Why Lil Baby really hates doing interviews
Atlanta lyricist Lil Baby is one of the most popular rappers of the new generation, and since his emergence in 2017 the emcee has accrued over 11 billion streams and produced over three multi-platinum bodies of work, with the most recent, It’s Only Me, managing to top the Billboard 200.
As well as releasing successful solo albums, the rapper has also appeared on singles with everyone from Future to DaBaby, Drake and Kanye West. With a knack for putting rhymes together and the power of Coach K’s Quality Control behind him, the rapper has recently been unstoppable.
Since signing with QC in 2017 for the release of his debut mixtape, Lil Baby has been on the up, and since he was thrust into the limelight, he has managed to become a figure worth over $5million. In fact, at one point, he began charging his peers over $250,000 for a verse telling fans on X (formerly Twitter), “Ain’t doing no more features unless it’s worth it, I got too many. At this point, it’s safe to say I want 100k for a feature.”
Despite the mega-fame, unfathomable amount of success and media interest, Lil Baby is not a fan of interviews and hasn’t been for a long time. In a 2020 interview with the New York Times, the Atlant native explained why he no longer does them, stating, “I don’t got a thrill for it. Fashion show in Paris, like … cool [shrugs]. I think I got that from prison. Like, just, you’re there, but you’re not there.”
Although he may come across as braggadocious, Lil Baby admitted that, at heart, he just wants to live a lowkey life, adding, “I really want to own a label like Def Jam [or] like Roc Nation. I’d rather go that way, where I manage a Selena Gomez and get 10 percent off of it. Why wouldn’t I? I can make the same money, and I don’t have to be catching all these planes.”
Lil Baby expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with Charlemagne Tha God and DJ Envy during an appearance on the radio show The Breakfast Club. When asked by the host, “What was the last f*ckshit you had to deal with in the industry?” the emcee responded, “Interviews! I really don’t like talking. I don’t even know how to talk, I just don’t. It’s like an interrogation. You’re in the hot seat, you know what I mean?”
Although Lil baby has only been in the public eye, it would appear he is already tired of it and, in the future, plans on taking more of a role behind the scenes in music management and business akin to Jay-Z, 50 Cent and the now-disgraced Revolt TV founder Diddy.