We are back for another week of Specs Sunday. This time I’ll be going over the second JR Specs song I ever listened to. The first was Turf because it had a feature from Spose which is another BANGER.
Baby Knock Me Down came out originally as a single in 2020 and was added to JR’s album, ‘99 Daydream as the third track sandwiched between TURF and John Deere.
What made me really enjoy this song was the drums used with the horn interlude that breaks up JR’s verse and B.Aullss verse. You know a song from this generation is good when parents enjoy it and the horns play an important role in roping in the older demographic.
Specs opens the song with “Ever since flip phones I was tryin’ slide, Go bananas, trying to be the apple of your eye”. He has been trying to slide for a WHILE. Baby Knock Me Down is about a guy and a girl. The guy is trying to get with the girl and the girl just keeps playing with the guys head and heart.
The girl doesn’t want the guy in this scenario, but she also has no desire to see the guy with other women. “She would shut me up quick like “don’t even start”, But when I found somebody you tried to pull us apart, You wild behind the scenes, saying I’m 'round your finger like gold and diamond rings”.
Look, the guy in this situation realizes that the girl is fucking with him, but she’s hot. The guy doesn’t want to lose this girl that he thinks he still has a chance with. “And you were fine as hell, why lie?, Stuck on you for years before I knew how to drive”. It’s tough to shake something like this when she is fine, but the guy knows he can’t keep going back to the well.
Well, the guy in this song learned quick that girls move on very quickly, especially ones that you aren’t really in a relationship with. “By the time I learned you had already dipped with some Hollywood fella in a cool ass whip”. That’s cold.
Our mystery man in this song even tried to talk her out of being with this Hollywood fella, but she was not having any of what our guy had to say. Just straight up tuned him out.
“Baby, that’s a trip, tried to tell it all to you in your room, You sang even louder to a different tune, so, that’s that, You'd think so, huh? And one day I did grow up”. Our guy did grow up though and made his best attempt to leave this girl in the past. Just needed one song to get his feelings out.
That’s the end of JR’s verse and then he hops into the chorus right before B.Aulls verse. The chorus though has to be my favorite part of the jazzy rap hit.
“But you told me to stay, now go, Now drop down low, now stop, Now roll, now talk, now don’t, I did for you, yeah (I did for you), But now I know, the way that the wind gon’ blow, Every time you around, yeah, Baby knock me down, yeah, Well you're here so might as well, yeah, Well you're here so you might as well, yeah”.
The way the horns and drums work in harmony with JR’s chorus makes for one of the best songs that he has ever made.