Baby Keem is back — and the timing could not feel more charged. The Carson, Calif., native born Hykeem Jamaal Carter Jr. releases his sophomore studio album Ca$ino on Feb. 20, 2026, through pgLang and Columbia Records, marking his first full-length project in nearly five years. To build toward the drop, Baby Keem released Booman III on Feb. 19 — the third installment of a short documentary series that has peeled back the layers of his upbringing, his family history and the deeply personal vision behind the album. The series, directed by Alexandre Moors and LaConnie Govan and executive produced by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free, has accumulated tens of thousands of views within hours of each upload.
Tonight, Feb. 19, Baby Keem is hosting a listening party in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. PST — an event that sold out almost immediately but will also stream live on his YouTube channel. The momentum surrounding Ca$ino is unmistakable, and for a rapper whose fanbase has been holding its breath since 2021, the wait is almost over.
What the Booman Documentary Series Reveals About Baby Keem
The Booman series is not a standard album rollout tool. It is a biographical portrait — raw, intimate and rooted in family. Across three episodes, Baby Keem has shared archival childhood footage, home videos, studio sessions and candid conversations with aunts, sisters and close relatives, including his cousin Kendrick Lamar. The series paints a picture of an artist who grew up navigating Section 8 housing and welfare — circumstances that Lamar himself described in the first episode as a warfare environment that shaped their entire family’s psychology and drive to break generational cycles.
The cover art for Ca$ino — a baby photo of Keem — fits perfectly within this visual and emotional framework. This is not an album designed to chase trends. It is a deeply introspective record from an artist who has clearly spent five years building something intentional.
The Ca$ino Tracklist and Who Baby Keem Brought Along
Ca$ino clocks in at 12 tracks — lean, focused and deliberately curated. The full tracklist is as follows:
- No Security
- Ca$ino
- Birds & The Bees
- Good Flirts (ft. Kendrick Lamar & Momo Boyd)
- House Money
- I Am Not a Lyricist
- Sex Appeal (ft. Too Short)
- Tubi (ft. Che Ecru)
- Highway 95 Pt. 2
- Circus Circus Freestyle
- Dramatic Girl
- No Blame
The feature list is tight by design. Kendrick Lamar appears on Good Flirts alongside vocalist Momo Boyd of Infinity Song. Bay Area rap legend Too Short joins Baby Keem on Sex Appeal, a pairing that has already generated considerable conversation online. R&B artist Che Ecru rounds out the features on Tubi. For a rapper known for keeping his circle small, the list feels purposeful rather than promotional.
Baby Keem’s Rise and What Made the Five Year Wait Matter
Baby Keem first broke through with a series of viral releases in 2019 and 2020 before his debut album The Melodic Blue arrived in September 2021. That project cracked the top five of the Billboard 200, earned platinum certification from the RIAA and spawned Family Ties with Kendrick Lamar — a track that won Best Rap Performance at the 2022 Grammy Awards and earned Baby Keem two additional nominations including Best New Artist. He was 19 years old.
In the years between albums, Baby Keem kept a deliberately low profile. He contributed to Lamar’s Mr. Morale and The Big Steppers, co-wrote and produced several tracks, and released a small handful of collaborations — most notably The Hillbillies with Lamar in 2023 and leavemealone with Fred Again. The restraint was intentional. Every breadcrumb Baby Keem dropped between 2021 and 2026 pointed toward something bigger being built in silence.
What Comes Next for Baby Keem After Ca$ino
The Ca$ino era extends well beyond the Feb. 20 release date. Baby Keem has a North American tour scheduled starting April 15, 2026, in Raleigh, N.C., running through June 7. He is also set to headline Governors Ball in New York City from June 5 to 7 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. A European and U.K. leg of the tour follows from Aug. 29 through Sept. 18, wrapping in London.
For the Black community that has championed Baby Keem from his earliest mixtape days, Ca$ino represents something beyond a music release. It is proof that patience and intention still have a place in hip-hop — and that the most powerful stories are often the ones that take the longest to tell.
