After DaBaby secured his No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020 with “ROCKSTAR,” he’s looking to make a similar impact going forward with the help of a classic sample from over two decades ago.
The Charlotte-bred rapper took to Instagram on Sunday (March 7) to preview an unreleased song sampling Mark Morrison’s 1996 hit “Return of the Mack.” While sitting in his car, DaBaby gave fans way more than just a snippet by rapping over the beat for around two and a half minutes.
“This one for ya auntie,” he wrote with a heart emoji.
The currently untitled track is produced by Maryland native Hitman Audio, who has worked with YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Moneybagg Yo and Blac Youngsta.
He then suffered the crushing loss of his protégé in Von less than three months later. Durk quickly deactivated his Instagram account to mourn Von’s murder. He then returned to music and social media earlier this week with the release of “Backdoor” and shared text messages between himself and Von while paying tribute to him with the hashtag, “#DoIt4Von.”
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XXL Freshman Class, among other moments gave him a forward momentum moving into 2020 despite the hardships that canceled tours and no live performances had on the music industry. The success of songs like Suge and BOP, both released in 2019, helped with that. The way that I put shit together leading up until the pandemic definitely put me in the position to, right when the pandemic hit, like, I leveled up completely, he shares. I m on a, you know what I m saying, a whole other wave right now. Rockstar arrived on DaBaby s third studio album,
BLAME IT ON BABY, released in April, and subsequently took three months to climb to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The guitar-driven track, which DaBaby calls the song of the year, commanded the No. 1 position for seven non-consecutive weeks. He flexes his melodic delivery on the record and boasts about what he s earned when no one gave him a thing.
Roddy Ricch was the musical guest on
âThe Boxâ is a single from Roddy Ricchâs 2019 debut
Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial. He scored six nominations at the 2021 Grammys: Song of the Year, Best Melodic Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song for âThe Box,â and Record of the Year, Best Melodic Rap Performance, and Best Rap Song for the DaBaby collaboration âROCKSTAR.â
Check out Pitchforkâs âThe 100 Best Songs of 2020,â featuring âThe Boxâ at No. 69 and âROCKSTARâ at No. 93.