How Baby Keem Became a Successful "Industry Plant"

if it felt like baby Keem exploded out of nowhere to you then that's because he kind of did while he was still in his teens the Las Vegas born artist was put on the fast track to success getting major co-signs and the opportunity to work with Legends as a result people started to wonder if he's an industry plan although he's obviously talented many claim his early shine was solely due to being the cousin of what many believe to be the best rapper alive kendick Lamar as a result his critics think he was manufactured and this skepticism over if he's above board still leaves some fans with a bad taste in their mouth about Keem my name is Lua and today we're looking at how baby Keem became the most successful industry plant in the game starting with his origin story which ever since he popped out didn't really add up raised in Vegas Hakeem Carter was raised exclusively by his mom and grandma and once his mom hit hard times and had issues with substances he basically moved in fulltime with his grandparent but rather than being a time of hardship for Keem he seems to have had a fairly normal Suburban childhood he even had his own YouTube channel dedicated to Minecraft which basically led him to becoming a bit of an icon in that space yo what's up guys it's hes HD and basically what I'm going to be doing is uh new series on my channel which is the survival games pretty much what you do is just in the game and there's like multiple phases as you will see throughout his youth baby Keem never excelled academically instead his Focus was on making music and realizing what he could achieve with the little he had in an early interview he told crack magazine that Grandma definitely influenced me to be creative her whole thing was me being successful at something I never felt like family was holding me back however as we would come to realize this would be a major understatement and if anything his family has helped him way more than it ever hindered early in his career hakeim released music under his real name generating little to no buzz in the process but when he became baby Keem the Stars began to align in his favor the despite how little chatter there was around him his first mixtape under his new Alias hearts and darts was released through the Orchard and Sony Music Sony of course being a major label and the orchard serving as a distributor to Major stars like Georgia Smith T Payne BTS and even 21 Savage sure many underground artists get scouted by Majors all the time but this is particularly bizarre when you take into consideration that his early music wasn't received well at first and rather than being treated as though it was the my understood work of a genius in the early stages of his career fans still think it sucks to this day with users commenting things like struggle to stay awake during this one early baby Keem was not good at all some of these are absolutely atrocious without a doubt baby Keem has improved a lot in recent years to the point that he is now an acclaimed artist with a passionate fan base of his own however what's still up for debate is if all these changes were self-directed or if a famous relative was orchestrating everything behind the scene these days everyone pretty much knows that Kendrick and baby Keem are cousins but this wasn't always the case in fact when Keem was actually on the come up there was a conspiracy to keep this covered up at all costs back in the day when Keem was asked why he uprooted from Vegas to move to LA he said the reasons were because Vegas is boring dry and small and that everybody knows everybody notice how he didn't mention anything about moving to be in the orbit of his famous relative or his record label is pretty sus being that his first ever public interview with complex that dates back to 2018 described him as the mysterious artist who has credits on multiple TDE projects and Keem basically making it out to be like he just took a swing one day I sent a pack of Beats to the TDE email and it just so happened that I ended up on the soundtrack God's a blessing that's all the detail that was given no further explanation likewise even when talk turned to his upbringing there was no mention that he was related to the same man that's turned TDE into a household name instead all we got was I was was raised around a talented family all my older uncles and cousins wrapped so being around it so much it came naturally after contributing to Jrock and school boy Q records from behind the scenes Keem was ready to make his presence felt in 2019 with his breakout mixtape die for my with tracks like bullies and orange soda doing major numbers on my face up him when it comes to my I'm straight active it seems like he'd exploded into the world's view as I ready-made star but the internet is undefeated and after a little digging alarm Bell started to ring on various forums where he started getting hit with one of the most damning accusations you can get in hip-hop recent evidence and articles have been released proving the fact that baby Keem could possibly and most likely be an industry plan with only 23 people viewing Drake tuned in to one of keem's Instagram lives celebrities and influencers such as Kendall and Tyler the Creator have been pushing his music with a low fan base and all of the a sudden Keem blows up how is this possible a picture of Keem and Jay-Z was posted to Baby keem's Instagram page how does Keem have these connections already being as underground as he is a while ago Kendrick Lamar's sister tweeted a happy birthday tweet to Keem and referred to him as her cousin this therefore proves that Keem is in fact Kendrick Lamar's cousin and has ties with people in the industry as Whispers turn to louder chatter about his family ties an interview with crack magazine took place in 2020 where the interviewer discussed the situation or at least tried to Keem has neither confirmed nor denied that his cousin is indeed one of the greatest rappers of the 21st century instead it's becomes something of an Open Secret when I ask him if Kendrick had a presence in his life at all growing up it's clear that he liked to move the conversation along not really that all happened a little bit later I'll get more into that later on though somehow we don't revisit the topic although as a s of Kendrick and Dave Free's new label and management company PG Lang he