Baby Keem has arrived at the Complex office in Manhattan, accompanied by a publicist, a product manager, a road manager, and "the Winston Wolfe of music": Schoolboy Q golfing partner Brock "Brocky Marciano" Korsan, who is part of Keem'south direction team.

Hykeem "Babe Keem" Carter is just 18 years onetime, just he has already made plenty waves as both a rapper and a producer that such an entourage is necessary. When the Las Vegas-raised but currently 50.A.-living Keem outset started releasing his distinctive, funny, undeniably catchy songs under his given name, he kept his face hidden from the public. But not long afterwards, he emerged equally Baby Keem and started releasing videos revealing his identity, including i directed by Shia LaBeouf. Around the same fourth dimension, Keem began racking up production and songwriting credits on projects similar Black Panther The Anthology, Jay Rock'south Redemption, and Schoolboy Q's CrasH Talk.

But Infant Keem puts all assembly to the side and goes for cocky on his new project Die for My Bitch. The project features production from heavy hitters like Sounwave, DJ Dahi, Cardo, and CuBeatz, and it'due south a perfectly varied, strange, emotional, often hysterical, and ultimately unforgettable introduction to the wild world of Babe Keem. So when nosotros got the opportunity to sit downwardly with Keem to find out how he managed to form such a distinctive style in such a short time, we had to do it. Infant Keem has arrived. The chat, lightly edited for clarity and length, is below.

Why did you go out Vegas when you were a teenager?
It'south pocket-sized. Information technology'south nothing, no music scene. Do you lot know any artists from Vegas?

The Killers, correct? That's about it.
I never even heard of them. Now in that location's me, and I had to leave.

What was Vegas like when yous were growing upwards?
Boring, dry, small. Everybody knows everybody.

Did you e'er endeavor to sneak into a casino?
Nah. I snuck into one lounge, one time. That was information technology for me. After like ten minutes I got kicked out because I tried to deed cool.

How'd you get started with music?
My whole life was just music. I knew I was going to rap, just I never knew when. I never knew when I would have the voice. So I waited until I had the voice, when I was like 15. Because at the time, I used to think a deep vocalism was cool. I waited until my vocalisation got deep enough, then I started rapping.

Were you lot writing that whole time?
Aye. I would write songs, but never tell nobody. I've been doing this for a long time.

What were your early on songs about?
Aforementioned thing as now. Information technology's just developed. But I used to write everything. I analyze a lot.

What were some early song titles?
I wouldn't even championship them. They would just be written to YouTube beats. I would never record them or title them. I would just write them in my Notes [app] or on a notepad or something. This is when I used to actually write on stuff, with a pen. I don't do that no more.

Tell me about the twenty-four hours you lot realized y'all had the phonation y'all were looking for.
I made my first vocal. It was crazy. I was in loftier schoolhouse, I was a freshman. Everybody was surprised. Nobody knew I was going to practice that. It was random because I was e'er playing basketball and stuff. Nobody knew I always wanted to rap, but I just never knew the right time. It was cool, though. I'm similar, "Damn, I'one thousand kind of hard." Simply that'due south everybody with their first song.

Are y'all going to requite me some confined from that commencement song?
I don't fifty-fifty remember them. The song's somewhere. It's not on the internet, only it's somewhere on an former hard drive or something like that. I don't think yous'll ever find it.

Baby Keem press photo
Photo past Bryan Blue

What did those early songs sound similar? Would nosotros hear them and be similar, "This is Baby Keem. I recognize this"?
No. I used to rap low. Now I use my high voice. I used to whisper-rap, so information technology was crazy. Information technology sounds similar you're recording in the sleeping accommodation and yous don't want to wake nobody up, considering that'southward what it was. I just wanted to hear myself on the mic, and I think that was important early on on. Information technology showed me what to do and what non to do.

It seems like you lot thought rappers should have low voices when you were starting out.
At first. That was really early on, though. That was like, 2011, 2010. Lil Wayne changed that. Young Thug changed that, also. And so shout out to them. Shout out Main Keef. All those guys.

What did you hear in your vocalism that made you say, "I'thou ready to rap now"?
My flows. That was my whole thing. I didn't want to be similar the all-time lyricist. I wanted to be the best: the rex of flows. I wanted to have crazy flows. That was my whole thing from when I was 12 years onetime. I was inspired by Cudi's cadences and shit like that. Child Cudi's one of my favorite artists.

