Baby Keem

**Hykeem Jamaal Carter Jr.** (born October 22, 2000), his stage name being **Baby Keem**, is an American rapper and record producer. He was raised in Las Vegas, and was noticed in the late 2010s with his help to _Black Panther: The Album_, _Redemption_, _Crash Talk_, and _The Lion King: The Gift_. He was first noticed in 2019 through his sleeper hit single "Orange Soda".

After he signed a deal with PGLang and Columbia Records in September 2020, he released his first studio album _The Melodic Blue_ (2021), which was very successful. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and its final single, "Family Ties", won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. His help with Kanye West on _Donda_ (2021) and his cousin Kendrick Lamar on _Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers_ (2022) earned him two chances for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

## Early life

Hykeem Jamaal Carter Jr. was born on October 22, 2000, in Carson, California. His mother had problems with drug abuse and alcoholism, while his father, Hykeem Carter Sr., was not in his life. Carter was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada by his grandmother until he was eight years old, and he thinks of her to be his second mother. A lot of his childhood was spent in music studios as he watched his aunts and uncles put music onto CDs using LimeWire. He also had problems with eviction and needed food stamps.

Carter was raised around a musically skilled family, where all of his uncles and cousins were rappers. His older cousins include rapper Kendrick Lamar and basketball player Nick Young. He may also share some relatives with rapper Tanna Leone. He was always interested in rapping, but was not confident with his high-pitched voice and chose to wait until it was developed. When he was thirteen, Carter began producing music using Apple software on his computer. At fifteen, he borrowed $300 from his grandmother and bought a small recording setup for his bedroom on Craigslist. He soon moved to Los Angeles to go into a musical job. Carter disliked his "boring", "dry", and "small" hometown where "everybody knows everybody", and gave credit to its old music scene as a big factor in his decision to move. He used to post and livestream _Minecraft_ and _FIFA_ gameplay on YouTube and Twitch.

### 2014–2018: Career beginnings

Carter made his first song, "Come Thru", during his freshman year of high school. It was removed from the Internet and he hopes "nobody will ever find it." His first extended play (EP), _Oct_, was independently released under his real name on November 7, 2017, but was removed from major streaming services a bit after its release. _RapTV_ said that the 9-track EP showed traces of Carter's future musical style by "featuring a mix of bouncy, hard beats and slower, emotional cuts." He released his second EP, _Midnight_, on January 16, 2018. It showed the same production as _Oct_, but  _RapTV_ said that Carter's lines were "more confident and loud." In an interview with _Complex_, he said that _Midnight_ did not have any big artistic way, and described the project as "just nine songs in my stash that I liked and put out."

After he emailed a sample of his production to an independent record label, called Top Dawg Entertainment, Carter helped the soundtrack album for the superhero film _Black Panther_ (2018) as a producer. During the summer, he released two EPs, _No Name_ and _Hearts and Darts_, and produced two songs on Jay Rock's third album _Redemption_. He considers _Hearts and Darts_, which was his first project under his stage name Baby Keem, to have the style that _Midnight_ did not have. In October 2018, he released his first mixtape, _The Sound of Bad Habit_, through the Orchard and Sony Music. The mixtape was produced by Cardo.

### 2019–2020: _Die for My Bitch_ and breakthrough

Keem produced two songs on Schoolboy Q's fifth album, _Crash Talk_ (2019). On July 19, 2019, he produced a song for singer Beyoncé's soundtrack album _The Lion King: The Gift_ and released his second mixtape, _Die for My Bitch_. The alternative hip hop mixtape had strong pop-punk and alternative rock pieces, and was given big news attention. Its lead single, "Orange Soda", became a sleeper hit and helped Keem make his first songs on the _Billboard_ 200, _Billboard_ Hot 100 and Emerging Artists charts. He helped the mixtape with his first concert tour, the Die for My Bitch Tour, which visited some places across the U.S. from November 12 to November 20, 2019.

