Kendrick Lamar has been stepping out a bit more as of late and it comes after he said his fifth album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is finally on the way. The public appearances for the typically-secluded rapper began earlier this year when he joined Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and more to perform at the Super bowl LVI Halftime Show. More recently, Lamar was spotted at a Los Angeles Dodgers game against the Atlanta Braves earlier this week casually sitting with fellow fans in right-field rather than in a press box. For his next act, Kendrick brought his talents to the second weekend of Coachella’s 2022 Festival.
On Friday night, Kendrick made a surprise appearance at Coachella by joining Baby Keem to perform “Family Ties” and “Vent,” both of which are from Keem’s 2021 debut album The Melodic Blue. The latter track also became Keem’s first and Kendrick’s 14th Grammy Award after it won in the Best Rap Performance category earlier this month. During their Coachella set, Baby Keem performed the first half of “Family Ties” before he welcomed Kendrick to perform his verse in front of a large video screen that displayed fire and water. Kendrick’s surprise appearance concluded with their first-ever performance of “Vent.”
Kendrick’s Coachella appearance comes after he confirmed his fifth album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers would arrive on May 13. It’s one of this year’s most highly-anticipated projects as it’s the rapper’s first album since 2017’s DAMN.
You can view some fan-captured videos of Kendrick’s performance in the videos
As one of the hottest emerging talents in hip-hop right now, Baby Keem is the perfect guest to appear on Desus & Mero, where the Bronx duo got in-depth on the 20-year-old Las Vegas rapper’s debut album, The Melodic Blue. One of the questions addressed to him by the hilarious hosts mentioned the wild ad-libs on his songs with Kendrick Lamar on the album, especially the head-turning “Range Brothers.” After becoming fodder for a plethora of memes, Kendrick’s repeated cries of “top o’ the morning” and “let’s get this sh*t” elicited chuckles from both the hosts and their guest as they asked where the two rappers’ energy comes from.
“I think in the booth is where I’m most myself,” Keem mused. “And I’m around the people that get the most out of me. I think that’s it. I’m just comfortable in my environment.” He also addresses the memes sparked by his album, saying his favorite is the dancing cowboy and expressing a wish to contact the creator.
Meanwhile, Desus & Mero is quickly becoming the go-to show for rap artists to promote their new work, as the laid-back vibe and insider perspective have proven to be perfect for drawing out gems from the likes of Lil Nas X, Bobby Shmurda, Chance The Rapper, and the original Nas in recent months. The Bodega Boys’ brand was always brolic but now, it’s becoming better defined — and helping to define the shape and direction of modern-day hip-hop.
You can watch the Baby Keem interview with Desus & Mero above.
It looks like Baby Keem is taking a page from Kanye West’s playbook, adding new songs to his album The Melodic Blue after its release. When the project originally dropped two weeks ago, fans noticed a pair of songs from the rollout missing: “Hooligan” and “No Sense,” two tracks released as singles before the album was officially announced. Today, Keem announced that he’d added them back onto the album, along with a new song, “Lost Souls” featuring R&B singer Brent Faiyaz. The three new tracks appear as a “Disc 2” on the reissue, which is notably not identified as a deluxe edition.
In addition to those singles, Keem also dropped “Durag Activity” featuring Travis Scott, and “Family Ties” featuring his cousin Kendrick Lamar. Both songs did appear on the original tracklist along with “Issues,” for which he dropped a video alongside the album, and “First Order Of Business,” which he dropped a few days later.
While releasing deluxe editions of rap albums a few months or even days after their initial release has become old hat, it’s notable that Keem isn’t calling this a deluxe. Kanye West did something similar with the release of his new album Donda, adding several tracks from his first two listening sessions back to the project.
The Melodic Blue is out now via PgLang and Columbia Records. Get it here.
Baby Keem is weird, but that’s not a bad thing at all. Many of today’s rappers are, and this often triggering adjective for some is not meant to be disrespectful to the 20-year-old Vegas rapper or any of his contemporaries. Keem is part of a generation of hip-hop that prides itself on going against the grain. “Rules” were broken, torn up, and disregarded, and rightfully so. Abiding by them for too long hinders the chance for evolution and change as a whole to occur. Kid Cudi, who Keem has cited as an inspiration on multiple occasions, Young Thug, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, and many more, are clear-cut examples. With that being said, while the openness to all that is “weird” is clear nowadays, there are also limits to how funky, unique, and unorthodox things can get.
