BabyTron recently came out with a new album on Jan. 13, entitled, “Bin Reaper 3: New Testament.” The project marks BabyTron’s progression forward within his music career. In one song, “Next Level 2” BabyTron raps, “Sh*t, I ain’t gon’ say this the last level, but we getting there. This the next level, next chapter, the ‘New Testament, Bin Reaper 3.’”
BabyTron is clearly determined to reach his fullest potential. The album encompasses 26 songs and a variety of features. Artists like Rico Nasty, Lil Yachty, Babyface Ray, and Cordae, among others, all collaborated on this album.
BabyTron is a 22-year-old rapper from Detroit, Michigan, whose career began at the age of 17. He originally made music alongside his friends, StanWill and TrDee. They called their rap group, “Sh*ttyBoyz”. BabyTron references the collective throughout his recent album.
For new listeners to BabyTron, the album is not completely comprehensible. He uses countless metaphors that require background information about his life/career or familiarity with youth culture. In a Genius interview, BabyTron said, “You gotta do your research to listen to BabyTron.” His album is full of references to games such as “Minecraft” and “Transformers” and cartoons like “Spongebob” and “Roger Rabbit.” This gives the album a youthful appeal.
However, while BabyTron’s album has childlike lyricism, it is not an album that encourages positivity among youth. He uses racial and derogatory stereotypes to further push ignorant, outdated ideas for the sole purpose of shock factor. He raps, “Hungry for the opps, I’m lookin’ Asian tryna cook dog”. This is not the type of influence needed in rap culture. It’s simply unnecessary.
Beyond this, BabyTron’s album makes multiple remarks pertaining to superficial material worth, violence, and scam culture. This places him into the mainstream scammer, hypebeast rap wave. In his song “Gimme Dat,” featuring Lil Yachty he says, “Lil’ brodie scammed a store, I’m sauced up, ravioli.” Furthermore, in “Dirty Draco” he raps, “Hypebеast tendencies, walk in the crib, it’s Bape on the rugs. Pourin’ drank and rollin’ eighths, I’m facin’ all the drugs.” It’s evident that BabyTron has a clear intention in promoting rap music that disregards anything besides superficial forms of superiority.
On top of this, many of his lyrics make no contextual sense. In “Michigan Ave”, he says, “Turkey in the middle of Finkle, tripping, drifting the ‘Cat. Got a whole Kentucky Derby in the whip, hittin’ the dash.” Additionally, in “Mike Amiri Monster” he raps, “Twin drums, give his ass two-hundred like a Chug Jug. That’s my la familia, I gotta show the plug love.” While these ideas may make sense to a specific demographic, the majority of listeners who do not fit that demographic will be entirely confused and the album will not be for them.
BabyTron represents what needs to be changed within the modern rap culture. The emphasis on criminality and use of derogatory language is what upholds the common misrepresentation of what rap culture and music really values. The messages in this album, along with the lack of quality storytelling and lyricism is an unfortunate presentation of the genre.