DaBaby Has Become Rap’s Reliable Resource

What happened to reliability? Kanye West admitted that “it’s been a shaky-ass year” back in 2018, and a jolty, quaking feeling of foundations faltering has continued to define popular hip-hop lately. Just this weekend, West blew off two separate release dates. This summer, Lil Nas X, a previously unfamous meme maker too young to drink, broke seemingly unbreakable chart records by donning country-western drag. Nicki Minaj retired—and then released more music. Jay-Z partnered with the sports league he’d mocked in song, and whose boycott by artists he’d reportedly supported.

But DaBaby’s hit with the bouncy single “Suge,” and moving more than a half-million units of his March debut album, . Now his follow-up album, , is likely to debut at No. 1. Goofy, talented, and distinctive, he’s hard to dislike. The biggest knock on his music is that it’s too consistent.