“Baki” by Trippie Redd
This track is named after a Japanese manga/anime dating back to the 1990s, originally entitled Baki the Grappler. As such franchises tend to go when they are successful, Baki remains on air, even as of the writing of this post, via updated series. And it is very likely that it is one of those runs, such as Baki airing on Netflix from 2018 to 2020, as opposed to the original 1990s’ comic/series, which inspired Trippie Redd to name this song so.
But that said, don’t fool yourself into believing that this song is about anything other than what all of his tracks tend to be based on, i.e. sex, money, violence and drugs. However, in that latter, besides for shouting out ‘exotic weed’ Trippie apparently alludes to harder substances in a more concealed, albeit still pretty obvious, manner, i.e. referring to tabs (i.e. acid) as “tags” and Molly as “Jollys”.
As such, exploring the lyrics of this song in-depth isn’t really that necessary, but there are a few outstanding points and references. For instance, Trippie seems to imply that a particular romantic interest of his was raised in an impoverished, drug-infested home by stating that she came “from a pissy pamper, [with] that crack rock in that potty”.
And if that is in fact what he is referring to, then this is a very unique way of presenting what is a well-worn idea in rap music, i.e. someone coming from such a background.
Then when the verse actually commences, he namedrops Andy Milonakis, an entertainer who suffers from growth hormone deficiency, to point to the idea of Redd himself being “forever young”. The rapper also mentions the infamous Joe Exotic, though the related metaphor doesn’t make complete sense. That is to say that Trippie uses this reference in conjunction with letting the reader know that he gets ‘exotic p–sy’. But, as you probably also know, Joe Exotic himself is actually gay.
But, we get where Trippie is coming from. In terms of the ideas being presented, Baki is pretty much the same as every other song being dropped by popular rappers (not named Kanye) these days. Therefore, the challenge he is faced with is presenting these ideas utilizing new metaphors. nd to some extent he succeeds, such as in the outro whereas Redd alludes to his own violent ways via text derived from the aforementioned anime.
Release of “Baki”
Being a part and parcel of the album “Trip at Knight”, “Baki” officially came out on the 20th of August, 2021. It is the 15th track on the album, which produced the following singles:
- “Holy Smokes”
- “Miss the Rage”
Who wrote and produced “Baki”?
“Baki” was written by Redd with support from Nadddot and Sean Baby. The latter two writers are also the song’s sole credited producers.
