The weirdest of all ATL weirdos returns with more songs about hippos and sex.
Of Atlanta’s abundance of rap weirdos, the 23-year-old SahBabii is by far the weirdest. One of his most well-known songs is about falling for a voluptuous anime girl. When he is off in his world, he only really cares about two things: sex and animals. Separately, those two things are fine, but nothing gets him quite so worked up as when they’re put together, as often happens in a Sahbabii song: “And my bitch real thick/I’m fucking on a hippopotamus,” he croons sweetly on 2018’s lush “Squidrific,” sounding like a sedated Young Thug.
Since his 2016 breakout song “Pull Up With Ah Stick,” SahBabii has noticeably been removed from the Atlanta rap scene: he’s only done a handful of features and works mostly with his older brother, T3, and producers he finds online to provide him airy beats that could work in Chrono Trigger. He’s become so unpredictable that when he threatened to retire in 2019, people believed him. But instead he put out Barnacles, another Dayglo rundown of his unrelenting horniness and his favorite animals.
“Giraffes and elephants/Giraffes and elephants/We fucked giraffes and elephants,” sings Sah on the cleverly titled “Giraffes and Elephants.” This is the third song on Barnacles, and it captures Sah, for better and worse. Out of context (or even in it), his lyrics make absolutely no sense. But in SahBabii’s universe, nothing really needs to make sense. His raps don’t feel like they take place in Atlanta or anywhere on Earth, really; it’s a complete demented fantasy.
If SahBabii has anything in common with Atlanta’s rap scene, it’s that everything he says is delivered with complete seriousness. “My pockets pregnant/Nut in her mouth, got her tongue pregnant,” is the hook on “Pregnant,” and it’s sung in the casual cadence most other rappers would use to talk about their favorite pair of jeans or their latest jewelry purchases. But the classic ATL rap dream of designer fashion and fast cars doesn’t mean much to SahBabii. On “Trapezoid,” he’s elated to have found a girl that is built like the shape mentioned in the song’s title (“Small top with a big bottom”). And on “House Party,” Sah reflects about jumping a dude at a party with the warmth of someone remembering their favorite childhood birthday.
It takes a lot, but SahBabii can cross the line and sound like a parody of himself. Typically it’s when his songs are too on-the-nose, like “Purple Umbrella,” where he interpolates the Scooby Doo theme into a questionable hook and delivers such a relentless onslaught of raunchy punchlines that they lose their shock: he compares his latest sexual conquests to Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce, Elmer’s glue, and a waffle cone. Weak production choices suck the life out of his adventure, too: “100 Round Drum” and “Soulja Slim” sound like the kind of rudimentary instructionals you could easily find on any SoundCloud page.
But listening to his music is like binge-watching an animated sitcom; it’s easy to forget the lackluster parts. How could you possibly come away from Barnacles thinking about anything else but SahBabii wailing, “Hippo booty bouncin’/Rhino booty bouncin’/Elephant booty bouncin’” on “Double Dick,” or when he turned a reference to mozzarella sticks into a threat on “Pregnant,” or when he dissed his haters on “Racist” by calling them “rats” and “Donald Ducks”? (The only animals SahBabii could ever speak about negatively.) Yes, SahBabii’s imagination is disturbing, but somehow, the more time you spend with him, he starts sounding kind of wholesome.
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