DaBaby Talks Kendrick Lamar & J. Cole’s Lyrics Going Over Some People’s Head

The leading contender for Hip Hop’s rookie of the year title speaks on how fans listen to two of the game’s top veterans.

(AllHipHop News) DaBaby dropped his second full-length body of work of 2019 today (September 27). The new Interscope effort, Kirk, follows Baby on Baby which came out in March.

In between those two LPs, DaBaby appears on tracks by other artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Lizzo, Lil Nas X, and Post Malone. The North Carolinian also helped open Dreamville’s Revenge of the Dreamers III compilation with J. Cole, Lute, and Kendrick Lamar.

Beats 1’s Ebro Darden caught up with DaBaby to discuss the Kirk album. The Apple Music conversation also included the man born Jonathan Lyndale Kirk chatting about balancing different musical styles and studying the culture.

“When it comes to the music, the traits you got to have in order to make lit music, club music, to have the swag with it, to have the lingo, I got those traits just from my environment and how I came up. And I got the brains to be able to play around with words,” said DaBaby. “Like when I listen to a Kendrick Lamar verse, a J. Cole verse, I hear everything they’re saying. Like the first time I listen to it, I understand it. I can digest it.”

He continued, “A lot of people can listen to sh*t like that and… it goes over their head. You get what I’m saying? It goes over their head. A lot of people just want to hear the beat. I can do both of them. Like [the song] ‘Suge.’ I’m just popping sh*t on sh*t.”