Who I Want

Who I Want — Lil Baby and Lil Durk (2021)

"Who I Want" is a track by Lil Baby and Lil Durk from their collaborative studio album The Voice of the Heroes, released on June 4, 2021, through Quality Control Music, Wolfpack Global Music, Alamo Records, and Republic Records. The album represented the first full-length collaborative project between two of rap's most commercially dominant artists of the era, both of whom had spent the preceding years building independent commercial profiles of extraordinary scale before officially joining forces on a shared release.

The Voice of the Heroes debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, making it the first collaborative album from two artists who had each previously topped the chart individually. The first-week numbers were substantial, driven overwhelmingly by streaming rather than physical or digital download sales, reflecting the shift in commercial measurement that had redefined what chart success looked like in the streaming era. "Who I Want" was among the tracks that received significant playlist placement, contributing to the album's streaming totals.

The production on "Who I Want" is consistent with the trap-influenced aesthetic that both Lil Baby and Lil Durk had refined across their respective careers, featuring heavy 808 sub-bass, melodic synthesizer lines, and a rhythmic framework that allows both artists' distinctive melodic rap deliveries to sit prominently in the mix. Both artists work in a space between singing and rapping, and the production was constructed to complement that dual approach, prioritizing melody and emotional resonance alongside rhythmic precision.

Lil Baby's commercial trajectory by 2021 was extraordinary. His 2020 album My Turn had been the best-selling album of that year, and he had accumulated an almost unprecedented run of charting singles and collaborative appearances. Lil Baby was, by the time The Voice of the Heroes was released, one of the most streamed artists in the world, with platform numbers that rivaled pop's biggest names. His participation in "Who I Want" brought that streaming infrastructure to bear on a collaborative track that benefited from both his own fanbase and Lil Durk's equally substantial Chicago-rooted following.

Lil Durk had similarly established himself as a dominant commercial presence, with his album The Voice and its follow-ups accumulating impressive streaming and chart numbers throughout 2020 and into 2021. The album title The Voice of the Heroes paid homage to Durk's previous project while combining it with an acknowledgment of Lil Baby's collaborative standing. The album represented both artists operating at the peak of their commercial powers, and the individual tracks, including "Who I Want," reflected that sense of simultaneous peak capacity.

The song charted on the Billboard Hot 100, consistent with the broader chart performance of The Voice of the Heroes, which placed multiple tracks across Billboard's various rap and pop chart formats. The album's streaming volume was sufficient to qualify many of its tracks for Hot 100 inclusion in the weeks following release, even without individual single campaigns for each track. This multi-track charting phenomenon was characteristic of how streaming had changed the commercial landscape for album projects from artists with sufficiently large fanbases.

Critical reception for the album was positive, with reviewers noting that the chemistry between the two artists was genuine rather than manufactured, reflecting a real friendship and musical rapport that had developed over years of collaborative appearances before the formal album project. "Who I Want" was cited in several reviews as a highlight that demonstrated the natural compatibility of the two artists' melodic rap approaches, with their voices creating an effective contrast while remaining stylistically cohesive enough to coexist on the same track without friction.

The album's release was preceded by significant media anticipation, with both artists having teased the collaboration across their respective social media platforms in the months leading up to the announcement. The rollout strategy reflected the attention economy of 2021 hip-hop marketing, where fan excitement is cultivated through strategic reveals and social media engagement before the formal release campaign commences. "Who I Want" was part of the package that fans had been anticipating, and its immediate availability on streaming platforms ensured that the accumulated anticipation converted directly into first-week listening numbers.

Both Lil Baby and Lil Durk were associated with the melodic trap movement that had redefined mainstream hip-hop's sound, and The Voice of the Heroes served as a concentrated statement of that movement's commercial and artistic peak. "Who I Want" embodied the melodic, emotionally resonant quality that both artists had developed independently and that worked with particular effectiveness in the collaborative context the album created.