DaBaby had a winning formula. He loved his female fans and got in public fights. I think he got his wires crossed because he got in a public fight with one of his female fans.
Everyone loved this dude, he was rapping, actually murdering people and having a ball. He was charming! Then he slapped a woman on camera, lied about it and the public completely turned on him. While he did apologize (I think), his public image was ruined. This is partly because the internet loves to build people up to tear them down, but mostly because of Corona. DaBaby’s appeal was that he was the life of the party, he was fun loving and brought an infectious energy to all of us. We didn’t care that he had the same flows on the same beats, he was fun! Unfortunately now that we’re all trapped in the house, it’s really hard to be the life of the party. How can you draw people to you if you aren’t willing to go to them? DaBaby’s charisma was an unstoppable force until it met Social Distancing.
With that said, let’s get into his new release: “BLAME IT ON BABY”
Well, it exists.
This album isn’t really remarkable, not because it’s poorly made, it’s just that it exists in the shadow of a national crisis AND a huge personal mistake. While the songs show the same charisma and energy he’s always had, they don’t distract from the fact that we’re all stuck inside/he slapped a woman. These things shouldn’t matter when it comes to music, however when you’re wearing a surgical mask on the cover of your album and just upset your core fanbase, they’re hard to ignore. This album reminds me of the people who talk about what life’s going to be like when we “get back to normal”. Each song has a level of delusion that’s hard to ignore. How can you rap about fucking and driving around when Rony Tony got us all quarantined? It’s actually pretty awkward. The saddest part of all this is DaBaby is improving as an artist.
This album shows DaBaby taking more risks stylistically and experimenting with new sounds. Yea, the beats kind of sound like farts but he’s got some interesting PlayStation 2 bells in the background. His flow is evolving and while his content is the same, he’s finding new ways to make his point. Each song, while slightly repetitive has a weight to it. He’s learning how to make complete pieces of work instead of just verses with ad-libs. This is a lot of progress in less than a year. Unfortunately when people on the internet decide they hate you, you gotta go above and beyond to prove you’re not trash.
DaBaby needed a “Chris Brown backflipping to March Madness” moment, instead he gave us a “Chris Brown commented on Karreuche’s Instagram” moment. It’s slightly entertaining but not enough for us to be on your side. I have faith in DaBaby, I think that his next album will probably be his best, this isn’t it though.
I give “BLAME IT ON BABY” 6 “we still cool right?” Texts out of 11.