The latest artist to surf the club wave is Baby Tate, whose fittingly titled new single “Jersey” employs a thumping Jersey club beat with a catchy melodic hook and a lyrical tale about rejection. Tate sing-raps an open letter to a f*ckboy in her life, lambasting him for his lack of commitment. “Damn, we coulda really had a ball,” she laments. “Painted me a picture, but I saw / You only wanted the drawers.”
With so many artists adopting the Jersey sound — including Baby Tate’s fellow ATLien Kaliii — Tate is one of the ones who really lands it. She’s already got a record of experimenting with different sounds, so she doesn’t sound out of pocket here, the stripped-down Jersey beat doesn’t sound gimmicky or too busy, and unlike some of her contemporaries, Tate’s lyrics stick to the script conceptually. The effect is something like PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s breakout hit “Boy’s A Liar” but with Tate performing both the singing and rapping halves.
On the hook, she sings, “I’m in the middle of New Jersey cryin’ in the club.” This ties the theme of the song more closely to the beat. Meanwhile, in the accompanying visualizer for the track, Tate visits her old elementary school, which suggests the innocence of young love (and an easily broken heart), while during the breakdown, she actually ends up in a club with her homegirls, dancing their cares away. It’s cute and a lot of fun, and honestly, it’d be great if more artists jumping on this trend put this level of effort in.
Watch Baby Tate’s “Jersey” visualizer above.
Baby Tate is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.