I won’t lie y’all, the news got a nigga kinda shook.
As an anxious person, I thought that I’d be ready for any national emergency. I spend hours and hours worrying about every worst case scenario and I can calmly breeze through life while the world is on fire. I don’t know if it’s the news or the fact that I’m worried about the people in my life, but I’m scared. Usually when I’m scared I can go out and distract myself with a museum, a show, or even a date, but thanks to social distancing I’m trapped alone with my thoughts. I’m tweeting more than I ever have and I’ve washed my hands every 5 minutes. As scary as things are though, I know in my heart that music will always save me. So with that said, let’s dive into the one epidemic themed tape I can think of, Max B’s "Public Domain 5: Quarantine"
If you don’t know, Max B is one of the most influential artists of our generation. He’s no Kanye, Gucci or Nicki Minaj, but he’s definitely top 5. Max B’s influence is so strong that his right hand man French Montana was able to launch a successful rap career and date a Kardashian; it was Khloe but still that’s pretty impressive. Max had an effortless swag and was amazing at singing gangsta hooks even though he couldn’t sing to save his life. Seriously, Max would sing a whole hook with no autotune and it was fire every time. Max was also great at committing crimes so he’s unfortunately been locked up for most of the past decade, but he should be out soon.
“Quarantine” is both Max’s best work and a great Pandemic soundtrack. The beats are a mix of spooky and lighthearted, so you’re put in a cautiously optimistic mood. This is perfect to listen to when you find out there are more confirmed cases of Coronavirus while getting new matches on Tinder. Sometimes it can feel like Max’s verses don’t match his hooks and that’s because a lot is going on in his head. Around the time this mixtape dropped he was fighting a murder case that he was eventually going to lose. So as a result every song starts out about stacking paper, but then it becomes about sex, then about being trapped in a cell. This combination of scared, confused, aggressive and horny are the four horsemen of the Pandemic. This is good music to hoard toilet paper too.
Now, is this tape perfect? Is anyone? It has its flaws. Some of the mixing isn’t amazing and there are some pretty mediocre guest verses, but that adds to the grittiness. Sometimes you hear guest verses and you can tell the rapper was in a studio across the country when they recorded it. On this tape the guest verses sound like they were not only in the studio with Max, they were there for the trial and the murder. That’s a sense of loyalty that’s missing from rap these days. DaBaby can talk tough with the best of them but I don’t think he’d kill for Chance the Rapper.
We got some real scary days ahead, and it’s really easy to be crippled by fear. However, it’s important that we stop and take a moment to enjoy life, we’re lucky to have so many creatives that have created art for us to enjoy at our darkest moments. I’m worried, but I’m not in despair, we’ll be ok. This mixtape reminded me of that, so I give Quarantine 5 surgical masks out of 8.