♪ ♪
LIL BABY: I dreamed about this shit as a kid.
I could zone out for hours and just be in a fairyland.
I'm-a be a real millionaire.
Like...
boss, like, take care of everybody, the leader.
That's what I was aiming for.
I ain't know how.
Man, ain't no telling what I would've did.
But I was gonna get there.
No matter what.
(engine revs)
(engine rumbling)
♪ ♪
DJ ENVY: It's crazy 'cause we seen... we seen the growth.
(engine revs)
ROB MARKMAN: It's not like you came up wanting to rap.
(engine rumbling)
MAN: If you wasn't rapping, what would you be doing?
MAN 2: One foot in the street
and one foot trying to learn music.
Rapping is something that's new for you,
and now you in this industry.
-(siren wailing) -WOMAN: You got all these meetings.
You got to show up. You got to do these interviews.
I don't think people realize how much work you've put in, right?
DJ AKADEMIKS: When you're on such a run--
in the last two years, we're putting out
-hit after hit. -(snapping fingers)
(crowd cheering)
Here with the song "Yes Indeed," Lil Baby!
(crowd cheering)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: You come from a certain environment...
...and now you a mega rap star.
An artist with the number one album in the world.
BIG BOY: Those numbers are impressive, man.
Do those numbers kind of trip you out, though?
YARA SHAHIDI: And the BET Award goes to
-Lil Baby. -(crowd cheering)
ARI MELBER: Do you know why that is? Do you know why you blew up quickly?
-Do you think about it? -MAN 3: Do you feel like
going forward, you still gonna always feel like
you got something to prove?
PIERRE THOMAS: Your breakthrough come from your sacrifice.
♪ ♪
MAN: Baby's coming down. Speed cameras.
LIL BABY: Them dreams I had...
...it was like something that could actually be real.
♪ ♪
(boys chattering indistinctly)
JASON: Papa? Papa, you here?
-Papa? -Papa?
-Papa, where you at, Papa? -(babbling)
Dada?
-Dada? Dada? -Dada? Dada?
JASON: Papa?
-(babbling) -I'm not leaving you.
(playfully): I'm not leaving you.
I'm not leaving you. I'm not leaving you.
I'm not leaving you.
I'm not leaving you. I'm not leaving you.
(babbling)
Open. Say "open."
-(babbling) -(chuckles): Say "open."
Say "open."
"Thank you."
-(babbles) -(chuckles)
-It's cold out there. -Cold. I know it.
Gonna have to put on like two layers of clothes.
Two layers of...?!
-Are you serious? -(grunts)
Let's go get layered up.
Did you just say I got to put two pants on,
two shirts, two jackets?
-LIL BABY: Yep. -What?!
LIL BABY: Family more important to me than anything.
I don't never see me leaving my kids.
Like, I don't want to be no holiday dad
and I just talk to you.
Put your jacket on.
LIL BABY: My dad kind of stayed out of town.
He was like, uh, I see him every now and then,
couple times a year.
I can't really say to this day the situation him and my mama had,
so I don't just have that father-son relationship that I would want.
Or I feel like that I should've had.
(engine starts)
You're too big to fit in this.
LIL BABY: My son ask me stuff like that, like,
"You used to do this with your daddy?"
And my answer's like, "No."
I really want him to understand that, like,
everybody don't be having that growing up.
I ain't have it.
(shouting playfully)
Turn the wheel.
-Huh? -Turn the wheel.
He a hell of a five-year-old.
Hey, pull up. We'll try it all day tomorrow.
So, in the morning, you'll get it faster and faster?
Come on. Yep.
I want it faster, faster, faster, faster, faster.
You want it to be a little bit faster?
No, I want it to be fast fast.
LIL BABY: He tell me that, "I want to do everything you do."
Hit the brake, hit the brake, hit the brake.
LIL BABY: He like, "I want to do what you do."
-(grunts) -(chuckles)
And that means the most to me. Like...
I take that shit serious.
(both grunt)
I thought I was gone, boy.
Thought I was gone!
♪ ♪
LIL BABY: I got so long to go with him
that I got to be on my shit, you feel me?
I could fuck up and he could be like me.
(engine buzzing)
LASHAWN JONES: All right, Dominique!
-Look at me go! -You having a merry Christmas?
You having a merry Christmas?
I'm having a good merry Christmas.
Ooh, you go, boy. Uh-oh.
-Merry Christmas. -You go, boy. Merry Christmas.
LASHAWN: What's your name?
-Dominique Armani Jones. -Dominique Armani Jones?
His teacher once told me, she said,
"Dominique hasn't been in my class in 60 days.
"I gave a test. He show up.
He the only one passed this." (chuckles)
And that was economics.
Very smart.
Genius, basically.
-Do you have any siblings? -(kids chattering)
-Deja. You know her, don't you? -I sure do.
Oh, you know how old Deja is.
Oh, Deja's 11!
All right, that's a blessing.
Oh... (babbling)
But me eight, oh, Lord.
-You eight? -(stammers) I mean...
-Oh, my goodness. -Michelle is-- I mean...
-GIRL: Nine. -Michelle is nine.
-LASHAWN: Oh, okay. -Excuse me.
You ain't in my conversation.
