BabyChiefDoit: ANIMALS ONLY Album Review

There’s a new generation of drill rappers from Chicago who can barely remember the time before drill. Like the original architects of the scene, these are high school-age performers or barely beyond, and for them the sound might as well be sewn into the fabric of America. At this point, I’m not sure there’s a metropolitan area in the country without a drilling scene, even if they don’t exactly call it that. In many ways, the sound’s migration beyond the confines of Chicago has flattened the music, normalized tragedy, and lost the specificity of its reference points in local street rap and Atlanta trap. I like some of the offshoots – especially in New York or over in the DMV – but it often feels like a trendy way for aspiring rappers to chase internet fame through shock (example: Jacksonville exercise) rather than a direct extension of the groundbreaking, morally complicated genre.

You can’t say the same for BabyChiefDoit, a drill student from Chicago’s South Side who’s been messing around with a style he’s adopted by osmosis. He’s been off to the races since July, when he released “Pancakes & Drugs,” which channels the controlled chaos of G Herbo’s “Who Run It” flow, and even features a Three 6 Mafia sample. BabyChief is a teenager, but looks about twelve, which I realized when I saw a vlog of him scarfing down a plate of tater tots at an airport. He has a small stature that he embraces, just like Phife Dawg and Muggsy Bogues. He sometimes strolls through music videos with a monkey mask in hand, and he’s crazy about the idea of ​​comparing the chaos in his city to the zoo — which, from Ol’ Dirty Bastard to Chief Keef, is nothing new. Of course his debut is called a mixtape ANIMALS ONLYa boisterous series of trash talk that packs every era of Chicago into twelve songs.

He’s covered all the corners. There’s an early Chief Keef in the hellish, apocalyptic beats with footwork-fast BPMs, like “Look Up,” where BabyChief’s straightforward drill threats are backed by a mass of crickets. The intensity you could hear between Young Pappy and FBG Duck at that time can be found in his typically hookless, pedal-to-the-metal raps. He is definitely listening to “EBGDITB” – the microphone must have been covered in saliva. There’s a hint of post-Def Jam Lil Durk in his almost emo sing-raps, a vibe that’s evocative on “Drowned” but overly familiar on “Laugh at Em.” Somehow, like YoungBoy’s Cash Money and No Limit-worthy mixtape 3800 degrees, ANIMALS ONLY The thread in the source material is so natural that the obvious tribute doesn’t overshadow BabyChiefDoit as a rapper. He doesn’t cram it in like he’s studying for the SATs: Drill sounds like a part of him.