First off, I’d like to say that I’m not exactly 100% qualified to review a rap album. Yacht rock is more my speed as of late, but recently, I’ve begun to appreciate many new rap projects for how listenable they are. It seems like since the rap genre’s movement away from the storytelling of the 1990s and moving through the 2010s with a focus on production value, artists have begun to meet in the middle again, intentionally working with talented producers in order to mesh quality lyricism with unique beats. Baby Keem’s newest album, “Ca$ino,” follows this trend to its benefit, and, honestly, it’s perfectly listenable but not much else. Working with producer Cardo, Keem has dropped a semi-consistent, well-produced album with sufficient flow, yet few standout tracks.
I think rappers in general saw the design of a fantastic album like “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and took the wrong lessons from it. It’s an album about Kanye West’s experiences dancing with the corrupting allure of fame, money and pleasure — and barely getting out alive — which is a little bit of a broad story for one album. It’s more so a theme. It only really worked because A: The production behind it was insane, and B: Every track on the album committed to the theme, thereby creating a story. Each track showed the listener the story’s warning instead of directly telling them that “fame corrupts.” “Ca$ino” tries to be about a larger theme of corruption but misses the mark. The album is ostensibly about Baby Keem’s struggles with his mother’s gambling addiction and subsequent familial issues — like the family’s move to a grimy depiction of Las Vegas — but it veers into generalization on some tracks and then goes completely off the rails on others, like pop-trope laden “Dramatic Girl.” It doesn’t commit. It starts off strong, wavers, then succumbs to the pitfall of trying to establish a coherent theme far too late.
All of this isn’t to say that “Ca$ino” is a bad album. It’s not. It’s listenable, but it loses the plot early on. My favorite track was probably the opening “No Security,” with its haunting vocal background complementing Baby Keem’s poetic flow perfectly. Ironically, it’s the most minimalist track on the album to the point of feeling like an intentional, contrasting opener. But really, if every track was as complex of a reflection on the destructiveness of addiction and the pain it brings upon families, I would’ve believed in Keem’s devotion to this project. Instead, “Ca$ino” just feels like someone told him, “Hey, your family history would make a great album,” and they all hopped in the studio before really contemplating what would make this project truly great. Also, he needs to stop featuring Kendrick. We get he’s your cousin, but his features as of late are always the same.
