On April 17, Charlotte rapper DaBaby released his third album in 13 months. The album, titled “Blame It On Baby,” is 13 songs long, including his popular and previously released song “Find My Way.” Ever since the release of his previous two albums “Baby On Baby” and “Kirk,” I felt that DaBaby didn’t change up his sound enough. Not just his flow, but his instrumentals as well. The production on this record is simplistic, and the album feels rushed as a whole.

My favorite part of DaBaby’s last works has been his energy and charisma. Even when his songs are lackluster, he raps with such confidence that the song becomes infectious. There really is no energy here, and most of the songs have autotune, which he doesn’t utilize well here at all.

That said, this album isn’t without its bright spots. I don’t dislike the Latin-inspired beat of “Find My Way,” but I still found the vocal performance somewhat lacking. In my opinion, the best song on the album is “Rockstar.” It’s the most enjoyable by far, and I was a fan of Roddy Ricch’s guest verse. Title track “Blame It On Baby” is probably the most interesting and different sounding song of the album with its multiple flow switches. “Nasty” was pretty good as I enjoyed Ashanti’s hook, and Megan Thee Stallion’s guest verse was great.

However, all of DaBaby’s songs are more or less the same – same lyrical themes with a different beat each time. “Kirk” is still well in rotation, and DaBaby’s most popular song, “BOP” is still doing well on the charts, so I ask myself: what’s the reason to rush out this new project? Most of this project doesn’t really have any new ideas going for it, which is sad because we have a masked DaBaby on the cover and a title like “Blame It On Baby” which actually gave me a bit of excitement to listen to the album. Instead, it’s basically what we have been hearing from DaBaby and the rap scene, and it’s nothing creative. DaBaby was able to get together some of the most popular names in rap right now, such as Roddy Ricch, A Boogie, Megan Thee Stallion and Ashanti, but DaBaby didn’t really give them much to work with. Overall, I believe this album deserves a measly 4/10.