“Rap Genius is my second favorite website”
-Danny Swain
Danny Swain is a rapper originally from South Carolina and is currently living in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s been in the game since 2004 (he’s no newcomer), when he released his debut album, College Kicked Out. He was subsequently labeled as a Kanye West clone until his follow-up, F.O.O.D., where he differentiated himself from that label both musically and lyrically. His next album, Charm, was critically acclaimed and finally helped Danny! get some damn attention. He was on the shortlist for the Grammy’s, which in turn led into a deal with Def Jux (which is now defunct). It also started a trilogy of sorts, with the final album of the series being Payback, set to come out sometime this year. In between those albums were And I Love H.E.R. the second part of the trilogy, his instrumental albums, and his latest album, Where is Danny?, which was also critically lauded and ultimately caught Jay-Z’s attention. He can only go up from here. Here’s a small look into the life and work of Danny! aka Danny Swain.
Check his official website out dannyswain.com, definitely an awesome website that he designed himself!
Check him out on Twitter @DannySwain, Tumblr, and don’t forget his verified account here on Rap Genius!
Garginator: So, my first question is: Who is Danny!?
Danny!: Who is Danny? Danny is a producer, Danny is a rapper, Danny is a man of many acts. He’s a web designer. He’s a promoter, shameless self-promoter in fact (laughs). He’s a kid. He’s a learner. He’s a lot of things, a lot of different people, but he’s definitely a creative cat who has a lot of resilience and is gonna keep on striving for what he wants to do.
G: That’s great to hear, I love to hear that people don’t give up. Alright, so next up is that obviously you’ve had that Questlove shoutout, where he revealed that Jay-Z has you as his favorite new rapper. Have either of them have actually reached out to you for a collaboration, even if just for a beat. Any word from them?
https://twitter.com/questlove/status/161150508415979520
D!: Well, things like that when someone makes it public that they’re feeling you, two things you must know: nothing is really gonna transpire overnight, and that the conclusion is that you are the next big thing also did not come overnight. Things are like a slow, long process. Jay probably heard of me months and months ago, but I’m just now hearing (and so is the world) that I’m on his radar. I’ve been featured on okayplayer for the past 6 or 7 years so there’s no telling when Jay actually heard it, but he decided to make it public in January, so it’s a long process and just because we are now hearing about it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t in the works or something is not in the works right now.
Having said that, I haven’t talked to Jay personally yet, but me and Questlove talk back and forth a lot. Shout out to Questlove man, he’s been definitely looking out for a brotha'. He has a commercial that’s out as a matter of fact for the speaker company called Sonos and he’s got my music playing in the background (peep it at around 1:33 mark) in one of the segments, so that’s definitely a good look. He’s been trying to get me down for a few things coming up later on this year, like the Roots Picnic and whatever else. He’s been trying to set the table for someone like Jay, or anyone who likes the music. He’s trying to see if this is actually something he (Jay) wants to do and so I appreciate Questlove for setting the table, in a sense, showing Jay and reassuring him, vouching for me. As far as music-wise, nothing is concrete just yet. I know that Questlove has a lot going on now, probably working on the next Roots album pretty soon. I’m not working on anything myself, just got done with Payback and the Pea Swain, the Von Pea and Danny Swain collaboration, so I’m not working on anything myself right now but if anything does happen, it’s gonna be more than likely later on this year. I don’t, and neither should anyone else, expect anything to happen tomorrow. I’m fine with it though.
G: I feel you. Now, people don’t really talk about your instrumental albums at all, and yet you have 3 of them. I sat down and listened to all of them and I enjoyed them! I liked listening to them as some nice background music. Do you have plans to release another one?
D!: That’d be nice, I’d love to be able to. I have beats for days, unused and used to have tons of albums. I only put out a few commercially. I left it as a trilogy because when I was Def Jux, I put out my third (instrumental album) at the time and I wanted to also put out And I Love H.E.R. and Where Is Danny?. The instrumental projects mostly came at a time when people weren’t aware as much that I’m a producer and a rapper, people just thought I rapped and that was it. My instrumental albums were a way for me to assert that I produce too. In fact, I produce all my own stuff. It worked for a while but I think even to this day people aren’t aware of that, they think I’m a rapper from 2007 or some shit.
