"Don't Make Me Beg" (Hylan Starr x Lil Baby)

As much as I like familiar and longstanding comfort music, I'm not ready to stall in musical yesteryear.

Enter in "Don't Make Me Beg" by Hylan Starr. It's feel-good music with a classic R&B sound from a contemporary artist.

Forget the "lyrical quickie," that's a fixture in popular R&B/Hip Hop, where many a singer emphasizes rhyming over vocalizing, storytelling, or testifying. (Another example of what's not a lyrical quickie is "Wasting Time" [Brent Faiyaz] in the related links below.) Instead, Hylan is sanging -- sanging those long, whole notes (4 beats). For example:

I ain't gone beeeegggg.
Did you hear what I saaaaid?

Then sets you up for what is one of my favorite parts of the song, when he wails.

Drop that pen
I'm on the
Way to you
Ohhhh whhhhoa hoooo
Ah-hoooo-ah-hooo-ah-hooo-whhhhoa-whhhhoa

I'ma sing that the next time I pass a flock of ducks. (I'm on the | Way to you | Ohhhh whhhhoa hoooo | Ah-hoooo-ah-hooo-ah-hooo-whhhhoa-whhhhoa.)

Speaking of begging, the vibe of "Don't Make Me Beg" reminds me of Keith Sweat -- the father of begging in '90s R&B. To be specific, I'd say "Right and Wrong Way." In that song, Sweat starts off, "You may be young but you're red-dayyyy-eh-eh-eyyyy." In Don't Make Me Beg, on the other hand, Hylan says at one point, Wowww, girl, you're only 21 years oooold." 

The tempo is slow and the beat ambient. It sounds a little like "Lick U Up" by H-Town, but fuller. It also has a hint of "Computer Love" (Zapp), but avoids becoming another song that samples it.

Oh, yeah: Lil Baby's on the song, too. Hylan starts off with a swooning intro and then the chorus. Lil Baby follows by rapping the first verse, so I was unsure if it was his song when I first heard it.

​Very good song. (In other words: great song!) And I'm glad Hylan got a look on it from one of today's most-popular artists.

A music review of "Don't Make Me Beg" (Hylan Starr, Lil Baby)

"Don't Make Me Beg" promo cover (Courtesy of @hylanstarr)

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Jubalyn ExWilliams lives in Pennsylvania (United States). You can find dozens of her reviews, including the one on "Don't Make Me Beg" by Hylan Starr and Lil Baby, at landturn.com/reviews.

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Related: "Wasting Time" (Brent Faiyaz x Drake) (2021)
Related: Kyd Slade's "Lust" (EP) (2023)
Related: "Come Through" (H.E.R. x Chris Brown) (2021)
Related: "single af" (Fousheé) (2021)
Related: Angie's latest music the day before her death (2025)

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