„He can’t keep getting away with this!“ is what I though right after finnishing this album – I mean this dude has just made like the 5th album he’s being making for the past like what, 6 years? And of course, he is a very succesfull artist, if not THE most succesfull artist of our generation, so he can afford it – this dude could release literally anything and his fans would still eat it up. He could release an album full of mp3 files of him at the toilet and his fans would still call it „life-changing“. It’s no wonder that there has recently been an outburst of those „Drake the type of dude“ memes, because that’s all he is, a clown and a f*ckboy. Man the last time I fully enjoyed a Drake studio album was in 2015, like what happened? This album also tricks you into thinking it’s good with the opening song being somewhat listenable and his „Scary Hours 2“ EP being actually pretty damn good. It gave me false hope that Drake will finally leave all the Pusha-T stuff behind him and come into his own as an artist, but he is just so indulged in it, it’s frustrating. And it’s not like I want to see this man fail, the opposite in fact, I really am trying my hardest to find one fricking song on this record I would consider great but if my life depended on it, I just can’t. The closest this album comes to an actual good song is the opener „Champagne Poetry“, „You Only Live Twice“ and the song „Fair Trade“ featuring Travis Scott, where Travis must have actually broken his back, because of how much of this song he carried. Those are genuinely the only three examples of a good song on this album, that’s IT. I’m not even gonna talk about the rest of this album, because all the song sound the fricking same, there is no deversity, no flavour, no texture, no anything to these songs – Drake sounds half asleep on most of them and the song „F*****g Fans“ is excuse my language a f*****g joke. I’m honestly not gonna spend more time writing this review then Drake did on making this album, I don’t wanna waste more of anyone’s time here.
Look, here is a question for you – did you like Scorpion? Did you like Views? Then congratulations, you’ll enjoy this record. But if not then please spend your time on something more worthwhile, go check out that new Injury Reserve album for example (review on that one coming soon).
„Hold on, let’s get this shit, let’s get this shit Let’s get this shit, let’s, hmm Top of the mornin‘, top of the mornin‘, top of the mornin‘ Top of the mornin‘, top of the mornin‘ Top of the mornin‘, top of the mornin‘ Hold on, let’s get this shit, let’s get this shit Let’s get this shit, let’s, hmm“
… Alright now that I fulfilled my citizen duty, let’s get to the actual review.
So yeah, Baby Keem’s debut studio album is finally here and honestly after some of the mixed teasers for this album and also the mixed reception it’s been getting, I didn’t really expect much going into this, just to kind of zone out and feel the vibe and I pretty much got that for the most part, but this record definetly isn’t anything ground-breaking, not even close actually – it’s just an okay trap-rap record with a few serious highlights that make it stand out a bit more amongst the sea of rappers copying this exact sound this album is going for. What even made me check out this album in the first place was truly and honestly the family ties (pun very intended) this guy apparently has with Kendrick Lamar, who also makes some… appearances on this record. It’s clear as day from the get-go that Kendrick was involved in some capacity in the making of this album, but most creative choices are still clearly Baby Keem’s and one thing this album proves for Baby Keem moving foraward is definetly potential – Baby Keem has an ear for catchy hooks and melodies and the production for the most part on this record just clicks – guess it’s in the family to have musical talent.
There in total 16 tracks which all vastly vary in quality. The song that kicks this album off is „trademark usa“ which is honestly all over the place – there are some mic-dropping moments here and there and memorable bars for sure, but the song just can’t seem to fully flesh out one idea, it constantly keeps beat-switching and never stays on one beat for more then a minute – it’s cool in concept and definetly gets my blood pumping for the majority of the song, but there is already just a certain cohesion lacking to this record. Cool song all around, I just wish it was more tied together instead of constantly jumping from point a to point b, it’s almost like as if adhd was a song. „pink panties“ is the next song and this one just ain’t it – for the possitives, well I guess the synths were cool and some bars here and there weren’t too shabby either, but that’s about it for the good stuff, the rest of the song is just another really uninspired boring trap song with those annoying group vocals that keep reappearing through the track, it reminds me of „No Bystanders“ by Travis Scott, but like a discount version of that song, because that song made this chanting work, this song just ain’t doing it for me. „spacegoats“ is a very much needed nice change of pace, even though it lasts only for about a minute – I honestly think this song is kind of a missed oppurtunity making it only an interlude, you could easily stretch this song out for like another minute or two and it would make for a one gorgeous hell of a track. „range brothers“ is admitedly kind of a gulity pleasure for me – the song is just so fun to listen to and that Kendrick verse? Honestly I can’t decide which is funnier, the verse itself or the memes that came out of that – either way I’m grateful for the existence of both. The song „issues“ is where Baby Keem’s talent for melody and all that really comes to life, the song is just an earworm that I can’t get enough. It’s also one of the more darker tracks here and for some reason these tracks tend to just be the much more enjoyable tracks of the bunch. „gorgeous“ despite what the title might imply is not that gorgeous of a song, but I like what Keem was trying to do here and the keys at the end are very nice too, solid track, but not one of my favorites. „south africa“ is a song I like more in concept then in execution – I get what it’s going for and I appriciate the message and the sound honestly fits that message, I just don’t feel like it goes around as well as expected. „lost souls“ I remember only for the beat sounding really sweet to the ears, I honestly don’t have much else to say about it then that. And of course „cocoa“ with Don Tolliver is great, it’s fricking Don Tolliver, the man has one of the most beautiful and instantly recognisable voices in rap right now. Now for this next one, before I get crucified for it, let me just say that I DO enjoy the song to some degree and Kendrick does reasonably well on it, but I’m not the biggest fan of „family ties“ with none other then the man, the myth, the legend, Kendrick Lamar. The song isn’t bad, the word bad isn’t even in the discussion, it’s just sort of underwheling? The problems with most of this record is that I feel like Baby Keem really just underdelivers while his feature artist steal the show, when he should be the center of attention. Again, not a bad track, just a bit underwheling for me personally, but I get tha hype behind the song one houndred percent. Things do pick up fortunately in the last leg of this album – we have the song „scars“, one of my personal favorties, which just shouldn’t work as much as it does, but shoot me in the face if this isn’t one of the catchiest thingsI’ve heard all year – the beat, with the drums and the pianos, it’s so good – honestly nothing I can say here won’t make the production of this song justice. After that comes the song „durag activity“ with Travis Scott, which is alright I guess, it didn’t really leave a big impression on me, could have used some more flavour though, for the constantly evolving anc changing nature of this album this song comes of really one-note. Then we have the songs „booman“ and „first order of business“. Now the last two songs that finnish this album off are both in my top 3 of this record, they just examplify what I mean by saying this dude has some serious potential – the first one is „vent“ which is honestly the banger highlight of this album, the beat is so nasty it hurts, Baby Keem really goes off and it all beautifuly and not in a way that feels unfitting transitions into „16“ the 16th and also the last track of this album and what I consider to be the most beautiful song on the album – I just can’t get enough of those punchy drums combined with the piano melody, it’s such a beautiful mix, with Baby Keem also delivering one of his better vocal performances of the album, it’s clear as day that he really cared about making this song.
So that about wraps it up – this album starts strong finnishes strong and even though it had some duts in the middle, those are just beginner mistakes, if Baby Keem keeps doing what he’s doing, which I don’t think he’ll stop doing any time soon, I think he has a bright future ahead of him and I wish hime nothing but that.
