Baby Keem Marks the End of an Era With Introspective ‘The Melodic Blue’ Visual
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The Melodic Blue, the debut studio album from Baby Keem, has spanned more than three years of the young rapper’s career. Its earliest single arrived in 2020, with the record itself following a full year later. Keem stretched the release into 2022 with the release of a deluxe edition that brought its total track listing to 23 songs. And after all of this time, the 23-year-old is ready to bid this era farewell with a proper send-off: a 20-minute The Melodic Blue visual now streaming on Prime Video.
The visual release introduces three additional songs into the world of The Melodic Blue, including “Rock Me,” “Torch,” and “White Laces,” which features a guest appearance from James Blake. He joins the brief list of featured artists across the standard and deluxe editions of the album, which includes Kendrick Lamar, Don Toliver, Travis Scott, PinkPantheress, Brent Faiyaz, and Lil Uzi Vert.
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The Melodic Blue visual companion sets these songs against the backdrop of a visualizer that examines into the rapper’s tortured internal battle through temptation and delves into the depths of his own memories. Keem, born Kykeem Carter, stars in the short film alongside Amandla Stenberg, Shakira Ja’nai Paye, Francis Lovehall, and Séréna Sy.
“I need to talk to you about the Melodic Blue,” Stenberg’s character tells Paye. “Keem hasn’t been the same since he went down there.” The film navigates grief and fear, with mysterious characters emerging to push the plot forward, and the timeline jumps to set the scene with essential context.
The Melodic Blue visual was directed by Savannah Setten and written by pgLang. Keem and Lamar served as executive producers alongside Dave Free, while Jamie Rabineau and Cornell Brown helmed as producers.
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