Danny Brown announces Q-Tip-produced LP, 'U Know What I'm Sayin?'

Detroit rapper Danny Brown announced fresh details about his upcoming fifth studio album, his first since 2016's Atrocity Exhibition.

In a lengthy profile in Highsnobiety, Brown says he enlisted A Tribe Called Quest MC and producer Q-Tip to executive produce the project, titled U Know What I'm Sayin? He told the magazine that A Tribe Called Quest is his father's favorite hip-hop group, and that his dad won't believe it until the record comes out.

Brown says he enlisted Q-Tip to help with writer's block that he had after making the experimental (and expensive) Atrocity Exhibition.

"If I didn’t get help, with somebody to find a direction, I didn’t know what the fuck to do at that time," Brown told the magazine. "I knew I couldn’t make an album like [Atrocity Exhibition] again. This is the easiest one because you got someone like him you can put your trust into."

Brown says the arrangement allowed him to worry less about avant-garde production and focus more on rapping.

"People get so mad with what the kids is doing, the new hip-hop," he says. "It’s not for you — mind your business. So I’m minding my business, making sure it’s my business for the little fellas like me, the older motherfuckers, 30-year-olds, 30 and up."

The rapper also confirmed that the record will feature production from frequent collaborator Paul White, as well as an appearance by Run the Jewels' El-P, who he says was supposed to appear on Atrocity Exhibition but the collaboration fell through due to time constraints.

You can revisit our 2017 cover story on Brown here.

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