Artist: Baby Keem

Album: The Melodic Blue

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Background

Born in Carson, California, just south of Compton, Baby Keem knew he wanted to rap for as long as he could remember. He was raised in Las Vegas, but left to return to California as a teenager, as he grew dissatisfied with Vegas’s music scene. His influences include Kanye West and Kid Cudi, but also his relatives, including Kendrick Lamar, who all shared a love for rapping. Keem began releasing music in 2017, at the age of 17, under his real name, Hykeem Carter. He would continue to use his real name until he adopted his current name a year later, and began collaborating with producer Cardo.

Keem’s first major collaborations with Top Dawg Entertainment came in 2018, starting with the critically acclaimed Black Panther: The Album, curated by his cousin (unknown to us at the time), Kendrick Lamar. His lone credits on that album were found on Zacari’s “Redemption Interlude”, where he contributed to production. Keem would later contribute to “Knock It Off” and “Rotation 112th” from Jay Rock’s Redemption, and “Numb Numb Juice” and “Lies” from ScHoolboy Q’s CrasH Talk.

Shortly after the release of CrasH Talk, Keem would go on to release his breakout mixtape DIE FOR MY BITCH on July 19, 2019. While Keem had little to no buzz prior to the tape’s release, critical acclaim and rumors of his relation to Lamar drew enough attention to put his name on radars, resulting in the song “ORANGE SODA” just barely reaching the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

In early 2020, Keem was included in the launch announcement for Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free’s mysterious new media company, pgLang, under which Keem’s The Melodic Blue would later become the company’s first album release. One month later, Keem would release the first single for his new album, “durag activity”, with a high profile feature from Travis Scott. These two events further boosted the building hype for Keem’s promising rap career, which was eventually capitalized on with the release of “family ties” with Kendrick Lamar. “family ties” marked the first song Lamar had appeared on since SiR’s “Hair Down” in 2019. While many came for Lamar’s return, Keem’s infectious presence and flow were enough to vault him into the spotlight. “family ties” resulted in Keem’s first Billboard top 20 single, and his debut album came shortly after.

Review

“trademark usa” being the album’s opener seems perfectly fitting given how long it has been teased. In the “ORANGE SODA” music video from late 2019, Keem can be seen holding a sign that says “LLC THE DEAD”. Through promo merchandise from late 2020 sporting an earlier tracklist for The Melodic Blue, the same title can be seen at the top, implying that the song was retitled at some point (the lyrics match both, so it would make sense). The track’s opening verse was also used in Keem’s XXL Freshman freestyle in 2020, with the XXL Freshman list being a big boost into mainstream media for a lot of young artists.

The track is a great opening for the album, as it showcases a number of different sounds with the multiple beat switches. The opening verse is very light and introspective, giving a “calm before the storm” feeling, as Keem proceeds to jump into an aggressive synth- and reverb-heavy trap banger. The song finally ends with a very heavy and bouncy track, supported with an unorthodox hook from ROSALÍA, that fits more into the “art trap” sound that Keem’s newer fans have flocked to him for. “trademark usa” is a standout track as an opener, a taste of what’s to come, and in its own right.

On the note of unorthodox hooks, “pink panties” features a sampled hook from Boston singer and producer Che Ecru, who raps about stealing your girl in an exaggerated tone. “pink panties” is a very bouncy track that somehow sticks out like a sore thumb on the same album that has “range brothers”.

“scapegoat” is a brief interlude featuring Keem rapping over a drumless sample of serpentwithfeet’s “Redemption”. Keem flexes his rapping chops on this track, hinting very lightly to his background without giving too much information while dropping some solid one-liners like “Cheap shots, let it rock, eye open, Fetty Wap / Rain like confetti drop… I bet he drop.”

The first of three Kendrick Lamar appearances comes in the form of the viral “range brothers”, yet another track with multiple beat switches that features Keem and Lamar trading bars about life and success. The first third of the song features yet another heavy track with muddy 808s poured all over it. Keem croons about how down bad he is and uses some outlandish tones before suddenly transitioning into a triumphant-sounding beat with many layers of strings. Keem floats through a strong verse before bringing Kendrick in. The back and forth between Keem and Lamar is incredible, and the two show insane chemistry considering the age and stylistic differences between them. The track closes with the infamous “top of the mornin’” section of the song, where Keem raps with support from extremely goofy adlibs and hooks from Kendrick Lamar that work very effectively not only as a meme, but somehow as a closer to a song that was at a time serious and well-thought out.

“issues” heavily changes the vibe of the album up to this point, switching from the aggressive, nearly whiny rapping voice he uses in the beginning of the album to a melancholy sound that clearly draws heavy inspiration from Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak. Keem takes advantage of the sound he is going for and includes some extremely personal lyrics that hint to the family trauma he went through in his younger days that he still struggles with as an adult (albeit a young one). Keem seems to be specifically speaking to his mother on this song, mentioning their eviction from their home at a young age and seeing her go to rehab at the age of six. It is clear that Keem cares for his mother through his gentle tone, asking her “how could I resent you? Demons, they test you” in the hook while reminding her that he has his own share of problems as well.

Keem continues to show his influences in “gorgeous”, which almost sounds like some earlier Travis Scott with a Baby Keem twist to the vocals. “gorgeous” leads right into “south africa”, a track with a very minimal instrumental that you’d find going viral on SoundCloud (it reminds me of something that I can’t put my finger on, the closest I could get was “Hoodwolf” by HoodRich Pablo Juan). These two tracks encapsulate the peak of Keem’s ignorant and heartless vibes on this album.

