baby on baby 2

DaBaby Is Feeling Like “Joc In 06” On New Single

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DaBaby’s keeping a steady stream of releases coming, even during the holidays. The “ROCKSTAR” rapper returned this week with a brand new single titled, “Joc In 06.” Just before New Year, the rapper comes through with high energy on his latest single over Playboi Carti-esque production. Throughout the song, he flexes his speedy flow and witty bars across the effort.

The song also came with new visuals that show Baby and his family turning up over the Christmas holidays. The rapper dons a Santa Claus hat while surrounded by his daughter and nephew at the Christmas tree.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 30: DaBaby arrives at the Apple Original Films' "Emancipation" Los Angeles Premiere at Regency Village Theatre on November 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 30: DaBaby arrives at the Apple Original Films’ “Emancipation” Los Angeles Premiere at Regency Village Theatre on November 30, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic)

DaBaby has delivered a slew of new music over the past few months, even after dropping Baby On Baby 2. His latest project marked his first studio album since 2020’s Blame It On Baby, though it also spurred some controversy surrounding his status in the rap game. Baby On Baby 2 sold 17K in its first week — a stark decline from his 2020 studio album. Unfortunately, some believe that the music industry blackballed him. Due to his controversial comments at Rolling Loud in 2021, many distanced themselves from him, including major DSPs and music companies. He also revealed that the incident led to a loss of $100M in potential revenue.

Though DaBaby might have ways to go before he regains the momentum he once had, he still took a few wins in recent times. Just before the holidays, DaBaby won a $6M lawsuit due to an alleged brawl in Miami.

“Along with our client, Jonathan Kirk, we are thrilled that this federal jury, after a five-day trial, came to the same conclusion that we have maintained for almost 3 years – that these plaintiffs were attempting to use the legal system to shake down Mr. Kirk,” DaBaby’s lawyer, Drew Findling, said in a statement.

Check out DaBaby’s new song below.

Quotable Lyrics
No amount of word is a popstar
Baby, how many n***as you popped?
Like 21 say, “Bitch, a lot”
One with the F&N, the others got Glocked, n***a

DaBaby’s New Album Far Undersells Previous Project

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Things haven’t been the same for DaBaby since the North Carolina rapper stirred up controversy by making homophobic remarks on stage last year. The comments had immediate repercussions, as several festivals removed DaBaby from their lineups. But even though the heat has died down over a year later, it seems DaBaby hasn’t been able to achieve the same heights he did before the event.

Last week, the “Rockstar” rapper released his newest project, Baby On Baby 2, and it has not seen the success of DaBaby’s previous efforts. According to HitsDailyDouble, the rapper’s new album hasn’t entered the top 20, sitting at 17,200 units sold. This is a massive 86% drop in first week sales from his previous album, Blame It On Baby, which debuted at No. 1 and moved 124,000 units.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – DECEMBER 04: Rapper DaBaby performs onstage during “Rolling Loud Presents: DaBaby Live Show Killa” tour at Coca-Cola Roxy on December 04, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

The huge difference in sales got the attention of many in the hip hop community, including DaBaby himself, who tried to spin the disappointing numbers. “Not bad for da blackballed Baby,” he wrote on social media.

DaBaby isn’t the only one who thinks he’s been blackballed. Meek Mill took to Twitter on Thursday and wrote, “They blatantly black balling da baby .. not my business but ima observer.” Boosie BadAzz echoed the sentiment. “Ain’t no way my n***a @DaBabyDaBaby supposed to sell 16k after selling almost 150k his first week. The one of the BIGGEST n this shit!! I DON’T KNOW WHATS GOING ON BUT SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING ON!!”

Maybe what’s going on is DaBaby’s penchant for controversy catching up with him. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Meek Mill & Boosie Are Convinced DaBaby Is Blackballed

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Things just aren’t the same for DaBaby these days. The rapper’s empire fell in the summer of 2021 during his Rolling Loud performance. He decided to bring out Tory Lanez as his special guest — just before Megan Thee Stallion. Still, his homophobic comments shortly after overshadowed the Tory bit. It didn’t take long for corporate sponsors, collaborators and others to denounce the rapper.

Ultimately, this played a significant impact in the way his music was received. Not just from fans but the industry, at large.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 15: DaBaby attends ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ global premiere event and screening at Hammerstein Ballroom on July 15, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for STARZ)

Akademiks and Ebro have gone at it on Twitter for nearly 24 hours after the former accused the latter of blackballing the North Carolina rapper. Ebro denied that he prevented DaBaby from getting on any Apple Music playlists. However, it seems like others believe the industry politics is what’s really hindering DaBaby’s career.

Meek Mill chimed in on the matter on Twitter, writing, “They blatantly black balling da baby .. not my business but ima observer.”

Boosie, who worked closely with DaBaby on several occasions, said that “something is definitely going on” behind the scenes.

“Ain’t no way my n***a @DaBabyDaBaby supposed to sell 16k after selling almost 150k his last first week ‼he one of the BIGGEST n this shit ‼I DONT KNOW WHATS GOING ON BUT SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING ON,” wrote Boosie on Twitter.

