Danny!

All Music Guide:

While South Carolina producer/MC Danny! declares himself "A Tribe Called Quest on acid, or EPMD on LSD," he's much more complex than that. Born to military parents in the summer of 1983, Danny Swain never had enough time to grow roots in any particular area. With his family crisscrossing the country, the scenery was always changing and so were Swain's friends. The only long-term relationship he was able to maintain was the one he had with music. His mother supported her son's interests, buying him music equipment every Christmas. By 1998 he was a serious beat-maker and writing rhymes became his next conquest.

By 2002 he was ready for his debut and began work on The Danny Swain LP, but the album would never see the light of day. Accused of being the ringleader in a grade-changing scandal at his college, Swain was expelled from Claflin University and by the end of the year he was back home, dejected, depressed, and quitting music. Two years later, he had a change of heart and reappeared on the local scene with his first full-length, The College Kicked-Out. While some saw it as a winning combination of Little Brother and Kanye West, others saw it as derivative of both. Danny! relocated to Georgia for a second chance at higher education at the Savannah College of Art & Design and worked on his second effort, the venomous F.O.O.D. (Finding Out Our Destination).

Whether or not the Kicked-Out criticism was the reason for the anger, F.O.O.D. proved that Danny! was a unique rapper who wore his emotions on his sleeve, soul-searching through layers of feelings and taking the listener along for the ride. Although F.O.O.D. went unnoticed by most, Danny! began working on his most ambitious project yet, a concept album. Semi-autobiographical, Charm found Danny! narrating the story of an up-and-coming rapper who looks to fame as a way to escape dismal reality. The album was an excellent combination of his loopy, fascinating productions and his wry, poignant lyric-writing, but it was also his alleged swan song. Even though his star appeared to be rising, the unpredictable Danny! announced Charm was his farewell to the game just as the album was being released in late 2005. The following summer, the instrumental record Dream, Interrupted, which was originally meant to accompany Charm, came out. In early 2007, Danny! won Definitive Jux's Best Music on Campus contest, resulting in a deal for a digital EP and a video with Mr. Lif. However, the Def Jux deal never really happened as they shut down, so Danny! just kept releasing things independently.

And I Love H.E.R. came out in 2008 and was named one of that year's top 50 albums by ABC News. This was the first album where Danny! had any outside production assistance, bringing in Alex Goose. Goose did all the production for the follow-up, Where Is Danny?, in 2009, but there was a falling out and Goose slapped an injunction on Where Is Danny?, preventing distribution. So Danny! went back and did all new productions for Where Is Danny?, finally getting it out in 2011. Payback was slated for release in early 2012, but kept being pushed back by the label. However, there was a buzz around the release, as shortly after Payback was completed, ?uestlove of the Roots tweeted that Danny! had caught the attention of Jay-Z, who called Danny! "Hov's Fav Cat," though it would end up being ?uestlove himself who released the album later that year through his own label, Okayplayer Records.

Wikipedia:

Daniel Swain, better known by his mononymous stage name Danny! (pron.: /ˈæˈ/ dan-EE), is an American recording artist and record producer from Columbia, South Carolina.

Danny! is a former student of the Savannah College of Art & Design; he often wears an oxford shirt and pinstriped necktie, and has gained notoriety for prank-calling celebrities. In 2012 Danny! rose to prominence shortly following the proclamation by The Roots drummer Questlove that there was strong interest from Jay-Z; he was subsequently signed as the flagship artist to Questlove's re-launched Okayplayer Records after years of being loosely affiliated with the company. In support of the new venture Danny! made his television debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in September 2012, premiering his song "Evil" alongside The Roots.

Prior to this Danny! was most notable for his efficacious DIY approach to his music career, handling virtually every aspect all by himself—from music production to web design and even promotion—without the aid of a management team to varying degrees of acclaim. He would field praise for his self-released concept records Charm and And I Love H.E.R., the latter named by ABC News as one of the best 50 albums of 2008, before releasing the "anti-album" Where Is Danny? in early 2011. After signing to Okayplayer Records the following year Danny! completed his trilogy of conceptual albums with Payback, cited by Allmusic as one of the best hip-hop releases of 2012. In 2013 EBONY listed Danny! among other rising artists in their "Leaders of the New School" piece, predicting that Danny! would have a "breakout year".

Biography [edit]

Early life [edit]

Danny!, the only son of military parents, moved to Columbia, South Carolina in the late 1990s. He attended Richland Northeast High School and began pursuing music as a hobby during his sophomore year. Shortly after selling his first beat at age 17, Danny! began to take producing music more seriously. He started penning his own lyrics—after initially being reluctant to rap—and eventually recorded makeshift songs primarily as a showcase for his production. Early Danny! songs mimicked rapper Eminem's multi-syllabic shock lyrics; Danny! has openly admitted to copying Eminem's flow early on.

Career (2004 - present) [edit]

Beginnings [edit]

After spending nearly a year networking with local rappers Danny! released his debut album, now renamed The College Kicked-Out (formerly known as The Danny Swain LP), in late 2004. The record received mixed to unfavorable reviews, which Danny! would allude to in much of his later work.

