Danny Brown On Modeling: “Who Wouldn’t Want Me Wearing Their Clothes?”

Danny Brown is quite an interesting cat. Not only is the toothless Motor City native one of rap's most eclectic MC's, especially with his signature strangled high-pitched yelps, but he's also a fashion enthusiast. While out at Coachella last week, we got a chance to chop it up with Danny about his recent side hustle in modeling. See what he has to say about the runway.—Ralph Bristout, Interview: Dan Buyanovsky

XXL: So you've been doing some modeling for Mark McNairy and Uniqlo. Why do you think these brands come to you to model their new stuff?

Danny Brown: Because I'm sexy, man! I mean, who wouldn't want me wearing their clothes? I don't know, I guess I got a different look, I look funny to people. [Laughs] Modeling is fun, though. It's easy as shit. You just gotta get high and stand there for hours and take pictures and they pay me thousands of dollars to do it, so it's like, "okay, I can do that."

Do you like the clothes that you model?

I wouldn't model nothing that I wasn't fucking with. I did Mishka, 10 Deep, McNairy, Uniqlo. Uniqlo is crazy to me, because that shit is like American Apparel or something. I felt like I crossed over. [Laughs] I guess I got good credentials on my modeling resume.

What if modeling was paying way better than rap and you just became a full-time model?

I'd still rap, but if I'm able to support myself off something else, it would make my rapping way more creative because I wouldn't care as much.