Atlanta rapper Lil Baby is undoubtedly one of the most popular artists in hip-hop right now. With a knack for putting rhymes together and the power of Coach K’s Quality Control behind him, the rapper (real name Dominque Jones) has recently been unstoppable.
However, although the QC emcee has the swagger and jewellery of his emcee peers, he lacks one thing: tattoos. Fortunately, the lyricist (real name Dominique Jones) explained why in an interview with The New York Times.
Explaining why he never sought to ink his body, Jones unveiled, “I never saw me being a rapper! A big-dog dope boy, that’s it. Not even just a dope boy. That’s why I ain’t got no tattoos, because I always knew I was going to run my money up, and I was going to have to sit in front of some people to do something with my money. And I didn’t want them to look at me like a dope boy.”
He continued, “I had to keep my appearance straight. I literally said, ‘When I sit down in front of these white folks, I don’t want to have no tattoos.’ In a way, it’s still that today. Because when I’m sitting in these meetings, I don’t have tattoos on my face. I know they’d have to think something if I’ve got tattoos on my face.”
Lil Baby’s reasons for not getting any tattoos seem sensible and, in fact, very smart as a slew of artists, such as Lil Xan and The Island Boys, who no longer chart, got face tattoos during their heyday that they can no longer remove.
In his interview, Jones also admitted that he doesn’t see himself rapping forever and wants to get into the business side of hip-hop and play the role of Jay-Z or Russell Simmons, stating, “I don’t care about my own music. I really want to own a label — like Def Jam, though. Like Roc Nation. I’d rather go that way, where I manage a Selena Gomez and get 10% off of it. Where I’m not even on the scene no more.”
He concluded, “That’s my mindset. Boy, if I can pop two artists right now, I’m down to slow up on what I got going on, straight up. Why wouldn’t I? I can make the same money and I don’t have to be catching all these planes.”
You can hear Lil Baby speak about his lack of tattoos in the video below.
