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Daniel Dewan Sewell (born March 16, 1981), better known by his stage name Danny Brown, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor and podcaster.

Born and raised in Detroit, Brown began rapping at a young age and was influenced by his father, a DJ who introduced him to hip-hop and house music. He began his music career in 2003, performing with local hip-hop groups while supporting himself by selling drugs. In 2007, Brown served eight months in jail after violating his probation for a drug-related case. After his release he continued his music career, self-releasing several mixtapes including Hot Soup (2008) and Hawaiian Snow (2010) with Tony Yayo. His debut studio album The Hybrid was released in 2010.

In 2011, Brown signed to Fool's Gold Records and achieved his first major breakthrough with the mixtape XXX, which received critical acclaim and significant attention from online music outlets, leading to him being named "Artist of the Year" by Spin and the Metro Times. The highly successful non-album single "Grown Up" followed in 2012. His second studio album Old (2013) received further critical acclaim and was commercially successful, reaching number 18 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and spawning the singles "Dip", "25 Bucks" and "Smokin & Drinkin".

In 2016, Brown signed with Warp Records and released the studio albums Atrocity Exhibition (2016) and UKnoWhatImSayin? (2019), to continued critical acclaim, although with reduced commercial sales. His collaborative album with JPEGMafia, Scaring the Hoes, and his fifth studio album Quaranta, were both released in 2023. Following a stint in rehab during which he became sober, Brown released his sixth studio album, the hyperpop-inspired Stardust in 2025.

Brown is known for his distinctive high-pitched vocal delivery, unconventional fashion sense and experimental approach to hip-hop. He was described by MTV in 2011 as "one of rap's most unique figures in recent memory" and by the Detroit Metro Times as "the most eccentric emcee ever born on Detroit soil".

Early life

Brown was born Daniel Dewan Sewell in Detroit on March 16, 1981, the son of an 18-year-old mother and 16-year-old father. His father is half Filipino, and growing up Brown would attend a Filipino church in Detroit with his grandmother. His talent for rhyming came at a very young age, as his mother would read Dr. Seuss books to him as a child; when he began to speak, he would talk in rhyme. His father was a house DJ who exposed him to all the music he would spin, as well as music from the likes of Roy Ayers, LL Cool J, Esham, and A Tribe Called Quest. For as long as he could remember, Brown had always wanted to be a rapper: "In kindergarten I'd say I wanted to be a rapper and people'd just laugh at me. 'That's a pretty funny job,' they'd say."

Brown's young parents did their best to shelter him from the Detroit street crime and gang life: "My parents ain't really want me out the house. They did as much as they possibly could to keep me in the house with whatever the newest video game was. But you know you can only keep a kid in for so long. Plus that had me sheltered, so once I did get away I used to disappear for like four days." His two grandmothers helped provide for his family. His maternal grandmother worked for Chrysler, and she bought four to five houses: "To this day we still got those houses. She owns three houses in a row on that block. She raised her three children and a host of others in the middle house; the one to the left she paid cash for in the '90s from her long time neighbor; and the one on the right was her parents' home that she inherited when they died." She also owned two other homes on the east side of Detroit, one in which Brown was raised. The fifth house, also located on the east side, was occupied by his aunt and her family. Originally from the Dexter-Linwood way of Detroit, he later moved to Hamtramck. He heavily associates with Detroit in his music.