Baker's Dozen: Lil Baby, YUNGBLUD, Giveon, and Revisiting a Disaster
Baker's Dozen is a thing for paid subscribers where I share a playlist of music I've been listening to along with some thoughts around it. All subscription revenue's being donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds until further notice ($147.06 donated so far).
Lil Baby, "How"
Lil Baby's My Turn was a surprising blockbuster in 2020, well beyond "this is a popular guy" and into "this guy is actually huge." Spent some time with it recently, plenty to like, he's in the same lane as Lil Durk and Gunna where they're not reinventing the wheel, ever, but if you're even mildly into what they do you can find some choice cuts. Here's a good line: "She done fell in love, I'm sellin' dreams/ I done fell in love with buyin' jeans." Same.
Weave, "The Ocean Was Calm"
Very Hotelier-esque comfort food from these Japanese emo guys, wasn't too into the album (The Sound II) as a whole but this is hearty and delivers accordingly.
YUNGBLUD, "weird!"
Christ, can the 1975 just come back already so I don't have to listen to subpar ripoff shit like this? Is that so much to ask?
Dr. Dre, "The Scenic Route" [ft. Rick Ross and Anderson .Paak]
No one really talked about how Dr. Dre dropped several new songs a few months ago, and that's possibly because it was affiliated with a new GTA Online update. Or maybe people just don't care! Hey, it's not like you see people talking about Compton (which, fwiw, I loved) every day. The songs are both what you'd expect and, in the instance of one particularly weird Juice WRLD-referencing overdose adlib I cannot be bothered to look up, slightly dismaying. Nice appearance from Rick Ross here, all the elements line up perfectly which is to be expected. Also: Never forget!
Florist, "Shadow Bloom"
"If I could see the future, I would lay down/ Eat a tangerine, and make a cup of tea/ Watch it all happen the same way." Word. Emily Alone is an incredible record, the best yet from someone who is Phil Elverum's true heir apparent when it comes to capturing that weird, beautiful feeling of staring into a light fixture or hearing the light hum of crickets at night. Can't wait to listen to the new one.
Thyla, "3"
Real CMJ-core hours, to the point where just dropping the YouTube embed in here gave me a hangover. Hey, if you heard this in a restaurant, you'd probably Shazam it!
J.PERIOD, "Globetrottin" [ft. Masego, Shad, and Rozwell]
Just an easygoing low-stakes song about basketball, maxing and relaxing. There's also a Lin-Manuel Miranda verse on the EP this is from, so don't say I didn't warn you.
Chance the Rapper, "Hot Shower" [ft. MadeinTYO and DaBaby]
Revisited The Big Day recently, holy shit what a mess. A total myth-killing record if there ever was one—then again (extremely annoying voice) I never liked Coloring Book and believe that it was all downhill after Acid Rap anyway. Weirdly have come back to this song regularly since it was released though...hate to say it, but known homophobe and literal murderer DaBaby washes Chance thoroughly on this, albeit with the exact same flow he applied to literally every song during this time period.
Amber Mark, "Most Men"
Amber Mark's Three Dimensions Deep is quite impressive I think, I have a friend who thinks it's been overpraised and is nothing special but the songcraft is there and it's solid, a lot of it just flat-out works even if there's not a ton of wheel-reinventing going on. Very PMR-core and that's not a bad thing, this song especially.
Giveon, "World We Created"
This is the second song I've featured from Take Time recently, so I suppose I must like the record a lot. I do love Giveon's voice and style in general, sucks about the whole cheating-on-Jasmine-Skye (who I've also featured in a previous Baker's Dozen) thing, none of my business though.
MØ, "New Moon"
A newly minted cheap-thrills classic while we wait for the next Tove Lo album, another entry in the "BBC Radio 1" subgenre of electronic pop. This would sound great at Ultra.
Kid Cudi, "Tequila Shots"
Kid Cudi's influence is generally underrated by anyone my age and older (you can hear a lot of him in Lil Nas X), he's also historically made some of the worst music put to tape. Weird stuff! But he's also interesting, and I think we can stand to think about him a little more in terms of what he does and how it's rippled through culture. "I'm not just some sad dude/ You can see my life, how I grew/ I want serenity" is kind of central to the Kid Cudi experience, and it's far from the worst sentiment you could put out there.
Grivo, "Fatal Blue"
Heavy doomgaze from these Austin guys courtesy of Church Road—the same label that put out the Timelost record I've been mentioning here and there. Good stuff, totally immersive.