Thirteen years later, Baby Keem’s take on the emo-rap sound that West pioneered on “808s & Heartbreak” highlights his vast range of ability. On his sampling, Baby Keem flipped instrumentals from Kanye West’s “808s & Heartbreak” on “issues” and “scars,” both standout tracks on the album. While some rappers struggle to keep both sides of a song with a beat switch interesting, Baby Keem thrives on each side of his beat switches.
There is a vast amount of versatility in Baby Keem’s choices, and his style remains interesting through its strong beat switches and sampling. To set the foundation for the album, “The Melodic Blue’s” production style is incredible. Baby Keem’s assertion that he “took the torch,” on the album’s opener, “trademark usa,” is quite the standalone statement, and “The Melodic Blue” sees Baby Keem attempting to live up to this self-proclaimed greatness. Baby Keem also worked with Kanye West on “Praise God,” a track from his album “Donda.” These co-signs are extremely important to “The Melodic Blue” because they qualify Baby Keem’s biggest statement on the album that he “took the torch.”įor context, “the torch” is symbolically held by the greatest rapper of a generation of hip hop, and the expression is especially significant in West Coast hip hop. This past April, Baby Keem teamed up with Travis Scott on the low-key and skeletally-produced “Durag Activity,” although reactions to Baby Keem’s verse were lukewarm. After writing for Kendrick Lamar on the “Black Panther” soundtrack, Lamar signed Baby Keem to his label pgLang in 2020, and the two publicly shared that they were cousins. Preceding “The Melodic Blue,” Baby Keem saw multiple pivotal co-signs that hyped up his name and gave it cultural stock. “The Melodic Blue” as a whole is Baby Keem’s statement that he is vying for and deserves a seat at the table among the greats of hip hop. Baby Keem either co-produced or solo-produced all but two of the album’s tracks. More than a decade after its release, the album's impact is demonstrated by the artists it influenced.Following a sporadic run of singles, California rapper Baby Keem released his debut studio album, “The Melodic Blue,” on Sept. Keem has also shown it: this past September, he sampled the drums from "Love Lockdown" and "Coldest Winter" on 808s in "scars'' and "issues", respectively, two tracks on his debut album The Melodic Blue. He called the album his most significant musical influence and his favourite in Kanye's discography. Baby Keem is another artist who credits 808s as a pivotal inspiration to his sound. For example, Juice's smash hit "Lucid Dreams'' is a poignant ballad about being unable to recover from a breakup. Juice was candid about his emotional struggles and poured his feelings into his music, a characteristic carried over from Kanye's record. Its impact is as clear as day on his debut Goodbye & Good Riddance, a breakup record filled with melodies, passionate singing, and lyrics about heartbreak. A key example is Juice WRLD, who wore his heart on his sleeve and cites the album as his favourite album ever.
Drake famously called Kanye the "most influential rapper" to his sound in a 2009 MTV interview.Ĩ08s & Heartbreak has significantly influenced more recent acts too. Otherwise, Kanye's transition into singing can be seen as the catalyst for Drake's crossover style: his album Take Care contains rap bangers like "Under Ground Kings" and emotional singing performances such as the iconic, drunken heartbreak anthem "Marvins Room".
Kanye also produced Drake's hit 2010 love song "Find Your Love". "Say What's Real", a track on Drake's breakout mixtape So Far Gone, utilizes the instrumental to 808s' opener "Say You Will". Both 808s and Kanye himself can be seen as instrumental in Drake's work, some ways being rather direct. The self-proclaimed "Certified Lover Boy" is no stranger to showing his softer side on his records and crafting emotional ballads, two of his most recognizable traits as an artist. The Canadian rapper is known for a mix of singing and rapping that has characterized most of his work to date. The influence of 808s' heartfelt and melodic nature can be seen in one artist more than any other: Drake.
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