Danny Brown: Hip-Hop's Cormac McCarthy

See Also: Das Racist, Danny Brown - The Roxy - 11-3-11

Despite a troubled past topped off by a year-long jail stint, Danny Brown maintains a strikingly serene and friendly disposition. Over the past several years, the Detroit rapper released a handful of well-crafted mixtapes, his most recent XXX yielding widespread acclaim, including a nod from Spin for rap album of the year. As dark as some of the album's lyrics are, Brown's no gangsta rapper; he wears super skinny jeans, for starters. In fact, his vivid descriptions of blighted urban landscapes have some calling him hip-hop's Cormac McCarthy.

Ahead of his show tomorrow, January 24, at the Echoplex's monthly Check Yo Ponytail 2, we spoke with Brown about stuff like his inspirations (Adderall) and who he's been listening to (Sufjan Stevens).

You're in L.A. pretty frequently and have referenced the Standard and the Do-Over in your music. What's your favorite thing about the city?
The weather and the weed, you know? The women, the weather, the weed, and the clothes.

A lot of people don't know you're part Filipino. Do you feel any connection to that culture when you come out West?
My grandma is Filipino and my dad is Filipino, so I'm just a quarter, but it's cool to meet Filipino people that share the same upbringing. We can share a lot of the same stories and stuff about growing up, because there aren't too many Filipino people out here.

Dilla was out here the past couple years of his life and talked about the connection between the L.A. and Detroit quite a bit. Do you notice any similarities between the two cities?
I would say we have more of similarity with Oakland, but I think the love of that sound, L.A. embraced it a little more than we did. Now I think we've caught up, but L.A. is just a place where people are more free to make good music.

Do you ever get tired of people lumping you in with Lil B and Odd Future under the "internet rapper" umbrella?
Nah, I'd rather be poppin' on the internet than on TV. TV has been around forever and not that the internet is new, but it ain't going anywhere anytime soon. I don't watch TV. Pretty much everything I watch comes from the internet, and I know I'm not the only person like that. So I'm definitely happy with my situation.

Since you're so much older than those artists, how much differently are you dealing with success?
If I was a 20 year old kid, I wouldn't know how to act right now, but being that I am 30 and I have an 11-year-old daughter, I've got bigger problems than being on the computer in some Twitter beef.

Do you ever find rappers or producers not wanting to collaborate because of the clothes you wear?
I think it's more like a real recognize real thing more so than with the music, so I think that a lot of the people that relate to me are people that have been through similar situations. Somebody like Schoolboy Q, I don't want to stereotype anyone, but I wouldn't expect him to wanna fuck with me because of the way that I look. But he's able to look past that because of the music and I think that's pretty cool.