Baby Keem’s “Ca$ino” is more than a resurgence for the Las Vegas-raised rapper; it’s a rebirth. As the album title suggests, Keem ascended in his hiatus, going from grungy streets and production studios to the high-limit rooms for something sleeker and more deliberate.

Anyone alive and active in hip-hop from 2019 to 2021 is aware of the grip Baby Keem had on the culture. His style — a blend of eccentric, pugnacious raps in his signature, somewhat quirky high-pitched voice, bred hits. Following his first mixtape, “The Sound of Bad Habit,” he dropped “ORANGE SODA,” his first Billboard Hot 100 hit at just 18, launching a fast rise that culminated in 2021’s “The Melodic Blue.”

“Ca$ino,” his first album since “The Melodic Blue,” is more focused, refined and polished. The album’s opening songs — intro “No Security” and title track “Ca$ino” — allow Keem to reintroduce himself to us as, frankly, a grown-ass adult. 

His declarations on these early songs reflect a sense of security and self-assurance that he lacked in his younger years. On the title track, which is stylistically reflective of his signature aggression, he raps, “I’ll even cut my family off in this life I’m livin’,” signaling a newfound sense of autonomy. 

Nevertheless, Keem keeps his album sonically varied, unlike early mixtapes, which felt a bit linear and over-saturated with tracks that grew mildly repetitive. 

Songs like “Birds & the Bees” and “Good Flirts,” the latter of which features Kendrick Lamar and Momo Boyd, are continuations of the sounds he began to explore on “The Melodic Blue,” mixing his signature trippiness over more sensual beats.

“Good Flirts,” the first Baby Keem and Lamar song we’ve received in three years, is a particular standout with its perfect blend of sensuality and risqué breeding a unique sense of relatability.

Perhaps the most different sound on this project is “Dramatic Girl,” featuring Che Ecru, which borders on alt-rock. It’s a sound Baby Keem isn’t a stranger to, with songs like 2019’s “MY EX” striking a somewhat similar comparison, but this is his most polished rendition yet. 

As a song addressed to a tumultuous relationship, “Dramatic Girl” is also especially raw. To his love interest, he sings, “There’s more than one way you should love me / I need you finding that emotion / We drew blood in the ocean / I’ve been hidin’ in the open,” advocating for a love that isn’t baked in extreme highs and lows.

Still, amid all of the genre-blending present on this project, Baby Keem doesn’t lose his hip-hop roots. Songs like “House Money,” which also features Lamar and Denzel Curry on its hook, and “Circus Circus Free$tyle” feel like callbacks to mixtape-era Baby Keem, with abrasiveness and bravado being their primary tones. 

The best tracks on this project are those grounded in traditional hip-hop sounds: “$ex Appeal” with Los Angeles rap legend Too $hort, and “Highway 95 pt.2,” a spiritual sequel to “highway 95.” 

These songs present Baby Keem and all of his swagger at their finest. They’re both West Coast hip-hop in style, featuring an effortless, laid-back and melodic sound, but vary greatly in terms of content.

“$ex Appeal” encapsulates all of a metaphorical high-roller’s bluster as Baby Keem and Too $hort spit over a melodic beat with strong bass-centric reinforcement. On it, Too $hort boasts, “You fallin’ in love with these women / they fallin’ in love with this pimpin’.”

“Highway 95 pt.2” is more introspective. Over a euphonious tune and hook that inspires nostalgia, Keem takes us through his childhood world — a place of desolation and poverty, where he was “speedin’ down the highway” with just five dollars in his gas tank. It’s a vulnerable story, but told with a level of savviness that ensures listeners will still catch themselves bopping their heads.

As an album, “Ca$ino” succeeds in reintroducing us to a more mature, adult version of Baby Keem, but its largest drawback is that it feels over before it starts. By the time listeners reach its final track, “No Blame,” they’re not ready to be done. The 37-minute project doesn’t leave listeners completely satisfied — they’ve got more food in their stomachs than before, but they’re still hungry.

Still, what “Ca$ino” gives is nothing short of Keem at his best — evolving off of what he already did well while genre-blending and storytelling at a proficiency he hadn’t achieved prior. It paves the way for complete separation from his 27-time Grammy-winning “family tie” into his own identity, and should leave fans excited for his future.

All fans can do is just hope that they don’t have to wait another five years to see what that looks like.