Nahceim Harris @ceimo
Rap Blog is a weekly showcase of a standout rap song.
Ask Atlanta rapper BabySolid who he was listening to as a teen and he’ll be quick to cite Chicago drill rappers Young Pappy, G Herbo, and Chief Keef. You can hear a touch of the latter’s influence in the beat to “Selfish,” which cloaks a wistful woodwind loop in quavering hi-hats, and in his marble-mouthed flows that are more evocative than enunciated. Even if his subject matter is fairly boilerplate (an inability to pick a favorite bitch, or promises to finish any beef an ill-advised hater might spark), the bars are textural, not communicative.
Where his March mixtape SPIN MUZIK was bombastic, replete with thumping instrumentals courtesy of Al Chapo, DP Beatz, and CaptainCrunch, “Selfish” is distinctly woozy and lush; the song’s cumulative effect is like facing a blunt before falling into an easygoing stupor. Occasionally, BabySolid’s vocals will double or even triple up, momentarily surfacing phrases like “all you wear is fake gold” before re-submerging his raps beneath the molten beat. This only enhances the song’s hypnagogic effect, sharpening the emphasis on BabySolid’s open-ended threats. You can hear him most clearly when the beat slips into reverse near the song’s close, his syllables stacking up. “Hopping em gates and we jumping em fences […] I’m in the Hills and I came from the trenches,” Babysolid reels off as if breathlessly building to a final punchline. But then his flow slips away into gurgled phonemes once again, melting into the mix.