DaBaby Quotes

DaBaby was born Jonathan Kirk in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1991. By age six, he'd relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, and spent his adolescence engaged in street life. In December 2014, he made a quick decision to become a rapper, taking the name Baby Jesus and issuing his NonFiction mixtape a month later. Never having been on a stage before, he headed to South by Southwest in the spring of 2015 and began making a name for himself with his visceral live performances.

Kirk changed his name to DaBaby, going so far as to explain the "political reasons" for this decision in the lyrics to "DaBaby (Intro)," a short introduction to 2016's God's Work Resurrected, his first mixtape under the new moniker.

DaBaby's regional acclaim and endless hustle led to a major-label deal in 2019 when he signed with Interscope. The label quickly released the Billboard 200 Top Ten hit Baby on Baby in March of that year, a sharply produced full-length that was preceded by increasingly surreal videos for the singles "Suge" and "Walker, Texas Ranger."

After a string of features, DaBaby returned to solo work that September, releasing the introspective single "Intro." A deeply personal track that dealt with the death of his father, "Intro" became the first single from his sophomore album, KIRK. Featuring major-label contributions from the likes of Nicki Minaj, Chance the Rapper, and Migos, the set was released later that month and entered the Billboard 200 at number one. DaBaby received two Grammy nominations for "Suge," Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance.

2023 saw the release of two EPs: Call Da Fireman, which included the charting single "Shake Sumn," and Let's Do It, which included "No Finsta." In February 2024, the rapper guested on That Mexican OT's song "Texas Technician." How TF Is This a Mixtape? appeared in September.
-Amazon Music,~ Fred Thomas