-And how old are you? -Let's pull the curtains down.
-Dominique? -Hello.
And I'm seven years old!
-And I am a... -Put that, uh, thing back, honey.
...muscle man!
LASHAWN: Me, him and his sisters have always been close.
It's always been the four of us.
Well, I was really just struggling with them
and just being a single parent.
What are your parents' names?
Well, I really don't, you know...
Oh, Lord, don't tell me no...
...have any.
-Because, you know... -Put that down.
Times tough. My mother broke up with my father.
LASHAWN: When he left me, he left them.
That's basically how it went.
Oh, Dominique,
don't cry.
-(fussing) -Don't cry, Dominique.
(indistinct chatter, laughter)
LIL BABY: Growing up,
I ain't have the picket fence and the silver spoon.
My mama was a single parent.
A lot of times, she couldn't afford to pay our rent, so we got evicted.
So we just got to, like, try to make ends meet.
MAURICE HOBSON: My name is Maurice Hobson.
I am a political historian, a civil rights historian
and Atlanta scholar.
Black people are not monolithic.
There are all kinds of Black folk who have all different ideas and values,
but the one thing that Black people,
and particularly Black people in the American South,
all share is that oppression has been overwhelming.
NEWSMAN: Locally, it was the city of Atlanta's big day.
HOBSON: On September 18, 1990,
Atlanta, Georgia, is chosen to host the 1996 Olympic Games.
Atlanta.
(crowd cheering)
HOBSON: Once Atlanta wins the bid,
the city has to be franchised for world consumption.
They have to do an infrastructure shift.
Leading up to this, the city administration
creates a militarized police force called the Red Dog police
to clean the city up for the Olympic Games.
And it is a war that attacks Black people and brown people.
Federal funding for housing was cut by 75%,
and we see ordinances that are passed
that disfranchised and displaced poor people.
NEWSMAN: They could call for the demolition of the housing project
and relocation of the residents elsewhere.
Why should they tear it down just for three weeks for the Olympics?
Put all these people out of housing just for the Olympics?
HOBSON: Walls that are built on the side
of the interstate so that the poverty could not be seen,
because it was important for Atlanta to be seen
in a particular kind of way in the world.
While Atlanta does play a role in being
a place where Black people have been successful,
it also has been a place that has...
...been somewhat damaging to it-its poor people.
And one of the major communities that sees this is the West End.
LASHAWN: Oh, Dominique, put your coat on.
HOBSON: If you're born in this city and you're born poor
or if you live in one of the neighborhoods that has been destitute
or been starved out,
it's been difficult for you to move forward.
What Atlanta is overwhelmingly known for is,
if a child is born in poverty in this city,
most likely they'll remain in poverty their whole life.
(playful chatter)
Go!
I'm it, y'all.
Everybody, clap your hands!
(laughter, playful chatter continues)
If I wasn't stressing money,
I'd probably be in college, had got a great job type of shit.
But it's like money the root of all evil.
That's what deterred me.
♪ ♪
(siren wailing)
(indistinct chatter)
All the dudes who I hung with,
they way older than me.
At the time, I'm 15,
maybe they 23, 24, so I'm really a baby.
-Hey, hold up! -(excited chatter)
Y'all ain't gonna cheat me. Hell nah!
-How y'all been playing? -Hey, not so loud.
How y'all been playing? How y'all been playing?
(excited chatter continues)
I really ain't have nobody to hang with but them.
Like, them was the only niggas around.
(indistinct chatter)
Dudes who was my age, all them went to jail
or dead or some other shit.
I just started being Lil Baby, like, "You the little baby out the crew."
What the fuck you talking about?!
We ain't down with a motherfucking rat, nigga!
LASHAWN: He started even looking up to the drug dealers because it's the streets.
"I could be making some money."
I think that was his process.
LIL BABY: They ain't on no bullshit.
They like grown men handling they business,
so it's like I had to get on what they was on.
I started hanging around them. I started wanting to hustle.
They was hustlers.
They took me in.
♪ ♪
(birds chirping)
MAN: Y'all see what's going on. Shit, y'all see--
This-this the hood.
MAN 2: Niggas done made it out of poverty
-round this motherfucker. -Yeah.
Straight up, though.
Straight up.
Y'all got my mic good right here and get what I say.
Baby used to come spend the night over here, too, man.
Like we say, we-we all kind of, like, hustled out of here,
spent the night, you know what I'm saying, grew up here.
A lot of stuff went down right here, all type of things.
Feel what I'm saying, man?
But it's basically where everything started.
♪ ♪
I mean, trying to get out of poverty
always hard when you don't know the best way.
This was our best way, you know what I'm saying,
of being an entrepreneur was, you know what I'm saying,
try to get us some money.
When Baby hopped out when he was 15, 16,
it's like, he had to pay bills, basically.
He ain't-- he-he really ain't have the chance
to kind of, like, be a kid almost.
He was just like-- he had to provide for his family.
That's-- basically, that's all we was trying to do, provide.
♪ ♪
(indistinct chatter)
MAN: Without money, who is a person without money?
In this society right now, how long would it take a person
who going to work to accumulate 10,000 in profit money?
How long would it take you to make 10,000?
Lil Baby might be walking around with 10,000 on him,
going to school, eighth, ninth grade.
