Does Danny Brown really hate scotch eggs?
The music industry moves so fast that it’s sometimes hard for an artist to escape the reputation that comes with an outlandish headline. Case in point: Danny Brown walking out of an interview due to an argument over scotch eggs.
Back in 2014, the Detroit rapper sat down for a conversation with The Guardian that allegedly came to an abrupt end over the beloved English snack, which is famously a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat that’s coated in breadcrumbs.
Brown allegedly agreed to take part in a British snack taste test, but he and two others left the room with an untouched scotch egg in front of him. Reporter Paul MacInnes said, “He was having difficulty getting into ‘the zone’ and was discussing his dislike of the egg. It occurred to me that some jokey ‘banter’ might loosen him up, so I said, ‘You can’t come over here slagging off scotch eggs,’ and things went rapidly downhill from there.”
He continued, “I had intended, after discussing the Scotch egg, to give him a miniature bottle of Jack Daniel’s from my booze collection as thanks. I went to grab it, and when I came back, he was gone. I apologise wholeheartedly for any egg-related offence caused.”
At the time, Brown had just released his second album, Old, on Fool’s Gold Records. As far as chart success, it’s his most successful to date, debuting at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also featured A$AP Rocky, ScHoolboy Q, Freddie Gibbs, Ab-Soul, and now pop superstar, Charli XCX.
Brown is sober now, but at the point he was being interviewed, he was in a difficult place. He was trying to ditch lean after the impact it had on his well-being, and he wasn’t in the mood for a playful conversation that involved trying different food items.
The 44-year-old has spoken about his battle with lean in the past, describing the drink as a “liquid form of heroin.” He’s noted the emotional issues that come with the drug and how easy it is to become addicted to the taste. With that in the forefront of his mind, he struggled not to drink it at all hours of the day.
Speaking to The Skinny, he said, “A lot of people look at me and think I’m a funny person. And I am, I have a warm personality. But at that time, that was when I was starting to get off lean – I was very moody, and I was going through a lot of things. I wasn’t up for playing any games. I just wanted to do the interview, be serious, and then be out, you know? I didn’t expect to go to The Guardian and be having jokes.”
Brown actually has nothing against scotch eggs. He did, however, have a problem with the one presented to him that day. While it’s typically seen in the fridges at Tesco, Brown had previously eaten a warm scotch egg, which he enjoyed. But he didn’t have any time for the cold egg they gave him. Despite his issues with the item, that wasn’t the real issue at hand.
“I don’t have a problem with scotch eggs,” he concluded. “The scotch egg I ate [before] was fresh from a restaurant, it was warm, it was nice. But this scotch egg happened to be one he had just grabbed from a deli or something – it was cold, and it looked like it had been sitting there for who knows how long. I just wasn’t up for it that day. It wasn’t really bad, it was more of a funny situation. I just left because… I was there to work. I wasn’t there to play any games.”