The Overnight Sensation is Back at It Again

DaBaby releases his third album in 13 months, “BLAME IT ON BABY”

Capitalizing on a unique sound and unique circumstances, with COVID-19 providing more available listeners than ever before, DaBaby is flooding the market—a strategy that’s proven most useful to artists like Lil Wayne and Young Thug in the past. Coming less than seven months after his previous effort, “KIRK,” and only a year after his extremely successful debut, “Baby on Baby,” DaBaby has returned with his third album, “BLAME IT ON BABY.”

Since his introduction to mainstream hip-hop with his platinum-hit-record, “Suge,” DaBaby has kept his name relevant in the media with a string of negative headlines, most recently “accidentally” slapping a female fan. Despite the negative nature of these incidents, each headline only seems to contribute to his success.

A great deal of DaBaby’s launch into the mainstream can be credited to arguably the most impressive feature run from a rookie, landing himself a verse on songs with the likes of Chance the Rapper, J. Cole and Post Malone and playing a standout role on each of the associated albums. This earned DaBaby the attention of hip-hop fans everywhere.

Although nothing on “BLAME IT ON BABY” is as personal as “Intro” from “KIRK,” DaBaby switches up the vibe in the second quarter of the album, revealing his emotional side while he sings on “SAD SH*T,” “FIND MY WAY” and “ROCKSTAR.”

“BLAME IT ON BABY” is still mostly filled with the party music that we expect from DaBaby, with raw lyrics about guns, girls and guap laid over high-energy beats intended to be played at high volumes.

Jesus Ontiverof plans to transfer to Humboldt State University after completing the nursing program at College of the Redwoods. As a casual fan of DaBaby, Ontiverof enjoys all his music.

“He’s just different from everybody else—his style, the way he goes about it,” Ontiverof said. “I just like him cause you can never tell what direction he’s gonna go with it.”

HSU kinesiology major Jay Coch has a different view and experience with DaBaby’s music.

“A lot of his music sounds the same, which is kind of a bummer,” Coch said. “But I do like some of his shit when he mixes it up.”

Even though Coch wasn’t eagerly awaiting the new release, he can’t knock the hustle.

“For him, it seems like he’s being pretty successful putting out a lot of music,” Coch said. “A lot of people like that. They’re like ‘Drop more music, drop more music,’ but it would be cool [if] he took a little more time and really mixed it up and thought about his lyrics more, and actually put himself out there as a musician more than just a big name in the rap industry.”

Despite having its moments on the song “ROCKSTAR,” with a feature from the other hottest new name in rap, Roddy Ricch, and another feature on the song, “NASTY,” with DaBaby’s biggest featured guest to date, Ashanti, “BLAME IT ON BABY” is easily his most forgettable album yet.