The Rise Of Dababy: An Analysis
Jonathan Lyndale Kirk is an American rapper known professionally as Dababy. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 22, 1991. Kirk began his career in 2014, and rose quickly to the top of the charts with his first debut album. With many fans showing their support for their favorite artist, it’s clear that Dababy has a very dedicated fan base who can’t wait to see where his career will take him.
When Jonathan Kirk was just eight years old, his family moved from the family home in Ohio to Charlotte, North Carolina. It was 1999 and Kirk continued to hold his title as the youngest when referring to him and his two older brother’s, while growing up in one of Charlotte's many neighborhoods. Kirk attended Julius L. Vance High School until he graduated in 2010. After high school he attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for two years without earning a degree; he dropped out because he wasn't interested in college like his parents wanted him to be. Unfortunately, Jonathan lost his father in 2019. It wasn't until the sudden passing of one of Kirk’s older brother’s, Glen Johnson, that Kirk became more involved in his own life. His brother died because of a tragic accident— Glen Johnson, who was born in 1984 and five years older than Kirk, died due to self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death was ruled as a suicide.
In memory of his father passing in 2019, Jonathan’s second studio album is a tribute to his last name “Kirk” released on September 27, 2019. The albums cover picture has a photo of his late father. The album simultaneously charted seven acts reaching a total of three or more songs in the top 6 of Billboard Hot 100, also it was the first album that topped U.S Billboard Hot 200. “Kirk” featured collaborations from artists such as Kevin Gates, Chance the Rapper, Gucci Mane, Yk Osiris, Nikki Minaj, Lil Baby, Moneybagg yo, Stunna 4 Vega, and Migos.
Jonathan’s brother, Glen, took his life on November 3rd, 2020. Devastating the entire family, Jonathan began expressing his thoughts and frustrations through his lyrics in his songs. In Jonathan’s first single “Intro” from his second studio album and multi-platinum record “Kirk”, he mentions and refers to his brother’s struggles.
“My brother be thinkin’ that we don’t love him and let him struggle like we ain’t family like I won't give up all I got to see you happy.”
Rapping the lyrics on his Instagram story after his brother's death writing:
“Like I won't give up all I got to see you happy.”
In the caption of the Instagram story on the day of his death.
A few weeks passed since the death of Glen, and on November 20th, 2020 Jonathan released his debut EP, “My Brother’s Keeper (Long Live G)”. Dedicated to the life of Jonathan’s beloved and oldest brother, forever in memory and in the hearts of all his loved ones.
Before Jonathan knew he would become Dababy, before the world knew who he was and before his career began taking off, there was a time when Jonathan was just a college dropout with an uncertain future. Yet, in 2014, Jonathan started taking music seriously, growing up and having influences and idols like future, Lil Wayne, Eminem, 50 cent, and Kayne West. He began producing mixtape after mixtape. Yet it wasn't until a year later in 2015 when Jonathan's career really took off. The set off to Jonathan’s music career started by the release of his first debut mixtape named “nonfiction”. During this time of getting established, Kirk started using his stage name Baby Jesus. Although it was a catchy name, Kirk ultimately choose Baby Jesus because he felt as if it reflected his purpose as a rapper and that the name helped celebrate his so far success and potential during that time.
It wasn't long before Baby Jesus became the more commonly known name of Dababy. Eventually coming to terms with the fact that his previous name brought too much negative energy and was too political for what the rapper stood for. Overall, the name Baby Jesus created unwanted attention and a distraction that would progressively worsen over time as fame increased. This name change seemingly had no major affect on his likenesses and his growing fan base accepted the change. Also, it might not be obvious to many fans but behind Jonathan's choice's on having “baby” affiliated with his performance name comes from the simple fact that he was the youngest kid out of his 2 older brothers.
While in the process of establishing his online reputation, Dababy also welcomed his first child in 2017. Dababy and his now ex-girlfriend, Meme, share a daughter together, naming her Serenity. Jonathan also took on the responsibility of fathering a child his ex-girlfriend had from another relationship, a boy named Caleb. While Dababy and Meme were taking a break from the relationship, Dababy met Latonia Panet, which would follow in the birth of Dababy's second daughter, Nova. In August 2021 Jonathan finally welcomed his last baby girl with American singer Danileigh. The relationship between Jonathan and Danileigh was short lived, lasting from 2020 till 2021, causing Dababy more drama than he had anticipated out of all three women who gave birth to one of his children.
In February 2022, Danileigh's brother, Brandon Bills, was allegedly assaulted by Jonathan and his crew after an argument broke out on Instagram between Danileigh and Dababy. The drama continued when Jonathan allegedly jumped Brandon while they were at a bowling alley in Los Angeles with their crews.
