The fourth track on Baby Keem’s brand new album sees him reuniting with his cousin Kendrick Lamar for the second time. On “range brothers,” the two real-life brothers sing about their tough upbringing, how they were fortunate enough to be in the position they are in today, and the tolls of fame.
Baby Keem released his debut studio album ‘The Melodic Blue’ on September 10, 2021. The 16-track album has collaborations with Don Toliver, Travis Scott, and twice with Kendrick Lamar.
“range brothers” contains three parts running over 5 minutes in length. The changes in parts of the song are signified through shifts in beats, cadences, and styles.
Listen to “range brothers” by Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar
Baby Keem “range brothers” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
Verse 1
In the first verse of the song, Baby Keem touches on some of the pitfalls of fame. He sings about how he is surrounded by people who are only there for their own gain. He has trust issues with these people, and probably, rightly so. He says he uses two mobile phones, signifying that the two classes of people he associates with–the people whom he trusts and people whom he does not.
Even when it comes to the topic of love, Keem has to be very careful. A lot of gold diggers are after him for his money and fame.
Post-chorus
In these lyrics, Keem says that he is very careful about the people he brings into his inner circle. Most of them will turn their backs on him for a bigger paycheck.
They wanna bite the hand that try to feed them prudes
A popular idiom around the world is “don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” meaning that people should not be disloyal to others who have helped them in some way. But in today’s materialistic world, everybody is after one thing–money.
Verse 2
In this verse, Baby Keem reflects back to his childhood where he grew up around drunkards, addicts, gangsters, and fiends of all kinds. So it is a miracle that he could outgrow that lifestyle. He assures that his success was due to his poetic skills. Keem says his whole family is poets, hinting at his cousin Kendrick Lamar, who is undoubtedly one of the biggest hip-hop artists in the world right now.
Verse 3
In the third verse of “range brothers,” Kendrick Lamar jumps on the track. In these lyrics, Kendrick talks about his come up from literally nothing. He recalls when he only had $400,000 in his Chase bank account. He remembers looking at his bank balance and being lost of what to make of his future.
When Kendrick didn’t have money, it was everything to him. Now that he has a lot of it, he looks at it as the resource it is.
Every contract gotta put my kid’s family in school
Health and wealth, goin’ deep for it, do right for my next life
Now his priorities are his children, family, and his own health and happiness.
Baby Keem interrupts Kendrick to add a few more flashbacks into his childhood. He recalls being joked as “Hykeen broken.” Hykeem is Baby Keem’s birthname. He lived in a roach-infested house with no lights or food, so the nickname that he is broke all the time stuck.
Kendrick gets back on the mic to carry on from where Keem left off. He went through a similar experience so he knows what Keem went through. Kendrick, too, had to keep his head down as he walked to the school as other kids joked at him for being broke.
Kendrick comes to the present day to talk about how things are quite different for some. He calls out all the Internet-famous people who look like they are straight out from adult videos. Sex sells like hotcakes and so many teens turn towards modeling on Instagram, pornographic content sites such as Onlyfans.
Every day the hate restored and the faith get short
The world is full of hate and people step away from the light every passing day.
Verse 4
In the fourth and final verse of the song, Baby Keem takes over. In this verse, Keem flexes on his riches and his sexual conquests. He associates himself with the Rolex wristwatch gang, flexing on his taste of expensive fashion.
Keem also associates himself with the Range Rover gang, another expensive taste to have. This is what has inspired the title of the song “range brothers.” Today, both Keem and Kendrick enjoy a certain level of luxury with their success in the music game.
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.