Lil Baby's "My Turn" Shows He's Plateaued in His Superstar Potential
After a busy 2018 that saw Lil Baby’s “Harder Than Ever,” a joint project with Gunna “Drip Harder” and “Street Gossip” projects come out, the best move for Lil Baby to avoid fans having Lil Baby fatigue was to drop a minimal amount of music in 2019. Now in 2020, following a year where Lil Baby had only dropped thirteen songs, Lil Baby fans are refreshed and eager for the next Lil Baby project. One would hope that Lil Baby had been working on some new flows and cadences to debut on his first album of 2020 titled “My Turn.” Spanning 20 tracks and 60 minutes, “My Turn” features Gunna, 42 Dugg, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne, Moneybagg Yo, Young Thug, and Rylo Rodriquez.
Categories
The songs on this album divided into two lanes that are prevalent throughout the project and scored on a 1.5 scale. (0 = trash, .5 = not for me, 1 = good, 1.5 = a standout)
Swag Raps
• “Get Ugly” (.5)
• “Heatin Up” ft. Gunna (1)
• “How” (.5)
• “Grace” ft. 42 Dugg (.5)
• “Woah” (1)
• “Live Off My Closet” ft. Future (1)
• “Same Thing” (1)
• “Commercial” ft. Lil Uzi Vert (1)
• “Forever” ft. Lil Wayne (1)
• “Can’t Explain” (.5)
• “No Sucker” ft. Moneybagg Yo (.5)
• “Sum 2 Prove” (.5)
• “We Should” ft. Young Thug (1)
• “Consistent” (1)
• “Gang Signs” (1)
• “Forget That” ft. Rylo Rodriquez (.5)
• “Solid” (.5)
Somber Baby
Lil Baby reflects on the trials and tribulations he had to go through for him to get to where he’s at.
• “Emotionally Scarred” (1.5)
• “Catch The Sun” (1)
• “Hurtin” (1)
The Standouts
The songs that would give the best overview of the album as a whole. Songs that stand out for reasons to be described in the pending descriptions of the songs.
“Emotionally Scarred”
Track eight starts off with a soft guitar and rock guitar duet before a flute comes in. Produced by Twysted Genius, bass and high hats come through before Lil Baby spits his first verse. The flow Baby uses is one of the more polished flows on the entire project, spitting a semi-fast version of his flow. The song is the has some of the most reflective lines on the whole project best illustrated with the first lines of the project where Baby spits,
“A love letter came through the mail, it said, "I miss you"
I ripped it up and flushed with the tissue, try to forget you
I ain't got nothing against you, we human, we all got issues”
“We Should” ft. Young Thug
Produced by Wheezy, track fourteen on “My Turn” has a clock-like sound that sets the tempo of the project before the fast-paced high hat and bass come in to provide the trap feel of the song. Lil Baby and Young Thug go together like peanut butter and jelly, exchanging bars back and forth. Thug’s presence on the beat places the vibe of the song in a lighter place, which counteracts Lil Baby’s dreary flow.
“Gang Signs”
The story of track seventeen is the Three 6 Mafia influence on this beat produced by TWhy Xclusive and DJ Paul, a member of Three 6 Mafia. The beat samples Three 6 Mafia’s “Throw Your Sets in Da Air” with the bass and high-hat pattern coming in a fast tempo with an occasional percussion sound that is synonymous with classic southern rap. Lil Baby does a great job of keeping his flow following the beat, creating a hook that mimics the sample of Three Six Mafia, yelling “Throw em up” on the sample.
Final Review
Lil Baby’s “My Turn” was a project full of swag rap songs that were either hit or miss depending on the flow and beat. All this being considered, the content for 85% of the project was repetitive, with content about money, killing, etc… With this observation, it’s fair to say that Lil Baby hasn’t grown much from a content standpoint which is fine, however, without many new flows or beat types being used, the vibe of the project can become tiring quickly. With this project’s content being so similar to his content in 2018, the attempt to avoid the fatigue from listeners by essentially sitting out 2019 goes for naught. With all this being said, I think Lil Baby once again shows that he makes quality music with this project, however, it seems as though he has plateaued in his superstar potential. Aside from a few songs, Lil Baby’s “My Turn” leaves fans with an unchanged opinion on the artist.
Scoring
Raw Score: The number of good songs on a project versus the overall amount. Songs must have a 1 or above to be counted.
Quality Score: The total amount of points accumulated over the total amount of songs.
Playback value: The resonance an album is perceived to have if played again in full. Scale out of 5.
Raw Score: 12/20
Quality Score: 16.5/20
Playback Value: 2/5
Go out and listen to Lil Baby’s “My Turn” wherever you listen to your music. Also, don’t forget to check out OldMilk’s Instagram page and Twitter (@Oldmilk_co) for more Hip-Hop Album Reviews, The DJ 500K Playlist, The OldMilk Radar and more! Don’t Know it? OldMilk Does!