Dababy has been involved in numerous crimes throughout his career. In November 2018, Dababy was involved in a shooting that took place at a Walmart in Huntersville, North Carolina. The incident resulted in the death of 19-year-old who would be pronounced dead upon arriving to the hospital. Dababy quickly became the prime suspect in the murder investigation and spent four months incarcerated before being cleared from any serious charges in March of 2019; his lawyers stated that he acted in self-defense and responded only to feeling that his life was endangered. He did plead guilty to carrying a concealed weapon as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
This wouldn’t be the last time Dababy would have legal issues. After being detained and questioned about a robbery in Miami, Florida, he was eventually cleared due to lack of evidence. However, he did spend some time in jail due to an outstanding warrant issued out for his arrest in the state of Texas for another charge. In more recent news, it doesn’t seem like Dababy’s bad run with legal issues is slowing down. Fortunately, luck seems to play on his side; CNN relayed the following statement:
“no charges will be filled in trespassing where a shooting occurred involving the presence of rapper Dababy, Dababy will not face charges after invader shot at his home”
Dababy opened fire on a man who was approaching his home, unaware of the danger. Dababy defended his home without a second’s hesitation.
Dababy’s success officially blew up after he accepted and signed a short-lived distribution deal with Jay z, a American rapper, record executive, and media proprietor. He is one of the most influential hip-hop artists in history. The collaborative distribution deal fell under Jay z’s record label “roc Nation”, which followed in the making of Dababy’s “Blank Blank” mixtape, released in 2018, leaving speculators believing that this was proof of his breakout to his success. The mixtape opened thousands of new doors for a relevantly new and on the up n up rap artist. From main stream hype to creating a fun upbeat form of music and hip-hop all together, he has continued to put a good feeling twist while creating his positive, hyper genic, and easygoing styled music into the world as a breath of fresh air. Along side with other widely spread source’s, such as, Charles Holmes, from The Rolling Stones, has stated the following in describing Dababy’s unique rapping flow:
“Staccato, precise, and brutal rapping store, a syllable-crushing force. Delivered with such forward momentum it often gives the illusion that he starts rapping before the beat begins.”
In his statement, Holmes said that the most notable example of this effect is in his hit single “Suge”. The single debuted on Billboard Hot 100 ranking number 87 in April, and then again hit the charts on June 8th, peaking at number 10. The hit single also received additional exposure, and was featured on the cover of XXL magazine as part of the Freshman Class-2019. At the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony held in April 2020, Dababy won two awards for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song of 2020. So far, he has won 7 awards overall—impressive because he won an additional two more awards after the ceremony held in April 2020, two more in 2021 and one more in 2019.
Kirk also gained some chatter from a source close to the artist, The Guardian, who favorably compares Kirk to other artists such as Busta Rhymes, Eminem, Missy Elliott and Ludacris. Inside continued by stating the many similarities between the artists:
“Inventive rap stylists unafraid to make videos full of parodies and rubber-faced camera goofs.”
Dababy's career has taken off steadily since he started working with South Coast group. With the help of his management team, Dababy signed a seven figure recording deal with Interscope Records. His first studio album "Baby on Baby" peaked at number 25 on Billboard Hot 200 in early 2019. The album features offset, Rich homie Quan, Rich the kid and stunna 4 Vegas. The full album took around a year to record starting in 2018 and releasing in 2019. This became the first ever album that Interscope records received from Dababy and the first South coast music group seen him make. Despite the relationship Dababy grew with not just South coast record's as well as creating a new one with Interscope, Dababy decided to go down his own path and established Billion dollar baby entertainment. Dababy's owned recording label.
Billion Dollar Baby Entertainment was created by Jonathan Kirk, aka Dababy, in 2019. Although Dababy was already signed with South Coast Music Group and Interscope Records, which helped him push his music out even further, Kirk wanted to go down his own path with recruiting and signing new artists along with finding undiscovered talents. Kirk aspires to be the stepping stones to new artists, the future to the hip-hop/rap community’s, as well as the future of his career and behave of his record label. Kirk speaks up about his goals and expectations:
“I won’t be rapping in 5 years, I won't be rapping. I’ll be creating other superstars”.
2019 was Dababy’s most impressive and busiest year yet, from closing 2019 with having over 22 entries on Billboard charts throughout the year to notable recognizance on hit features, such as, Post Malone’s “enemies”, peaking at number 16 on Billboard Hot 100, Lizzo’s “truth hurts”, and Lil Nasx’s “panini”. Also featuring in Meagen thee Stallion” Cash Out” and Quality Control’s “Baby” , both hits reaching top 40 on the charts Hot 100. Dababy has received acclaim for all his guest features heading multiple publications ranking it as his best verses of 2019. Including Complex Magazine naming it a “defining breakout moment for a new rap superstar”.
“Blame it on Baby” is the third studio album produced by Dababy and released via South Coast Music Group, Interscope records, and Billion Dollar Baby Entertainment on April 17th, 2020. The album became Dababy’s second consecutive number one album in the U.S, and included his highest charting single “Rockstar”, which spent 7 non consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard Hot 100. In June of that year, Kirk made his appearance on Jack Harlow’s “what's Poppin”, peaking at number two on Hot 100. All while “Rockstar” was still up at number one, making Dababy the 20th act to occupy the chart top 2 positions.
Dababy continues to go out of his way in creating a fun up beat style of music and delivering his content in a timely manner, not leaving his millions of fans waiting.
Keep up to date on all new music along with brand new videos and tour dates on Dababy official website: Billiondollarbabyent.com