Keem's partnership with creative services company pgLang, founded by Kendrick Lamar and filmmaker Dave Free, was announced through his appearance in the company's visual mission statement on March 5, 2020. He was included on _XXL_s yearly Freshman Class list in August. After signing a recording contract with Columbia Records, Keem released the single album "Hooligan / Sons & Critics" on September 18, 2020; with Sons & Critics confirming his relation to Lamar after rumors began to emerge.

### 2021–present: _The Melodic Blue_

Keem was put on Kanye West's song "Praise God" with Travis Scott for Kanye's tenth album, _Donda_ (2021). _The Melodic Blue_, his first studio album, was released on September 10, 2021. He co-produced 14 of the album's 16 standard songs. It was given positive reviews from music critics, with praise towards its bold nature and Keem's growing potential, but criticism towards its "half-baked" production. The album started at number five on the _Billboard_ 200, becoming Keem's first top-10 album in the U.S. Two of the album's four singles, "Durag Activity" with Travis Scott and "Family Ties" with Kendrick Lamar, had good success. Keem went on the Melodic Blue Tour, which visited cities in North America and Europe from November 2021 to July 2022, and appeared on _The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon_ to help sell _The Melodic Blue_. A B-side to the album was released on September 22, 2021, while the deluxe edition was released on October 28, 2022.

## Inspirations

One of Keem's favorite artists and big musical inspirations is Kid Cudi. He was very inspired by his changes of his voice and emotional connection, mostly on the single "Immortal" (2013). As a child, Keem remembered listening to Kanye West's _808s & Heartbreak_ (2008) during a snow day in Las Vegas and being inspired by the album's cinematic quality. He has said that he will "never say anything ill (bad)" about West, and gives him credit for consistently changing music genre boundaries. Keem self-identifies as part of the Mike Will Made It and Metro Boomin generation of record producers, and has inspiration from both artists.

## Discography

- _The Melodic Blue_ (2021)

## Filmography

**Film**
|scope="col"|Year|scope="col"|Title|scope="col"|Role|scope="col" class="unsortable"|Notes|scope="col" class="unsortable"||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_Kendrick Lamar Live: The Big Steppers Tour_|rowspan="2"|Himself||||||||
|_The Melodic Blue_|Short film; also executive producer|||||||||

## Tours

**Headlining**
- Die For My Bitch Tour (2019)
- The Melodic Blue Tour (2021–2022)
**Supporting**
- Kendrick Lamar – The Big Steppers Tour (2022)

## Awards and nominations

|scope="col"|Award|scope="col"|Year|scope="col"|Category|scope="col"|Nominee(s)|scope="col"|Result|scope="col" class="unsortable"||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan="3"|2022|Best New Artist|Himself||rowspan="3"|||||||
|Video of the Year|rowspan="2"|"Family Ties"||||||||||
|Best Collaboration||||||||||||
|rowspan="2"|2022|Top Gospel Song|rowspan="2"|"Praise God"||rowspan="2"||||||
|Top Christian Song||||||||||||
|rowspan="4"|2022|Best New Artist|Himself||rowspan="4"|||||||
|Album of the Year|_Donda_|||||||||||
|Best Rap Performance|rowspan="2"|"Family Ties"||||||||||
|Best Rap Song||||||||||||
|2023|Album of the Year|_Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers_||||||||||
|2024|Best Rap Performance|"The Hillbillies"||||||||||
|2022|Best Collaboration|rowspan="3"|"Family Ties"|||||||||
|rowspan="2"|2022|Song of the Year||rowspan="2"||||||||
|Video of the Year||||||||||||

## Infobox (musical artist)

- **embed**: yes
- **origin**: Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.


## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Baby Keem
- **caption**: 2023 drawing of Baby Keem
- **birth name**: Hykeem Jamaal Carter Jr.
- **birth place**: Carson, California, U.S.
- **years active**: 2014–present