It’s been 1,211 days since Baby Keem released the deluxe edition of The Melodic Blue, and on Friday (Feb. 20) the rapper ended the drought with the arrival of his sophomore album, Ca$ino. The 11-track set (one song was removed from the original tracklist) hit streaming services featuring assists from his second cousin Kendrick Lamar, as well as Momo Boyd, Too $hort and Che Ecru. Keem will also be hitting the road for the Ca$ino Tour in April.
The 25-year-old hosted an album release party livestream in Los Angeles on Thursday night (Feb. 19) leading into the project, which doubled as a concert, with Keem performing many of the tracks for the first time. At one point in the show, Keem took an extended break to candidly speak to his loyal fans about his time away and what the project means to him.
“I think the obvious point in the room is that it’s been a long time since I seen some of y’all and it wouldn’t be fair to me to continue like nothing happened. I gotta tell my loyal fans I see y’all with the merch on,” he said. “Y’all be supporting day one people. Real humans, real individuals in this room right now and watching from home with stories like I got. For me, when I made this album, it was originally named after my mom. I was trying to find that pocket, then I realized that’s unfair in a way. It was so many people that helped who I am today.”
Keem opened up about the loss of his grandmother last year around this time and how it took him years to muster up the courage to unpack the trauma that fueled his upbringing and take it to the studio with him.
“My grandma passed away last year, same month. So this is a celebration tonight for her. I wish she was able to be here, but I think she’s here in spirit,” he proclaimed. “I like to believe, you know. When I was writing this album I was surfing through the topics and these same stories kept coming up. These same prominent stories about how I grew up and I just want to shine a light on that. Not to make it seem like I’m some special individual, I think everyone can relate to something I got to tell. I mean that’s why y’all here, right? … This is a very special night because I went away and I did something very important and I got to shine a light on that. I know my family’s proud.”
Keem continued: “I named it Ca$ino because that’s where I went through all of the things that I went through. That shaped me to be up here today. This was an album where I kind of — a lot of these stories I used to be embarrassed to tell. I kind of changed my perspective on that a lot … This album is for the child that walks home slow.”
The casino is actually a great metaphor for life: euphoric highs and desolate lows, fortunes changing in an instant and those willing to take massive gambles either cash in on the jackpot or crumble to the ground. There’s even the aspect of the system preying on citizens’ vices in what can feel like a rigged game.
As far as the album goes, Keem, who doesn’t talk much outside of his music, has a lot to get off his chest, and it feels cathartic for the 25-year-old rapper. He boasts a maturity that hasn’t been heard in his previous work and deserves kudos for coming forward and leaving it all on the table, whether that be the good, the bad, or the ugly. This is who Hykeem Carter is.
Sit down and play another hand because here are all 11 tracks ranked from Baby Keem’s Ca$ino.
from Billboard https://ift.tt/oveMNPR