What'due south something you heard Cudi do where you were like, "I desire to exercise my version of that"?
"Immortal." His cadence. Everything. He makes yous feel how he really feels the song, what it'due south nigh.

When did beatmaking come into the picture?
I just dabble in it a lilliputian bit. Aught too serious.

I'k going to be here for a long time. I'm hither for 20 years. Then when I'm 35, it's over.

The first projects you released weren't that long agone. Tell me about getting to the betoken where you're like, "I want to put music out in the world."
Yeah, I thought my music was really good back then. I was like, "I'm similar xvi years erstwhile and I'm doing this and I'k recording myself." I thought I was crazy. It was just bedroom music, all my ideas. Going to school, coming habitation every day, penning my ideas, expressing myself. That'southward the best way I tin can put it.

When yous become back to the very early on stuff, what do you hear now?
I hear the mode I deliver. In that location were melodies and stuff in my old music. But that's merely early on music. That's music that should have never came out. Simply now it's my voice, information technology'south the manner I evangelize, and how confident I am on the mic.

Y'all're singing more on this record than on some of the past stuff.
Yeah, it's confidence knowing that I practise every solar day and that this is the thing I desire to do.

Practice singing?
Everything. I practise a song every twenty-four hour period. I finish it top to lesser. It's similar if you're a basketball actor, you but play every day and then you're like, "Okay, I shouldn't be playing with these kids no more. I should be [with]these kids." I feel I could exist in the studio with anyone. I feel like I can get a song with anybody, sing with somebody. I can do anything.

Do y'all finish a vocal fifty-fifty if information technology'southward non good?
Yep, all the time. Because I tape my verses and I reuse them. There's some songs you've never heard. The song may be trash, but I'm going to finish it all the way through. Some beats are only beats that you lot utilise to get ideas, and not necessarily beats that yous would like to release. So one time you get the idea out, you can take the idea and put it on a different beat and it'll be a crazy song.

Information technology seems like you lot're ever lilliputian with stuff. I heard an early version of the album that had similar four or five different songs.
Yeah. It'due south a crazy process. I wanted to evidence more of a creative side this projection. I didn't desire to make a Bad Habit two. That'due south deadening. I wanted to be more than creative.

How do you lot know when you lot're done?
I don't retrieve I'm always done. When information technology comes out, that'southward when I'm done. I turned in the last song a week before information technology came out. You brand your final changes. I don't think it's ever really done until [the deadline].

I was inspired by Cudi'due south cadences and sh*t similar that. Child Cudi's one of my favorite artists.

On "Bullies," you lot say, "Don't talk fake deep/I don't like it." Who was the last person who talked false deep to you? What'd they say?
Man, I simply detest it. People do things for the internet rather than for their own good. I just don't like people acting like they know stuff when they don't. Anybody who acts like they know something when they don't have it 100%, that's what I mean. Don't talk simulated deep. You faking.  Y'all just desire to seem smart. I don't like that. Hate fake smart. I like existent smart.

Your grandmother comes upwards on "Moshpit," and y'all as well mention her on Twitter. Can you tell me nigh her?
She raised me from the betoken where I was like 8 years old. That's my grandma. She's only part of my life every day. It was similar my second mom. [I've] got to mention her.

What did she say when she heard "Moshpit"?
Man, yous know what? I don't think she's heard information technology still. I got to go over there. My grandma, she just now learned how to apply Netflix. I'll ship transport her a link, she'll figure information technology out, and and so somebody will call her and it volition mess her whole thing up and I'g not there to tell her, "Oh, this is how you got to practise information technology." So yeah, I got to get over in that location.

How was she when you got deeper into music and turned it into a profession?
She loves information technology. She bought me my outset microphone, actually.

"Invented Information technology" is one of my favorite records on the anthology. What did you invent? What's the "it"?
That'southward the thing. You got to figure it out. I can't requite information technology away.

Have you e'er really put tissues in your insoles when you're around a woman who'south tall? [On "Rockstar P," Keem raps, "Bitch tall, put tissues in my insoles".]
I used to. Growing upwardly, too, I used to put tissues in my shoes whether it'south in my bottoms or in the front, just to make the shoe fit. Nosotros'd practice that a lot growing upward. I don't do that no more. I'g also old for that.

