After brushing off the backlash resulting from his “Beat Box” freestyle, DaBaby officially joins Florida-based, TikTok-favorite, trap rap upstart SpotEmGottem on “Beat Box 3.” While the original “Beat Box” generated a wave of buzz for the 19-year-old rapper and “Beat Box 2” featured Pooh Shiesty and became the basis for a viral TikTok challenge, “Beat Box 3” finally connects SpotEmGottem with the North Carolina superstar who helped bring “Beat Box” to the mainstream with his freestyle.
That freestyle, though, was the subject of some controversy thanks to a throwaway line in which DaBaby name-checks 17-year-old pop star JoJo Siwa. The line, which rhymed the singer’s name with “see why,” posited an imaginary rival as a “bitch,” employing the hashtag flow for a clunky punchline that seemed to either call JoJo a bitch as well, or equate all women with bitches, with the most conveniently rhyming one falling within the category. Either way… not a great use of the form, which is always a danger with the hashtag flow.
Of course, DaBaby — no stranger to Twitter controversy after a couple of years’ worth of call-outs and missteps — dismissed the backlash as a case of wordplay going over listeners’ heads. That isn’t quite what happened here, but by combining his verse with SpotEmGottem’s original, at least SpotEmGottem can hope to benefit from the extra attention, and capitalize on it with his next release.
Listen to “Beat Box 3” above.
