Lil Baby WHAM
Lil Baby's WHAM arrives as a record of contrasts: striking single moments and high-profile features sit alongside a broader sense of repetition that many critics found limiting. Across four professional reviews the critical consensus lands squarely in mixed territory, with a 51.25/100 consensus score from four reviews that praise tracks such as “Listen Up”, “Free Promo” and “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber (with Young Thug & Future)” while calling out the album's formulaic trap production and underwhelming lyricism.
Critics consistently identify “Listen Up” as the album's opening statement, noting cinematic strings, urgency and studio control that briefly lift the record out of sameness. Reviewers also point to feature-driven highlights: the Young Thug and Future collaboration “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber (with Young Thug & Future)” and the moody guest turn on “Stuff” were singled out for peer-strength and headline-grabbing energy. At the same time multiple reviews describe large stretches of WHAM as recycling contemporary trap trends, with repetition and a lack of grit tempering praise for those standout moments.
The professional reviews together paint WHAM as a commercially assured collection that showcases Lil Baby's dominance in rap and knack for commanding features, yet falls short of meaningful artistic growth for some critics. For readers searching for a quick verdict or the best songs on WHAM, start with “Listen Up”, “Free Promo” and the Thug-Future collaboration; beyond those tracks the consensus suggests mixed returns in terms of depth and originality. Below, the full reviews unpack where the record succeeds and where critics felt it played it safe.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Listen Up
3 mentions
"‘Listen Up’ dominates your headphones with its 360 sonic world-building and lyrical finesse"— Clash Music
99 (with Future)
1 mention
"It’s hard to deny how hard songs like "99" hit."— RapReviews.com
Streets Colder
1 mention
"The closest song to Baby’s old ways is the closing track, ‘Streets Colder’."— New Musical Express (NME)
‘Listen Up’ dominates your headphones with its 360 sonic world-building and lyrical finesse
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Listen Up
Dum, Dumb, and Dumber (with Young Thug & Future)
F U 2x
I Promise
Redbone (with GloRilla)
By Myself (feat. Rod Wave & Rylo Rodriguez)
Due 4A Win
Stiff Gang
So Sorry
Stuff (feat. Travis Scott)
Say Twin
Free Promo
Outfit (with 21 Savage)
Drugs Talkin
Streets Colder
99 (with Future)
Idol
Running This Shit
My Shawty
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 5 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
The review zeroes in on the best tracks by their impact rather than originality, singling out WHAM cuts like “By Myself” and “99” as the album's most convincing moments. In his clipped, conversational voice the critic praises how “By Myself” has already racked up millions of views and how “99” hits hard with hypnotic bass, yet insists the rest of WHAM mostly recycles trends. The result is a portrait of an album that contains clear standout songs but overall plays it safe for mass appeal.
Key Points
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The best song is "By Myself" because its music video and reception demonstrate genuine impact and star-power resonance.
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The album’s core strength is its commercial polish and abundance of high-profile collaborations, even as it largely recycles familiar trends.
Themes
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Critic's Take
Lil Baby arrives with WHAM and the best songs are the ones that briefly break his baseline of mediocrity, notably “Listen Up” and “Free Promo”. The reviewer's weary, conversational tone calls out how “Listen Up” opens with thick strings and urgency that promise something different, while “Free Promo” finds Baby unusually awake and focused. Elsewhere the record is described in blunt, punchy terms as repetitive and easily forgettable, which frames why those two tracks stand out as the album's best.
Key Points
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The best song is "Listen Up" because its epic strings and urgency briefly promise a more energetic, different Lil Baby.
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The album's core strengths are a few focused moments where Baby sounds awake and the production experiments, but overall repetition and bland delivery dominate.
Themes
Critic's Take
Under the watchful eye of Lil Baby the fourth album WHAM frequently feels like a missed turn, but it still serves up a few standout moments. The reviewer praises the opener “Listen Up” for its cinematic strings and singles out “Stuff” (with Travis Scott) as the best feature, calling it moody, melodic and menacing. Tracks such as “Dum, Dumb and Dumber” and “So Sorry” reveal the record's pull between hardened image and attempted introspection, while closer “Streets Colder” is the most emotionally convincing song on the album. Search queries for "best songs on WHAM" or "best tracks on WHAM" will likely point you to “Listen Up”, “Stuff” and “Streets Colder” as the album's highlights per this review.
Key Points
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The best song is praised for cinematic opener production and immediate grandeur, making “Listen Up” the album highlight.
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The album's strengths are strong features and polished trap production, but a loss of the rapper's earlier grit undercuts its impact.
Themes
Critic's Take
There are moments on WHAM that make the record feel like a declaration: the opener “Listen Up” lands as a 360-degree statement of intent, while the Young Thug and Future-assisted “Dum, Dumb, and Dumber (with Young Thug & Future)” reads like the headline-grabbing peak. Robin Murray’s voice here is exuberant and precise, pointing to the plucked-string eeriness of “I Promise” and the muscular sway of “Due 4A Win” as proof that Lil Baby’s studio control and flow-switching keep the best songs on WHAM compelling. If you want the best songs on WHAM, start with “Listen Up” and the Thug-Future moment, then let the detail of tracks like “I Promise” and “Say Twin” reveal themselves.
Key Points
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The best song moments are the opener “Listen Up” and the Young Thug/Future feature for their immediacy and headline power.
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The album’s core strengths are Lil Baby’s flow-switching, detailed production, and high-profile features that underscore his dominance.
Themes
