DaBaby is proud of his rap skills, and despite his inability to pull album sales and concert numbers, the rapper says that he’s on the same level as veteran rappers Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole.
In an interview on My Expert Opinion with Math Hoffa, the Billion Dollar Baby CEO boasts that he can’t be out-rapped by a few artists whom he feels are on his level.
“If I don’t feel like you know nothing about this sh*t, I’m not about to try and exploit my real life anyways, I’m just doing me,” DaBaby begins. “So when it come to like pain or anything that affects me or effects somebody I love I couldn’t dealt running round god damn exploiting that sh*t. I can’t do it.”
He continued, “Ok you can put this beat on and I’ll go Eminem level on that b*tch, you get what I’m saying, you gotta get one of them to come f**k with me. You gotta go get Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, it ain’t too many more n***ga, I don’t wanna disrespect nobody but boy, raise your hand,” the artist added.
“I’m like that. N***as know too that I’m like that for real I don’t gotta talk about nobody else story. I’ll talk about me,” he continued.
DaBaby is an eight-time Grammy-nominated artist. In 2020, he was nominated for four Grammys, including the prestigious Record of the Year for his song “Rockstar” featuring Roddy Ricch.
In 2019, he was nominated for two awards, but from 2021, the artist’s career appears to be on a downward spiral, with him being unable to sell out stadiums at full-priced tickets. In response to the decline in his career, the artist claims he was blackballed by the industry. In any case, DaBaby’s comparisons were not received well by fans who felt he was off and needed to work harder to earn his stripes like the veteran artists who have dominated charts, streaming, sales, and even concerts.
Some pointed out the accomplishments of the artists, including Eminem, who won 15 Grammys from 44 nominations over the course of his two-decade career. Many veterans in hip hop also consider the rapper as one of the greatest of all time.
Eminem’s debut came in 1999 with ‘The Slim Shady’ LP, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. That project which also earned him his first two Grammys- Best Rap Solo Performance for “My Name Is” and Best Rap Album at the 42nd GRAMMY Awards, is now ranked at No. 275 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
Kendrick Lamar similarly has 14 wins and 39 nominations. The artist breakout came in 2012 with the album, ‘Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,’ which was an instant success having peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and landed at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. He received two Grammy nominations for the project and later won two Grammys in 2014 for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.
As for J. Cole, who is widely regarded as one of the best lyrically talented rappers of this generation, the artist has one Grammy win but 16 nominations. The artist’s label debut was ‘Cole World: The Sideline Story,’ released in 2011 and debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
A year later, J. Cole was nominated for Best New Artist in 2012.
In the meantime, the ‘Baby On Baby’ rapper has one career Billboard No. 1 hit and 5 Top 10 (on the Billboard 200- 2 No. 1 and 4 Top 10); while Eminem has 5 No. 1 hits and 22 Top 10 Hits (on the Billboard 200 he has 10 No. 1 hit and 12 Top 10 hits); Kendrick Lamar has two No. 1 and 12 Top 10 (on the Billboard 200 chart he has four No. 1 hits and 5 Top 10); while J. Cole has zero No. 1 hit but 10 Top 10 (he does have 6 Billboard 200 No. 1 hits and 6 Top 10 on the Billboard Top 10).
On Instagram, fans reacted to DaBaby’s comments.
“Slim shady Eminem?! Lordt,” one person commented while another said, “You ain’t on that level. Sorry sir,” another said.
“The other 2 get ticket sales tho,” a third added, with a critic offering their comparison for DaBaby: “Da baby please just b quiet for a little, only person u can go against is 69.”
“Dababy have no metaphors and same cadence on every rap. Cole and Kendrick are poets. Dababy raps for money. They rap for the cause,” another added.
This isn’t the first time DaBaby has ranked himself among the Greats. Earlier this year, he even had himself up there with Jay-Z.
