Dababy

“I know how to make a hit record,” DaBaby tells Apple Music’s Nadeska Alexis about “POP DAT THANG.” Yet BE MORE GRATEFUL—the album that packs that boisterous 2026 hit—is considerably more personal and nuanced overall.

“It’s just me unfoldin’ everything that I got goin’ on,” he explains, “and just bein’ transparent and vulnerable.” Since picking up the mic in 2014, the Charlotte rapper (born Jonathan Lyndale Kirk in 1991) has demonstrated a keen awareness of how to cultivate presence in the internet era, coupling his bounciest tracks with outrageous videos and crafting a persona by turns rude, violent, goofy, and dead serious.

After a string of mixtapes—including eight released in 2017 and 2018 alone—DaBaby signed with Interscope and released three platinum-selling albums, starting with 2019’s Baby on Baby.