Rapper Lil Baby talks new album, Young Thug, rap lyrics

While Lil Baby’s new album blares loudly in the living room, the Atlanta-born rapper stands in the kitchen of his $20 million Bel Air home singing to his son, who dances along on FaceTime.

For Lil Baby, living in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the US would have been unfathomable several years ago. He was released in 2016 after being incarcerated on a drug charge and had no intention of starting a rap career until Quality Control founders Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas saw tremendous potential.

“I knew Baby had a hustler’s spirit,” Thomas says. “All he had to do was transfer his energy from whatever he was doing to the music. He’s got that hustler’s mentality of the first one getting up and last one going to sleep. He grinds nonstop. I just knew if he transferred all that energy, he was going to grind all the way to the top.”

Lil Baby, 27, initially wasn’t hard pressed to rap. But once he made it a priority, he rose to remarkable success. He won over listeners through his infectious singles like Drip Too Hard, We Paid and Yes Indeed with Drake. He’s worked with some of music’s best including Future, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. Earlier this year, he won a Grammy in the best melodic rap performance category for Kanye West’s Hurricane, which also featured The Weeknd.

In a recent interview Lil Baby opened up about decriminalizing rap lyrics, his friends Young Thug and Gunna who are currently locked up in a RICO criminal case and his third studio album It’s Only Me, which released recently.

Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

You’ve overcome being a high school dropout and bounced back from serving time in prison. How does it feel now to be successful?

When I look at everything I had to endure and the process, I think about when I was just sitting in a prison cell to now I’m living in a pad in California. I feel like anything can happen. Anything is possible. If you believe, you can achieve.

When did you realize you were good with formulating words together?

Language arts was one of my favorite classes. I could imagine and really write a story about whatever. It could be real or not real. From second to third grade, I always been into writing a good story. Once I got on Instagram, I started realizing that the caption was more important than the picture. Like if you got the right caption, it’ll go viral. The caption has to be hard as my picture.

Your protest song The Bigger Picture was a big hit at the Grammys last year. Will you do more racial disparity-type topics in your new music?

I feel like that’s something I do in my songs anyway. That was a time where so much was going on. I think it got reciprocated like that. But that’s a song that could’ve been on my album right now — without this going on. That’s how I rap already.

Your new album has 23 tracks. With that good amount of songs, did you think about breaking it up into a double album?

I could’ve put 15 songs out and just added seven more songs then put out another album. I could put out two albums in no time. But I haven’t put nothing out in two years. It’s almost really going on three (years). ... I’m not going to drop a deluxe.

Your friends Young Thug and Gunna have been jailed since May in a criminal racketeering case. How have you been dealing with that?

It honestly kind of (expletive) me up, like on a day-to-day. I try my best not to think of it. I haven’t been talking to Gunna as much, but I talk to Thug often. It’s one of those things I try to keep off my mind. If I think about it too much, I get deep into it. It’s the fact that I know the situation of where we are and what we’ve overcome. I know them personally. I know what they’re doing and what they are not to a certain extent. To know the picture that they are painting isn’t really them. It’s really scary. I’m in that same position. They could be painting the same picture to me. I know for a fact that’s not what it is. But I’m also seeing people in jail when I know it’s not what it is. It kind of (expletive) with your insanity a little bit.

Since you communicate with Thug the most, what advice have you given him?

I tell him to read. This is a time when we got to do what we to get through this situation. Just read. Stack up on your knowledge. It’s nothing else to do. Get you some real good books. Let that be the reason.

I inspire my kids to be business owners and legacy holders. I’m a first generation millionaire. I’m trying to keep it going for as long as possible. So my children are in a big situation. They hold the fire, really. I created it as the first generation. I’m going to make sure I pass it on. They have to make sure they pass it onto the next generation and so forth.