This rap shit done saved my life
And fucked it up at the same time
That pain in my heart
I can’t hide
Lot of trauma inside
You can see it in my eyes
Nigga, you 40, still doing this shit?
When you gon’ stop? But God gon’ make you quit
Came from hardships, but changed perceptions
A blessingA lot changed since triple X came out
Bought a few cars and a house
Almost had a spouse
Got caught up, she was out
Now I’m sitting here, questioning what life is about
Can you separate the life from the music?
I was clueless, now a nigga foolish
On my own, gotta get to it
Came too far to right now just lose it
That, motherfuckers, is how you open an album. From the opening lines on Brown’s first album since 2019 you know exactly what you’re going to be dealing with: someone looks back at their life, feels the pain in their back when they tie their shoes, senses the urge to shout at kids for paying too much attention to their phones, and is overcome with the overwhelming belief that things ain’t what they used to be. Danny Brown is fucking old. And ‘Quaranta’ should be filed next to ‘4:44’ as a true classic in the genre of Boomer Rap.
Only ‘Quaranta’ is a far better illustration of the frustrations of age than Jay-Zed’s philosophical musings on how hard it is to be so freaking awesome when the women you cheat on your wife with are young enough to be your daughter. Danny Brown, despite their wicked sense of humour, their unabashed vulgarity and their court jester public persona, has always been a writer most skilled at detailing his regrets. Whether on the hedonistic multiple overdoses of ‘XXX’ or the paranoid morning after shivers of (his true masterpiece) ‘Atrocity Exhibition‘, Brown has always concentrated on the consequences of his debauchery. Sure, he might have made “Rhymes that’ll make the pope wanna get his dick sucked” or boasting how they’d… erm… “Done served fiends on their menstrual/Ain’t even have pads, stuff they panties with tissue“, but the punchline would always be how nothing made him feel better, how “The thought of no success got a nigga chasing death/Doing all these drugs in hopes of OD’ing next“. Brown’s raison d’être had always been the morning after, and now he’s got a whole half lifetime worth of regret! And now, terrifyingly, he has to deal with these mistakes sober, after the latest in a life long series of rock bottoms convinced him to go to rehab last year. “All the trauma I endured, drugs and drink was the cure“? Well, that cure is now gone. So good luck with that.
Of course, this is still Danny Brown, so they’re still “Going big like bitches panties on that time of the month“, and if they encounter a woman they’re always likely to “Try to put my finger in her like a rotary phone“, but now the big regrets stem from Brown wondering if he’s too old for menstruation jokes and third base plays on words. Brown was forty two when this record was released. He’s practically dead. I think we as a society all agreed that around twenty four at a pinch was the oldest age that men should be making jokes about periods. ‘Quaranta’ is the sound of Brown battling with the questionable appropriateness of those impulsive thoughts with that nagging inner Boomer that just wants the kids to get of their lawn. “That was back in the days, it weren’t ’bout no clout/Niggas made music ’bout what they really ’bout” – you tell ’em Pops! Kids these days don’t know their born!
This that Black Lives Matter, still sniff cocaine
Pay for a therapist, but I still ain’t changed
This that Black Lives Matter, still sniff cocaine
Pay for a therapist, but I still ain’t changed
Kind of a spiritual sequel to ‘XXX’, which was released when Brown was thirty and oh my god that’s what the album title says holy shit I never noticed that before, ‘Quaranta’ (Italian for ’40’, sounds kinda like ‘quarantine’) is a brilliant and varied encapsulation of what middle age feels like. It’s not wall to wall grumpy complaints about how things used to be better and how you’ve absolutely wasted your life, because when you reach forty that only takes up maybe 70 or 80% of your time. It’s also sprinkled with blasts of decadent insanity and age inappropriate tomfoolery, which helps to ensure that those grumpy complaints/depressed regrets have even more ammunition. The mood is generally sombre, but its varied enough to have points where serious locomotion and spirit threaten to break through the dirge of depression. That’s your 40’s.
‘Quaranta’ isn’t really in the conversation for Brown’s best album, but it’s another worthy entry into one of 21st century music’s most consistent catalogues, and certainly a weightier and more substantial project than 2019’s great but somewhat inconsequential ‘uknowhatimsayin¿’. Yes, I do enjoy typing that title, but sometimes music has to mean more than that. Not every time. But sometimes.
Also, Brown has a Mexican homie named ‘Chinese Mike‘, and I think every person in their 40’s can relate to that. Been there, man, been there.
(with JPEGMAFIA)
Album Title as AI Image
That… is… an interesting… interpretation…
Necessary Evil 
4 thoughts on “#24 Danny Brown: Quaranta”