Danny Brown talks about his economically struggling hometown Detroit, people’s perception of the city and of Big Sean.
Detroit has been suffering through decades of economical hardships but has produced musical madmen like Danny Brown who sat down with Fader to discuss his hometown and Big Sean’s perception.
When asked about Detroit’s bankruptcy Brown responded:
“At the end of the day, it’s probably something that should’ve been done 10 years ago. For the entire time that I’ve been living—born and raised here—we always had some hope that shit was about to change. They was about to do this, to build some new shit. We always thought things would get better. But now I’m a grown ass man and it’s worser. Ain’t nothing changed. A new football stadium, new baseball shit, but economically it declined. You ride around and see how fucked up it is.”
When asked about repping Detroit Brown responded:
“A lot of rappers are always about repping they hood, but for me it’s always about getting out the hood. I moved to Royal Oak, that’s where I still stay. I love Michigan. I might not like Detroit so much, but I love Michigan. Don’t get me wrong—I do love Detroit, I just know we got problems.”
Danny Brown then compares how he talks about Detroit to the way Big Sean’s portrays it:
“You listen to how I talk about Detroit, and you listen to how a rapper like Big Sean talk about Detroit, and it’s like we’re talking about two different cities. Which is probably true, because Detroit is that type of city—he went to the best high school in the city, you know, he probably was real spoiled or sheltered, so it’s like two different worlds. He can look at it and talk about guap, and we don’t have any.”
Danny Brown then speaks solely on what he thinks of Big Sean while mentioning that Detroit natives connect Big Sean to L.A. rather than the D.
“A lot of people in Detroit don’t consider him that either. They say he from LA now. He ain’t been to the hood in years, and I wouldn’t either if I was him, to be honest. It’s not a bad thing. I’m in the hood every day now, so I see the faces, I see the desperation. I have a studio now that’s five minutes from where I was born.”
– John Weber (@JohnPaulWeber)
