In Review: Barnacles
Since 2017 when his single “Pull Up Wit Ah Stick” released, the Atlanta rapper SahBabii aka “King Squid” has been making waves in the underground music scene and now following his incredible, extremely overlooked past two albums - S.A.N.D.A.S and Squidtastic - is Barnacles coming for the three-peat?
SahBabii has been incredibly playful and inventive as an artist, and Barnacles is no different. With insanely high-quality production that plays into SahBabii’s immersive, eccentric sound, there’s a splashy, fun, and melodic vibe running through this album that makes it a joy to listen to. It’s amazing how he continues to utilise an aquatic theme and spin it into different hilarious one liners and concepts. There are minimal trap artists that try to strictly follow the same theme whereas SahBabii seems absolutely dedicated to making his projects sound cohesive over a certain theme.
The lyricism on this album cannot be overlooked, it all sounds incredibly hard, yet heartfelt and hilarious, that makes you think “damn that was bar.” I've never heard an artist sell this juxtaposition so well. It makes me think he's very switched on, to me this is comedic genius level writing. Stuff you see actual practising stand-up comedians come up with but done over beats. People can say whatever they want about the ridiculous subject matter, but I don’t think you can deny that he's probably one of the wittiest, charismatic rappers at the moment. Some of my favourite off the wall lyrics on the album are:
“Gave her both of these balls, LaMelo and Lonzo-”
“She got a donut booty, I'm finna glaze. She gon' cover my meat like some Sweet Baby Ray's-”
“Racist diamonds, I'm talking racist Ronald Reagan diamonds-”
“They throwin’ salt we made a lot of pretzels-”
Barnacles, despite being a bit one-dimensional with production and flows that sound relatively similar throughout every track, is the best trap album that I've heard this year. It might sound a lot like a generic Atlanta trap album but, if you take the time to listen to any of the tracks on here up close and dissect it, it’s nothing like that. His vocals are super strange in the best possible way and he of wiggles and floats all over his instrumentals (most notably on “Double Dick”). He's in his own world.
Now, speaking of SahBabii’s own world, we can’t not talk about him without bringing up the “Thugger Clone” discussion. Of all the rappers that get lumped into being Thugger clones, he’s the only one who captures the essence of Young Thug’s lyrical weirdness. I also feel that of the Thug clones, he stands out the most because his sound is so far removed from others. Sahbabii has become to me what 2015-18 Young Thug was, an under appreciated inventor, not obsessed with trends, clout, or money but free to explore the weirder side of trap music with full artistic control and no restraint. He's separated himself from the mainstream in a way that allows him to freely take risks that rappers such as Lil Baby and Gunna can't. He takes those risks on Barnacles and the result is wonderful.
After listening to Barnacles it’s hard to deny the creativity, the genuine sense of humour, playfulness, and the production quality of this project. I’ve never heard an album that sounds this intentionally comedic whilst also sounding incredibly hard-hitting and listenable and I’ve never been more convinced that SahBabii is an artist here to stay and that he is one of the best trap artists right now. SahBabii is undoubtably three for three on his albums and I can’t wait to hear what he does next.