That’s something that Baby Keem’s major-label debut album The Melodic Blue understands. Comprised of 16 songs with help from stars like Kendrick Lamar, Don Toliver, and Travis Scott, the Vegas rapper dulls the loud colors and sonics just enough to deliver his version of a mellow atmosphere without sounding monotone or robotic. It’s a sharp contrast compared to his 2019 breakout project, Die For My B*tch — an erratic and chaotic release inspired by a failed relationship. That body of work promotes screaming and mosh-pitting your anger out as opposed to healthier and less-fun habits like meditation or therapy.
The Melodic Blue is Baby Keem’s attempt to balance his individuality with a reduced dose of his trademarked chaotic energy, something he tries to harness on the project. “Trademark USA” is a sucker punch to start the album that would also invite Gen-Zers all over the world to the mosh pit at the risk of their once-clean sneakers. Kendrick Lamar contributes to the raucousness of “Family Ties” and “Vent.” The former is by far the rowdiest track on the album thanks to Lamar’s proclamation of “smoking on your top five” rappers, while the latter invites aggression from all corners with the knowledge that Keem and Lamar can handle it all. The remaining majority of The Melodic Blue is occupied by records that show a more tender and reserved side of Keem.
An early example arrives on “Issues,” a spacious track that lays life’s most harrowing conflicts down like a deck of cards. Airy production uplifted by climatic drums adds to the whirlwind of unsolved issues in Keem’s life. It’s a song that the rapper says “means a lot to him” and with lyrics like, “I knew since we first got evicted out our roof / My new since rehab, I was six, tryna see you,” the weight of the track becomes clear. “Scars” is similar in the sense that Keem dips into the same pain-driven lyrics with conquering production. Even trap-leaning tracks like “First Order Of Business” and skeletal efforts like “Scapegoats” are superior for the things Keem says rather than for their sounds. It’s clear that Keem had a lot to get off his chest on The Melodic Blue, and in addition to crafting the appropriate lyrics to get that done, the rapper also placed himself in a sonic landscape that would accentuate the impact of his words. The best songs on the project, however, come when the rapper doesn’t sacrifice too much production to accomplish his goals for the album.
“Gorgeous” is a personal favorite from The Melodic Blue as it showcases the rapper’s unwavering love for his pattern with the help of heavy synths, ratting piano keys, and drawn out bass kicks. “Lost Souls” supplies the same airy production of “Issues” and “Scars,” but the addition of drums and a steady hi-hat bring it closer to a more familiar home for Keem. Even the banger that is “Durag Activity” with Travis Scott is laced with a verse from an extremely timid and near-mumbling Baby Keem. Along with additional examples like “Booman,” it becomes more and more obvious that residing as close to the middle on the spectrum of calm to chaotic was Keem’s goal for this project.
Personally, the toughest aspect of The Melodic Blue is letting go of prior expectations for the project to properly accept and digest the work Baby Keem offered to the world. Preference lies with the chaotic energy of Die For My B*tch, but truthfully speaking, that project is at the very most a strong collection of songs. The Melodic Blue aims to craft a cohesive album, and for what it’s worth, Keem succeeds at that. The rapper delivers just enough to accomplish that, but there are moments where a bit more could’ve been done to make this achievement undeniable. Whether it be extending “Scapegoats” into a full song or slashing the excessive and unnecessary second half of “Range Brothers,” The Melodic Blueundoubtedly has its rough edges. However, the album’s rawness elsewhere is also what makes it enjoyable, and in total, Baby Keem gets it done with his major-label debut album.
The Melodic Blue is out now via PgLang/Columbia. Get it here.
Just a few days removed from the release of his debut album, The Melodic Blue, Las Vegas rapper Baby Keem has released the music video for its latest single “First Order Of Business.” Opening on a shot of Keem sitting solo in a sparsely decorated living room, the rapper is asked what his favorite trait in a woman is. “Loyalty, off the top,” he answers. Then he reveals that his “first order of business” upon making his first million dollars went toward buying his grandmother a house. From there, the video actually portrays the event in question, as well as views of Keem cuddling with a female companion and racing a Porche through the desert.
