Saaheem

A few years after Atlanta oddball SahBabii broke out with his 2017 hit “Pull Up wit ah Stick”, he kept the momentum going with witty, absurd bars and a penchant for saying things like, “Gave her both of these balls like LaMelo and Lonzo.” But after the passing of a close friend, DemonChild, SahBabii dropped his shenanigans to create the 2021 LP Do It for Demon, a heartfelt memorial addressing grief and anguish. Though his rapping was still loose and nonchalant, he redirected his observations inward. On his new album, Saaheem, titled after his birth name, he balances mischief with vulnerable introspection, embracing minty-fresh vocal styles and sharpened production choices that highlight his songwriting.

SahBabii is focused on telling all on Saaheem, even when it’s difficult—or ridiculous. In the first verse of “Belt Boyz,” Sah sounds more paranoid than ever, recalling witnessing DemonChild and his brother T3 do drive-bys. In both content and autobiographical style, it’s a clear extension of Do It for Demon. “Save iT 4 Me Babii” tells a story of Sah taking an airplane to lay it down on a lover; you can almost envision the cartoon bubble above the window seat revealing his freaky daydreams: “It’s about two hours on this flight/Did you take a shower, get right?” It’s a perverted flashback that would be at home on Barnacles, but with a more studied approach. Throughout Saaheem, humor punctuates and softens weightier issues. On the piano-led “Everyday,” SahBabii’s tone swaps between serious and unserious as he runs through his day: “I hit a lick in the morning/Then I bought a sausage biscuit.” He finds beauty and humor in the real-time struggle, with an inclination for fun that makes even the gnarly moments come off endearing.

When SahBabii takes stabs at styles he hasn’t explored much, it generally pays off. On “Viking,” he raps with a new intensity, a nasally inflection halfway between Barter-era Young Thug and I Am Music-era Playboi Carti. It aligns his sound more distinctly with the Atlanta canon and speaks to a love and understanding of the city he comes from. The Auto-Tuned melodies on “1095 Osborne St” are covered in clouds of silk, as if Luther Vandross was off prescription pills. It’s sexy, desperate, and hilarious, perfectly capturing his years-long obsession with making sex as silly as possible.