It’d be a good look and a good idea for me to go ahead and maybe do another series. I mean, DOOM had what, 20 different beat tapes, Dilla had lord knows how many. Even now, you’ll go into Google and type in Danny! and it’ll say “similar artists: Doom and Dilla” so I love the fact that I’m already in good company, so why not go ahead and continue that tradition on?
I have a Tumblr page that has been documented by so many different blogs, so many different publications as like a time capsule for weird, dope shit. Every now and then I might drop an instrumental on there that I hadn’t released before or beat I haven’t used. It’ll be up for a day or two then I’ll take it down, but people hear it and are like, “Yo Danny, put out another beat tape, what’re you doing” or “Put out some more shit”. I do it to tease them. Plans to do another series, another compilation, is definitely in my mind right now. But as far as anything concrete, not at the moment. I do have enough material to do it, I just have to sit down and decide what I’m gonna call it, when I’m gonna put it out, that kind of thing.
G: Sounds good. About paying homage: you had a tweet where you said “Every city I do a show in, I show love by covering songs from hometown legends on my set.” So recently you were in Oakland, so I’m assuming you paid homage to E-40.
D!: I did (laughs). Good guess.
https://twitter.com/DannySwain/status/203623289594200064
G: What’re are some other songs and artists that you covered at your shows?
D!: Yeah man you are correct, I went to Oakland a while ago and did a show and had thrown in some E-40 in the set. I think it went over a few people’s heads, I don’t think they were big E-40 fans. I think they were there probably to see Lil' Wayne for some odd reason (laughs), but I still do it, that’s just me showing love. I’m also a big E-40 fan anyway, so it makes a lot of sense. I’m a hip-hop student as much as I am an artist so I definitely am aware of what my surroundings are and who made that city what it is. If I’m doing a show in Harlem, I’m always doing Dipset, always fuckin' doing Cam'ron, Juelz Santana’s shit. If I’m anywhere in the Houston area, or even anywhere in Texas, I’m doing UGK shit. I’ve done shows in Florida before and did a couple Trick Daddy songs and the whole shit went crazy. I do my own songs and people are like “Ehh whatever I’ve never heard of this guy”. People go out to my show and don’t even know who I am because I’m not headlining. But then halfway through, like I always do, I throw in Trick Daddy or whatever and they go “Aww shit! This guy knows his stuff!”
Basically, not only am I showing homage and respect to the people who paved the way for these states but I’m also trying to wake the crowd up. They haven’t heard of me then boom, they hear that and say “He’s alright with us. He’s cool with me if he knows Trick Daddy.” Or if I’m in Chicago “Oh he knows Twista? He doesn’t even rap fast like that, he trying to rap fast like Twista, he’s representin' I appreciate that.” It helps people identify with me, help them realize that I ain’t all that bad after all if they have never heard of who I am in the first place. If they have, then it’s just another reason for them to say “Oh D. Swain knows his shit, he knows his stuff.”
G: Alright sweet. Now, about Rap Genius: I pretty much found out about your music through here. I saw your verified account and decided to check your shit out on Spotify (his entire discography is on there) and thought it was dope as hell. So I was wondering: how did you find RG?
D!: Rap Genius is my second favorite website, next to my own website, dannyswain.com. My homeboy Mark over at mostlyjunkfood.com had originally showed me it. I’m an English major, so I’m all about lengthy explanations of stuff, all about writing. He hit me up, introduced me to RG when it was first getting started saying I should jump on board while I can. I made an account, got it verified eventually, being one of the first few artists with one. I like what you guys do, what you represent. I love seeing people who are savvy who jump on something or introduce something that no one knows yet and able to push that to the masses. Everybody over here is smart when it comes to hip-hop knowledge and I definitely salute that and applaud it.
