Review Series: XXL Magazine's Freshman Class of 2019 - Dababy
Most of this year's XXL Freshmen came with a decently-sized backlog of tracks, giving weight to their skills and abilities as emcees beyond simple inclusion. That being said, even among his classmates Dababy is unique in his prolificity. Touting a staggering eight mixtapes in 2 years, plus his first studio venture Baby on Baby, Dababy has clearly put in the work to be deserving of his placement among the rising elite.
His standout traits are easily his flow and lyricism, both of which are top quality and have already earned him one hit: "Suge", debuting in April at #87 and rising by June to #8 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Don't mistake his ability for seriousness, though, as Dababy does anything but take himself seriously. In the music video for "Suge", for example, he dresses up like the eponymous producer, muscle suit and all. In 2017, shortly after changing his stage name from "Baby Jesus", he also popped up at South-by-Southwest dressed only in a diaper (for the publicity, of course. Probably.)
To say he's a new-age Ludacris would be both correct and incorrect. He treats the industry, and his own talents, with the laze-faire attitude of someone doing what they love for the love, but musically they're starkly different. Luda spends a lot of his time lampooning behaviors and attitudes in the hip hop community, whereas Dababy spends his parody time going largely after himself.
Case-in-point: In the music video for "Suge" (the second track on Baby on Baby and its first single), most of his time is spent impersonating Suge Knight and masquerading as a villainous mailman. Then again maybe we have no reason to expect any level of seriousness from someone who graduated from "Zebulon B. Vance High School", an institution who has won the "Weirdest High School Name Ever" award every year since its inception.
With such an impressive backlog and an attitude of laid back positivity, you might be asking yourself why it took him this long to blow up in the first place. Here's the thing -- it really didn't. His first mixtape was released in January 2017 and just over two years later here he is, sitting on top of victory mountain and edging into international renown.
Despite all this, listening to Baby on Baby leaves one with the desire to scream from the rooftops, "SOMEONE GET THIS MAN A DECENT HOOK" because, for all his ability on the mic and in the studio, the closest he gets to something the average person will wiggle their ass to are tracks like, "Best Friend" (featuring Rich the Kid) and "Suge".
But maybe that's Dababy's point. He doesn't need to write catchy hooks and be world-famous to enjoy what he does. He's just here because he likes making music.
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