DANNY BROWN

Just knowing how to rap doesn't necessarily mean that you're a good songwriter.

I think me leaving Detroit shaped my style. Me leaving, going to New York, going to L.A. and seeing what they were doing there. I think that inspired me more than what people were doing back home.

I would never design anything. I just think that's kind of wack. I hated every rapper fashion line that ever came out, you know what I'm saying? I would never try.

In terms of fashion, I think the biggest influence that I had was my father. My pops, he was really into men's fashion and read all of the magazines.

The most popular rap artists aren't supposed to be rapping about being broke.

The reason I never wanted to sign with a big label was because I didn't want no one telling me how to make my music.

Since I was a kid, I'd wake up every morning hearing a voice say, 'You're the greatest rapper ever.' I'm trying to prove that voice right.

I dress for a certain type of girl that I like. Women dress for us, they dress to attract us, so we should at least show that gratitude to them, you know what I'm saying?

You can't predict the number of years it will take for someone to find themselves, to mature into their own voice. When I got to be 30, I was finally writing like Danny Brown.

Faygo's like a Detroit thing, and you can't really find it everywhere, but the difference between Faygo Creme Soda and other cream sodas is that it's foamy. Faygo Creme Soda is almost like Sprite, but it's cream soda, so that's ill!

50 Cent's a songwriter. He understood and liked my music, but he didn't understand me.

Yeah, Dizzee Rascal is a huge influence on what I'm doing. I learnt a lot from him even though he's younger than me.

I use the Internet for what it's for: to learn.

At the end of the day, I think that I'm making music for me as that 12-year-old kid in front of my boombox every day. I try to think about, if I'm that little kid, what would he like?

From an early age, music was my only thing. You come from Detroit, you learn how to make the most of what you can do best.

Certain people in life are just going to take what's given to them, and certain people in life know they want better and they're going to go find better. I've always been that type of person.

I never was a crazy liquor drinker, and I don't like beer that much - though I keep the brews at home because my homies love beer.

If you like soggy cereal, then we not friends.

I want to be able to do what I want to do. A lot of times, the major labels, they can't see the vision, they can only see the dollar signs. So, it doesn't really work out like that.

I'll be getting all types of crazy fans, from the hoodest dude to the straight-up dude in a business suit. It's dope. I have a crazy wide-range fan base.

I'm from my hood, and everybody knows me in my neighborhood, and that's cool, I can do what I want over there, but in other people's neighborhoods, I can't.

I always try to act like I'm some old school artist from the 1960s.

There was a long time in my life where I made music that I thought my friends would like, or that I thought would get me a record deal, or what I thought I was supposed to make because that's what I was seeing in mainstream. I didn't know myself; I didn't find myself musically or, in real life.

I used to rap as a kid and people were impressed by it, so it gave me the drive to keep going. Everybody has at least one talent. I guess this is my talent.

The UK is always ahead of their time in music, and America always follows them five years later.