Format Digital download Genre Hip hop Label Atlantic, Vice | Recorded 2014 Length 4:40 | |
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Released March 3, 2015 (2015-03-03) | ||
"Baby Blue" is a song by American rapper Action Bronson. It was released on March 3, 2015 as the fourth and final single off his second album Mr. Wonderful (2015). It features a guest appearance from fellow rapper Chance the Rapper. It was co-written by both artists, along with Zane Lowe (who co-wrote the chorus) and Mark Ronson, who also produced the song. A hip hop breakup song, "Baby Blue" is the closer to a three-part suite along with "City Boy Blues" and "A Light in the Addict" that's preluded by the album's interlude, "Thug Love Story 2017 The Musical".
Contents
The song received mixed reviews from critics who praised Chance's verse but questioned Bronson's musicianship. "Baby Blue" was Bronson's first solo appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at number 91 for one week. It also charted at numbers 21 and 30 on the Hot Rap Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts respectively. The accompanying music video for the song, directed by Lil Chris, was released on Bronson's YouTube page as part of the 2015 YouTube Music Awards and pays homage to the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America.
Background and development
Following the album's first single "Easy Rider" and the digital release of "Actin' Crazy", Bronson revealed the track list for Mr. Wonderful and showed which songs had collaborations to them. "Baby Blue" was produced by Mark Ronson, who previously did production for singers like Daniel Merriweather and Bruno Mars. The song was written by Ronson, Arian Arslani, Chancellor Bennett and Zane Lowe. It acts as the closer to a three-part suite set by "City Boy Blues" and "A Light in the Addict" that was preluded by the album's interlude, "Thug Love Story 2017 The Musical", about an elderly man singing to Bronson about a former love that left the streets.
In an interview with Complex, Bronson explained that he wanted to put together a small musical with the three tracks he had within the album and found the ending to it as a kiss-off to a former flame and moving on from it. The beat to Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz's "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" was used as a reference by Ronson to come up with the song's opening. The chorus to the song: "Why you gotta act like a bitch when I'm with you / Baby girl, I'm blue," was co-written by then-BBC Radio 1 host Zane Lowe with Bronson providing vocals to it. Chance the Rapper, the featured artist in the song, explained to Complex that his verse for the song was inspired by an amalgam of various women he had previous encounters with while lending levity to the outcome of it all.
Critical reception
"Baby Blue" garnered a mixed reception from music critics. Pat Levy of Consequence of Sound praised Bronson's singing over the piano-heavy production but singled out Chance's verse as the song stealer for his "laundry list of things he hopes will happen to the girl who romantically maligned him." Dan Weiss of Spin called the song the standout of the album's suite, due in particular to Chance's absurdly dark and humorous lyrics. Colin Fitzgerald of PopMatters put the track alongside "Easy Rider" as 'album highlights', saying that without them "the album's second half would seriously hinder the overall value of Mr. Wonderful." Jordan Sargent of Pitchfork Media criticized Bronson's whiny vocals and Ronson's production throughout the song but gave praise to Chance's quirk-filled verse, saying that "he pulls off in half a minute what Bronson couldn’t in fifteen: using an imagined story to reveal humanity through humor."
Music video
On March 9, 2015, Bronson stated via his Twitter account that a music video for the song is in the works. He released a one-minute long "teaser" for the video on his YouTube page on March 21. Two days later, it premiered on Bronson's YouTube page as part of the 2015 YouTube Music Awards. The Lil Chris-directed video is a tribute to Eddie Murphy's 1988 comedy Coming to America, with Bronson playing every character Murphy played throughout the film. American rapper Big Body Bes and bodybuilder Jill Rudison both appear as Arsenio Hall and Shari Headley's characters respectively.
Live performances
On March 22, 2015, Bronson and Chance performed the song during SXSW at the 2015 mtvU Woodie Awards. On March 25, two days after the release of his second album, Bronson performed the song with Chance on national television for the first time on the Late Show with David Letterman with Chance's band The Social Experiment. On April 21, he performed it live on DJ Skee's SKEE TV via Fuse.