Danny Brown has spent the past few years moving into acting, stand-up comedy, television, and podcasting, for good reason: the rap game can be rough on your wallet, as Danny showed recently when he discussed JAY-Z, Kanye West, and his song “Dip.”
The Detroit rapper revealed on the newest episode of The Danny Brown Show that in order to use elements from a Hov and Ye track, he had to give up almost all rights to his own song.
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“Dip,” the first single from Brown’s 2013 album Old, interpolates a segment of the Watch the Throne duo’s “N-ggas in Paris.” As a result, Jay, Kanye, Hit-Boy and Mike Dean (as well as Reverend W.A. Donaldson, whose 1959 “Baptizing Scene” was sampled on “N-ggas in Paris”) all ended up as credited writers on “Dip” alongside Brown and producer Skywlkr.
The Bruiser Brigade boss talked to his buddy ScHoolboy Q, who was a guest on his podcast, about the details of the negotiations.
According to Brown, once Hov and Ye got through with the song, there was basically nothing left over.
“With ‘Dip,’ JAY-Z and Kanye killed my ass,” he said. “They own that whole muthafucka. And that’s one of my biggest songs. I don’t get shit from that muthafucka!”
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“I’ll never use a n-gga hook again, man,” he continued. “I learned my lesson, man. Skylar [producer Skylar ‘Skywlkr’ Tait] be mad at me to this day, like, ‘Yeah, that was one of the biggest ones, man. We fucked up.’ Because you know, he made that beat. We don’t get shit from that muthafucka.”
You can hear the full segment starting at around the 4:25 mark above.
If Danny Brown decides that the rap world is too financially unrewarding, he can always continue his journey in comedy.
Late last year, he sat down with HipHopDX to discuss how he approaches stand-up comedy with patience, given he is still a student of the game.
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“I can just be funny and talk shit, but to actually write good jokes and shit, I still don’t get it,” he told DX. “My favorite stand-up comedians was always the ones that, y’know, you could laugh at and they had jokes, but they always leave you with that little gem; it’s kind of like you’re learning something too.”
He added: “I want to be that good, and that takes some time, but, y’know, with comedy, you can be 80 years old and still be on stage cracking jokes, so I still got time.”
