DaBaby - BLAME IT ON BABY (DELUXE) (Review)
DaBaby - BLAME IT ON BABY (DELUXE) (Review)
8/4/20
DISCLAIMER: This review is going to be more track-by-track than others because I felt it would be cool to take you readers through my listening experience and have something of an overview at the end.
I'm aware it's weird that this is my second deluxe album review in two essays. As mentioned in my last essay, this format is quickly coming back. Though, while some artists like Earl Sweatshirt add a single and a one-minute track and call it done, DaBaby called it a "new album", added 10 new tracks, and a remix. Before I dive into more DaBaby, I should probably state some thoughts on his music. One of the main minor arguments against him is that his flow and most of his beats are all the same. I honestly can't argue with this, but if you've struck stylistic gold, then a switch-up only every once in a while is perfectly fine. Then again, with two new albums every year, it could get repetitive a couple of years from now. Overall, I like DaBaby, and I think he has some great upbeat bangers and a pretty cool and unique voice. But most importantly, he's only used autotune a couple of times in his already lengthy catalogue of albums.
On April 17th, DaBaby dropped his third full-length studio album "BLAME IT ON BABY". The album met pretty mixed reviews like his last two projects, and I thought it was somewhat lacking in interesting content. A few of the tracks have grown on me since, but overall, the album wasn't anything too great. This deluxe expansion, on the other hand, starts off on a good note. We see a short intro banger "BILLBOARD BABY" with a catchy rap hook, decent verse, and great beat. Next comes "PRACTICE" with a pretty mediocre yet unique beat. It's mostly 808s and an echoey sound at the start of each bar, with the occasional strangely-placed hi-hat rolls and snare hits. His verse and hooks are pretty repetitive, but the consistency works well here. Next comes the single "PEEP HOLE", which I enjoyed a lot when I first heard it. It gave me the impression that this album might just be something special compared to the rest of DaBaby's albums.
After this is "BLIND", featuring Young Thug. This song turns me on with it's minimalistic and sweet electric guitar intro, which the beat works okay with. Where this song fails to impress is the vocals and pretty generic-sounding verses. This could be forgiven if the hook was better, but it feels a little bit like an interruption. Young Thug does fine, but not at all anything special or impressive. Next comes "NO DRIBBLE", which I guess was a single from a week ago that I missed out on. It's certainly not great; the beat is minimalistic and very unimpressive and not very good. DaBaby delivers a pretty generic verse, but Stunna 4 Vegas does pretty well with that more aggressive flow. Track 6, "GO", is a return to the pretty good parts of the first part of the album. The beat catches your interest, and even though DaBaby's flow is wildly repetitive here, it still works very well. The whole song is catchy, and everything works very well together.
Next comes "TROUBLE", which uses the same sort of bells that helped the last track work very well. We see DaBaby seeming to run out of flows and ways to keep your interest and sings in the chorus. I admire him greatly for not only using minimal autotune on the core vocals, but it still doesn't work great. The lyrics themselves, though, aren't terrible, and might be some of the deepest on this album so far. Next is "CALL IT EVEN", which works very well all the way through. When the beat fails to impress, DaBaby certainly delivers. It's pretty short, but it delivers what it needs to. Next, we see Gunna on "TLC". I've never been a fan of Gunna in the slightest, and he doesn't do amazing on this song as expected. DaBaby's voice sounds pretty strange on this track, but personally, I don't think it works. The hook is also relatively catchy despite it not being great. Finally we see "GO FIRST", which, in my opinion, is a pretty good collective of where this album shines. We have pretty intertwining bars from Dababy, Stunna 4 Vegas, and Rich Drunk, who counter each other perfectly. Despite how interesting the performance and editing is here, the lyrics from the feature artists come off very bad.
Overall, this album isn't bad at all compared to what I think of DaBaby overall. He's always been a good feature artist, but here we see him deliver that style in his own ways pretty well. For a lot of the time, he takes the time he needs out of your listening. The features are fine, yet hardly existent. I was honestly surprised by Stunna 4 Vegas, seeing as I'd never heard of this rapper ever. On these tracks, his slightly higher voice and his aggression counter DaBaby's cooler and charismatic delivery with his deeper voice on most of these songs. My favorite track has got to be "BILLBOARD BABY". Ever since KIRK, DaBaby's intros have continued to impress me. Especially on this one, where he has a beat perfectly suited for him, and a great delivery that sets the tone, and the bar, for the rest of the album. My least favorite track would probably be "TLC" with Gunna. I would have gone with "BLIND", but as I said, I enjoy the guitar on that song a lot. I feel like "TLC" is a little sloppier and doesn't really fit with itself or the rest of the album. Giving this album a 1-10 using half numbers, I give this album a 6.5 out of ten with the description of: "bangers brought down by repetition."
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