That's what I'm telling you. It got that serious.
(indistinct police radio chatter)
YOUNG THUG: I always knew him, though.
I always knew him from, like, probably like ten, 11 years old.
We went to different schools, but we-- I used to-- we used to, like,
skip school and go to each other's schools and shit, you know what I'm saying?
And it was like, well, we just started hanging like, "This my brother."
♪ ♪
He was always the guy that everybody loved.
Always, from a kid to now.
He was always verified 'cause he always kept good business.
He always did everything the right way.
He a real hustler.
He always was a money getter.
So with or without rap, he was gonna get some money.
Like, he was fucking up millions of dollars
before he made one song.
He was fucking up millions of dollars.
♪ ♪
LIL BABY: I never wanted to be a rapper.
I was already young and turnt in the streets.
(excited chatter)
I just knew I had it all figured out.
I felt like I already made it.
I had money, girls, cars.
(lively chatter)
I was at the top of the top.
I was having a blast.
But shit was starting to get crazy.
(siren wailing)
YOUNG THUG: We had a lot of fucking serious moments.
He ain't used to like to talk to me 'cause
I'm-a talk to his ass for two hours on the phone,
and I'm-a tell him what he do wrong like, "Nigga, you doing dickhead shit.
You stupid."
But he never listened to nobody.
He was gonna get some money, no matter what.
I always was mad at him like, "Nigga, listen.
"Nothing come out of what you doing but prison or death.
"Nothing else.
It's no such thing as you made it with the way you doing it."
(sirens wailing)
(sirens stop)
(cell door slides, slams)
(camera clicks)
♪ ♪
You ever heard of the saying "make you or break you"?
Like, it's either gonna make you or break you.
And meaning, like, make you, make you into something
or break you down.
You have to be strong to just sit in this motherfucker.
Just sit here.
And niggas yelling.
He banging on the door. He running around. He--
It's a whole nother world.
In prison, you spend a lot of time alone.
You have a whole lot of time to think about
what's going on around you.
America has a system in place.
JOE BIDEN: It doesn't matter whether or not they were deprived as a youth.
It doesn't matter whether or not they had no background
that enabled them to become socialized
into the fabric of society.
It doesn't matter whether or not they're the victims of society.
LIL BABY: And the system's been around for a long, long time.
(clock ticking)
And it's designed for us to fail.
They must be taken off the street.
LIL BABY: I ain't want to be there, period,
but I had to be there, but I won't let my mind be there.
And my body a lot of places that my mind never go.
I force myself to do that.
For good and for bad.
And I learned that the most in prison.
All right, appreciate it, bruh.
THOMAS: I'm Pierre Thomas.
Everybody call me P.
I'm the CEO of Quality Control Music.
(indistinct chatter, laughter)
I'm from the Southwest side of Atlanta.
♪ ♪
(barking)
Baby was already like family.
We already knew each other.
We been around each other since he was like 15.
I know Baby from walking in trap houses,
and...
he was in there...
with things I can't speak about.
It's like a jungle out there in them streets.
When I was coming up, you know, when you come out your door,
the person that you see with a nice car is a, is a drug dealer.
When you poor, people can't even afford to, like,
go travel and go see the world or whatever,
so your neighborhood-- that's really your world.
And if the only people you see that have money or nice things
is the drug dealers, then that's--
it's just natural that that's what you gonna look up to.
(camera clicking)
I been there.
I done that.
I survived that.
Everybody around me like,
"Yo, bro, you want to see your kids grow up.
You want to grow old."
So I was trying to get in the music business
as a way to just try to get out of the streets,
you know what I'm saying, get away from that life.
(sirens wailing)
I started the label along with my partner Coach K.
COACH K: Coach K.
I'm cofounder of Quality Control Music.
I managed Gucci Mane.
Before that, Jeezy.
Me and P got together.
When we started this company, we was dreaming really big.
Our first act was the Migos.
Soon as we signed them, we went right in.
What's up, man? It Quavo's time, man.
COACH K: During that time, man, we was really creating history.
How many number one singles y'all got now? As QC?
COACH K: I mean, Quality Control is culture.
(cheering, applause)
That's kind of the philosophy, man.
It's like, originality
and there's a story attached to that.
Kind of have, like, a-a little secret sauce
or kind of like a program.
Find talent, the diamond in the rough talent,
and develop it to become some of the biggest artists.
♪ ♪
THOMAS: If I just see the potential in them,
then we can develop it.
It's the smallest things that catches us, you know.
It's like we can see a star before it shines.
(birds chirping)
-(indistinct chatter) -(basketball bouncing)
THOMAS: Baby was always around.
He used to hang at the studio every day.
He just wasn't no artist.
MAN: Oh, you can keep going.
I know that shit ain't gonna never go in.
THOMAS: When you get out, just come up here,
you know what I'm saying?
That nigga can't hit it from the front.
LIL BABY: Put your money down, dawg.
-MAN: I bet a hundred. -Whatever.
THOMAS: "Just pop up on us
when you get out."
That's what he did.
(indistinct chatter)
MAN: Hey!
COACH K: He was young, but he moved like a O.G.
He caught my eye.
