Babyface Ray Perfects the Art of the Luxury Rap

Plus more highs and lows from the world of rap this week, including a shockingly great new Cam’ron freestyle and an investigation into rappers’ unlikely fascination with NBA journeyman Tony Snell.

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Babyface Ray photo by Flo. Graphic by Callum Abbott.

Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trendsand anything else that catches his attention.


The wild flexes of Babyface Ray

Babyface Ray is bored of getting money—or at least that’s what it sounds like when he raps. With a lethargic delivery that feels like he’s stoned in the booth, and a beat selection that veers toward the chiller side of Detroit rap production, Ray’s most memorable lines are centered on how fat his pockets are. His new album FACE is flawed, with several attempts to incorporate commercially appealing ATL rap flair that don’t completely click. (If you want a Ray project that doesn’t dumb down his distinct sound check MIA Season 2 or his For You EP.) But FACE is good for at least one thing: ridiculously lavish flexes.

There’s a formula to a good Babyface Ray flex. It’s not enough to just list off a luxury good—it has to be packaged with a detail that adds a layer of exaggeration to it. On “Same Pain,” it isn’t just that he has a penthouse, but that he uses the penthouse as a closet. On “Go Yard,” it’s not just that he has a Benz, but that he’s pulling up to heaven in it. That’s right: He’s about to stunt on God.

Elsewhere, he brags about having dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House every other night (I picture his life to be a lot like that sit down between Tony and Pussy in The Sopranos) and receiving a $250,000 tax return. On “Sincerely Face,” over a sleek piano beat, he says, “That rollie fits my wrist like it’s meant for it.” Throughout the album, he makes it seem as if it were his destiny to get the bag; he wholeheartedly believes that his personal wealth means as much to the world as Neo and Trinity’s love does to The Matrix.

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Most of the guests on the album—Wiz Khalifa, Yung Lean, Pusha T, etc.—don’t share the same spirit. Maybe it’s just a Detroit thing, because Icewear Vezzo goes nuts on the second half of “6 Mile Show”—the funky beat switch up is insane, by the way—boasting about his Dior shades not just because they cost a pretty penny but because their UV protection will make sure he never goes blind. Meanwhile, Ray goes into such detail that you can practically see him flipping through stacks in front of your face: “Man, the money counter still ain’t fast as me.”

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