Grammy award-winning rapper Baby Keem’s sophomore album “Ca$ino” is his most personal work yet.
It trades the ambitious scope and production of his debut album, “The Melodic Blue,” for a deeper look into Keem’s life. Less than 30 seconds into the solemn first track, “No Security,” it’s clear that “Ca$ino” is going for substance, not style.
“Uncle Andre just passed, I can’t help but bear blame,” he raps. “Wish I got him help when the resources came.”
Later in the song we learn that as a child his mother would walk him in the cold with no shoes. He also reveals that when he was working on his second mixtape at age 18, she was in and out of jail and homeless.
The second song is the title track, which drops the melancholy sound for a thumping beat guaranteed to start mosh pits at all of his future concerts. Keem still manages to fill the song with meaningful lyrics about his grandmother’s death and his choice to remain estranged from his father.
On the bright side, Keem has a great relationship with his cousin, Kendrick Lamar, who appears twice on “Ca$ino.” “House Money” is another mosh-pit-inducing song showcasing the duo’s chemistry and lyricism, along the lines of “Range Brothers” and “Family Ties” from “The Melodic Blue.”
Lamar’s other appearance is on “Good Flirts,” unfortunately one of the lowlights of the album. It’s not their usual high-energy collaboration. Instead, it’s a generic R&B sounding song, with Lamar’s verse feeling like it was written for the TikTok crowd, and Keem delivering none of the introspective lyrics that make this album special.
The album is hit or miss when it tries to be fun. That isn’t the point of this project, and that’s OK. The other miss is “$ex Appeal” featuring Too $hort. There’s just no need for a Bay Area sounding club song, especially when it falls between two of the deepest songs on the album: “I am not a Lyricist” and “Highway 95 pt.2.”
“Highway 95 pt.2” expands on its predecessor from “The Melodic Blue,” while the ironically titled “I am not a Lyricist” shows Keem experiment with different flows, as well as his natural voice, resulting in a sound similar to Andre 3000’s. He skillfully raps about growing up around extensive substance abuse in Las Vegas, the metaphor behind the album’s title. His life was a casino game. He had no control.
“I wish we never came to Vegas from Long Beach,” Keem raps.
An example of a fun song hitting the mark is “Dramatic Girl” featuring Che Ecru. It’s built around a sample of MGMT’s 2007 cult-classic “Kids.” In this case, he uses his versatility to craft an incredibly unique track.
The album’s closer, “No Blame,” brings “Ca$ino” full circle with Keem acknowledging that he doesn’t blame his mother for the trauma he endured as a child, because he knows she went through trauma of her own.
“The Melodic Blue” is one of the best debut rap albums of the 2020s, so expectations for “Ca$ino” were high. For the most part, Keem didn’t disappoint.
OVERALL: 4 out of 5 stars