What kind of rock stars are these guys? Dangerous…

It’s trials, tribulations, guns and violence on the mean streets in the hit single “Rockstar” by DaBaby, with featured artist Roddy Ricch. The lyrics are dark, but there’s something catchy about the minor-chord instrumentation that makes this one suitable for the darkened dancefloor.

Released in April 2020, “Rockstar” spent seven non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, reportedly an impressive feat during a stretch with a lot of one-and-done No. 1s at the time. In a year as dark and heavy as pandemic-led 2020, people were okay with going dark and revisiting the street violence and gunplay of “Rockstar,” which fit the bill just fine for fans of hip hop and trap.

After asking “how you pull up,” the song kicks off with the chorus, setting the stage for serious imagery to come (“Brand new Lamborghini, f*ck a cop car / With the pistol on my hip like I’m a cop”), followed by moodiness and brooding, prepping the listener for a dangerous ride (“Know you heard me say, ‘You play, you lay,’ don’t make me push the button“). What’s going to happen on this ride? Is someone going to get hurt? Killed?

The track was eventually anthem-ized for the Black Lives Matter movement shortly after its initial release (a new verse was added for a special remix), but the original music video for “Rockstar” undoubtedly brought more fans to the fold: in the 7-minute epic, DaBaby and Ricch go full-on Rambo in the apocalypse, battling bloodthirsty zombies in an open forest, complete with heavy-duty firepower deadlier than the “pistol on my hip” DaBaby sings about in the chorus (and I particularly dig the zombies playing instruments in the cutaway scenes).

It’s an amusing (and action-packed!) clip that could strike an odd tone with listeners fixated on the inner demons and violence illustrated in the lyrics.

It just goes to show there’s more than one way to be a rock star. And these guys can show you how, if you have what it takes.