“I seen what I seen, I guess that mean hold him down if he say he can’t breathe.” “I find it crazy the police’ll shoot you and know that you dead but still tell you to freeze,” he raps, in a mournful but steadily intensifying cadence. He’s already clocked two studio albums, six mixtapes, dozens of singles and scads of guest appearances after just four years as a full-time artist.īut “The Bigger Picture” captured something fans new and old needed to hear. Lil Baby had been immersed in the local scene since Kevin “Coach K” Lee, the chief operating officer of Quality Control, noticed his potential as a 17-year-old selling weed to artists at recording sessions. “My Turn” and his myriad past mixtapes and records had always documented the tolls of injustice - “Honestly, if you’re a real fan and listen, you know ‘Bigger Picture’ is something I rap about all the time,” he said. “The Bigger Picture” was, in a year of several uncompromising tracks about police and the failed justice system, a standout on its June release, just weeks after Floyd’s killing. Everything happens for a reason.”īaby’s Grammy nominations came for one big reason in particular. I almost feel like I got robbed, but I ain’t gonna stop. My album’s strong enough to ride it out till the end, though. Hopefully, with the vaccine, stuff will be open next summer. “I haven’t been able to take it all in, because I haven’t gotten fruits of my labor yet.
“That’s the bittersweet part about it,” Baby said. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)īut it’s a weird feeling to be at the top of your career and locked inside like this, with everyone afraid to be together. It felt like entering a laboratory working on something dangerous, or maybe a Scandinavian jail. Members of Baby’s team nervously flitted from room to room - a manager, a designer, a few reps working with the rapper’s Quality Control label (the firm that helped break Migos and City Girls).
Hands were sanitized, masks proffered and an assistant briskly dragged newcomers through a hallway and parked them in an all-white, furniture-less room where a HEPA air filter hummed at full speed. Guests signed a thick waiver stating that they haven’t had any COVID-19 symptoms, freeing the studio from liability if they catch the virus inside. Outside a recording studio on the southern edge of Hollywood, in the alley of a windowless concrete bunker of a building, a security guard in a black suit and earpiece first took a Times writer’s temperature behind a floor-to-ceiling wall of plexiglass. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, the “Rockstar” became the 20th act to claim the top two spots on the chart at the same time.If you want to talk with Lil Baby in the pandemic-darkened winter of 2020, you have to go through some formidable security. Lil Baby: Twelve songs off of “My Turn” appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 in March, giving Lil Baby a career total of 47 tracks on the chart, which tied him with a couple of legends: Prince and Paul McCartney.ĭaBaby: When the remix of Jack Harlow’s “Whats Poppin,” featuring DaBaby, Tory Lanez and Lil Wayne, hit No. Lil Baby: His track “Catch the Sun” was featured in the 2019 film “Queen & Slim.”ĭaBaby: He released a “Bonnie and Clyde”-inspired short film for his single “Find My Way” in April.
Lil Baby: He appeared in the MTV stoner movie “How High 2” in 2019.ĭaBaby: He made a powerful Black Lives Matter statement at last month’s BET Awards by re-enacting George Floyd’s death.
Lil Baby: 1 (Best Rap/Sung Performance for “Drip Too Hard” in 2020)ĭaBaby: 2 (Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for “Suge” in 2020) TV close-up Debut albumĭaBaby: “Baby on Baby” (2019) DaBaby Getty Images for Hennessey Drake collabĭaBaby: “Oprah’s Bank Account” (with Lil Yachty) Grammy nominations Lil Baby: When he was a kid, his older friends often called him “Lil Baby.”ĭaBaby: Formerly known as Baby Jesus, he thought his name had become a distraction, so he changed it to DaBaby. AgeĭaBaby: Charlotte, North Carolina Lil Baby WireImage How he got his handle Here, we break down the tale of the tape in summer’s biggest battle. 1 on the Billboard 200 - more than any other artist this year - while DaBaby’s “Rockstar” single, featuring Roddy Ricch, has occupied the summit of the Hot 100 for four weeks.Īnd these hot hip-hoppers - who traded rhymes on “Baby” in 2019 and a “Life Is Good” remix earlier this year - don’t show any signs of cooling off. The two rappers have been cradling the top spots on the charts: Lil Baby’s “My Turn” album has spent five weeks at No.
And it’s been all for Lil Baby and DaBaby. There’s been lots of Baby love going around this year.