DaBaby

DaBaby is the recording name of Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, a US rapper from Cleveland, Ohio, born in 1991. He relocates to Charlotte, North Carolina at a young age and spends his adolescence involved in street life. He first uses the name Baby Jesus when he begins rapping in December 2014, then later adopts the name DaBaby.

Early mixtapes and name change

Kirk issues his debut mixtape, NonFiction, shortly after deciding to rap. He attends South by Southwest in spring 2015 despite having no previous stage experience. He later explains the change to DaBaby in the lyrics to “DaBaby (Intro),” a short introduction to God’s Work Resurrected, his first mixtape under that name, released in 2016. That record includes a guest appearance from Boosie Badazz and begins to draw attention from listeners and other artists.

He follows with a run of mixtapes over the next few years, including Billion Dollar Baby, Baby Talk, Baby Talk 2, Baby Talk 3, Baby Talk 4, and Back on My Baby Jesus Sh!t in 2017, then Baby Talk 5 and Blank Blank in 2018.

Mainstream breakthrough

In 2019, DaBaby signs with Interscope. The label releases Baby on Baby, which is preceded by videos for the singles “Suge” and “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

Style and genre

DaBaby is associated with hip hop and southern hip hop, and is also described as working in rap and trap.

Notable incident

In November 2018, while shopping with his family at a Walmart in Huntersville, North Carolina, he is involved in an altercation that leads to gunfire and the death of 19-year-old Jalyn Domonique Craig. He does not admit to firing the fatal shots and is not charged with a crime connected to the incident.