In early 2005, Danny! was accepted to the Savannah College of Art & Design and relocated to Savannah, Georgia accordingly; it was here that he began to work on his second project, F.O.O.D. Highly bothered by the reception to The College Kicked-Out, he spent much of F.O.O.D. verbally—and vulgarly—attacking his detractors.

I didn’t really get into hip-hop until I was 11 or 12. The first song that got me into hip-hop was “Flava in Ya Ear”. That really changed my life. After I heard it I was hooked and I started doing my homework. Before that it was pretty much soul, funk, jazz, or whatever my mom or dad had around. With them being in the military, we traveled all around so whatever my parents were listening to, or wherever we were, that’s what I soaked up.

In March 2006 Danny! officially released his third record Charm, the first of three planned concept albums (succeeded by And I Love H.E.R. and Payback, respectively). The album was notable for featuring an underlying theme of escapism, narrating the story of a musician who wants to achieve success through music and be reprieved of the day-to-day routine in his hometown; Danny! has often credited the song "Poor Charlotte" from The Miracles' City of Angels record as his inspiration for Charm's storyline. Lauded by a variety of music critics, Charm went on to become Danny!'s biggest success at the time and, coincidentally, help make the entire premise of the album come true in real life.

Charm and selected tracks from the album made their way onto the shortlist for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, making Danny! the first hip-hop artist from South Carolina to achieve such a feat. During this time Danny! quietly compiled an instrumental album, Dream, Interrupted, and made it available abroad; within two years the sequels Dream, Fulfilled and Dream, Extinguished would also be released.

Breakthrough [edit]

Danny! finally got his big break in January 2007 when he received a recording contract with Definitive Jux Records by proxy. The record deal allowed Danny! to record an album for the Def Jux label and release a 12" single to be accompanied by a music video slated for an exclusive premiere on mtvU. The deal also established an ongoing relationship between Danny! and MTV, who would begin using his music extensively in various programming for years to come.

The project would be delayed for several years before a single, titled "Just Friends", was finally released by Definitive Jux in early 2009, making it the sole Def Jux release from Danny!. Despite a glaring absence of promotion from the label the single managed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. In the years preceding "Just Friends"'s release, Danny! significantly increased his musical output and self-released a staggering six records in a year-and-a-half span, of which only two were actual studio albums (Danny Is Dead and And I Love H.E.R.).

Danny! would continue to gain acclaim on his own merits, appearing on URB Magazine's website as part of their "Next 1000" campaign, as well as features from Pitchfork, Okayplayer, Allmusic, Complex Magazine, VIBE, Rolling Stone, Scratch Magazine, Creative Loafing, IGN, The Source, XXL Magazine, BBC News, Northern Express Weekly, Popmatters, The Fader, Blender, mtvU, Billboard, SPIN, L.A. Weekly and the Village Voice. The self-promotional "do it yourself" approach has since been adopted early on by other emerging acts such as Odd Future, Lil B and Charles Hamilton albeit slightly more successfully. Danny! has asserted numerous times that he implements such tactics by necessity, not by choice, as he has never been successful at procuring artist representation despite a growing presence in the mainstream.

Some artists go their whole lives without a lick of acknowledgment and pretend like they’re okay with that, but the truth is that all creators—writers, poets, designers, whomever—want to know that someone admires their work...what that boils down to, ultimately, is just wanting some sign that what we are pursuing is not in vain. I’ll always appreciate Jay and Questlove for keeping their ear to the underground. Their acknowledgment alone may have very well saved my life.

Present [edit]

The outspoken producer/rapper completed the Madvillainy-inspired Where Is Danny? in early 2010. Interscope Records, through their short-lived digital distribution program with Tunecore, would quietly release a revamped version of the album near the middle of the following year to widespread acclaim. Danny! later offered the album as a free download on his Tumblr blog after it was revealed to the public by Questlove that Jay-Z had a strong interest in him, dubbing Danny! "Hov's fav[orite] cat". During this period Danny! also provided production for rappers Danny Brown, Wale and Lil B, and was commissioned by Universal Music Classics and Jazz to produce a remix for Till Brönner's cover of Freddie Hubbard's "Gibraltar".

Payback was completed toward the end of 2011 but was continuously delayed throughout much of the following year due to the lack of substantial fanfare. After months of strategic postponements, Payback finally gained the exposure that had eluded it after Okayplayer announced that they had officially relaunched their record label division and signed Danny! as their first artist with plans of releasing the project. The interest would reach its peak when Danny! made his national television debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on the week prior to Payback's scheduled release date, premiering his song "Evil" with The Roots. On September 25th Payback was made available in many prominent digital outlets, peaking at # 9 on the iTunes hip-hop charts.

The title track for Where Is Danny? was featured in a commercial for SONOS starring Questlove in late 2012. Long fascinated with music licensing Danny! subsequently signed on as a composer for Hype Music, a production music library run by MTV and Sony/ATV's Extreme Music, the following year.