Source: Rolling Stone / Rolling Stone
Lil Baby’s music is reigniting a firestorm of sociopolitical awareness in trap music lovers during an era where half of the country is struggling to understand why Black Lives Matter. His single “The Bigger Picture” amassed over 100 million streams since debuting on the charts, a clear indication that the world is paying attention to what the superstar has to say.
Source: Rolling Stone / Rolling Stone
If you ask him, though, he’s not protesting. He’s just keeping it real with us.
In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Lil Baby details the creative process behind the chart-topping single. “I just rap about my life — all my songs are basically about me,” he explains. “It was at a point where I felt I needed to say something.”
When it comes to his views on racism, it isn’t textbook the way society would classify it. Black people can be racist, too.
“To me, a racist is someone who treats a different race than theirs a different way than they would treat theirs. I feel like if you’re a black person and you treat all black people one way and all white people one way, you’re racist. I’m not a racist, so I give a white person a chance to talk and actually we get into it before I can say I don’t like you or not. And I feel the same way about a black person. You ain’t gon’ be my buddy just ’cause you’re black. Just straight up.”
Police brutality and the prison system has also been a daunting theme in the Atlanta rapper’s life.
“I’ve been a victim of police brutality. I’ve been in prison where white officers control you. I’ve been in a court system where white judges give you a different time than they would give someone white. There have been times I had a physical altercation with an officer, and he then grabbed me and took me to a room where there’s no camera. We have a physical altercation and left me in a room for about an hour. I’m in there yelling and screaming. I’m so accustomed to it, we don’t even make it no big deal.”
And to think Lil Baby avoided rapping at one point in his life. Check out the Rolling Stone feature story right here.
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