Album Review: Saaheem
Happy Birthday Sahbabii!!
In honor of the goat’s 28th birthday, I have huge praises and love for his latest album, Saaheem. Though it released in the last week of 2024, the few months in between that time have given it time to ripen to perfection. It’s ethereal, bright, and fun, and stays consistent with the sound and personality he’s already brought to life. Expanding on what he created back in 2020 with Barnacles, this feels like a similar triumph, another Sahbabii win.
The obvious win from the album is the song “Viking” . With over four million views on the music video and over 16 million streams on the song so far, it’s one of his biggest hits yet in his career. I knew on the first listen of the album that it would be big, I knew it would be one of those songs you wish you could go back and listen to for the first time again. It’s his most confident-sounding song, almost arrogant, in the best way. About halfway through when he says “Say they fuckin’ with me, like Who? When Where? Say they gon’ touch me, I triple dog dare”, it felt like he knew he had a hit too. With his sound usually being laid-back, tropical and oceanic, it felt like a fun change of pace to hear him “hype”.
Other standouts on the album for me are “Anaconda Livin’”, “Sylvan Rd Ridin’ Down Dill”, “On Film”, and of course the intro, “Don Quan Intro”.
With “Anaconda Livin’” he channels his inner Nicki Minaj, a spiritual sequel to “Anaconda”, rapping about snakes The otherworldly, beautiful sample with rattlesnake percussion makes this a Sahbabii masterpiece. His best work is always done when he’s rapping about exotic animals, and this song showcases that. In writing this piece, I spent a lot of effort trying to track down the sample for this song, but came up to nothing, a completely original beautiful beat by EVRGRN, Dilip and quickly, quickly.
All I could think the whole time was “Minnesota Mentioned!” listening to “Sylvan Rd Ridin’ Down Dill”. He said “Diamonds cold, Minnesota”, but then he topped it with “Explore the hood baby, Dora… Neck long brachiosaurus, huh, Durango truck yeah it’s roarin”. Just one example of all of the complete unique Sahbabii lines in this album. Any references to pop culture he makes and any references to animals are always expertly selected, no one’s doing it like him. Another amazing beat on this song with three different producers, CGM Beats, 1st Class & Bakkwoods.
In “On Film” he literally invented a new adlib. You’d think with how far we’ve come with rap, we’d have exhausted the list of cool adlibs, but Sahbabii gave us “vyuum”, not to be mistaken with “vroom”, a completely different way to describe a car going fast. The best part of the song is him saying, “I hop in some fast shit then I go vyuum”, and repeating his new adlib and perfectly executing a few “brr”s in there too.
“Don Quan Intro” starts off the album with gorgeous strings, opening the doors to what we’re about to experience. He’s popping champagne, cutting all the fakes out of his life and repeating that his life is a movie. This is his moment and he knows it.
I saved the best for last because it deserves its own spotlight, “Mirror Picz” is one of the best songs, if not the best song, he has ever made. I’ve listened to it possibly a thousand times since the album dropped, memorized the lyrics, repeatedly posted a link to my Instagram story, it’s a star. It rivals “711”, my favorite Sahbabii song of all time, for its spot. It’s a song that changed lives, my life. It makes me want to take a mirror picture… baby.
With 18 songs and 46 minutes of music, each song has its place in making this album so memorable. Another honorable mention for a favorite is “Lost All My Feelings” where he does his famous “Boi-oi-oing” adlib and does some of his most angelic singing.
With 35 different producer credits on the album, and the classic Sahbabii-isms throughout the lyrics, all of the effort put into this pays off with how cohesive and fun each song is. It really feels like he has building up to this, and this is his moment. I can’t wait to see him live for the first time in a couple weeks, an artist that has been one of my favorites for the past five years. This is an album to drive around in the summer to, to dance to, to feel beautiful to… it’s his year, Happy Birthday Sahbabii!