Kirk

About

In the video for “Walker Texas Ranger,” Charlotte, North Carolina, MC DaBaby sports a weathered leather jacket and a cowboy hat while he drives a pickup truck clear off a cliff. Thi, along with the clip for “Suge,” where he can be seen dancing in a mail carrier’s uniform (“Pack in the mail, it’s gone”) and donning fake bodybuilder muscle, has led rap fans of a certain age to liken him to animated superstars past like Ludacris and Busta Rhyme. But to let DaBaby tell it, this innate wackiness is as much a part of him as the tattoos and jewelry he sport. “I'm not too serious for myself,” he told Apple Music’s Ebro ahead of the release of <i>KIRK</i>. This album comes seven months after <i>Baby on Baby</i>, the rapper’s breakout project and home to the aforementioned “Walker Texas Ranger” and “Suge.” “A lot of n*ggas are too serious for themselve, and that's not even them behind closed doors or off camera. As consumed as your time is in a business like thi, being yourself got to be the smartest thing a person could do.” <i>KIRK</i> might be more DaBaby than he’s ever been: On “INTRO,” he gets deep into his family history, speaking candidly about losing his father in the midst of his rise. It’s a theme he revisits on “GOSPEL,” a song featuring straight-faced verses from Chance the Rapper and Gucci Mane as well as some R&B support from Florida singer YK Osiri. As past hits would attest, DaBaby is well-equipped to carry a song by himself, but he sounds great in tandem with voices like Nicki Minaj on “iPHONE” (“DaBaby and Da Barbie,” she quips), Lil Baby and Moneybagg Yo on “TOES,” and Migos on “RAW S**T.” DaBaby’s rap style in particular features the kind of endlessly amusing non sequitur most of these artists made their names on. Every verse is a chance to show off, and is usually rooted in some kind of nonlinear storytelling. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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