Big Baby Gandhi (birth name: Nafis) is a Bangladesh-born American rapper from

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

. His first mixtape, ''Big Fucking Baby'', was released in 2011 to highly positive reception from music critics. As a result of the attention he got from his first mixtape, Gandhi was signed to

Greedhead Music Greedhead Music is an independent record label founded by Himanshu Suri of Das Racist. Initially, Suri founded Greedhead Music as a management and recording company in 2008 to manage Das Racist. Greedhead's first releases were the group's 2010 mi ...

, on which he released his second mixtape, ''No1 2 Look Up 2'', in 2012. Artists featured on ''No1 2 Look Up 2'' include

Das Racist Das Racist was an American alternative hip hop group based in Brooklyn, composed of MCs Heems and Kool A.D. and hype man Ashok Kondabolu (a.k.a. Dapwell or Dap). Known for their use of humor, academic references, foreign allusions, and unconven ...

(on "Blue Magic"), and Fat Tony (on "Lurkin'"). In early 2013, he posted on his

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

that he would retire from making rap music after 2013. On December 6, 2013, he released his first full-length album, ''Debut''. Big Baby Gandhi came out of retirement in 2017 with his release ''27'' and proceeded to drop various loose tracks since. In 2019 Big Baby Gandhi released a studio album ''We Live In A Society'' with features from Mr. MFN eXquire and Victor Freeze.

Critical reception

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

has given A− grades to both of Gandhi's mixtapes. Of ''Big Fucking Baby'', he wrote, "The flow seems effortlessly idiomatic, only not

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...

idiomatic, whatever that would sound like besides

Heems Himanshu Kumar Suri (born July 6, 1985), better known by his stage name Heems, is an American rapping, rapper from Queens in New York City. Best known for being part of the alternative hip hop group Das Racist, Suri is also the founder of Greedh ...

." In his review of ''No1 2 Look Up 2'', Jacob Moore wrote that Gandhi's "pop culture references and choice of content falls in line with the style of Das Racist, but he favors an intense delivery more similar to

Danny Brown Daniel Dewan Sewell (born March 16, 1981), better known by his stage name Danny Brown, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He has been described by MTV as "one of rap's most unique figures in recent memory". In 2010, after amassing ...

than Heems or Kool A.D.".

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

's Ian Cohen was less favorable in his review of ''NO1 2 LOOK UP 2'', which he gave a 5.5 out of 10 rating. Cohen wrote that on the album, "Gandhi mostly steamrolls his predecessors' idiosyncrasies by making his delivery louder, and more awkward," and that the album "works best when he drops the implausible pose as a hip-hop savior and raps as himself."

Discography

Mixtapes

*''Big Fucking Baby'' (self-released, 2011) *''No1 2 Look Up 2'' (Greedhead, 2012) *''27'' (411 Records, 2017)

Studio albums

*''Debut'' (Crack Diamonds Entertainment, 2013) *''We Live In A Society'' (U Don't Deserve This Beautiful Art & 411 Records, 2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandhi, Big Baby Rappers from New York City American musicians of Bangladeshi descent Living people Bangladeshi emigrants to the United States 21st-century American rappers Year of birth missing (living people)