couldn't deny any connection entirely they are helping with everything me as a whole baby Keem the artist hakee Carter everything every aspect they're my guys that's my team that's my life over the years it become clear just what he meant by everything not long after the crack interview Kendrick came out of the Wilderness after 2 years of little to no contact with the world not to do an interview with any journalist but take part in an in Conversation Piece with Keem for ID in order to keep furthering his cousin's name at the beginning of the article it's mentioned that Kendrick recently took 20-year-old baby Keem under his Wing as a pro to J once again they were talking as if they had no kind of familial link I didn't know about you till the end of 2010 Keem said about Kendrick I didn't know I wanted to make music till I was 13 but it wasn't ah I got it I just knew I was going to try it cuz everybody else tried it my whole thing was to wait until my voice got deeper because I was a little kid when I heard your music then and when I hear it now I heard an Unapologetic young man K do responded the hunger of a young man looking for fun the same way we were looking for fun when I was 19 by saying this Kendrick acted like the reason he gravitated towards Keem was because he saw himself in him the only clue came when Kendrick discussed Keem dropping out of school your auntie calling me asking me what's going on Kendrick said he's missing all types of days from school letters were getting sent to the house I'm like off he's been out here I feel some type of accountability you were talented as hell but you had to graduate so it was about finding that middle ground but that worked out I think that's the one thing that me and Dave free really respect about you you're determined and driven you reminded me of how we used to be I want to tap into that type of you like to do you ain't super social or Instagram heavy but the main takeaway from this piece was that Kendrick gassed him up to the max even admitting that he gave Keem the beat for Mosh Pit which was originally meant to be on damn can you see Kendrick who takes his art so seriously doing that for just any artist no way over time the internet talk just kept getting louder and because the cat was basically out of the bag they finally opened up about it on the Suns and critics freestyle where Keem finally seemed to acknowledge the bond between himself and Kendrick rapping my cousin elevator in his crib wo whoo my baby picture is probably on his fridge after that he spoke a little about how everything with K do worked to nesca what is your relationship to them what is your relationship to Kendrick I have a partnership with PJ L they handle a lot of aspects creatively and you know management wise and things like that for me he then claimed that he and Kendrick work as a team we work as a team to contribute to each other's goals and and like that and then um regarding like Kendrick I don't know it was funny like people already knew so it was like you know it was just one of those things where it's just like it is what it is you know I can joke about it now yeah although honesty is usually the best policy what Keem couldn't have known is that admitting to Kendrick being his cousin meant that people wanted to know exactly how their relationship worked because if they knew that they could determine if he deserved his success or not I was a kid honestly like like I wouldn't even say lost touch like I was just like I was last time I seen her I was probably like really young like probably like five or something I was just a kid like you know what I mean I probably would say like I had started making music when I was like 14 right and then I didn't see him he then admitted the real story on how they began to bond with one another it was unfortunate situation that happened to my family I guess we kind of just connected through that I wasn't really making music to a point where I would be like yo like you know what I'm saying so I I just I was just kicking it like you know whatever it was whatever he didn't really even know until like like later later and this is how Kendrick reacted when Keem decided to show him his music I finally just like sent him a song and it was just like oh he's like oh he heard something I guess he's I'm going to play this for everybody in the studio and I'm like all right for sure we just got cool like on that aspect first on a regular aspect he didn't even know I made music for wow he was like what do you want to do I was like I just want to go College bro I I wasn't even 100% like 100% sure like I was even good at music by playing it for everybody Kendrick probably meant TDE as that was his crew at the time so straight away it looked like ha helped him to get his foot in the door with top not some Anonymous email as he described earlier in the video as for all the lying Keem admitted that he wanted to keep being linked to Kendrick himself you recently made references to you guys being cousins but it felt like something that you kind of didn't want to acknowledge was that because you wanted to earn things on from on your own Merit yeah not for sure 100% like I said it would be just like if I wasn't ready to like do what I'm doing now then then it wouldn't be happening you know what I'm saying like I wanted to be even in the process was just like I wouldn't even ask for anything like you know what I'm saying if that was really the case and it was keem's decision then that's admirable to want to stand on your own two feet and in some ways he has done just that but some opportunities he was getting still just seemed too good to be true he scored a solo Travis Scott feature on his track durag activity that dropped in 2021 got a spot on Kanye West's da album and was originally supposed to be on Drake's what's next alongside Playboy cardi 2 at the same time he endeared himself to the public a little when he bought his grandma a house in the video for first order of business despite its launch featuring The Single family ties with kot and other collaborations with him baby keem's debut album The melodic blue not only garnered critical Acclaim but also soared to number five on the Billboard charts but despite all of his claims that he wanted to make his own name that doesn't necessarily work when Kendrick was repeatedly already working on music and soon the world was about to get