A similar point was initially raised by Akademiks, who noted the influence that playlist has on Billboard charts. DaBaby’s last album, 2020’s Blame It On Baby, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 124K in its first week. The album before that, Kirk, reached the top of the charts with 145K.

Kirk and Blame It On Baby arrived before the Rolling Loud incident, which he’s since apologized for. Still, even back then, fans expressed concerns about his formulaic flow.

Is it the industry politics or the music itself that’s holding DaBaby back? Let us know in the comment section below.

DaBaby Insists He’s Blackballed As His New Album — Which He Barely Promoted — Underperforms On The Charts

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DaBaby 2021 ATL Concert
Getty Image / Paras Griffin

If there’s a “pro” to all the “cons” of lighting your own career on fire as thoroughly and vociferously as DaBaby has, it’s that you can then blame all your troubles on somebody else. It’s a conspiracy! “THEY” are out to get me! You never have to really explain who THEY are, you just have to make your case that you think you deserve forgiveness and point out how unfair it is that no one will extend it to you (never mind the fact that you basically did it to yourself).

That’s exactly what DaBaby is doing now that his new album, Baby On Baby 2, has landed with a thud, underperforming to his own expectations on the charts to the pace of just 16,000 album equivalent units. To be fair, that’s way better than a lot of artists manage (some would say “most”) — but it’s also well below what the original Baby On Baby pulled in in its first week: 124,000 units.

On his Instagram Story, Baby reposted a fan account’s post about his sales pace, writing “Not bad for da BlackBalled Baby.”

dababy blackballed
Instagram

Of course, DaBaby hasn’t really spoken to why he was “blackballed“: His homophobic comments at Rolling Loud Miami in 2021 and his utter refusal to seriously apologize or show any follow-through on the promises he’s made to make things right. It’s also not like he promoted Baby On Baby 2 all that well; most fans on Twitter say they were unaware he was even dropping an album until headlines that he’d made distasteful comments about Megan Thee Stallion on it began cropping up on social media. If your main effort to promote a project is controversy-baiting lyrics and Hot Girl lookalikes in your music videos, you aren’t blackballed — people just might be fed up with your sh*t.

DaBaby Believes He’s Been Blackballed Amid Low Sales

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DaBaby has gone through quite a few controversies over the last year. From his homophobic rant at Rolling Loud to his recent callout of Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby does not shy away from the headlines.

Unfortunately, DaBaby seems to be attracting even more attention for the wrong reasons. Following the release of his latest project Baby On Baby 2, the sales projections have been incredibly low. For instance, it is being reported that he will only sell 16,000 units in the first week. This is especially wild when you consider how just a couple of years ago, DaBaby was someone who could sell between 90k-100k in the first week, alone.

Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

DaBaby has responded to these reports, and as you can see in his Instagram story below, he is simply chalking this up to being blackballed by the industry.

“Not bad for da BlackBalled Baby,” he wrote. This response is in line with DJ Akademiks’ recent analysis of the situation. Ak believes DaBaby is being blackballed by Ebro and Apple Music, which is leading to the poor sales.

Image via DaBaby

Ebro indirectly replied to Akademiks, noting that if it was, indeed, his own fault, then DaBaby should be performing well on platforms like Spotify, which is not the case.

“Apple Music is not the only platform. Based on this dummy’s logic, Da Baby should be doing well on the platform HE works for. Is it?” Ebro wrote.

Regardless of the reason for DaBaby’s poor sales, it is clear that he will need to rethink his strategy moving forward.

Stay tuned to HNHH for more updates from around the music world.

DaBaby Has Been Accused Of Plagiarizing His Megan Thee Stallion-Aimed Song, ‘Boogeyman’

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dababy 2022
Getty Image / Paras Griffin

Not everyone is a fan of DaBaby‘s new song, “Boogeyman.” Taken from his new surprise album, Baby On Baby 2, not only does “Boogeyman” feature DaBaby claiming he slept with Megan Thee Stallion the night before she was allegedly shot by Tory Lanez, but it appears to have been lifted from a Toronto artist.

Singer and songwriter Layla Hendryx spoke with Rolling Stone today, claiming that DaBaby has plagiarized parts of her own song titled “Boogeyman.”

A friend of Hendryx, whose Twitter account has since been set to protected, shared clips comparing both songs.

“The whole [cadence], the whole flow for the hook is stolen from me,” Hendryx said. “One, it was done so sheisty, and two, the fact that he used the song to basically diss another black woman while you’re stealing from another black woman is just wild to me.”

Hendryx said a friend of hers shared her song, “Boogeyman,” to an A&R earlier this year, and believes that’s how the song made its way to DaBaby. She also shared that she’s had similar experiences in the industry, however, she is even more upset about the fact that the song takes aim at another artist.

“It’s just not something that I want to be a part of,” Hendryx said. “Even if they did just put me out with a credit, that’s not something I want to write for. I do not want to write for DaBaby. I would’ve said no to begin with. Just let me have the choice with my own art.”

Hendryx revealed that she is currently pursuing legal action against DaBaby.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.