DaBaby [NO LONGER PLAYING]

No longer playing the Fest because he's a dope.

One Liner: Idiot rapper whose tracks all sound the same to me.

Wikipedia Genre: Hip hop, trap
Home: Charlotte, NC (he reps his hometown so much I didn't need to look that one up).

Poster Position: Headliner!
Both Weekends.

Sunday.

Thoughts:  Oooooooooh, DaBaby.  You absolute moron.  I'm honestly wondering if ACL might consider yanking him from the poster.  When real deal, capital C Celebrities are calling you out for being a bag of shit, you're not on good footing in this world of quick cancellation.  Madonna, Elton John, and Questlove have all called him out for being a homophobic prick who doesn't seem to understand HIV.  During his Rolling Loud performance he "made false and insulting comments about gay men and HIV, and spoke crudely about women as well."  He said this: "“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that'll make you die in two, three weeks, then put your cellphone light up. Ladies, if your p***y smell like water, put a cellphone light them up. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d**k in the parking lot put your cellphone light up. Keep it real."  Idiot.

And then, when he got called out by Questlove, his response was not any sort of apology or discussion with an exceedingly famous Black artist who has worked damn hard to create opportunities for a lot of other people.  Instead, he went the absolute opposite way and acted like he's never even heard of Quest.  His reply was this: "I ain't even tryna be funny when I say... I do not know who dis n**** is dawg. And I do not care ’bout losing you as a fan my boy lol @questlove. You or any other n**** who wanna play follow the leader. This superstar was a fan of is stand up n****, yeen never seen one of these huh?."  He has also followed up the original statement, doubling down a little, to say that his gay fans do not have HIV/AIDS because they aren't "nasty gay n***** or junkies."  

Again, idiot.  WTF.

And in my opinion, it's not like he's special anyway.  He somehow has nine albums on Spotify, but his first studio album was 2019's Baby on Baby.  Here is my review of that one:

DaBaby - Baby on Baby.  DaBaby is the hot new young rapper on the scene right now, and while I've enjoyed some of his cameos on other people's tracks, this whole thing of just him isn't very appealing.  It has an intensity to the flow that kind of stresses me out - its not the Meek Mill thing where he just yells the whole time, but there is a staccato-ness and pace to the syllables that makes this uncomfortable to experience for an extended period of time.  The hit from this album is "Suge," with 275.8 (513.6 now) million streams.

Until the beat switches up near the end, the beat for that one is pretty uninteresting.  I don't know man, I'm not feeling the hype here.  Will have the try out his new album sometime soon and see if it sounds any better.

And here is when I did just that, reviewing 2019's KIRK.

DaBaby - KIRK.  I tried out his Baby on Baby album a few weeks ago, and I just didn't understand the excitement and appeal.  This one connects a little better - feels like he's coming up with a real sound instead of just spitting whatever he feels like.  I like "INTRO."  "TOES" has a cool beat with a touch of cowboy flavor (even if the rap itself isn't interesting).  I don't like many of these tracks - I'm not sure what he dislikes about good choruses.  Come up with a good chorus, man!  Even where he has a chorus, it sounds exactly like the rest of the song, so it takes a sec to realize this is more rap you have heard before.  Very weird.  Interestingly, none of his collaboration tracks are nearly as popular as several of the ones by himself.  You'd normally see the opposite, but for some reason his collabs (with Nicki Minaj, Lil Baby, Chance and Gucci Mane, Kevin Gates, or Migos) have significantly less streams.  Top one is called "BOP," with 184.7 million streams (now at 558.5 million).

As I watch that video, I can't help but think that they have specifically created those background dance moves to become a TikTok thing.  And then I realize that my daughter has probably listened to this song 50,000 times while she has practiced those frighteningly suggestive moves.  I like the video though!  A better album than the last one, but still nothing that feels like I need it in my life.

Since those discs, he released a new album in 2020 called BLAME IT ON BABY.  I have not reviewed it, mainly because I don't care about this guy.  I especially don't care about him now, but let's take a look at the top track, because it has over a BILLION freaking streams.  This is "ROCKSTAR" featuring Roddy Rich, with 1.2 billion damn streams.

Seems like I just reviewed a rapper with a track called "Rockstar."  No, Polo G has "Rapstar."  My bad.  I liked the zombie murder at the start of that video more than the actual track.  It's fine.  The line about having a gun on his hip like a cop is a good one.

Real name is Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, and at first he went by Baby Jesus as his rapper name.  That is a very bad rapper name.  He killed a guy by shooting him in the stomach a few years back, so that's pretty hardcore.  Apparently was ruled to be self-defense and the serious charges were dropped. He also slapped a female fan on a 2020 tour stop, as he made his way to the stage.  The crowd booed him and he just left the stage and never performed.  Seems like a really great guy.

It's not bad rap - there are a bunch of other new rappers who are significantly worse than this! - but nothing about it keeps my interest.  The beats all feel like they are the same, with that hard bouncing bass sound, some clicky stuff, and then him flowing in the exact same cadence over the top.  Huh, I just found this video after typing that paragraph - about why he always sounds the same.

"DaBaby songs sound like when fat villains are tiptoeing in cartoons."  THAT IS AN AMAZING TWEET.  100%.  Amazing.

Yeah, so I wouldn't go see him I don't think.  I can bop along to it for a while, but it seems like you'd just hear the same song for two hours and be exhausted.  I appreciate that he doesn't sing!  That is a plus!  Looks like Stevie Nicks and the old people crowd for me!