bbno$ - “bag or die” Album Review

Story posted October 26, 2022 in CommRadio, Arts & Entertainment by Brianna Cavalieri

bbno$ is bringing a unique brand of rap to the music scene. His music could be described as an organized mess. bbno$ (Baby No Money), formally known as Alexander Gumuchian, is a Vancouver rap artist who emerged from SoundCloud and built a following via TikTok when his song ‘Lalala’ with Y2K went viral.

Gumuchian has been producing music for seven years and has reached over a billion streams on Spotify. His music is all jokes and he is unwilling to take his art too seriously.

There is no narrative to any bbno$ song. He puts together songs for fun and puts his favorites in an album.

Gumuchian opens the album with “bag or die,” which starts with a beautiful piano solo, then launches into a Latin-style beat and finally moves into a more bbno$ fashion beat to introduce the album as a whole.

“i see london i see france” consists of lyrics that make no sense with a nonchalant tone. The line about cancer is about his grandmother who has been diagnosed with cancer multiple times and he explained in an interview with Apple Music that he would never want to live like that.

“chipotle” is another song that makes absolutely no sense, but somehow it’s still catchy. He later explained that he wants a celebrity black card for Chipotle and that was his reasoning for that song.

“touch grass” explains how in this generation, not a lot of people go outside anymore. Everyone is so stuck on their phones and video games that they do not experience the world. This track features Yung Gravy who has been Gumuchian’s close friend since both of their music careers started. They work the same way and have the same carefree energy, which makes them work really well together.

“let em know” sends the message to not take things so seriously and Gumuchian is the king of that. He believes that if he were to take his music more seriously that he could gain more popularity, but he does not want to. He is having fun and receiving significant success.

“deadman” is one of the songs that Gumuchian claims he does not like, but many people think differently. It’s a different style of music than fans are used to with bbno$, but it somehow works. He wrote the song in 2017 but has been sitting on it because he simply did not like it.

“vasectomy” talks about how he would not have a problem getting a vasectomy in the future. He explained later that birth control affects women’s emotional stability, but a vasectomy does not affect men in that way.

“sophisticated” talks about how everything in his life is expensive and sophisticated, but the whole song is a joke because he claims that he is actually very cheap and his life is the opposite of sophisticated.

“e-girl anthem” is yet another song with absolutely no meaning. All it talks about is wanting to get money.

Altogether, the album “bag or die” has a main theme of wanting to make money and that money will make life better overall. There is no specific message, but that is the bbno$ brand.

bbno$ will definitely not be making a change in the music industry, but that is not his plan. He is here to have fun and broadcast his humor to fans to lighten their mood. His music is not for everyone, but he has definitely found a path to success in this generation.

Rating: 7/10

Reviewer’s Favorite Songs: “touch grass,” “i see london i see france,” “let em know”
Reviewer’s Least Favorite Songs: “sophisticated,” “deadman,” “b to the b”

 

Brianna Cavalieri is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email bmc6284@psu.edu.