He's like, "You'll just see a nigga just do one move,
"and it's like, 'Okay, you're a superstar.'
You just-- you know."
Lil Baby's naturally different.
In all his Instagram posts, he used to--
all his captions and shit used to be fire.
I'm like, "Damn, this hard. Who said this?"
I done called him before like, "Hey, who the hell said this?
Wh-Where-where that caption come from?"
He like, "I just thought of it."
He could just write a song
with just fucking 60 captions, just all captions.
That's a song.
I was like, "Man, Baby, you need to rap, bro."
He was like, "Man, you crazy. I'm a street nigga, man.
I don't... um, I don't do none of that shit."
I said, "For real, man." I said, "Bruh."
I said, "You respected around the city.
"Most of the rappers, you know,
"the street guys is really who they look up to.
"I don't know why you won't do it.
"Most of these guys telling your story.
You know, your story real."
He just laughed.
Just think if he rapped and
it didn't work.
Now your street credibility's fucked-up.
He was so respected as a dope boy,
as a street cat, he didn't want to tarnish that.
THOMAS: It's hard to tell somebody
to stop making money, right-now money.
You know, you still got to pay bills.
You still got family.
I ain't want to see him just
get caught back up and go back to prison, you know?
YOUNG THUG: I used to pay this nigga to goddamn stay out of the streets.
"Nigga, you can have my money. Just relax."
I really will sacrifice anything because I see that it can happen.
"What you finna make today? 20,000? Okay, here.
"20,000. You don't even owe me.
Hey, go home." I used to tell him to go home.
"You don't even got to go to the studio," like.
I'm like, "Okay, you don't got to rap. Here, bruh, go home.
Get the fuck out of the block, bro. Go chill with your son, nigga."
He could've said, "Give me a million dollars,"
I would've gave it to him to stay out the street.
♪ ♪
LIL BABY: It's a cycle.
(engine buzzing)
You go to jail, you get out, but you keep hustling
because you don't know nothing else.
MAN: You are recording.
-The red light's on. -LASHAWN: Yeah.
LIL BABY: When they call that shit a trap, that shit really a trap.
MAN: All right, on your mark!
LIL BABY: Your mind trapped, your brain trapped, your body trapped.
You in a trap.
MAN: Get set!
LIL BABY: Not knowing it's a whole nother world only two streets over.
MAN: Go!
LIL BABY: You don't know. I ain't know.
-LASHAWN: Come on, Dominique! Come on, Dominique! -(clapping)
(laughter, whooping)
LIL BABY: I couldn't go back to prison.
I had to at least try.
♪ ♪
When I first tried rapping, I didn't know what I was doing.
I was self-conscious.
Then I started playing around in the studio
with my buddy Marlo.
Marlo was also in the streets, and he was trying to rap, too,
so it gave me a better sense of direction.
Marlo.
Come on.
♪ See my dawg brain laying on the street ♪
Play, play the whole verse over.
-♪ That shit scarred me ♪ -(music stops)
♪ See my dawg's brain laying on the street ♪
♪ That shit scarred me ♪ Come on.
♪ See my dawg brain laying ♪
♪ See my dawg's brain laying on the street ♪
♪ That shit scarred me ♪
I made my first song with Marlo.
Keep that.
Play it. Let me know how it sounds.
It was kind of hard, so that's why I kept rapping.
Marlo was a big influence on me rapping.
("I Remember" by Marlo playing)
♪ And kept them real niggas around me ♪
♪ I remember sitting right there on the block ♪
♪ And I remember nights I couldn't get right ♪
♪ I remember shit wasn't adding up ♪
♪ I remember having my pistol tucked ♪
-♪ When 12 ride by... ♪ -(song fades)
THOMAS: Instantly, I started brainstorming.
Marlo was running with Baby.
Him and Baby was cool.
If this his partner and he trying to rap, too,
then I could just push them together.
So I just told Marlo, I was like, "Yo, I'll sign you, too."
You know, this shit working for me,
and I'm sort of figuring it out, so let me, let me empower them.
Let me show them how to get in this game.
♪ ♪
COACH K: Once Baby decided he wanted to rap,
it was like the perfect storm for P,
'cause P was like, "Oh, I'm ready to put everything into you."
THOMAS: Like, I know Baby.
We done been through some things before music,
so it was personal to me.
PILOT: A very full flight today.
(over P.A.): We do appreciate your cooperation.
Your flight to LaGuardia, New York. Once again...
THOMAS: I'm in this grind with y'all.
I got to do what I got to do to get this dude.
You know, I'm trying to break this dude.
(line ringing)
This ain't no one-hit-wonder shit. These niggas gon' keep coming.
-(elevator bell dings) -AUTOMATED VOICE: First floor.
MAN: What up, B? Nice to meet you.
I know you 'bout to be the next big thing, so I got to...
I said, I'm hands-on with this.
I said, I'm-I'm on the ground with this.
I'm personally touching this.
Lil Baby, do you see this email?
You don't even understand how big this is.
(horn honking)
DJ ENVY: Morning, everybody!
It's DJ Envy, Angela Yee, Charlamagne tha God.
We are The Breakfast Club.
We got some special guests in the building!
CHARLAMAGNE: My name is, uh, Lenard McKelvey,
professionally known as Charlamagne tha God.
