Good Flirts
by Baby Keem (featuring Kendrick Lamar)

Album: Ca$ino (2026)
Charted: 34
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "Good Flirts" is a three-way, post-breakup slow-burner from Baby Keem, Kendrick Lamar, and Momo Boyd. The trio circle around a situationship that keeps flaring back up on lonely Friday nights.
  • The song appears on Keem's second album, Ca$ino, a record full of gambling and high-stakes survival metaphors. "Good Flirts" plays like a reluctant wager: Keem keeps rolling the dice on a love where he knows the odds are terrible.
  • The track reignites Keem's creative partnership with his cousin Kendrick Lamar. Their shared history includes "Family Ties," "Range Brothers," and "Vent" from Keem's 2021 debut The Melodic Blue, followed by "Savior" on Kendrick's 2022 opus Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, and then the loose-limbed 2023 collaboration "The Hillbillies." Lamar also appears, uncredited, on the next Ca$ino track, "House Money."

    Outside the vocal booth, Keem produced Kendrick's 2022 tracks "N95" and "Die Hard," and even reached back to 2019 to produce "Nile," Lamar's collaboration with Beyoncé.
  • Keem begins "Good Flirts" with a laid-back chorus that hints the on-again/off-again may finally be off. His line, "You used to call my phone," recalls Drake's opening line on "Hotline Bling," though whether that's homage or coincidence is unknown.
  • Momo Boyd, a member of New York's soft-rock sibling band Infinity Song, provides the female counterpoint. She's not racing back home this time; she's out sampling new prospects. "Good Flirts" marks her first collaboration with both Keem and Kendrick.
  • Keem's verse reveals the fracture. Things were fine (in his estimation) until Boyd's friends convinced her she deserved more. It's the age-old tale: boy meets girl, girl meets group chat.
  • Lamar opens his verse by interpolating the first line of Common's 2000 classic "The Light":

    I never knew a luh-luh-luh, a love like this

    That line traces back to Bobby Caldwell's 1980 song "Open Your Eyes." Lamar had previously played with that interpolation on the unreleased "Falsehood" during the To Pimp a Butterfly era, so for longtime listeners, it's a knowing wink rather than a casual lift.

    Later, Lamar slips into romantic-confessional mode:

    I gossip with my bitch like I'm Young Thug too

    The bar references Young Thug's leaked prison calls with his girlfriend Mariah the Scientist.

    Just as Kendrick prepares to charm someone new, the ex calls. Of course she does. This is that kind of song.
  • The track, produced by Keem alongside Teo Halm, Rascal, and WHATSSARP, leans into downtempo alternative R&B with soft-rock edges. It interpolates The Undisputed Truth's 1973 version of "Walk On By" (hence writing credits to Burt Bacharach and Hal David) and nods again to "The Light," pulling in its lineage of writers.
  • The video opens with a playful nod to Grand Theft Auto V, recreating the banter between characters Franklin Clinton and Lamar Davis; a wink at Kendrick Lamar's own name and his chemistry with Keem. From there, director Renell Medrano follows Baby Keem through a series of everyday, neighborhood-level romantic encounters. Lamar gets a starker, more cinematic treatment; he appears alone in a bare church room framed by a hanging cross and a drinking fountain, and later on a basketball court, lending his section a soulful, almost spiritual quality that contrasts with Keem's lighter, more playful scenes.

    Medrano is a Dominican-American photographer and director known for her intimate, emotionally textured visual work. Her involvement continues the PGLang tradition of commissioning directors with strong fine-art and fashion credentials.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")

Director Mark Pellington ("Jeremy," "Best Of You")Song Writing

Director Mark Pellington on Pearl Jam's "Jeremy," and music videos he made for U2, Jon Bon Jovi and Imagine Dragons.

Dave Edmunds

Dave EdmundsSongwriter Interviews

A renowned guitarist and rock revivalist, Dave took "I Hear You Knocking" to the top of the UK charts and was the first to record Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk."

Boy Bands

Boy BandsFact or Fiction

From NKOTB to 1D, how well do you know your boy bands?

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot

Jon Foreman of SwitchfootSongwriter Interviews

Switchfoot's frontman and main songwriter on what inspires the songs and how he got the freedom to say exactly what he means.

Richie Wise (Kiss producer, Dust)

Richie Wise (Kiss producer, Dust)Songwriter Interviews

Richie talks about producing the first two Kiss albums, recording "Brother Louie," and the newfound appreciation of his rock band, Dust.

Yacht Rock Quiz

Yacht Rock QuizFact or Fiction

Christopher Cross with Deep Purple? Kenny Loggins in Caddyshack? A Fact or Fiction all about yacht rock and those who made it.