Baby Keem - The Melodic Blue ALBUM REVIEW
This is the Second Studio Album from California Rapper Baby Keem.
Most people only knew Keem for being related to rap legend and the best of all time, Kendrick Lamar but Keem is far from a Kendrick clone. He is more trap rap based and leading up to this point has been looked at another new angle of the ‘mumble rap’ wave which I disagreed with but now these people have no room to talk. Keem has released this project on the back of 2 mainstream singles, first the very boring and lowkey durag activity with Travis Scott and then a few months later, the more interesting and heavy banger featuring the previously mentioned Kendrick Lamar, family ties. This track had me so excited for this record with a great horn-laced instrumental that had a trap flavour until the beat switch and then second switch for Kendrick’s verse which is fantastic as always. This single showed to be a fair teaser for the record because this thing has its very bright spots and shows just how much talent Keem has.
The record starts off with trademark usa, which baits the listener into thinking it's about to be a slow song which then turns into an all out banger with crazy productions and crazy vocal performances from Keem the whole time. It fits as the perfect opener to the record and sets the stage really well. pink panties is by far the weirdest song on this thing but easily one of the funniest because of the tongue in cheek hook and 2 very animated verses. I don’t like the track personally but if you like your songs to appeal as more comedic than sonically appealing, you’ll love it. scapegoats is kind of an interlude that has a serpentwithfeet sample and a decently rapped verse from keem but nothing to shout about. The record picks up here with the hilarious range brothers with Kendrick Lamar. Baby Keem produces a very good verse to start the song but when the best switches a minute and a half in, keem starts going dumb over this beat and having presumably a female singing ‘i’m a hot girl’ in a strange, European accent. Kendrick comes in a minute later and starts having fun with it with a hilarious turn, repeating ‘hold on, lets get this shit, lets get this shit’ and ‘top o the mornin, top o the mornin, top o the mornin’ and the way it comes off makes me laugh every single time. The different between that track and pink panties is that this song was also sonically pleasing as well as hilarious and there’s no better combination than that. issues and gorgeous are slight duds for me just because they’re kind of run of the mill and nothing stands out about them. south africa has the most infectious hook on the entire record and the verses are at a decent enough quality to where they don’t ruin the song. lost souls and cocoa are both of interest because they both have great instrumentals and Keem seems to be in his element on lost souls, along with Don Toliver being in his on cocoa. scars also has a very fun hook that can’t get out of my head along with a good instrumental that reminds me a little bit of the lost souls one. Booman’s horn section is fantastic and Keem brings a very strange flow that eventually pieces together halfway through his verse and makes for a great track. first order of business has no infectious flow and fails to establish a connection to the listener whilst it’s on, it kind of just goes in one ear and out the other. The last 2 tracks are very different but I love both, vent has a crazy Kendrick feature where he’s basically shouting at the front and back ends of the song and Keem delivers a fun verse to make it an all rounder. 16 is a complete artistic left hook that reminds me a little bit of a Joji, Kanye and Kid Cudi fusion that is very chill and relaxing to listen to. This one won’t get old for a while and neither will Baby Keem.
Keem is a very unique character in this new wave of rappers and by far my favourite of the new era. He has so much potential and whilst there’s no shortage of duds on this record, he’ll learn as he grows up to focus on making quality over quantity and adding nothing to a record that he doesn’t think is his best stuff. Once he does that then he can take after his cousin in becoming one of the most interesting characters in the rap game.
Stream family ties that shit makes your life 10% better no matter what :)
I rate this new Baby Keem a Strong 6.