MAN: Charlamagne tha God interview, take one.
Soft stick, mark.
The Breakfast Club is just a nationally syndicated radio show
that comes on in over a hundred markets.
Think we got like 4.5 million listeners a week or something like that.
Or daily. I don't know.
I just-- it's a, it's a, it's a pretty big deal.
-Jay-Z. Yes. -Jay-Z, ladies and gentlemen.
Gucci Mane.
-Snoop Dogg! -What it do?
What's happening, Breakfast Club?
Artists come on Breakfast Club,
immediately their followers grow on social media,
immediately their streams go up.
People that may not have known who these individuals were before,
now they gravitate towards them a little bit more.
A lot of cases, you know, Breakfast Club is
their first, like, "mainstream" look, so to speak.
(indistinct talk radio chatter)
WOMAN (over radio): ...refreshing wintry vapor
and a ceramic wick for a flavorful...
MAN: Two, four.
Come on, man, let me go to sleep.
Get you some rest. Yeah, I'll get you some rest.
I've been at it.
COACH K: Baby is closed in.
Like, he's not all on social media.
He don't do a lot of interviews.
Shit, we had to pull-- we have to be pull his--
"Come on," you know, to do interviews
because he-he's just kind of a private guy.
Ready when you guys are.
-What's up? I'm P. -And I'm Lil Baby.
Watch me tomorrow morning on The Breakfast Club
only on Revolt TV.
MAN: One more time, just a lot louder, please.
-What's up? -Absolutely.
Lil Baby, what's happening?
CHARLAMAGNE: A street nigga transitioning.
You know what I mean? (chuckles)
A brother from the hood, for real, for real,
who's just making the transition.
DJ ENVY: He started rapping a year ago.
-Yeah. -CHARLAMAGNE: Why you didn't want to rap, Lil Baby?
I wasn't really into rap, you know what I'm saying?
How hard is the transition from the streets to the, to the,
-to the music industry? -Super hard.
A lot of stuff I got to do, like, I don't really care to do, but...
-DJ ENVY: You got to do it for free. -Know what I'm saying? I got to do it.
ANGELA: And you do this Breakfast Club interview.
CHARLAMAGNE: What's the motivation, then?
When you sit him down in front of a microphone
and you got cameras rolling...
That be the hard part for me.
Like, we got to drive six hours for a show
and I pick up 2,500 on the back end or something.
Somebody might be happy to get on the road and drive ten hours for 2,500,
but me, I'm like, "Man, I ain't-- I don't want to go."
Appreciate you, bro.
THOMAS: There was a few times in the beginning
it was really difficult.
He was like, "I ain't with this."
I used to be sending Baby out on promo runs
and, um, you know, just all the stuff
that a-a developing artist got to go do.
(rap music playing)
He used to be calling me back like,
"Boy, I ain't making no money. It's three people in the crowd."
MAN (over speakers): Where my Lil Baby fans at in this motherfucker?
We finna turn this motherfucker up, bro.
Lil Baby in your city right now!
("All of a Sudden" by Lil Baby and Moneybagg Yo playing)
What you say?
♪ I can't be toting no handguns ♪
-♪ Unless that bitch come with a 30 ♪ -What?
♪ I can't be fucking these dog hoes ♪
♪ Unless that bitch come with a buddy... ♪
THOMAS: I used to be like, "You got to go do this.
"Don't think about money right now.
"Just think about putting yourself in front of a crowd of people.
Your breakthrough come from your sacrifice."
For Baby, the sacrifice was
giving up fast money that you getting every day in the streets...
...for a rap career...
(camera clicking)
...that it ain't guaranteed you gonna make it.
♪ ♪
MAN: We make sure we doing that.
That way, when you bringing him out-- like, if I'm, uh...
if I'm, uh, in the crowd, I-I'm learning with you.
I say "Lil," y'all say "Baby."
Lil. "Baby." Lil. "Baby."
You know, and then by the time it's time to bring him out,
-it's already a vibe. -MAN 2: It's already a vibe.
Some of the stuff I'm-a... I'm-a mute it, 'cause I'm-a let you go over the crowd.
Like, yo.
I got to learn how to talk to the crowd. I don't talk to the crowd.
-WOMAN: Yeah, that's-that's his problem. -Like, I don't talk to the crowd.
-Like, he really don't. -I don't say shit.
And even like, like I told you, some of the shows
-that is there, he walk off. -I swear to God I don't say shit.
I get... I walk straight off.
Now, he might be like, "Thank y'all for coming," and walk off.
Yeah, like, why don't you stay and talk to them?
(singing gibberish)
They the crowd right there. Y'all gon' get hype.
-I'm-a talk my shit. (laughs) -Go on, talk it.
We gon' run through it.
-So... -You can't be scared, 'cause I'm scared already.
Both of us can't be scared.
When I first walked on the stage, you can see it in the video.
(stammers, laughs)
I froze up. I was like, "Oh, shit."
♪ ♪
COACH K: He was given that opportunity and took a chance.
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
-I remember one night -(slapping hands)
and he sent me a song.
And I opened it up and I listened to it,
and I was like, "Oh, shit.
He's got the one now."
MAN: You ready, Baby? Put your headphones on, man,
so you can hear what's going on.
