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Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar are back with a new collaboration, and K.Dot's mention of Young Thug in his verse has the streets talking.
On Friday, February 20, Kem delivered his anticipated sophomore album Ca$ino via pgLang/Columbia Records. The album comes with 11 tracks including $ex Appeal featuring Too $hort, "Dramatic Girl" with Che Ecru and "Good Flirt" featuring Momo Boyd and his cousin Kendrick. On "Good Flirts," Kendrick Lamar interpolates Common's opening bars from "The Light" and alludes to Young Thug's jail calls with his now-fiancée Mariah The Scientist.
"To be honest, n***as love love too/S**t, I gossip with my b***h like I'm Young Thug too," Lamar raps.
Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar are known for making waves with their collaborations. The duo joined forces on several tracks, including "The Hillbillies," "range brothers" and "family ties" from Keem's debut album The Melodic Blue. Keem also contributed to "Savior" from Kendrick's 2022 LP Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Both rappers won a Grammy for "Best Rap Performance" thanks to "family ties" in 2022.
In the hours leading up to the album's release, Baby Keem hosted a listening party for fans and livestreamed it on YouTube. During the show, he performed each song from the album and invited special guests like Momo Boyd and Too $hort to join him. At one point, Keem revealed that his grandmother died a year ago this month, and also explained why he decided to name the album "Ca$ino."
“I named it Ca$ino, because that's where I went through the things I went through," he said. "That's what shaped me to be here today… A lot of these stories, I used to be embarrassed to talk about. But I kinda changed my perspective on that a lot. It’s not embarrassing no more, it’s an empowering thing. I wouldn’t change my story. I wouldn't change it one bit."
Baby Keem uses the album to open up about the painful memories from his upbringing with his mother. He details some of those memories in songs like "I am not a lyricist" and "No Blame," in which he reflects on the hard times they had but doesn't put all the blame on her. Listen to Baby Keem's new album Ca$ino on iHeartRadio and watch the livestream of his listening party below.