Danny Brown gives Kendrick Lamar his flowers: “Some motherf**kers are just naturally gifted”

In one of the most amusing episodes of the season, Detroit’s own Danny Brown sat down with N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN for the latest installment of “Drink Champs.”

Thanks to a live introduction through his father, Brown’s love for Hip Hop was instant. He started honing in on his craft as an elementary school student, using the classroom as a practice arena and his classmates as the audience. Down the line, he stepped away from hustling to take his rap career seriously, which bred critically acclaimed projects like The Hybrid and XXX.

Throughout the 2010s, Brown continued to release well-received projects and mixtapes, which further solidified him as a legend in the Blog Era, the Midwest and beyond. With years of experience as a successful artist, he reemerged with U Know What I'm Sayin? in 2019 and Quaranta in 2023, among other drops. In summary and without a doubt, the seasoned vet has carved himself into the history books of music.

Check out nine major takeaways from his “Drink Champs” conversation below. And watch the full episode here.

Brown noted that he really started to pursue a path within the genre once he fell in love with it around the age of 5. “My first time ever rapping was like kindergarten. My dad had took me to Fresh Fest. It was like LL Cool J, Run-DMC... And he said I didn’t even watch the concert; I was just mimicking everything they was doing on stage and started rapping,” he began. “I was in kindergarten, so not too long after; it was like show and tell. And I ain’t have nothing to show or tell ‘cause I wasn’t paying attention in class. So I just went up in front of the class and I rapped. And then all the kids stood up, and started clapping and s**t. So I was like, ‘D**n, that’s the only thing I’m good at.’ So I just kept it going.”

Brown and Kendrick Lamar have maintained a close-knit relationship throughout their careers. When asked about the root of their bond, he said, “We’ve always just been fans of each other. I feel like K. Dot is one of the best rappers ever.” Later, he broke it down a bit more with the following salute: “Some muthaf**kas are just naturally gifted. Like, I feel like [J.] Cole worked hard to get where he’s at. He studied hard... He rapped hard. I feel like [Kendrick] was just born with that s**t. You can’t take that.”

N.O.R.E. shared a thought that Brown, who has been making music his entire life, belonged to the 1990s era of rap. In agreement, the guest responded by explaining how he was rapping during that time, though he didn’t get on until he made a necessary change in his approach. “I didn’t really get no traction like that until I was 30. But I would admit that in my 20s, it was moreso just rapping to try and get a record deal. I still didn’t find myself yet. It didn’t start working for me until I stopped giving a f**k about what other people thought about my music,” he admitted. “I started to realize, like man, the music I listen to ain’t on TV or on the radio. So, I just started to pull my influences from that.”

Danny Brown announced on the show that he’s been sober from drugs and liquor for one year. On his reasoning for steering away from substances, he said, “I was just f**king up.” The hosts then asked how he still has fun these days without the extra kick, to which Brown replied, “I don’t. But I’m 42 years old. The fun got to be done or you gon’ die. My fun was deadly. I was like a living skydiver. You can’t keep jumping out the plane every day.” Later on, the trio discussed the idea of people being more creative when inebriated. However, Brown objected, noting, “Now that I’m sober, I realized that s**t is just in me. If anything, the drugs and alcohol was f**king me up more. It was taking me more out of who I was. But I’ve always been a funny muthaf**ka or just being able to f**king rap.”

Brown is a student of the game and he’s always been intentional about being well-versed on different elements of the art form. “I used to take -- I call them ‘rapper vacations.’ Any style of music that I was really into, I would just go out in the city and try to see what makes them come up with that s**t. Almost like a backpacker adventure; [I would] just go around,” he said. “I went to Houston and just chilled out for a minute because I was super into their s**t. I hung out with Paul Wall. Or somewhere like New Orleans, to see the jazz scene and s**t like that. Or even Nashville and just go f**k with some country. Because I take influences from every genre of music and I just mix it into my s**t.”

As someone who has seen the genre fully evolve, Brown kept it real about his feelings toward the rap game right now. “I just wish it was more emphasis on creativity than anything else. Because right now, it’s just copy and paste. You see some s**t work, and you’re like, ‘Alright, I’m doing that s**t too.’ And then it works! It needs to be more gatekeeping around this muthaf**ka, if anything,” he explained. The commentary wasn’t all negative though. Brown also noted, “I do like the fact -- I’m not saying it’s easy -- but you can make some s**t and [if] the people f**k with it, you’re on. You ain’t gotta go through all of these pipelines and s**t, how it used to be before. So, I do like that part of it.”

Danny Brown used to rock a gap and crooked dentures with pride but eventually got them fixed. During his sit-down, Brown described why: “It really was a health thing. Because I done had those type of teeth for so long, you’re constantly biting s**t. Your bottoms is working way harder than your tops. And your bottoms ain’t supposed to be biting s**t. So my dentist was telling me, ‘Yo, you’re about to lose your whole f**king bottom row if you keep going like this. You gotta get you some chompers up in that muthaf**ka, man.’ So I just had to do it.”

Brown, now at OG status, co-signed the newer generation of rhymers in the Midwest. “I really love Babyface Ray because he’s representing a side of Detroit that muthaf**kas ain’t really seen. People that come from Detroit, everybody tries to be too gangsta. Or you’re just super backpacked out. But it’s just like cool a** fly n**gas that just like to chill, and be regular cool n**gas, and be fresh, and f**k with b**ches. And I feel like that side of Detroit has never really been represented. And he’s coming through with that s**t,” the artist insisted. “But Skilla Baby is a dope rapper in the sense of, like, he could of been cracking in any time period of Detroit rap, type s**t. Like, he literally could rap his a** off.”

Lastly, Brown spoke plainly about his experience with J Dilla’s music and the effect that the late producer had on the world. “People gotta understand, man. The s**t that Dilla was doing, they still talk about and do s**t to this day. I was in f**king Sweden one time, in like a f**king five-star restaurant, and they was playing f**king Slum Village instrumentals,” he remembered. “Just with him making that Donuts album, that was pretty much like our version of jazz.” He went on, “I heard Slum Village when I was a kid, but I was too immature to even understand that s**t. I was like, ‘These n**gas ain’t shooting nobody or nothing? They ain’t getting high or nothing, man. I can’t get jiggy with this s**t.’ But then when I grew up, I understood the genius in the music.”

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