Man, we on the radio. It's about to go down.
-What song is this? -Gonna be "My Dawg."
-MAN: "My Dawg"? -Yeah, "My Dawg."
♪ Niggas having pressure 'bout a bitch ♪
♪ I got all my cases dismissed ♪
♪ I don't go back and forth on the Internet ♪
♪ Real niggas don't get into that ♪
♪ I'm trying to get in her mouth, for real ♪
♪ I'm trying to get in her mouth ♪
♪ Me and my dawgs, me and my dawgs ♪
♪ We trying to run in your house ♪
♪ We want them bricks, we want the money ♪
♪ You can keep all of the pounds ♪
♪ I can't be fucking these little bitty bitches ♪
♪ 'Cause they be running they mouth ♪
♪ I'm really running H-Town ♪
♪ Franck Muller watch for my wrist ♪
-(screaming) -♪ Nother 30,000 in my fit ♪
♪ Codeine all in my piss... ♪
LIL BABY: When I made that song, I knew it was the one.
I was telling people like, "This gonna be the one. This the song."
COACH K: It was like he had found his swag,
and you could hear it all in that record.
-♪ That's my dawg, for sure ♪ -♪ My dawg ♪
-♪ That's my dawg ♪ -♪ My dawg ♪
-♪ That's my dawg, for sure ♪ -♪ My dawg ♪
-♪ That's my dawg ♪ -♪ My dawg ♪
-♪ Me and my dawg ♪ -♪ Me and my dawg ♪
-♪ We gave 'em two in a row ♪ -♪ Two in a row ♪
-♪ Me and my dawg ♪ -♪ Me and my dawg ♪
-♪ We gave 'em two in a row ♪ -♪ Two in a row... ♪
COACH K: It was a anthem.
If every person can sing it, rap it, and they feel like that's them,
those are the type of records that go.
(crowd rapping along): ♪ Niggas having pressure 'bout a bitch ♪
♪ I got all my cases dismissed ♪
♪ I don't go back and forth on the Internet ♪
♪ Real niggas don't get into that ♪
♪ I'm trying to get in her mouth, for real ♪
CROWD: ♪ I'm trying to get in her mouth ♪
♪ Yeah, me and my dawgs, me and my dawgs ♪
♪ We trying to run in your house. ♪
(song ends)
All right, cool.
CHARLES HOLMES: When Baby was first emerging on the scene
was when I was first becoming a journalist.
And my boss was like,
"Yo, QC's coming through
"and they're bringing this artist Lil Baby.
I want you to come down and just say hi."
I spent a couple hours with him.
I guess, put it, like, right in between...
HOLMES: Lil Baby was not media trained.
He was still very, very raw.
MAN: Uh, if we could get a little more blue...
HOLMES: But what I will say is that sometimes the best artists
create stuff that you don't understand.
And Lil Baby was creating art that I didn't understand.
It was so hyper-local to him and everything that he was going through.
♪ Shout-out my label, that's me ♪
♪ I'm in this bitch with TB ♪
♪ I'm in this bitch with 4-Trey ♪
♪ I just poured up me an eight ♪
♪ Real nigga all in my face ♪
♪ 500 racks in my safe... ♪
HOLMES: In those first, uh, videos like "Freestyle" and "My Dawg,"
he's creating this persona that is distilling
everything that people know about him in Atlanta:
that's he's-he's this prolific drug dealer,
that he's this amazing gambler,
that he's respected in the streets.
♪ They ain't my niggas no more ♪
♪ Hold it down for the four, in the nine with the woes ♪
♪ Marlo my dawg, that's for sure... ♪
HOLMES: And it introduced me to a world that
I knew existed, but the way he was telling those stories,
I was, I was blown away.
♪ Hardly ever in the city ♪
♪ They just know I'm getting bigger ♪
♪ They just know a nigga busy ♪
♪ I been running up them digits, yeah. ♪
-Yeah, that hard. Yeah. -Yeah. -(laughter)
(excited chatter)
HOLMES: If you look at those mixtapes
that he was doing sequentially,
Baby was not that great of a rapper on that first mixtape.
And within two to three mixtapes,
he's one of the best rappers in his city,
and soon after that, he's one of
the best rappers in the country.
And that only happens if you wake up every single day
and you're like, "I'm going to the studio, and I'm just gonna rap."
He just put in way more raps than everybody else around him.
♪ When you're rich like this, you don't check the forecast ♪
♪ Every day, it's gonna rain, yeah ♪
♪ Made a brick through a brick, I ain't whip up shit ♪
♪ This pure cocaine, yeah ♪
♪ From the streets, but I got a little sense ♪
♪ But I had to go coupe, no brain, coupe, no brain ♪
♪ I ain't worried 'bout you, I'm-a do what I do ♪
♪ And I do my thing, do my thing ♪
♪ Bought her brand-new shoes, told her... ♪
HOLMES: When you're looking at, like, the evolution of Baby,
I look at something like "Pure Cocaine."
The rapping that he's doing on that is so elastic.
He's fighting with the beat.
He's zooming in and out of pockets.
It's amazing.
Listen to, um, "Close Friends."
That's a ballad. That's an R&B ballad.
