Is Lil Baby Falling Off? Some Fans Have Called His Recent Music "Lackluster"

Dominique Armani Jones, known professionally as the rapper Lil Baby, was on the up and up for much of his career. Within just a couple of years of his beginnings in the music industry, Lil Baby's 2017 mixtapes "Harder than Hard" and "Too Hard" earned him some critical acclaim and recognition. On "Harder than Hard," his lead single "My Dawg" made the Billboard Hot 100 chart, getting him signed with Capitol Records imprint Quality Control Music.

But his success didn't stop there. His second album, "My Turn," led to two Grammy nominations for "The Bigger Picture," a song inspired by the protests about George Floyd.

Throughout his rap career, his fans have applauded his ascent, but it seems that he may have fallen out of their favor, based on some posts online. So what happened to Lil Baby?

Lil Baby's newest album, "It's Only Me," may have been yet another number one project for him, but it seems that his fans weren't as thrilled with the tracks as they were with his previous ones. On Reddit, user Worth_Song3217 asked other fans if they were feeling as lackluster about the rapper's recently work as they'd been recently.

"In recent times I feel like Baby has lost his touch," the Reddit user wrote, noting that Lil Baby was their top artist in both 2022 and 2023.

"He has finally made it out of the hood and that life, that he wrote about in the earlier projects. He isn't the 'hood hero' anymore, nowadays he associates himself with high-profile celebrities and business people," the user continued. "[Seems] like he wants to cement himself as an established 'celebrity' personality."

They also noted Lil Baby's frequent collaborations and "mumbly" and "lackluster" lyrics, claiming that it seems like the rapper is trying to cash in on his fame.

"I think he really needs to start working with the big producers like he used to," Reddit user jaden13_27 echoed. "I mean he used to be working with tay Keith and metro and Southside. Now it's just mainly random producers no one has ever heard of."

"I'm going to wait until his next album before writing him off... but man, if it's anything like the last few features he's done... then d--n," user Ruin369 said. "The French Montana song I can hardly understand what he's saying (and I'm a fan!)"

Though it seems not all of his fans are as thrilled with his work as they used to be, this doesn't necessarily mean that Lil Baby is falling off. According to Songstats, his Spotify account has only continued to see an increase in streaming numbers, with his music continuing on a steady incline.

Though it's possible that his more recent work doesn't have the same impact on his original audience, that doesn't mean that he's necessarily failing. It's clear that there are still people who enjoy his new work, and with features like Travis Scott and Rosalia, he's bound to continue to rake in the listens.