Danny Brown drops his sixth studio album, Quaranta, this Friday, and today, he’s given fans a second single from the project. It’s called “Jenn’s Terrific Vacation,” and it’s all about the gentrification that’s overtaking his native Detroit.
Produced by multi-talented jazz drummer Kassa Overall, “Jenn’s Terrific Vacation” is tense and foreboding, with anxious percussion providing the song’s forward thrust. On the opening verse, Brown paints a picture of opportunistic vultures descending on his neighborhood.
Who’s that peeping in my window
I don’t really know what they here for
On the corner just with the Starbucks
I was just looking for a come up
Right there used to be a crack house
Now it’s an organic garden
Brown name-checks another major retailer on the chorus, which speaks to the rising rents that tend to follow such “urban redevelopment.”
Tell me what to do when the block gets slow, and the money get low, but the rent rise up
White folks coming out the blue and they torn that down and made that to a Whole Foods
This gives way to a mini-dialogue illuminating the challenges facing longtime residents forced out of their neighborhoods by skyrocketing prices.
What you what what you what you
What you gon’ do?
We move in move in move in
You move on out
Later in the song, Brown laments the creation of dog parks and the influx of white girls drinking White Claw. By the third verse, as rents for two-bedroom apartments exceed $3,000, he’s losing it.
Y’all better check my head soon
About to have a nigga out here with a loose screw
You can read all the lyrics to “Jenn’s Terrific Vacation” on Genius now.