I use it to this day (no lie, check out his explanation on Frank Ocean’s “Bad Religion”). I’m always looking up lyrics, for example if I’m trying to reference a song or line in my own lyrics I look at the lyrics on here to make sure I’m quoting the right shit. Being able to see an explanation for a line or an someone’s interpretation of it, that’s cool as fuck too (laughs). I love seeing shit like that, man.
Danny! pictured with Common before the Roots Jam on July 4th. Common was caught using RG to look up Biggie lyrics before he performed at the same event.
G: We’re glad you like it. So I was reading the lyrics of your latest single from Payback, “Goodbye Love”, and on there you kind of took a couple shots at Das Racist and Yelawolf. One of your explanations said that Das Racist had some “questionable music”, and I wanted to know what the reason is behind some of these playful little jabs.
D!: (Laughs) Let me start by saying Das Racist is okay with me, and a lot of other artists I might take jabs at are. When I do that, it’s not so much that I hate these guys or that they fucking suck per se, but it’s more like poking fun at people who say my music is lame. I read up on message boards and Twitter and stuff like that where somebody is bashing me saying that I suck, and when I go to their Twitter page their favorite artist is such-and-such and I’m like, you like these guys but don’t fuckin' like me? It’s one thing if someone says that I suck, but the Roots are better, or Just Blaze is better. Well fuck yeah, you are absolutely right. But some of these new guys that are coming up, I feel like I’m on their level, if not better, so why would I not take offense to that? They say that the album Where is Danny? the whole thing sucked. Where is Danny? was nothing but free association/non-sequitur/random shit and somebody said “Yeah I heard it, shit sucked.” But then go “I love Das Racist”, that’s all they fuckin' do. It’s cool.
I’m not knocking Das Racist or anyone per se, but I am knocking people who say my music is not up to par when they bump the same shit I do anyway. I just don’t understand what they’re seeing in my music that they don’t like. Yeah I take a jab at an artist in a song all the time and I’ve heard people say that I suck and I’m a loser just for that. But if someone stepped to me and said they didn’t like what I said about them in a song, I’ll tell them the same thing I’m telling you right now. It’s not a jab at you per se. Sometimes I might take a jab at someone I don’t like, but Das Racist isn’t one of them. They’re cool, I really like one of their songs, “You Oughta Know”, which I think is a cover of a Dipset piece from back in the day. It’s not all hate over here man (laughs).
G: Last question now: When is Payback? When is the album coming out?
D!: Payback. I want it to come out really bad for the fans, I know they’ve been waiting a long time for it. But sadly, it’s not catching on as much as I would like for it to be in the media and stuff like that, and because of that it’s on ice right now. I’m actually transitioning now from one label to another, trying to get to Okayplayer records to put it now, nobody knows about that right now so I’m putting it out there. But me and Okayplayer records are in talks of putting it out, maybe pushing it a little better than other labels have so that way people will actually talk about it. Right now, only real fans are aware of it. None of these big sites are trying to give it a listen and review it. I finally thought I got a good review from HipHopDX, but they got some hack writers over there, plagiarizing their reviews (they retracted the review and fired the writer responsible). I’m just taking L’s out here man. I need to get a few big sites to review the album. They can even say it’s whack and give it a 2.6 or whatever they want to. The knowledge that it’s coming out is more valuable for my case. Nothing’s finalized, but whenever it comes out I’ll definitely be sounding the alarm and telling everyone about it. People have heard it, it does exist, and they think it’s spectacular. I can’t wait, you have no idea how much I want to silence the non-believers, but I can’t let the cat out of the bag just yet. Hopefully by the end of summer we’ll know what to do with it.
G: Sounds good man. I would like to say thanks for taking the time to do this, good luck with everything. I really hope you finally get the attention you deserve after all these years.
D!: Appreciate it, thanks for having me. Rap Genius is the shit, and I fuckin' love it. Peace.