It has taken about a year and a half for Dababy to go from relatively unknown to the top of the rap game. This guy’s rise to the top has been astronomical. Because I am such a huge music fan and Hip Hop head, I actually first started hearing about him in mid to late 2017 when a couple of his mixtapes started to gain traction in the underground. When I first started listening to Dababy, I knew that he was going to pop off and be a star. As everyone who listens to him knows, he just has this amount of confidence that is unmatched, and his ability to switch is flows and constantly switch up his sound while staying true to who he is what makes his music so palatable and fun to listen to. With that being said, no one could have predicted how fast this guy would rise to the top. Two number 1 albums and multiple top ten hits on the Billboard charts later, Dababy is now one of the hottest rappers and artists in the game, with everyone begging him for features so they can get their music to the top of the charts too. Now that Dababy is at the top, I do not see him going anywhere. Dababy has all of the qualities that are necessary to a Titan in the Hip Hop game for a long time. Dababy seems like he can never stop working, as he has been releasing multiple full-length projects a year for many years in a row now. His latest release in the Deluxe edition of his number one album which was released earlier in 2020 called Blame It On Baby. This Deluxe edition actually has 10 additional songs, and it almost feels like its own mixtape. To me, the Deluxe edition of Blame It On Baby is sort of like a combination of extra tracks that did not make it onto the original version of the album some extra tracks that were maybe recorded in Quarantine which are not meant for an album of their own. Because of that, I am not actually going to review the Deluxe edition, and instead I am just going to write about my favorite tracks from this project. With all of that being said, let me know in the comments below which of these songs you love too. I would love to hear what everyone else thinks about Dababy’s Blame It On Baby Deluxe edition, as I know it will produce multiple top ten hits and I wonder if my picks or your picks will be the ones that go viral online in the coming months.

PRACTICE

One thing that is interesting about the Deluxe Version of this record has a melodic and more of a Pop-Trap feeling to it than a lot of Dababy’s music in the past has had. It is like he saw the success of ‘Rockstar’ and realized how much he could excel at that kind of music, so he decided to go all-in and try to excel at that sound. The song ‘Practice,’ however, does not have a soft of a melodic quality to it at all. In fact, ‘Practice’ is a song that goes super hard and has a super heavy, banging instrumental. This instrumental is very tough and drum-heavy and in your face, and it makes Dababy sound more intense and mean than he already sounds. On ‘Practice,’ Dababy is rapping about how no one can stop him, and how Dababy can push all of his haters out of the way without even trying. With how hard this instrumental goes and how intensely Dababy is rapping, I would say that he is not the kind of guy that you want to mess with or get in the way of. If you love harsh and drum-heavy Trap music, ‘Practice’ is a song you should download.

PEEPHOLE

When asked what his favorite song is on the Deluxe Version of Blame It On Baby, Dababy stated that it was ‘Peephole.’ I totally understand why this would be the case for him, for not only is a banger, it is also lyrically personal to him. On the song ‘Peephole,’ Dababy is rapping about how he is not and he does not want to be apart of the dope game anymore because he found a different want to get money. He has become such a massively successful musician that he does not have to do anything else to make money and provide for his family anymore. He also goes into police brutality and racism issues for a portion of the second verse, asking: You yelling with a gun. What the fuck we gon’ think? Sonically, this song goes hard as hell. I really love the underlying bass line which is combined with the melody that is constantly buzzing as the track progresses. This song has so many excellent ad-libs and sound effects too. I especially love the knocking sound that comes on during the chorus. ‘Peephole’ is a banger, and there is a good reason that Dababy himself likes it so much.

BLIND FEAT. YOUNG THUG

One thing that I really love about Dababy is that he can adapt to the sound of any artist he is making music with, regardless of whether he is featured on the song of whether the other artists are featured on his song. It seems like whenever Dababy does a song with another artist, it is truly a collaboration, with Dababy doing everything he can to make sure the song sounds natural and seamless, regardless of who is on the song with him. This is definitely the case with his song ‘Blind,’ which features Young Thug. ‘Blind’ has an instrumental and overall sound that reminds me a lot of the music that was on Young Thug’s album So Much Fun. It has a super fun and light Pop-Trap melody that just makes you feel so warm and good. Dababy and Young Thug excel on this softer and more sweet Trap instrumental, with Young Thug especially flexing his vocals in his verse and adding so much more substance to how the song sounds. Dababy and Young Thug are two artists that are excellent and adapting to any kind of instrumental and making them palatable for all audiences, and ‘Blind’ is an excellent example of this. I would love to hear so many more collaborations between these two because their voices and rapping styles just compliment each other so well.

GO

One thing that is very apparent from listening to this project(and just from listening to Dababy in general) is the fact that he really can excel in any kind of instrumental. It doesn’t matter what the tempo is like or if the song has an intense feeling or a softer one; Dababy will excel on any instrumental he is on. The song ‘Go’ is an excellent example of this, as I have never heard him perform on this kind of Trap song until now. ‘Go’ is the kind of weird and trippy psychedelic Trap cut that you would expect to hear artists like Lil Uzi Vert or Playboi Carti spitting on. The melody and beat have a major video game and anime quality to them. The instrumental is fun and strange and just draws the listener in. Dababy kills it with his flow and delivery on this song just as much as one would expect him to considering his portfolio. On ‘Go,’ Dababy is as braggadocious and and confident as ever, using a multitude of flows to demonstrate why he is one of the top artists in the game. If you are a fan of weird and Trippy melodies along with some hard ass rapping, ‘Go’ is a song for you.

TROUBLE

When I first started listening to the song ‘Trouble,’ the melody and tempo sounded weirdly familiar to me. When I noticed the SethInTheKitchen producer tag, it immediately clicked. ‘Trouble’ sounds so much like a softer and non- guitar version of Dababy’s hit song ‘Rockstar.’ The melody for both songs is super similar, with ‘Trouble’ just sounding like it is being played on steel drums instead of being played on a guitar. Lyrically, on ‘Trouble’ tells us a story of how he got caught in a situation he should not have gotten himself into. ‘Trouble’ tells the story of Dababy cheating in his woman with some fan he met who has a man of her own. The man caught them in the act and got in a shoot out with Dababy, with Dababy running out before he could tell if he shot the man or not. This song kind of feels like a more Trap and more intense version of Shaggy’s timeless hit ‘It Wasn’t Me.’ If you’re a fan of the song ‘Rockstar,’ then I know you will like ‘Trouble’ as well.

TLC FEAT. GUNNA

Remember when I said earlier that Dababy is excellent at making songs that highlight the best qualities of his features and then adapting to those qualities? ‘TLC’ is another awesome example of this. ‘TLC’ is another song with a really sweet Pop-Trap melody that is actually pretty similar to the one from the song ‘Blind’ with Young Thug. This instrumental does have a bit more of a synthetic and video game sound to it, which matches up with Gunna’s voice super well. On the song ‘TLC,’ Dababy and Gunna are rapping about how all of the money and accolades they have can get them whatever they want; specifically, they are singing to a specific woman, telling her about how they can give her whatever she can think of because they have the resources to do so. I especially love Dababy’s singing and overall vocal performance on this record. It feels like every time I listen to something new from this guy, he pulls another trick out of the bag that I did not see coming. \