you're a public person-
- DBDanny Brown
... fries at McDonald's, no one cares. (laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Don't you remember Gary Coleman?
- DBDanny Brown
Nigga, Arnold-
- JRJoe Rogan
Gary Coleman from Differnt Strokes.
- DBDanny Brown
Arnold?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, he started working as a security guard and people would just shit on him relentlessly. I'm like, imagine that, 'cause if he was just a security guard, no one would care. You would never walk up to a security guard and go, "Look at this fucking loser."
- 48:49 – 1:07:25
Industry war stories: label deals, Q-Tip, Nas, and why albums get stuck
- DBDanny Brown
No, I worked on a album with Q-Tip, from, you know, just to be able to work with Q-Tip-
- JRJoe Rogan
Hmm.
- DBDanny Brown
Was such a fucking big deal to me.
- JRJoe Rogan
For sure.
- DBDanny Brown
And, you know, it, it, it gave me confidence in my music.... to be in the fact that, uh, A Tribe Called Quest was my dad's favorite rap group. I remember-
- JRJoe Rogan
Wow.
- DBDanny Brown
... going ... My dad taking me to fucking preschool, ki- ... I mean, um, preschool. It wasn't that early, but whatever.
- JRJoe Rogan
Whatever it was.
- DBDanny Brown
But elementary school, my dad taking me to school and he listening to A Tribe Called Quest. And before I know it, one day I'm sitting in the studio with Q-Tip every day, working on an album. So it was fucking ... It, it was a big deal. You know what I'm saying? It was a big deal for me. And, you know, we made that album and ... I just think, um, the world of music have changed so much, where like, um, a 10-second TikTok beat means way more than you putting out a single.
- JRJoe Rogan
Hm.
- DBDanny Brown
You understand what I'm saying?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
Like that whole shit changed. So the way I grew up ... The way I grew up, like me, my favorite rapper is Nas. And Nas just put out a new album, and that album is fucking amazing. And you know why that album is amazing? It's because Nas is having fucking fun and Nas able to make music without any fucking ... And you gotta think-
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, Nas is really rich. Like he's got a bunch of different businesses.
- DBDanny Brown
It wasn't always like that though.
- JRJoe Rogan
No, but I'm saying, like, right now, if he's doing rap right now, it's 'cause he wants to do it for fun.
- DBDanny Brown
Yes, but it wasn't always like that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right. Of course.
- DBDanny Brown
He had the whole situation of what he went through-
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
... with his divorces and all. But I'm saying-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was all public.
- DBDanny Brown
Yes. It was-
- JRJoe Rogan
He's the, the best lyricist ever, in my opinion. He's ... His fucking shit is so complicated, the way he does things back ... What's that one song where he does backwards?
- DBDanny Brown
Rewind.
- JRJoe Rogan
The rewind. That's a brilliant song.
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah. You went ahead and told ... Bro, we don't wanna talk about this.
- JRJoe Rogan
Why?
- DBDanny Brown
Just for me. So now you're mad.
- JRJoe Rogan
Nas is like ...
- 1:07:25 – 1:07:53
Atrocity Exhibition, Jonah Hill directing, and needing ‘editors’ for creative work
- JRJoe Rogan
That's great.
- DBDanny Brown
When you, when you get a spare time to yourself, Joe Rogan-
- JRJoe Rogan
Fuck, yeah.
- DBDanny Brown
Atrocity Exhibition. It's, um-
- JRJoe Rogan
Can I play it right now?
- DBDanny Brown
No, that's the be- um, um, Jonah Hill, he shot one of the videos.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, he made a music video for it?
- DBDanny Brown
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Really?
- DBDanny Brown
Jonah Hill, yeah. He shot the, um, video for the, the second single, Ain't It Funny. I talk about that all the time. Like, even that. Even shooting that video was such a fucking crazy situation.
Episode duration: 2:10:20
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Transcript of episode TzG0sxSQaRI
