DaBaby says that at his best, only the likes of Eminem, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar are on the same level. During an appearance on Math Hoffa’s My Expert Opinion podcast, the rapper proclaimed he can match the three titans.
“Ok you can put this beat on and I’ll go Eminem-level on that bi**h.” “The Baby on Baby artist tells the room. “You gotta go get one of them to come f**k with me. You gotta go get Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, it ain’t too many more ni**as. I don’t wanna disrespect nobody but boy, raise your hand,” Baby said. “I’m like that. Ni**as know too and I’m like that for real. I don’t gotta talk about nobody else story. I’ll talk about me.”
The rapper was asked how much of his music is “therapeutic,” with DaBaby explaining that he shies away from putting his personal life into his music.
“I’m not trying to exploit my real life anyways, I’m just doing me,” he said. “So when it come to like pain or anything that affects me or affects somebody I love, I couldn’t have dealt running round god damn exploiting that sh*t. I can’t do it, bruh.”
However, the North Carolina native made it clear he’s more than capable as a lyricist, but reserves those displays for his freestyles, preferring to focus on the hits for his official releases.
“I could do it and go crazy,” he says. “I could make the world sing that sht. That’s why you hear a freestyle and you’ll hear me rapping on a freestyle, you’ll be like, ‘This ni**a Top 5.’ But you hear the music I put out. I’m in the music business.”
Dababy then listed examples of his formulaic approach to crafting songs for the public, and finished by boasting that he’s lyrically superior to all but a handful of MCs in the game.
The 30-year-old previously went one step further in comparison himself to the greats, putting himself on par with Nas and Jay-Z when at the peak of his powers behind the mic.
“Don’t get it f**kin’ twisted,” he said during an appearance on LA Leakers’ back in February. “I like to turn people up, I like to make people feel good, but at the same time, you gotta get Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole for me, ni**a. Nas, JAY-Z. You gotta go get them ones.”