Prior to this project, y'all worked extensively with Cardo. How did that relationship start?
I've known Cardo for a minute, actually. I've been hit him up on Twitter. I would hit him upwardly like, "Yo, Cardo. Let's work." And then, i day I merely sent him ane of my records. It never came out, and he was similar, "Oh, it's burn." He sent me a [beat] pack like, "Here, let'southward see what you do."

And the "Baby Keem" record was the kickoff crush I heard. I went right in the booth. That was the moment where I had to actually prove myself. That was my turning signal. Because if the song wasn't burn down, we wouldn't have done the other projection [2018's The Audio of Bad Habit, which Cardo executive produced], and so we wouldn't be on this project. It was a big moment for me, doing that tape.

Information technology's non just one blazon of vocal. It's not supposed to exist like that. Information technology's supposed to be everywhere. It's non an album. It's a mixtape.

Your early stuff, you weren't showing your face at all. Why?
I was a lilliputian kid, y'all know? Uncomplicated similar that. I know as a little child, you change a lot. You wear certain stuff at 15, y'all'll never wear again. I didn't want to come out until information technology was the right fourth dimension.

How did you know it was the right fourth dimension?
I got some conviction. My music got better, and so I'one thousand like, "All right, it might be time to do this." And then I did the "Baby Keem" record and I'm like, "Okay, it's lit." Once I got the "Baby Keem" record, everything changed.

Why is calling yourself Baby Keem as opposed to Hykeem Carter of import?
Because it's me being a existent artist instead of a sleeping accommodation rapper. It's me finally turning that curve, which is cool. It'south similar I grew up.

You had this tweet where yous said that Hykeem Carter and Baby Keem are two different people. What did you mean by that?
Baby Keem is fun, crazy, go to the order, turn up. Hykeem, I like my personal space. I value information technology a lot. I'm very sheltered. I don't leave the house. When I practise, I'm Baby Keem. Right now I got to be Baby Keem. Just I value my personal space a lot, then it's cool separating the 2.

Baby Keem press photo
Photo by Bryan Blue

If your career blows upwards to the extent y'all want, you may non exist able to turn off Infant Keem. Is that a scary prospect?
I'll turn off Infant Keem. I'll stay in the house. I do it all the time. I don't leave the house unless I got to get some food. Food and studio, that's all I'thou ever at.

What's your favorite story from making this project?
There was such a weird process to this project. It'south eye-opening because the process of creating my final project was more like, I'm in the bedroom recording myself. This one's kind of the same, simply I'm in the scene now. I had records from November, right after Bad Habit, all the fashion until July. I think the 2d half of "Moshpit" was my funniest process.

That's the one where y'all say, "I'thousand 50 Cent, I'yard 50 Cent."
Yeah. Information technology's having fun. That's what it's nearly. It was a fun process just randomly saying that. I was like, "I'k going to make this the hook." I really trust my ears, and then I'thousand able to drop a record like that. I know at to the lowest degree my core would honey it, and that'south all I care about.

I wanted to get into "My Ex," because that's musically so different than everything else in the tape. Take me through the process creating that vocal.
It was a random dark in the studio and I just got bored with trap. I hear this 1 beat my homie Lyle [Leduff] sent it in. It was a crazy guitar merely it was a trap trounce. It was an electric guitar. But I loved how the music was, the melody. And so I told my guys Matt and Johnny, "Could you guys replay this simply in audio-visual? No drums, no nil. Simply permit it go." It was a feeling song. How I actually felt.

Where'd the words come from?
I always wanted to accept a song like that because I always felt like that in loftier school and stuff. Like, "Man, I hate my ex." I just never knew how it was going to come up, in what grade. I didn't know if it was going to come in a song like "Gang Activities." I don't force it. So whenever information technology comes in, it comes in, but I always knew I wanted a song similar that.

Yous use humor a lot. I'm ever curious about being funny in a genre that is so often most being invincible and beingness serious.
I'chiliad a funny person, so it just rubs off. On height of that, it's just relatable. Everyone can chronicle to some of the shit I'm proverb. Everybody thinks information technology, [but] nobody actually says it.

Were you a class clown in school?
Aye, a trivial bit. And and so I'll take my reserved days. Just every bit high schoolhouse went on, I came with the headphones in like, "Stop talking to me."

