Baby Keem Artistfacts

October 22, 2000
Baby Keem is known for his elastic, high-register vocal style, minimalist but explosive production, and his creative partnership with his cousin Kendrick Lamar. He broke into the mainstream with the single "Orange Soda" and cemented his reputation with his debut studio album, The Melodic Blue.
Born Hykeem Jamaal Carter Jr. in Carson, California, he was primarily raised in Las Vegas. He spent much of his childhood living with his grandmother, whom he considers his second mother. In his teen years, Keem ran a low-key Minecraft YouTube channel under the alias "AllMightyModz," playing Survival Games on servers like The Hive and MCGamer using the in-game name "hykeemc."
Keem started releasing music under his birth name, putting out a project called Oct in 2017. By 2018, he had switched to Baby Keem, a name he described in a 2021 Apple Music interview as simple, natural, and unforced, deliberately not trying to sound "tough."
His early projects, Hearts & Darts and The Sound of Bad Habit, flew under the radar but laid the foundation for his breakout 2019 mixtape Die For My Bitch. That's where "Orange Soda" first appeared as a sleeper favorite; it eventually went quadruple Platinum and became his first Hot 100 hit.
Before most listeners knew him as a rapper, Keem was already behind the scenes on major projects, contributing production and writing to Black Panther: The Album, Redemption, Schoolboy Q's Crash Talk, and Beyoncé's The Lion King: The Gift.
His debut studio album, The Melodic Blue (2021), debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200. The album includes the single "Family Ties," which earned the Grammy for Best Rap Performance.
Kendrick Lamar is Keem's older cousin, technically his "second cousin," since Keem's mother is Kendrick's first cousin. The two weren't close growing up; after Keem moved to Las Vegas, they barely saw each other for nearly a decade. They eventually reconnected through family circumstances and music to become one of hip-hop's most notable familial collaborations.

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