“Kirk” is the second studio album from North Carolina artist Dababy, whose popularity rose thanks to songs like “Suge” and “Baby Sitter.” He has also worked with some well-known artists like Post Malone, JCole and Meg Thee Stallion. His first album, “Baby on Baby”, received some high praise as he displayed some of the talents that he possesses.
Now he's released “Kirk,” which features artists such as Nicki Minaj, Migos, and Chance the Rapper. “Intro” starts the album, where Dababy gives his perspective on his rise to mainstream success. He gives a decent lyrical performance on this track while matching its intensity. The beat on this song is good but it does sound like something he's done before.
“Off the Rip” is where Dababy talks about how people hate on him. He does this over an energetic trap beat. This track does nothing new with Dababy at all, which is positive and negative.
On the positive side, this song is very catchy and goes great with some good speakers. Negatively it sounds like a normal Dababy song and can become repetitive.
“Bop” is another standard Dababy track with a bouncy beat. While he doesn't have a subject, he displays his impressive flow. He also name drops other artists like Meg Thee Stallion. Overall this track could definitely get some play on the airwaves.
“Popstar” marks the first collaboration between Dababy and Kevin Gates. The two artists discuss how people view them differently with their rise to fame. Dababy’s performance is decent at best with his witty flow.
The only thing that hinders his performance is when he sings. The singing sounds like he is forcing it rather than letting it come naturally. Kevin Gates comes in and gives a good performance with his weird-sounding flow.
“Gospel” includes features from Chance the Rapper, Gucci Mane and YK Osiris. Dababy talks about his father’s death while Chance and Gucci talk about how their friends betrayed them. Dababy sounds like he’s forcing his singing even more than the previous track.
Chance's verse is mediocre at best with his lyricism bringing nothing to the table. Gucci brings a decent verse with an impressive flow, however its delivery sounds very boring. Overall, "Gospel" sounds underwhelming. These artists should try to make more music together, as long as it's better than this.
“iPhone” features Dababy and Nicki Minaj discussing how their past relationships keep coming up. They have good chemistry, trading lyrics back and forth. Nicki delivers an impressive verse with her versatile flow. The only downfall to this song is the sound of its bad pop-trap beat.
“Raw S***” talks about the success of the Dababy and Migos and how their fans enjoy their music. Dababy starts rapping about people who doubted him in the rap game. He also provides some funny lyrics like “You can come see my plaque on my wall/Walkin’ ‘round in my drawers, talking s***.”
Migos delivers a great feature with Takeoff being the standout. Takeoff flows really well with the beat and his gritty voice matches the intensity of the song. Quavo and Offset are decent on this song but their verses don't bring anything to the song.
“XXL” is from the XXL 2019 Freshman Cover List which features artists who are rising in popularity. During this process, the artists get to display their talents by doing freestyles and cyphers.
“XXL” is the verse from Dababy’s cypher. The song is decent, however the beat sounds lazy and it does not enhance this verse at all.
Overall this a solid sophomore album from Dababy. In the first few songs, he seems very comfortable with providing great flows and decent lyricism. The only time his quality drops is when he decides to something different, like singing. However, besides that this album definitely fits into a party playlist. 3/5
Courtesy of Interscope Records and Billion Dollar Baby.
