statements on giving up lean
Tim Westwood: Now, you've given up the syrup, why is- the syrup down the sink. Why's that?
Danny Brown: I was getting too fat, man, I gained like fifteen pounds.
Tim Westwood: For real?
Danny Brown: Yeah, I like wearing Balmain jeans and Rick Owens t-shirts. You can't wear Rick Owens looking pregnant, you know what I'm saying? You can't have the Gucci Mane belly, man, to wear high-end fashion, you know what I'm saying? So one of 'em had to go.
Tim Westwood: Yeah, yeah, and for real, I mean, Gucci brought that little fucking belly into fashion, uh, why he continued it, the -
Danny Brown: You know, that look cool when you wear Coogi t-shirts and stuff, but once you start putting on -
Tim Westwood: Tight shit, then you look like a skinny little fat guy.
Danny Brown: yes and it's the worst.
Tim Westwood: So why was syrup making you fat?
Danny Brown: It's the sugar, you're drinking a lot of sugar. I might drink a 2-liter of soda a day by myself. That's just too much soda to be drinking a day.
Tim Westwood: Coming off the syrup, how long did you feel it took to get your mind off of it?
Danny Brown: About two weeks. I mean your stomach is just real fucked up. That's what's so nasty about it, everyone's talking about sipping syrup but if you don't have syrup for three days your might shit on yourself.
Tim Westwood: Oh it's that bad?
Danny Brown: You can't hold it. It's diarrhea. But then, this is the other side is if you drink too much, you become constipated and you can't take a shit. That's why Gucci Mane's belly was like that, it wasn't that he was fat it's that he was bloated. There was mad turds up in there.
Tim Westwood: He was backed up!
Danny Brown: This is true though. So it's nasty, to all the kids who think drinking syrup is cool, don't get me wrong it tastes amazing and it might help you sleep at night, but all the other side effects, it's not worth it.
Tim Westwood: So the bloated stomach, putting on the weight, being backed up like a mother fucker-
Danny Brown: And then if you don't have it, you gotta shit like crazy. You can't hold anything. You might as well get some Imodium A-D and keep them in your pocket like peppermints. Literally as soon as you start eating. You might not even have nothing in your stomach, just a couple drops of water. A lot of people listening think it's like a glamorous thing, it's not man!
Tim Westwood: I can't even imagine, if I were gonna come off the syrup I'd be scared to fart.
Danny Brown: But that's why people continue to drink. And then you have some people that drink all the time and talk about it but you don't see the signs of that. So I think there's a lot of punks, I think there's a lot of studio sipping.
Tim Westwood: You think so?
Danny Brown: They talk about but they ain't about it.
Tim Westwood: They ain't about it.
Danny Brown: Yeah. They just promoting it. At the end of the day, yeah, it is for no reason.
Tim Westwood: With that, sleeping is good though?
Danny Brown: Yeah and it was good for me to sleep, you're traveling to different time zones, you'd just be messed up, and then you have to go back out. So to go home and sleep for two days that would be great for me.
Tim Westwood: That's how crazy it is, you just sleep for hours?
Danny Brown: Yeah I would probably sleep like ten hours. Just out, real deep sleep. You don't even know you sleep. That's the thing, that's why a lot of people die in they sleep because of some habit while you sleep. If something weird were to happen while you sleep and you can't take care of it.
Tim Westwood: And sometimes, man, you just shut down in your sleep, everything just shuts down.
Danny Brown: Now I just take a Xanax, man.  drinking two-liters of soda, you know, shitting on myself everywhere. You trying to bring lean to Africa with you. Just 'cause you don't want to get sick.
Tim Westwood: So you have to travel with some lean?
Danny Brown: All the time! Last time I was with you I was drinking lean, remember?
Tim Westwood: How do you travel with quantities of lean?
Danny Brown: Because you can take three ounces of liquid on a plane. You know, you can buy those travel things, just put three ounces in there. It could be shampoo, they don't know what it is, and if they do find it, it's my cough syrup. I had a big bottle I had to break -
Tim Westwood: Just break it out-
Danny Brown: And get through. But then you ain't out there drinking to be drinking, you out there to get your stomach right.
Tim Westwood: Maintain and self-medicate.
Danny Brown: It's nasty, though. So, don't drink lean, kids, don't drink lean.
Tim Westwood: So, you think lean should go down the sink?
Danny Brown: Yes. I don't think it should be a drug that's glorified. It's liquid heroin, it's an opiate.
Tim Westwood: Nothing glamorous, man.
Danny Brown: I mean, it tastes amazing! To have your brain go back to that, it tastes amazing. But once you get addicted to that taste, man, it's just a brain thing, it's like a mental thing, you're just stuck there. I haven't been drunk in a month, month-and-a-half, and not a day goes by that I don't taste it in my mouth.
Tim Westwood: Are you feeling it is taking a lot of effort and self-control and self-will and discipline ?
Danny Brown: I think it's just helping me because I'm gone. If I was home, I'd be around people who drink.
Tim Westwood: So, the road is your rehab. But do you think that you could slip back in two years' time?
Danny Brown: No, I don't even want to think like that, no. It's not something you can do soci- it's not something you can do recreationally. One sip, and you back. It's like smoking crack or something. It's nothing you can play around with, be like "Let me taste your cup."
Tim Westwood: I used to smoke a spliff every day, smoke a spliff in the morning, and now I only smoke once a week.
Danny Brown: Once you sip, you drink it, all day, every day. Like I say, man, it's  a liquid form of heroin with you. Everybody know what heroin do to people.
Tim Westwood: Well, I want to wish you good luck with that. You had some low moments. What were those moments like, feeling like?
Danny Brown: I've been drinking that shit for the last two years. Anybody who's been dependent on something for that long, you'll have emotional issues. As long as I'm not at home, I'll be fine.
Tim Westwood: Now, you tweeted out during the low moments. Do you feel like that was a cry for help, saying you're going through a hard time?
Danny Brown: No, that was just one of those things that I probably could've kept to myself. Twitter is a motherfucker sometimes. Sometimes your battery just needs to die. But you know, I'm the type of person that wears my heart on my sleeve. I don't live for nobody but me.
Tim Westwood: What I understand is that there was not enough people reaching out to you. Not fans, but other artists, there were no artists who were reaching out to you.
Danny Brown: No, I was just in my feelings, you know? At the end of the day, it was just me getting off drugs and being emotional and being in my feelings. I was just feeling a type of way that day. I'm over it now. Everybody that I felt like I cared about, that I do care about, that cares about me, they reached out to me. They saw that shit, like, "What the fuck are you talking about?" I was just tripping, man.
Tim Westwood: Was the ASAP Mob there for you?
Danny Brown: Rocky was actually trying to call me, but I didn't know it was his number, so I didn't pick up, so I missed out on Rocky. Chase talked to me, though.
Tim Westwood: He's good people. So, I wish you the best of luck on your journey, man.
Danny Brown: Thank you. I'm still out there having fun, you know?