The Melodic Blue

The Melodic Blue is the debut studio album by American rapper and record producer Baby Keem. It was released on September 10, 2021, by PGLang and Columbia Records, with Keem serving as the executive producer. The standard version of the album featured guest appearances by rappers Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, and Don Toliver. An updated version, released on September 22, features an additional guest appearance from singer Brent Faiyaz. The deluxe edition of The Melodic Blue, released on October 28, 2022, contained additional guest appearances from PinkPantheress and Lil Uzi Vert.

The Melodic Blue was supported by four singles, including "Durag Activity" with Scott and "Family Ties" with Lamar. "Durag Activity" peaked at number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Family Ties" peaked at number 18 on the Hot 100 and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance, marking Keem's first Grammy Award. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, one of whom called it the album that ushered Keem into the spotlight. It debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, earning 53,000 total album-equivalent units in its first week. It charted internationally in more than a dozen countries. In 2023, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Background
The Melodic Blue is Keem's first studio album. Prior to the release, Keem had three mixtapes, a collaboration with Kanye West, and a myriad of production and songwriting credits. When asked how his producer background factored into his work, Keem said "I feel like producer artists are like the best artists, just because you just know what you want. You see a vision. You're able to execute a vision from start to finish — unwavered. That's probably the best thing I've ever learned, how to make beats." Keem shared that his inspiration largely comes from Mike Will Made It, Metro Boomin, and Kanye West, and said about West, "That’s one person I’ll never say anything ill about. He’s a legend. [Without Kanye] I wouldn’t even be sitting here, I wouldn’t have had the inspiration for this project." Keem considers West one of the few rappers who still pushes the envelope on what music can be. He also incorporated styles made popular by Brent Faiyaz and SZA. Keem was influenced by rhythm and blues songs of the 90s which can be seen in his drum patterns and emotional vocal performances. The album shows a progression in Keem's musical style where he explores new melodies and themes, showing a new side of Keem in bass production and piano additions.

On October 19, 2020, Baby Keem first teased the title of the album by adding its name and some of the tracks onto a hoodie, but confirmed the project's title on April 30, 2021. On August 31, 2021, Keem stated that he finished the album and said that it "has my best production / compositional work". Two days later, he confirmed that it would be released that month. On September 6, 2021, Labor Day, Keem confirmed the release date and revealed the cover art. Two days later, he revealed the tracklist.

The album is the first time Keem has had someone else featured in his songs, working alongside Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott, the latter of whom Keem said was "really easy to work with".

Recording and production
Before the album's release, Keem revealed that Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar and would be featured on the project. The production of The Melodic Blue is characterized by washed-out synths, booming bass, and distorted beats. It is noted for featuring the first three collaborations between Keem and his cousin Kendrick Lamar, who plays the role of Keem's elder brother in the tracks he features on. They also marked the first new songs from Lamar since the release of Black Panther: The Album (2018), which Keem assisted with in production and songwriting. Some of Kendrick Lamar's lyrics from the song "Range Brothers" were leaked a day before the album's release and went viral as memes for their seemingly unusual content. Keem subsequently claimed that he and Lamar created four new languages together while recording the album. Keem was the main producer for the album. MixedByAli, a sound engineer for the album, said Keem "produces the majority of all his records — he's super involved in every aspect of it." In an interview with Billboard, Keem said he took his time and was very careful recording the vocals for the album.

Release and promotion
Before the album's release, Keem dropped the single "Family Ties", featuring Kendrick Lamar, which became a Grammy-winning hit. The song was praised for its trumpet intro and intense back-and-forth between Keem and Lamar, creating excitement for the rest of the album. In April 2021, Keem teamed up with Travis Scott and released the single "Durag Activity", which became a chart hit and was planned to be on the album.

The Melodic Blue was initially released in September 2021 and consisted of 16 tracks. On September 22, the album was updated to include three bonus tracks: the already released singles "No Sense" and "Hooligan", and a reworked version of "Lost Souls" featuring vocals from Brent Faiyaz.

Keem surprised fans with a deluxe edition of his album "The Melodic Blue" on October 28, 2022, more than a year after its original release date. The deluxe edition contained seven new songs, bringing the total number of tracks on the album to 23. In his song "Highway 95" from the deluxe version, Baby Keem incorporates a sample from the hit Fugees record "Killing Me Softly With His Song". On Twitter, Keem thanked Lauryn Hill, who was a member of the Fugees and holds the rights to the original composition.