The heartlessness comes to a stop for a moment on “lost souls”. On this track, Keem wants nothing but a girl who isn’t famous yet and won’t kiss and tell. The cloudy instrumental sets a great atmosphere for the track, and it stands out on the album sonically, almost reminiscent of a Pi’erre Bourne-produced song for Playboi Carti or Young Nudy. Keem also wants a loyal girl on “cocoa”, which features abrasive and layered production with a great feature from Don Toliver. Between the two tracks, Keem is having trouble finding a woman who will stay loyal to him and him only.

“family ties”, the song that brought mainstream attention to Keem, may just be the strongest track on the album. While many will direct their attention to Kendrick Lamar on this album, being that he used this song to more or less announce his return to rap, Keem did not waste his opportunity to take hold of listener attention on the first half of the song. His flow on this song is at its best, especially from “I’m OD in Paris, I’m OD in France / I thought that I told you I need the advance” onward, and his energy is infectious. Lamar’s half of the song needs no introduction, as he had the world’s ear when the song dropped, and he did not hesitate to remind everybody who’s in charge.

“scars” is another 808s influenced song, with it being even stronger on this song due to the drums borrowed from “Love Lockdown”. Keem sings about difficult choices he’s had to make throughout life, referencing his mother and family once again, but also the heartbreak and relationship troubles he’s faced.

Though one of Keem’s biggest strengths is his potent energy, he’s comfortable taking a more low-key approach on songs, and he can keep up on those as well. “durag activity” with Travis Scott is an example of this, with Keem and Scott keeping a more chill tone (for the most part) over a bouncy yet dark instrumental. Keem delivers a strong opening and final verse, and Scott gave one of his more memorable features as of late to fill in the space between. “first order of business” is another example of Keem being able to keep it chill. Keem steps back from the flexing and women to set his priorities straight; selflessness, loyalty and love.

Notched between these two tracks is the boastful “booman”, a track titled after Keem’s childhood nickname, reserved for Keem to remind himself that he’s the man. Keem’s flow is almost lazy-sounding, but is complemented well by the heavy and triumphant horns that match the theme of the song.

Kendrick Lamar makes one last appearance on The Melodic Blue in its penultimate song, “vent”. While he only contributes a brief hook and outro, the energy he brings is crucial to the song. Keem uses this song to let his anger out, and that shows in the loud and aggressive instrumental. Keem airs out his grievances with his enemies at times, but also his own friends grabbing at his pockets.

The album closes with a very touching track that sounds like something you’d hear from Majid Jordan. “16” features Keem singing to a girl he loves, but their relationship clearly isn’t working out. Keem tries to get this girl to stay with him despite their problems by reminding her that they’re both troubled, but he still loves her regardless, and he’s desperately trying to convince her to stay. This song is a great closer, tying together a lot of themes of personal trauma and relationship problems from Keem’s point of view. He’s not running away this time like he has in the past, and he’s trying to stop the toxicity and work it out by any means.

Final Thoughts

Before the release of family ties, I hadn’t listened to any Baby Keem despite the building hype around him I had seen on hhh for years, and I regretted it the minute I played this album. While I think there are a few albums I would pick ahead of this one in terms of the best of 2021, I do think it deserves recognition at the top and it is one of my most listened to albums for the year. I found that Keem’s lyrical content could get a little repetitive at times, but it never got in the way of my enjoyment of this album just for his presence and flow, as well as the production (although it made it harder to write about compared to Alfredo). A lot of the less complicated or unique lyrics stand out to me more than the better ones simply because of the way he says it. Definitely looking out for his releases in the future and I think the fact that he carved out his own space when he could’ve easily came up under Kendrick’s shadow just shows his talent.

Favorite Songs

family ties

lost souls

range brothers

durag activity

booman

Favorite Lyrics

You know I’m borderline more than rich, had to take the orphanage

Navigated two bitches, textin’ them the coordinates

Baby Keem on “scapegoats”

Bitches is my scapegoat, who I made this tape for?

I tell the story two years later, for now, the case closed

Baby Keem on “scapegoats”

Every lil bitch that’s born lookin’ like soft porn only meant for your ego to bruise

Bet when the hoes get bored and the points ain’t score, you gon’ live in this world confused

Kendrick Lamar on “range brothers”

Put that on my mama, nigga, ate in the process

Niggas tryna tippy-toe through the progress

Tongue tied when the truth is an object

What’s the pros and the cons of this next check?

Baby Keem on “family ties”

I was seein’ double in the projects, mad at myself, learned to put it to the side

Mama had to cater for the coupe that we rode after school on the way to Popeyes

And niggas wanna play both sides, it’s a red dot, don’t get on the wrong red eye

It’s a headshot, Damien Kane, woo them guys, fuck around and bury two of them guys”

Baby Keem on “family ties”

Kick your ass up for it, I’m with the drama”

Front of your mama, front of your daddy, your sister, your aunt

Two hunnid K taxes, please, do not sue me, I can’t afford to buy Paul June a blunt

Baby Keem on “booman”

Discussion Questions

What style of Baby Keem do you prefer (ex. issues vs. lost souls vs. family ties)? Baby Keem already has a number of viral songs at the age of 21. Do you think he has the potential for a true top hit song in the future (or one without Kendrick if you consider family ties to be one)? With such a young career and few collaborations, what collaborations do you want to see Keem pursue in the future? Keem had a number of songs from this album go viral on TikTok (trademark usa, range brothers, lost souls, family ties, first order of business), which has become such a key platform for upcoming artists to get exposure. Do you think Keem’s viral success through TikTok was intentional a la Drake’s Toosie Slide? And how do you feel about the platform overtaking SoundCloud and YouTube in terms of exposure in 2021/22? How many phones does Baby Keem have?