6

Some dumb rap tries to be smart; BabyTron and his ShittyBoyz trio do the opposite, cloaking serious chops in deadpan humor and abundant references to adolescent stoner TV programs. The erstwhile scam-rapper is a key player in Detroit’s rap renaissance, a comic foil to the city’s icier antiheroes—but 6, his second full-length of 2023, is an opportunity to take Tron seriously. (For one thing, there are hooks on a handful of songs, as opposed to his usual rambling bursts of riffy one-liners.) Over the kind of bouncy, edgy, riding-around-feeling-myself beats that Detroit producers have mastered, Tron sounds like he’s showing off a bit, devising wordplay gauntlets to conquer on “100 Bars” or abruptly cranking up the speed on “Eobard Thawne.”