To promote the album, Keem embarked on The Melodic Blue Tour, visiting cities across North America and Europe from November 2021 to July 2022. Keem also performed at major festivals such as Rolling Loud, Day 'N' Vegas, and Coachella. He had his first television appearance when he promoted the album on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

Commercial reception
The album debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200, selling 53,000 copies in its first week. The Melodic Blue saw 70.1 million on-demand streams in its first week, making it the second-most streamed album of that week, only behind Drake's Certified Lover Boy. By the second week, the album had 305.4 million on-demand streams. His single "Family Ties" peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance, his first Grammy.

On April 13, 2022, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined sales and album-equivalent units over 500,000 units in the United States. By August 2023, the album had reached platinum certification for combined sales of over one million. The album also charted internationally, peaking at number 49 on the UK Albums Chart, number five on the Canadian Albums Chart, and number nine on the Norwegian Albums Chart.

Critical reception
The Melodic Blue received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received an average score of 77 based on eleven reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

In a five-star review, Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian called The Melodic Blue the best rap album of 2021 and praised Keem's "gift for vocal melody that promises so much to come." Will Dukes of Rolling Stone found Baby Keem to be "sharp, focused and easy to like." Luke Britton of NME called Keem a "rising star" who "shows his versatility and wide-ranging sound on confident, [sic] mostly self-produced project." Tomas Miriti Pacheo of SPIN described the album as "charismatic and hilarious" at times, and praised Keem's production that was "often as bold as his lyrics." He highlighted, however, that some of the production, most notably on "South Africa" and "Gorgeous" felt oversaturated and had Keem sounding "imitative at best and grating at worst."

In a lukewarm review, Dylan Green of Pitchfork wrote that while the album is more intimate than Keem's past work, containing reminiscence on his childhood such as trips to Popeyes in his Mom's coupe, it is by no means a confessional. He went on to say that Keem "uses the opportunity to expand his well-established fascination with trap and melody to feature-length—with mixed results." He considers it the album that moved Keem into the spotlight, and lauded his verse on "Family Ties", suggesting it was among the best tracks of his career as he confidently rapped "over horns and thudding 808s with a handful of flows".

Complex ranked The Melodic Blue as the 13th best album of 2021, calling it one of the most ambitious and risky projects that has come out in years. They stated that it is "overflowing with ideas. If you don't like what you hear at any given moment, just wait a few seconds and the beat will switch or Keem will try a new flow."

Track listing
These credits are adapted from Columbia Records and Sony Music Entertainment:

Notes
 * All tracks are stylized in all lowercase. For example, "Family Ties" is stylized as "family ties".
 * "Trademark USA" features uncredited additional vocals from Rosalía.
 * "Vent" features uncredited additional vocals from Kendrick Lamar.

Sample credits
 * "Pink Panties" contain samples from "Fuck..... Instagram", written by Michee Lebrun, as performed by Che Ecru.
 * "Scapegoats" contains an uncredited sample from "Redemption", written by Josiah Wise, as performed by Serpentwithfeet; and uncredited samples from "Unlucky", written by Kan Wakan and Lindsay Olsen, as performed by Wakan.
 * "Lost Souls contain uncredited samples from "Sex A Pill", written by Michee Lebrun, as performed by Che Ecru.
 * "Cocoa" contains an uncredited sample from "Didn't We", written by Jimmy Webb, as performed by Irene Reid.
 * "Scars" contains uncredited samples from "Love Lockdown" written by Kanye West, Jeffrey "Jeff" Bhasker, Jenny-Bea Englishman, Malik Jones, and LaNeah Menzies, as performed by West.
 * "Booman" contains uncredited samples from "Yei Baa Gbe Wolo", written by Nii Morton and Sam Nortey, as performed by Hugh Masekela.
 * "Highway 95" contains samples from "Killing Me Softly", written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, as performed by Fugees.

Personnel

 * Derek "206Derek" Anderson – recording (9), mixing (12)
 * Matt Schaeffer – recording (10, 11, 15)
 * Johnny Kosich – assistant engineering (1–6, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16), recording (1, 3–5, 7–14, 16)
 * Jake the Snake – assistant engineering (1, 3–5, 7–14, 16)
 * Scott Moore – assistant engineering (3, 4, 10, 11)
 * Curtis "Sircut" Bye – assistant engineering (5, 7, 8, 12–14)
 * Ray Donghwan Kim – assistant engineering (6, 15)
 * Jacob Bryant – assistant engineering (7, 8, 12–14)
 * MixedByAli – mixing (5, 7, 8, 12–14)
 * James Hunt – mixing (1–4, 6, 9–11, 15, 16), recording (1–4, 6, 9–11, 15)
 * Nicolas De Porcel – mastering (1–16)