Lil Baby's 'WHAM' album review

Lil Baby’s latest release WHAM is the first major release of 2025, kicking off what is projected to be a stacked January for new music. It is Lil Baby’s first album since 2022 and a highly anticipated release among the hip hop community. While he has released his fair share of memorable songs such as “Freestyle,” “Sum 2 Prove,” and more, Lil Baby has never been considered an album artist. In his almost decade-long career, he continues to lack a standout project within his discography.

One of the biggest positives of Lil Baby’s newest album is that it is one of his shortest projects, clocking in at just 41 minutes. Each of Lil Baby’s last two solo albums It’s Only Me and My Turn were over an hour in length and were rather bloated because of it.

Aside from its’ trimmed down length, the album has several strong features from some of the biggest rappers in the industry. A fair amount of the album’s highlights can be found in the tracks that have featured artists. For example, “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber” with Young Thug and Future is arguably the best song on the album with solid contributions from both of the featured artists.

Young Thug’s performance, in particular, is especially notable. Not only is his verse one of the standout moments on the album, it also has a special significance since it is Young Thug’s first verse since being released from jail in October of last year. 

The song “Stuff,” which features Travis Scott, is another one of the tracklist’s stronger moments. Furthermore, GloRilla delivers a strong performance on the song “Redbone” and even outshines Lil Baby’s performance on the song.  The album also includes features from 21 Savage, Rod Wave, and Rylo Rodriguez.

As far as the negatives go, the project is highly inconsistent from track to track. While there are some noteworthy songs, such as the ones I had previously mentioned, quite a few of them feel generic and reminiscent of many of Lil Baby’s other songs. Even at its short length, the album fails to make the most of its runtime by offering high quality songs throughout. Instead, there are only a handful of solid tracks to choose from.

Lil Baby’s performance on the album isn’t bad, but it is very similar to what we have gotten from him previously. Nothing on this album does anything to evolve his artistry or lift his music to new heights. Because of this, most of the album’s strongest appeal will likely come from his most devoted fans.

The year 2025 kicks off with yet another mediocre project from Lil Baby. His last album It’s Only Me was a downgrade from his previous works — a factor which led many of us to believe that the quality of his music was on a downward trajectory. Unfortunately, WHAM will do nothing to change that sentiment for most of us. While the album is not a total miss, it is still one of the weakest projects in Lil Baby’s catalogue.

Overall Rating: 4/10