South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Lil Baby feels anything can happen
While Lil Baby’s new album blares loudly in the living room, the Atlantaborn rapper stands in the kitchen of his $20 million Bel Air home in Los Angeles singing to his son, who dances along on FaceTime.
For Lil Baby, living in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the U.S. 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.
Lil Baby, 27, rose to remarkable success. He won over listeners through his infectious singles like “Drip Too Hard,” “We Paid” and “Yes Indeed” with Drake. He has 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 Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) “Hurricane,” which also featured the Weeknd. His third studio album, “It’s Only Me,” was recently released as well.
This interview with Lil Baby has edited for clarity and length.
Q: You’ve overcome being a high school dropout and bounced back from serving time in prison. How does it feel now to be successful? A:
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.
Q: When did you realize you were good with formulating words together? A:
Language arts was one of my favorite classes. I could imagine and really write a story about whatever. … 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.
Q: Your protest song “The Bigger Picture” was a big hit at the Grammys. Will you do more racial disparity-type topics in your new music? A:
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.
Q: You were singing to your son over FaceTime. How do you juggle being a rap star and father of two? A:
Everything is great, except me being in this position, I just don’t have enough time as I want. I want to be there, but I want to build this legacy. … That’s the only problem I have in life: finding time with my kids. I can say that I don’t want to go to work and have all the time in the world for them. But that won’t lead to the life I want to build for them or the life I want for myself.
Oct. 30 birthdays: Singer Eddie Holland is 83. Singer Otis Williams is 81. Actor Henry Winkler is 77. Journalist Andrea Mitchell is
76. Actor Harry Hamlin is
71. Actor Kevin Pollak is 65. Actor Michael Beach is 59. Musician Gavin Rossdale is 57. Actor Nia Long is 52. Actor Matthew Morrison is 44. Actor Janel Parrish is 34.