Yung Lean croons an echo-damaged hook and sounds like he’s stuck deep in a Xan hole. The track feels like an ideal fusion of Yung Lean’s dark, gurgling melody and the ramshackle sonic grammar of Michigan rap. The tracks’ beat comes from Gud, a Swedish producer from Yung Lean’s Sad Boys crew, and from Detroit beatmaker Carlo Anthony. On “Overtime,” Ray teams up with Yung Lean, the depressive Swedish cult figure. Right now, though, my favorite song on the album is the weirdest one - the one where two very different strains of rap music combine into something new. The song also has Ray muttering that he still hasn’t met Drake.īabyface Ray’s songs have a tendency to sneak up on you, and FACE feels like a grower. That’s a clear visual metaphor for selling insular street-music to people like me - interested parties who don’t have any experience with the situations that Babyface Ray describes.
In the clip, hoity-toity white people file through an art museum with guns mounted on walls instead of paintings. But the video for “Gallery Dept,” a strong collaboration with fellow Detroit rapper Veeze, shows how uncomfortable that might be. Last year, Ray released his Unfuckwithable EP, a clear attempt to find a bigger audience. He’s been doing his best to make that work, but he seems to know that it won’t necessarily be a smooth transition. There’s something calming about the combination of Ray’s delivery and the chaotic beats of Detroit.įor a couple of years, Ray has been talking about how he’s trying to take Detroit rap to another level. Ray tends to sound effortless, finding the pocket of a beat and using it to speak softly. It implies menace, but it never screams it. He’s not a flashy rapper, but he does effective work as a sort of self-assured sleepy-eyed street-rap everyman.
From an early age, he wrote songs to express his emotions and dreamed of a professional career in music.
Babyface was raised in a family of six in Indianapolis, Indiana.He’s also crafted hits for everyone from Madonna and Boyz II Men to Eric Clapton and Fall Out Boy. Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and producer Babyface ruled the charts in the ’90s with his smooth R&B sound.