Half an hour into Baby Keem’s show, penultimate on the (new) main stage of Primavera Sound Porto, and just when he thought São Pedro’s vineyard would have favored Circunvalação and the surroundings, behold, thick drops began to fall on unprotected heads.
Just in case, Parque da Cidade do Porto was quickly covered with raincoats, to which Oscar, one of the low ones, at least said what he was coming for. On stage we now enjoy, in addition to a few thousand connoisseurs (“Baby Kim, Baby Kim!”, we hear his screams in front of the stage), raindrops in the sky over Porto (to his right) and Matosinhos (to his left), California rapper Baby Kim , 22 years old last fall, demonstrates his experience.
Sometimes, with the immeasurable confidence of a 22-year-old, he has a cousin who does a more expensive job, but who also understands the trade since he was a teenager: in “Booman,” included on the only album he has released. So far, “Melodic Blue” (2021), he explains: “Uh, I’m sexy and blessed/Uh, I’m sexy and blessed/Hole, I’m sexy and blessed/Uh, I’m sexy and blessed.” Sometimes in a Weekend Romantic Style – the ’80s midtempo Is there to love and not let you be fooled – prompting him to think of the other with fear, vulnerability, and love: “Don’t you think of you and me? / Just hold my hand and look me in the eye.”
The audience is not here for it. Came for Cousin – who we already know. But Baby Keem, who was Kid Cudi’s big influence and whom Kanye West dubbed “Praise God” on “Donda” (2021), has more than “Family Ties,” the single he released with Kendrick nearly two years ago. (and, for that matter, more than the raw libido of “pink panties”) or “honest” (bedroom problems); It has the “swagger” that it just lacks, perhaps, greater finesse in aiming. He’s learned from the best (with Lamar releasing “The Hillbillies” just two days earlier), so he’s going to be bigger.
