Steve 'Flash' JuonA rapper has reached star status when their name is in the news for things they didn’t do. Dominique Armani Jones b/k/a Lil Baby hit that status a few years ago, and now it feels like a week doesn’t go by without me hearing his name once. Here’s an example of what I mean — last year an extra at a Lil Baby music video filed a lawsuit alleging an unsafe work environment due to poor security. I mean it had to be pretty poor given he and two other people got shot (thankfully nobody died) but Lil Baby is not even named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The plaintiff isn’t suing Jones, but because it was his music video, his name still gets brought up in the story.
The reception for “By Myself” featuring Rod Wave and Rylo Rodriguez from his latest album “WHAM (Who Hard As Me)” befits his star status. In the two weeks since this music video debuted the clip has amassed nearly 5 million views. It’s so close to that mark it might tip the scale before you read this. It’s undeniable that the Atlanta based Baby is at a career peak right now, having three straight albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 including “WHAM.” Whether his name is in the headlines for good or bad reasons it doesn’t matter — the trajectory for him seems to continually be straight up.
It’s hard to deny how hard songs like “99” hit. The track is co-produced by Wheezy, Dez Wright and 9jay. Who knows which one of the three deserves the credit for how hard the bass drops are or how hypnotizing the music is over the top of it? If they each get a third of the money they deserve it for how good this sounds. Future also guests on the equally slick “Dum Dumb & Dumber” along with Young Thug. Guests are in abundance on “WHAM.” Travis Scott is on “Stuff,” 21 Savage is on “Outfit” and GloRilla is on “Redbone” just to name a few.
If you wondered if I was going to hit you with a twist at some point then I congratulate you for knowing my style that well. I have absolutely nothing against Lil Baby but simultaneous to that I’m not a fan. Jones sounds like the music industry amalgamation of ten years worth of chart topping trends. In an interview leading up to “WHAM” he claimed to be “experimenting with my sounds and flows“ and I’m struggling to hear what’s new here. “Say Twin” could be any drill rap song from the Chi with AutoTune. “Drugs Talkin” could be any song from the late Juice WRLD. Name any Future song that would get radio play on your local FM station “where hip-hop lives” and it would sound like “My Shawty.”
By no means does this make what Lil Baby is doing on his latest album bad. It’s the definition of “it’s fine.” It will be incredibly successful by virtue of pandering to the expectations of the audience and not challenging the listener in any way. The only experimentation that tracks with anything Lil Baby said in advance of “WHAM” is that shorter albums are what people want, and his have been getting progressively shorter over time. Is that really an experiment though or is he just following the trend? You can apply that sentence to this whole album. It’s generic af and you can put it on for a late night session of weed smoking or Netflix fucking without it fucking shit up. That’s what it’s good for.