Danny Brown is a truly unique character and a genuine artist in every way. The Detroit rapper is known for his quirky style, outlandish nature and musical ingenuity. Furthermore, he proved making experimental music and thinking outside the box pays. However, Brown (real name Daniel Sewell) has recently revealed that his substance abuse issues worsened after the death of his counterpart, Mac Miller, in 2018.
Danny Brown has only achieved sobriety recently and has revealed that he has radically changed his lifestyle and outlook over the past few years. However, fans were taken aback when the Detroit musician unveiled that it took the untimely death of his former foe, Mac Miller, to reach the realisation that he was on the wrong path.
In 2011, after Miller released his chart-topping debut album, Blue Slide Park, Brown was quoted calling him “the worst guy around” in a Rolling Stone interview. However, in 2014, the two put their issues aside, and after receiving praise from Sewell, Miller jokingly tweeted, “I miss the you that said I was the worst thing to happen to hip-hop.”
However, after a four-year deterioration, the emcee died after an accidental drug overdose of fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol. This had an extreme impact on Brown, who had an epiphany concerning his own drug use.
In an interview with HipHopDX, Brown explained how he got to know Mac Miller, detailing, “I was close with Schoolboy Q, and then [Mac] and Q had got real close, so Q was kinda the one that brought us together. We would always try to hang out, and just something would go wrong, and then I think he thought it was just me being like standoff-ish on him.”
He continued, “So he had called me, and I was in Detroit, and he was like, ‘Man, you should just come out, hang out. Y’know, we ain’t never really got a chance to kick it; every time we kicked it, it’s always been around other people … y’know, just me and you.'” At this time, Brown was trying to kick his own bad habits but couldn’t.
Elaborating about his efforts at the time, Brown divulged, “At that time, I was trying to fix myself up, and I was thinking to myself, ‘Man, I know Mac — every time I hang out with him, we kinda do get a little fucked up and shit,’ and I wasn’t trying to be like that, so I didn’t wanna go … and the day I was supposed to leave to go hang out with him, on the radio, they announced [that he had died].”
He concluded, “And it was just like, I don’t know … it just kinda hit me kinda hard, ’cause it was like damn, y’know? It just let you know how easy or how quick some shit could just happen like that, y’know? So yeah, obviously, I didn’t get clean at that time, but that just really scared me and shit.”