You could give that song to any R&B artist.
Would've been a hit.
-♪ We started off as close friends ♪ -♪ Close friends ♪
♪ Somehow you turned into my girlfriend ♪
♪ My girlfriend ♪
♪ We used to tell each other everything ♪
♪ Everything ♪
♪ I even went and bought her diamond rings ♪
♪ Matching earrings... ♪
CHARLAMAGNE: I'm the type of person,
I always love expecting the unexpected.
The way he was putting out mixtapes and putting out verses,
I meant that from the way he was getting better so fast.
(indistinct chatter)
Like, y-you could hear it on "Drip Too Hard."
Yeah, where y'all DJ?
("Drip Too Hard" by Lil Baby and Gunna playing)
CHARLAMAGNE: The flow,
the voice, the cadence, the lyrics,
but it was just something happening.
Every time you heard a Lil Baby project, every time you heard a Lil Baby verse,
I'm like, "Hold up.
"Lil Baby can rap.
"Like, nah, Lil Baby snapping.
Like, he's spitting spitting."
MAN (over speakers): Put your fucking hands up!
♪ You can get the biggest Chanel bag in the store ♪
♪ If you want it, I gave 'em the drip ♪
♪ They sucked it up, I got 'em on it ♪
♪ I bought a new Patek, I had the watch, so I two-toned 'em ♪
♪ Taking these drugs, I'm gon' be up until the morning ♪
♪ That ain't your car, you just a leaser, you don't own it ♪
♪ If I'm in the club, I got that fire when I'm performing ♪
♪ The back end just came in in all hundreds ♪
♪ Vibes galore, cute shit, they all on us ♪
♪ I'm from Atlanta, where young niggas run shit ♪
♪ I know they hating on me, but I don't read comments ♪
♪ Whenever I tell her to come, she coming ♪
♪ Whenever it's smoke, we ain't running ♪
♪ Drip too hard, don't stand too close ♪
♪ You gon' fuck around and drown off this wave ♪
♪ Doing all these shows, I've been on the road... ♪
I think, with Gunna, when those two came together,
that was one of the first real moments where I think everybody
collectively was like, "Lil Baby is the center of Atlanta now."
♪ Every other night, another movie get made ♪
♪ Every other night, another dollar getting made ♪
♪ Every other night started with a good day ♪
♪ I feel like a child, I got boogers in the face ♪
♪ Diamonds dancing in the dial like this shit is a parade... ♪
We showed brotherly love.
Like, we showed, like,
how two niggas can come together and get it.
Like, we showing, like,
our younger generation, like, we can do it.
♪ Drip too hard, charge it to the card ♪
♪ Designer to the ground, I can barely spell the name ♪
♪ Drip too hard, caution on the floor ♪
♪ You gon' fuck around and drown ♪
♪ Trying to ride a nigga wave ♪
♪ Drip too hard, don't stand too close ♪
♪ You gon' fuck around and drown off this wave ♪
♪ Doing all these shows, I've been on the road ♪
♪ I don't care where I go, long as I get paid. ♪
-(song ends) -(crowd cheering)
MAN (over speakers): London, make some noise
for Baby and Gunna one time!
GUNNA: History in the making.
Like, we young Black kings.
(crowd cheering)
(indistinct chatter)
Me and my motherfucking brother, we doing festivals and shit.
You know this shit. Know what I'm saying?
This shit like a dream come true, you know what I'm saying?
Niggas ain't doing this shit.
♪ Do this all the time, this ain't no surprise ♪
♪ Every other night, another movie get made. ♪
(gunfire sound effects playing)
-(song ends) -(crowd cheering)
LIL BABY: Growing up in the hood,
you never imagine being able to really see the world.
♪ ♪
TIFFANY CALVER: How have you found the U.K. and Europe?
At first, I ain't want to come.
-(Calver laughs) -I ain't want to come.
I tell Coach, like, "I ain't going over there."
-Why? -Once I-I-- you know, just--
I never been before, so, you know, I'm kind of like...
I ain't really that fond of trying new things.
Did you ever think you'd be this successful?
-(chuckles) -To the point we're playing your songs
nonstop in the U.K.
I always thought we would be big, but I didn't even know what big was.
(crowd cheering)
(indistinct chatter and shouting over speakers)
COACH K: We get to London,
then I took him to the hood so he can understand, like,
all hoods are the same; they just look different.
Or the language barrier might be a little different.
We went to Amsterdam, same thing.
We went to Paris, same thing.
(siren wailing)
As we were moving around, he started seeing it like,
"Oh, man. It's kind of like
the same situation that's going on back in the hood."
I'm like, "It is, man.
"It's just, you know, people might look a little different,
"and their language might be a little bit different,
but it's the same thing."
And I said, "Your story and your music,
it cuts through to all these people."
MAN (over speakers): Everybody, put your hands up!
MAN 2: Put your lights up like this,
and I want the lights off.
Put your lights up if you're ready to go crazy right now.
Let me hear you say, "Baby!"
CROWD (chanting): Baby! Baby!
Baby! Baby! Baby! Baby!
Baby! Baby!
MAN 3: Ladies and gentlemen,
all the way from ATL, I give you Lil Baby!
(cheering fades)
DRAKE: It's easy to-to hear all the great things
that people say about you.