confirmation that was really de case in 2022 a leaker basically blew up keem's entire spot when he posted a series of Kendrick reference tracks as well as jrock's verse for King's dead and reportedly Money Trees it was revealed that Kendrick had been riding for Keem as far back as the sound of bad habit mixtape in 2018 among the tracks he had a hand in are so what bullies 16 gang activities stats Rockstar p and many more I can't play a snippet for you guys on YouTube but although people had always had their suspicions this news that Kendrick had actively ghost written for Keem and essentially given him some of the standout moments from his tracks seem sketchy particularly because on all of these tracks including 16 K do doesn't have a single songwriting credit and as a result a lot of fans were now looking at Keem who is widely regarded as a Trailblazer with an original sound a little differently while referen tracks are extremely common in rap the situation and direct proximity of Keem and Kendrick makes this a little more fishy prior to them leaking I don't think any of us could have thought that Kendrick could have created something like the song 16 it seemed at the time to just be so uniquely baby Keem this non-replicable and unique sound is the biggest reason that people gravitated to Keem as an artist well obviously it's replicable and by Kendrick Lamar rather than being upfront about what was going on Keem and Kendrick deceived the audience and in hip-hop being authentic has always been held in high esteem so with this Revelation keem's name got further dragged into the mud of the industry plant allegations but in a lot of ways he was lucky because I lesser artist might have not made it out with a career at all where other artists might issue an apology or aim for some kind of rebuttal to the claims Keem just kept moving forward and to be honest it's probably the best course of action he could have taken except for the fact that everything that's happened since has only further cemented the idea that his K do sidekick who has handed many of his opportunities first up he went on a global trotting tour with kot with ton Leon on the Journey 2 the big steppers tour was basically a showcase for PG Lang but part particularly Keem as every night Kendrick not only gave Keem the chance to open but then dedicated part of his set to performing Family Ties and vent with Keem during the tour he kept up his massive PR campaign for his cousin too tweeting baby Keem musical genius in August of 20122 meanwhile Keem also received the ultimate industry endorsement when he sored Grammy alongside kot for best rap performance but even that moment was overshadowed by Kendrick's presence and how he should be trying to stack up to him have you uh been in touch with with Kendrick haven't yet I haven't yet but I definitely got to shoot him with text after this for sure well the race is on you got to catch up to Kendrick now yeah yeah we got a few more years if I have anything next up the first thing we heard from Keem or Kendrick after their respective Studio albums dropped was a collab cut called the hillbillies the song was used as a way to unveil the fact that they would be headlining cam fogna under that name and taking top billing out a festival wouldn't be possible for Keem yet without K but it's fair to say that it's not all negative or to keem's benefit as in some ways the relationship is good for Kendrick too for a start it seems like he felt like he had a duty to put him on and anyone in his family can understand what it's like to want to lend a helping hand on Mr morale and the big steppers Kos spoke about the sense of accomplishment he got from helping Keem out spitting watching my cousin struggle with addiction then watching her firstborn make a million aside from the satisfaction of helping his own flesh and blood win there are people who feel that kah gets even more out of their working relationship than that as where an album like Mr morale and the big steppers was so deep rooted in heavy topics K Do's work on the melodic blue as well as tracks like the hillbillies gives Kendrick a chance to let loose and enjoy rapping again great to see Kendrick just having fun on the song Keem really seems to bring this side out of him they need to do a collab album and as for Keem getting track references from kot there are some who will let that slide because ultimately he's a beat maker first and a Lyricist second just like other famous names who got away with ghost writing baby Keem is a producer and then a rapper for example Dr Dre and Kanye but even though working with Keem is an important outlet for Kendrick there's still people who can't see past their familial relationship and the work he did to secure his cousin's place in the industry because of how cemented this is into some people's brains it seems like maybe partnering up with Kendrick was always going to bring industry plant allegations or claims of nepotism but they probably didn't expect that doing so would create literal conspiracy theories that baby Keem is just Kendrick's Alter Ego rather than an artist and his his own right it's important for people to realize that baby Keem equals unreleased music by Kendrick Lamar that's why the music is so good we're dealing with the goat despite some people believing that he hasn't earned any of his success Keem still has a bright future ahead of him meaning that if he is an industry plant he's one of the more successful ones because being discovered is usually their downfall instead of struggling to get back on track fans are excited to hear what Keem has up his sleeve for his new album child with Wolves but one thing he really has to do this time around is purposefully step out of kot's Shadow because only then will we know what he's really capable of I still respect Keem a lot even if Kendrick helped out I just hope he'll be less dependent on Kendrick in the future because I think he has some insane potential as a rapper and a producer however he arrived baby Keem is clearly here to stay the only question now is whether he'll be able to carve out his own legacy or if his big cousin will always be seen as the man who oversaw his career from behind the curtain

Channel: Louaista

Views: 112,164

Keywords: hip hop, canvas, canvas man, louaista

Id: 1jqdK4pD-VA

Length: 16min 56sec (1016 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 21 2024