Baby Keem is planning an album with Kendrick Lamar.
Ahead of next month’s Grammys, the first-time nominee spoke to Grammy.com about a potential project with his cousin. As fans hope for the dream pairing, Keem says there’s a 50 percent chance it will become a reality.
“That’s a good question. It’s like 50-50,” he said when asked about the likelihood of a full Keem/Kendrick collaborative project. “It might happen and it might not happen, I don’t know. It hangs really depends on a lot of factors that are out of my control. So it’s exactly what the world wants. The world wants it, then it can have it.”
The pgLang partners worked together on tracks for Keem’s debut album The melodic blue, including “Range Brothers” and “Family Ties,” which is nominated for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance at the Grammys. Keem also received a Best New Artist nomination and an Album of the Year award for his work on Kanye West DONDA.
In a previous interview with Apple Music, the 21-year-old opened up about his close bond with Kendrick, saying it “goes beyond the music.” “Whenever I need anything about life and whenever I need some wisdom, that’s where I go,” he said. “That’s one of the first people I look at, him and Dave Free.”
These days, Keem digs through the boxes and listens to early music by Kendrick, Kanye, Outkast, and Frank Ocean, who’s at the top of his collaborator wish list.
“I find myself going back to a lot of old music. Lots of old Kanye and Outkast, of course,” he said. “But those are just songs – as far as the album goes, I really go back and dig. Like I said, Frank. Even my cousin’s old albums. I think it’s important to have your own individuality, but also to be able to draw on art from the past.”