DaBaby took a huge risk by spitting his own bars over an instrumental made famous by JAY-Z, and he is now being dragged online for it.
On Tuesday (February 6), the North Carolina rapper shared his own rendition of “Public Service Announcement.” Produced by Just Blaze and first published as part of The Black Album in 2003, the beat carries one of Hov’s best-known verses.
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On “REINTRODUCTION (Freestyle),” which was previewed on social media last year, the 32-year-old plays off the original bars by opening with: “Allow me to reintroduce myself, n-gga, it’s Kirk/ And I’m finna stop letting n-ggas call me that baby shit/ My brother killed except in 2020, mama gave me birth in 1986.”
Whereas artists such as Anthony Hamilton and Fabolous (who’s been on a triumphant freestyle run of his own) commended Baby on Instagram, others weren’t too thrilled about him reworking the Jigga classic.
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“This is HORRIBLE,” one person wrote under podcaster Riki P’s reshare of the remix, while another added: “N-gga got 1 flow.”
A social media user even criticized the MC’s unorthodox flow and wrote: “Why bother using this beat if you’re rapping to the one in your head?”
DaBaby’s sales and popularity took a massive hit after he made homophobic remarks during a performance in 2021.
Last year, he opened up about the controversy during an appearance on LeBron James’ UNINTERRUPTED series, The Shop. During the chat, the multi-platinum rapper admitted he would have dealt with the situation differently if he had a chance to do it all over again.
“Like when that shit happened bro, I had my own meal with Burger King,” he began. “Like, a lot of the things I see my peers doin’ now — which I love to see it; I love to see that shit — these are things that I was blessed and fortunate enough to be able to accomplish in my first year as a mainstream artist.
“I had a meal at Burger King. I shot the commercial, I still got the behind-the-scenes, like I had so much goin on, bro. Like, you have no idea. Like, I had so much goin’ on, you know what I’m sayin’?”
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He added: “But, at the end of the day, if you become wrapped up in the negative shit, we’re so conditioned to rollin’ with the punches with social media, with whatever it is, whatever room we come into, okay we know we gotta adapt.”
“Whatever space we in, we know we gotta adapt, whatever business it is, whatever game we’re playing, we gotta adapt, you know. And that’s who’s gonna excel.”