The Melodic Blue dropped Friday after a lengthy building that increased expectations and excitement with each new single release. In a rollout as smooth as just about any seen for a hotly-tabbed new artist like Keem (a 2020 XXL Freshman with a blood relation to rap royalty), Keem dropped videos for “Durag Activity” featuring Travis Scott and “Family Ties” featuring his cousin Kendrick Lamar, then debuted the final pre-release single “Issues” on The Tonight Show before releasing a similarly-themed video the night the album came out.
Watch Baby Keem’s “First Order Of Business” video above.
The Melodic Blue is out now via Columbia Records. Get it here.
More than two years removed from his last project, Baby Keem has arrived with a new body of work for his growing cast of supporters to enjoy. The Melodic Blue is out now and it comes with a small, yet star-filled cast of guest acts. Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, and Don Toliver each stand beside Keem at various points on the album, with Lamar marking the most appearances on the 16-track project. The new album arrives after Keem stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to debut “Issues,” while he follows up with a desolate video with a similar setting.
In addition to “Family Ties,” a previously-released single that ramped up anticipation for The Melodic Blue and Kendrick’s own upcoming fifth album, the TDE rapper also connects with Keem on “Range Brothers” and “Vent.”
“Range Brothers” arrives as a two-part track that begins with Keem delivering laid-back raps over bass-heavy production. Things take an odd and chaotic turn in the second half as Lamar arrives join Keem as they deliver off-kilter bars that, if anything, sound more like a troll as Lamar checks in and repeatedly chants “top of the morning.” As for “Vent,” that collaboration between Lamar and Keem is quite the bashful single as the duo combines their energies for a mosh pit-friendly track.
You can watch the “Issues” video and listen to Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar’s additional collaborations in the videos above.
The Melodic Blue is out now via PgLang/Columbia. Get it here.
With all the albums scheduled to release this year from the top names in hip-hop like Drake, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar, it’d be easy to overlook a newcomer like Baby Keem — if only his debut album The Melodic Blue wasn’t nearly as heavily anticipated as any of those from the names above. Partly due to a string of enthusiastically received singles including “Orange Soda,” “No Sense,” Durag Activity” with Travis Scott, and the Kendrick Lamar-featuring “Family Ties” and partly due to his inclusion on 2020’s XXL Freshman list, Keem’s The Melodic Blue shot to the upper parts of many fans’ “must-listen” lists for 2021.
Apparently, they won’t have long to wait for the completed project, either. Just yesterday, the social-media-shy Nevada rapper logged in to Twitter to let his followers know, “I just turned the melodic blue in.” Also, in keeping with his fan-pleasing demeanor, he confirmed that his two most attention-grabbing recent singles would be included. “Durag Activity & Family Ties are on the album,” he noted. That knowledge is sure to drive listens to the enigmatic rapper’s debut, as is the goodwill he’s generated with his recent performance at Lyrical Lemonad’s Summer Smash Festival — which you can read more about here via Uproxx’s recap.
Baby Keem had the internet in a tizzy on Friday after sharing his latest single, “Family Ties” with Kendrick Lamar. The track gained a boatload of attention, mostly because it marked Kendrick’s official return to the game as it was his first musical contribution of 2021. It was yet another great single that brings fans closer to the release of Keem’s upcoming album, The Melodic Blue.
The Vegas rapper announced the project’s title in an April tweet and thanks to his latest post on Twitter, it appears that the album could arrive very soon.
In a tweet Keem shared on Friday night, the rapper outlined his plans for the future in a brief message. “No more singles,” he wrote. “Album time.”
It should be no surprise that Keem has deemed this as the time to take the next steps toward releasing the project. He’s already released five singles that could appear on the new effort. It began at the end of 2020 with the release of “Hooligan” and “Sons & Critics Freestyle,” then followed “No Sense,” and “Durag Activity” with Travis Scott. And of course, now “Family Ties” with Kendrick Lamar.
The Melodic Blue will be Baby Keem’s first project since his 2019 mixtape Die For My B*tch. During an interview between himself and Kendrick for i-D, Keem said the project gave him “a chance to play with my sounds and open up the lane to grow in confidence,” something that will hopefully be on full display with his upcoming project.
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