S
INCE RELEASING HIS DEBUT
album, The Hybrid, almost a decade
ago, Danny Brown insists he has learned
“the science of rapping” — the Detroit
native has landed a top 20 album on
the Billboard 200 and two top fives on
the Top Rap Albums chart. But for his fifth album,
uknowhatimsayin¿, out Oct. 4 on Warp, Brown, 38,
wanted to change up his formula. So he enlisted
A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip to executive-produce
— something the legend hasn’t done since 2014.
“It was almost like I was an actor in a movie,” says
Brown of working with Q-Tip. “I just had to show up
and know my lines.”
How did working with Q-Tip change your
approach to crafting an album?
Tip is a person who turns over every stone when
it comes to making a song — he pays very close
attention to details and tries out a lot of different
things. Me? I just try to catch lightning in a bottle.
I’m not rewriting shit. For this album, though,
“Theme Song,” for example — we probably
recorded that one over 300 times. And I didn’t get
it right until the last week before it was about to
go into mastering.
Whose style do you prefer?
I don’t know, but I told Tip: “Now it’s forever with
us — you can’t leave me now!” Because just like
in Pretty Woman, he can’t just be taking me to
the nice stores and having me try on nice dresses
and high heels and then be putting me back on
the street. Fuck that! I’m trying to start on the next
album with him as soon as possible because I
know we both like to take a lot of time.
You’re playing 1,000-capacity venues
beginning next month. How are you preparing
mentally and physically?
I’m getting older, so I have to take care of
myself. With touring there’s always going to be
a lot of drinking and eating shitty food, so I start
conditioning myself three months out. I’ve been
doing this for a while now, and I’ve burned out on
the road before — you’ll be going to do the show,
and it’ll be the last thing you want to do that day.
So right now, it’s just about taking care of myself —
and getting the set tight.
Outside of music, you have your own Viceland
show, Danny’s House. Why is that a good
outlet for you?
I’ve been goofy all my life. Even when I was in jail,
or selling drugs and doing terrible things, I was still
cracking jokes and laughing too much. I’ve just
always been that way. People look at life like they
can’t do certain things or it will affect their street
credibility or their image, but I’ve never been like that
— I just like to have fun.
PLAYING
THE PART
How Danny Brown
got Q-Tip to produce
for another artist for the
first time in five years
BY DAN HYMAN
Q
&
AMASHUP MAVEN
At 15, Atlanta native Summer Walker started playing
guitar and singing in her bathroom — “I liked the
acoustics and how I sounded,” she says today.
Inspired by the likes of Erykah Badu, Amy Wine-
house and Marvin Gaye, she started uploading clips
to Vine, then covers to YouTube. She didn’t find a
following until 2017, when she uploaded a mashup
of Drake’s “Fake Love,” Rae Sremmurd’s “Black
Beatles,” Ginuwine’s “Pony” and Beyoncé’s “Yes”:
“People are still discovering me from that.”
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Among those who discovered her was another
Summer Walker, then studio manager for LVRN,
who offered to help with her career. (She discovered
the singer while Googling herself.) Within a year,
the artist became the first woman to land a record-
ing contract with LVRN, which in 2016 signed a
joint-venture deal with Interscope. “She puts a
fresh spin on R&B,” says Justice Baiden, LVRN
co-founder/head of A&R. “There’s a juxtaposition of
being edgy and punk, but still soulful.”
NO STRIKING OUT
In October 2018, Walker, now 32, released her debut
album, Last Day of Summer, on LVRN/Interscope,
and in January delivered her EP Clear, recorded live
in an Atlanta treehouse she found on Airbnb. But it
was the airy R&B late-night jam “Girls Need Love”
— Last Day of Summer’s lead single — that pushed
her into the mainstream with its unrestrained lyrics:
“I just need some dick, I just need some love.” The
song caught the attention of Drake, who heard
it at a bowling alley earlier this year and DM’ed
Walker, saying he was a big fan. “So,” she says, “I
asked him if he would get on it — and he did.” Their
remix scored Walker her first Billboard Hot 100 hit,
peaking at No. 37 in March. But it’s her new single,
“Playing Games,” that landed Walker her first solo
Hot 100 entry, debuting in September at No. 87.
BALANCING ACT
In July, Walker signed a global publishing admin-
istration deal with Warner Chappell Music. Her
next album, Over It, mostly produced by London
on da Track, is out Oct. 4. Then the self-proclaimed
introvert will embark on her First and Last Tour.
“Performing gives me so much anxiety,” she says,
adding that she travels with a stuffed animal named
Friend. “I would be more at peace if I could just
record music and slide it under the door.”
SUMMER
WALKER
Following a remix with Drake, the
rising R&B artist is feeling the “love”
BY JEWEL WICKER
CHARTBREAKER
44 BILLBOARD • SEPTEMBER 28, 2019
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