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 Rishikesh Hirway.
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, A$AP 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 Korn.
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.