What's one thing y'all desire people to know about Babe Keem that they don't know?
I'chiliad going to be here for a long time. I'g here for twenty years. Then when I'm 35, it's over.

What happens and then?
I don't know. I'yard going to exist around music, but I think that's when information technology'south over. I started when I was xv, so that's a good xx years. Now it'south fourth dimension to do something else.

Information technology seems like you lot're catching on with celebrities. I saw Tyler, the Creator and Kendall Jenner sharing your music on social media.
Yeah, it'due south ill.

How did they find out about y'all?
I have no clue, but they beloved information technology and I love it. I think information technology simply spreads. Information technology'southward crazy, though. Kendall tight. Kehlani'due south tight. Everybody. Tyler. Sick.

Y'all had an sometime Instagram page that isn't around anymore. What was the most embarrassing pic on it?
I used to mail strawberries and stuff. I was a little child. I used to exist eating strawberries. When I first discovered strawberries were practiced, I was like 12 and I was like, "Human being, I'k eating strawberries. Nobody eating strawberries like me." I merely thought I was cool. I'g like, "People knew about these?" I thought strawberries was a rare affair. I never had strawberries earlier until I was like 12 years old. And then I'g on Instagram posting like, "Yeah, I'm eating these strawberries."

I saw a picture online of yous when yous were pretty immature. Information technology appeared to be around Christmas and there was a Razor scooter. Do you lot remember that Christmas?
Yeah, that's crazy. I retrieve that. That was fun. That was probably one of my superlative three Christmases. I don't even like Christmas no more than. I like giving, the spirit, but it'due south just not the same every bit when you're a kid. I had some good Christmases growing upwardly. But that was i of my favorite ones. I don't call up if the box was only in that location the whole time. Or did they bring information technology out that twenty-four hour period? I'm not sure. I recollect information technology was there the whole time and I always wanted to know what it was. Information technology was a big box, and I was just wondering, "When do I open it?" Information technology was crazy. That'southward i of my favorite Christmases.

What else do you want people know near Die for My Bitch?
It'southward non just ane type of song. It's not supposed to be similar that. Information technology'southward supposed to be everywhere. It's not an anthology. It's a mixtape.

What exercise you mean?
It's just a project. It's my best project so far but I'm still xviii. To find the space to create a cohesive album, it'south not fun to me right now doing that. I desire to go on making music that I like and then when we go into the next project or the next project afterward that, we can access an album.

That'southward what album means to you? Something that is cohesive?
Yes, a cohesive body of work that tells a story. That's an album to me. And Dice for My Bowwow is going back and forth too much between heartbreak and being angry. Simply information technology's non telling the full story yet. Non notwithstanding.

What are some albums that meet that bar for you?
A lot of Kanye albums, those are my favorites. I love Kanye albums nigh. I honey Cudi albums, of course.

Yous're mostly living in L.A. right now. What neighborhood are you lot in?
I'm up in the valley. Deep in the valley.

How practise you lot like it?
It's cool. Ducked off. It'due south how Hykeem Carter's personality is.

When was the terminal time y'all were dorsum in Vegas?
Earlier this calendar month. I try to get back every month.

What do you remember when you become dorsum?
I get bored. I bring myself out so I see my grandma, go see my mama, my little brother and stuff. And and then I come dorsum.

Any favorite hangouts in Vegas?
I but get [Raising] Cane's. Dearest Cane's. It's chicken finger place. Burn down. But information technology's only fried. You got to become your chicken right. I'm going to tell my order.

Please.
This is all my homies', also. Yous don't even know. And he'll tell y'all [gestures to his road manager], I go mad when my order'due south not right. I look forward to this every day in Vegas.

You got to get your chicken on eight minute burn down. Otherwise, I won't eat it. Information technology's not proficient. Then you got to get butter on both sides of the toast, and y'all tin can't go coleslaw. You got to supplant the coleslaw with an extra toast. So you become two toasts, and yous put butter on both sides of the toast, and so y'all become hot sauce. That's the key function there. They can do all of that but if they don't have hot sauce, which they don't sometimes, it's all ruined and I won't eat it. That'south the key. And then you put hot sauce on the fries, hot sauce on everything, and then information technology's the best chicken e'er. It's amend than Chick-fil-A. Better than everything. You got to do all that stuff to it, though.