Courtesy of Baby Keem/pgLang
It's been five years since Baby Keem released his debut, The Melodic Blue. At a recent concert in Los Angeles, the rapper explained the hiatus by saying he wasn't "trying to be elusive" but he was grappling with some familial trauma: the loss of his grandmother, his family's eviction, his mother's gambling debts. All of these themes are present on his new album, Ca$ino, a record that gets very vulnerable but also contains some saucy, wicked moments. It's a wide-ranging affair for Keem in both sound — he samples everything from Marvin Gaye to Feist — and subject matter. Ahead, see The FADER staff's favorite songs upon first listen, below.
"Good Flirts" feat. Momo Boyd, Kendrick Lamar
"Good Flirts” isn't what you'd initially expect a song about budding love (or lust) to sound like. It is supremely chill, laid back, nonchalant even, with its low-riding beat and sultry just-so keys. But something about the coolness is magnetic and it extends to the vocal delivery of all three of its main characters: Keem, Momo Boyd, and Kendrick Lamar. Their restraint makes the song’s inquiries — Don’t you love a good flirt with a stranger, Don't you love lettin' out a good cry, baby? — all the more steamy. —Steffanee Wang
"$ex Appeal" feat. Too $hort
Where did Baby Keem meet a freak from Cincinnati? “$ex Appeal” raises this and other pressing questions, like are you blowing your savings at the club and can a man have too much rizz? With an assist from Oakland legend Too $hort and a wicked strip-club beat, you’ll be feeling “every endorphin” just like Keem. —Vivian Medithi
"I am not a Lyricist"
For the first few moments of "I am not a Lyricist" I thought we got an all but impossible Andre 3000 feature. Keem's speaking voice, and his roving storytelling, has a poetic lilt that's reminiscent of the ATLien's philosopher's tone. On the track, Keem details his mother's battle with addiction and his disastrous move from Long Beach to Vegas with her ("On the Strip with them demons and they all plotted on me / Everything 'bout that dirty desert took you away"). It's as captivating as it is heart wrenching. —Tobias Hess
"Birds & the Bees"
Raw sex means more when it’s with someone you’ve been rocking with since their Honda days. On this track, Keem raps that the "birds and the bees" are much sweeter once you’ve ascended to the heights he’s currently flaunting. It’s a love song anchored by a pitched-up Feist sample, arriving just a week late for Valentine's Day. Send it over to your boo. —Kylah Williams
"Circus Circus Free$tyle"
Circus Circus is the family-friendly North-Strip casino that serves as the apt backdrop for track nine. Payout fanfares and gilded brass dissolve into primitive ”ooga woogas” as Keem’s vulnerable reflections on his Nevada upbringing shatter the casino walls, leaving nothing but the primal echoes from a prehistoric cave. —Hajin Yoo
