A number of years after Atlanta oddball SahBabii broke out together with his 2017 hit “Pull Up wit ah Stick”, he stored the momentum going with witty, absurd bars and a penchant for saying issues like, “Gave her each of those balls like LaMelo and Lonzo.” However after the passing of a detailed good friend, DemonChild, SahBabii dropped his shenanigans to create the 2021 LP Do It for Demon, a heartfelt memorial addressing grief and anguish. Although his rapping was nonetheless unfastened and nonchalant, he redirected his observations inward. On his new album, Saaheem, titled after his beginning identify, he balances mischief with weak introspection, embracing minty-fresh vocal kinds and sharpened manufacturing selections that spotlight his songwriting.
SahBabii is targeted on telling all on Saaheem, even when it’s troublesome—or ridiculous. Within the first verse of “Belt Boyz,” Sah sounds extra paranoid than ever, recalling witnessing DemonChild and his brother T3 do drive-bys. In each content material and autobiographical fashion, it’s a transparent extension of Do It for Demon. “Save iT 4 Me Babii” tells a narrative of Sah taking an airplane to put it down on a lover; you possibly can virtually envision the cartoon bubble above the window seat revealing his freaky daydreams: “It’s about two hours on this flight/Did you are taking a bathe, get proper?” It’s a perverted flashback that might be at dwelling on Barnacles, however with a extra studied strategy. All through Saaheem, humor punctuates and softens weightier points. On the piano-led “On a regular basis,” SahBabii’s tone swaps between critical and unserious as he runs via his day: “I hit a lick within the morning/Then I purchased a sausage biscuit.” He finds magnificence and humor within the real-time battle, with an inclination for enjoyable that makes even the gnarly moments come off endearing.
When SahBabii takes stabs at kinds he hasn’t explored a lot, it typically pays off. On “Viking,” he raps with a brand new depth, a nasally inflection midway between Barter-era Younger Thug and I Am Music-era Playboi Carti. It aligns his sound extra distinctly with the Atlanta canon and speaks to a love and understanding of the town he comes from. The Auto-Tuned melodies on “1095 Osborne St” are coated in clouds of silk, as if Luther Vandross was off prescription drugs. It’s attractive, determined, and hilarious, completely capturing his years-long obsession with making intercourse as foolish as attainable.