2xLP BLACK VINYL - DELUXE EDITION

North Carolina rapper DaBaby rocketed from up-and-comer status directly into the pop culture mainstream somewhere around the release of his 2019 major-label debut, Baby on Baby. His combination of irreverent charm, charismatic swagger, and raw talent for energetic flows gelled on singles like "Suge," and took DaBaby to viral success. In just over a year since Baby on Baby brought DaBaby to legions of new listeners, he moved at a staggering pace, releasing second studio album Kirk six months later, appearing in countless features on other artists' tracks, and then issuing third album Blame It on Baby roughly seven months after the appearance of Kirk. Over the course of Blame It on Baby's 13 tracks, DaBaby falls back on his formula approach for the most part, but he also tries some new styles with mixed results. Pushy trap beats and high-energy flows full of confidence, lighthearted bragging, and humor are what DaBaby is known best for, and those elements make up tracks like "Jump," "Pick Up," and "Can't Stop." Ashanti and Megan Thee Stallion show up for top-notch X-rated sex rhymes and a slick vocal hook on the appropriately titled "Nasty." All of this is business as usual, but DaBaby switches from rapping to singing on more emotionally driven songs like "Rockstar" and "Drop." While it's a nice break from the increasingly interchangeable sounds of DaBaby's one-after-another high-energy bangers, he struggles to comfortably fit his larger-than-life persona into these moments of vulnerability. At its worst, DaBaby trying on this new style results in painfully generic breakup laments on "Sad Sh*t." The standout production of "Find My Way," however, makes for a more interesting instrumental, and this track's hybrid of singing and rapping allows a new perspective on DaBaby's charismatic lyricism. Even with a few successful ventures into new territory, Blame It on Baby is pretty evenly divided between strong songs and duds. The bold, swagger-heavy rap songs are growing more tedious, and the experiments with singing and emotional nuance are mostly underdeveloped. DaBaby still has a grip on the special magic that put him on most listener's radars, but with the middle-of-the-road material of Blame It on Baby, we can hear that grip loosening.

A1        Billboard Baby  
A2        Practice   
A3        Peep Hole    
A4        Blind
A5        No Dribble
B1        Go   
B2        Trouble    
B3        Call It Even    
B4        TLC
B5        Go First
C1        Can't Stop    
C2        Pick Up
C3        Lightskin Sh*t
C4        Talk About It   
C5        Sad Sh*t   
C6        Find My Way    
C7        Rockstar
D1        Jump
D2        Champion    
D3        Drop
D4        Blame It On Baby   
D5        Nasty
D6        Amazing Grace    
D7        Rockstar (BLM Remix)