21 Savage – Baby Girl 

Given the uhhh let’s just say risque lyrics of the chorus I unfortunately think it’s safe to say I won’t be playing ‘Baby Girl’ off 21 Savage’s new album at the middle school birthday party I’m DJing next week but it’s definitely one of the bangers off of 21 Savage’s new ‘Issa’ album.

Admittedly, it was fickle of me but I had gotten a bit bored of 21 Savage after the initial wave of hype when he first came out, but I gave Issa an earnest listen and it definitely has some jams on it, like ‘Baby Girl’ and ‘Bank Account’. Menacing, cold-hearted jams to be sure, but jams nonetheless.

21’s ad lib game and flow are both on point in this one; for example when he rattles off perhaps my favorite 21 Savage couplet of all time – ‘Smoking on cookie nigga Chips Ahoy, had to block her number ’cause that bitch annoying’. We’ve all been there, 21 I feel you homes.

I also love the wierd voice he raps ‘Got an island girl and she comes from St. Vincent’ in (perhaps a faux Caribbean accent?), and how geographically specific he gets. He unleashes quite a few colorful and imaginative lines and references like that in this song, perhaps more than I’ve ever heard from him in one song before, from ‘Bitch I’m John Gotti I stay round a lot of henchmen’ to unexpectedly delving into U.S. history with ‘I pull up with the stick and let that bitch spark, I swear I would have shot that cracker if I was Rosa Parks’. I feel like Rosa Parks was pretty pacifist so I’m not sure how down with this line she would be but I’m not opposed to 21 Savage exploring some revisionist history with himself as the focal point.

21 21 21!