They'll tell you you're the man one day, and the next day, opinions change.
You just got to just keep working.
You can't really acknowledge, uh, how well it's going.
You're gonna have to get better, right?
That's... that's just how the shit works.
You have to get better, right?
I think, as far as, you know, the legacy of music goes--
Forget hip-hop. Let's just talk about music, right?
'Cause really that's how we all want to be remembered.
Hip-hop and rap is great, but it's just a genre, you know?
There's plenty of other artists that have done
the exact same things, if not more, in other genres.
If you're really about this shit,
then you want to be remembered in the legacy of music.
(YNW Melly's "Take Kare" instrumental beat playing)
It's a pivotal moment for him.
It's just time to keep pushing forward.
(freestyling lyrics to beat, audio muffled)
♪ Yeah ♪
-♪ When I see you ♪ -♪ Yeah ♪
♪ How these niggas follow the leader, I'm in the lead, though? ♪
♪ You could've been quiet and silent, what you agree for? ♪
♪ You 'posed to be having your money, but now you need me ♪
♪ I ain't ever turn my back on a real one ♪
♪ Sipping all this purple, I'm hoping it make me feel better ♪
♪ I don't want a problem with bitches, so I don't deal with them ♪
♪ He did got away for the moment, but we gon' still get 'em ♪
♪ They ain't ever taking it from me 'cause I'm a real nigga. ♪
(song fades)
ETHIOPIA HABTEMARIAM: My name's Ethiopia Habtemariam.
I am the chairman and CEO of Motown Records.
You know, inside of the music industry or whatever,
you still have people who didn't really understand Baby.
-MAN: Lil Baby! -MAN 2: Another completely
unspectacular voice on this record has to be Lil Baby,
whose continued popularity just boggles my mind,
as he's maybe one of the most nondescript rappers out there right now.
They didn't understand what he was saying in records.
You know, you deal with that a lot sometimes with Southern hip-hop artists.
MAN 3: Lil Baby?
I have no idea what he's saying.
-(laughter) -I have none.
Some people are elitist, some people are, like, real hip-hop heads,
or some gatekeepers just don't see it yet.
They don't see it until there's a big album.
♪ ♪
It was towards the end of 2019.
He was on the road,
working all the time and creating new music.
We set up these listening sessions
to preview the music that was on My Turn.
THOMAS: Thank you for taking time out y'all day to come here today.
Baby 'bout to drop his album.
Been working on this album for over a year now.
How y'all doing? I appreciate y'all for coming out.
THOMAS: He gon' play some records for y'all,
hopefully one of the biggest albums of the year.
You know he always gon' deliver on his end with the hits.
We just need the support from the partners to... amplify it.
("Heatin' Up" by Lil Baby and Gunna playing)
♪ Cook that shit up, Quay ♪
People just got really excited.
He had some shit on there, and everybody knew it.
COACH K: That's a statement.
"It's my turn now."
...here to celebrate his new album.
-It's called My Turn. -(cheering)
This guy drops a album that everybody's just,
unanimously across the board, like,
"That's... that was, that was it."
I fucking knew it.
"Back when you was saying you couldn't sing
"and how I do this shit,
nigga, you knew."
Patiently waited his turn, and, pow,
showed them what he knew.
Another level.
-You could do 200 first week. -(Angela laughs)
You got to care about numbers a little bit.
Everywhere I went, it felt like a Lil Baby world.
And it was because of My Turn.
DRAKE: Baby came in with his own thing,
which is just, like, picking the hardest beats,
finding the craziest pockets, melodies, anthems.
MAN (over speakers): We got the number one artist
in the fucking world in the building right now.
What's up, DJ?
Now you'll hear someone's song and you'll be like,
"Ah, that sounds like Baby."
-My Turn just went double platinum! -(whooping)
He becomes the only artist in 2020 to do so.
DJ CARISMA: Only one. Only one.
My Turn from Lil Baby
was the highest selling album of all of 2020
in the entire music business.
Over, what, 12 billion global streams.
I don't even know what that means.
-How many zeros is that? -WOMAN: A lot.
DRAKE: He just continued to evolve.
This guy's the truth, you know? Like, his work ethic is-is up.
♪ I'm the one from the bottom who sold ♪
♪ All my partners them pounds, used to drive in a Buick. ♪
(rhythmic breathing)
(song fades)
♪ ♪
DRAKE: I wish he had really got to see the effects of his music.
ERIN BURNETT: Stay at home.
That is the order tonight from four state governors,
as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.
DRAKE: We were supposed to go on tour
in all the festivals and all the clubs and just...
I almost feel for him in a sense
because I wish the world was open, um, for him to...
to experience what that should've been.
It's like...
the hardest year maybe in human history that we've ever been through.
Forget music, just as a, as a, as a people.
Like, the hardest time to ever connect with people, relate to people.
It was clearly the biggest rap project of the year,
and what a tough time to deliver that.
(rap music playing faintly in distance)
LIL BABY: Being in quarantine made me think about what really matters.
I had the biggest album in the world,
but something still felt empty.
It made me look inwards.
It made me realize all the awards, all the numbers,
it don't mean anything.
NEWSMAN (over TV): Demonstrators gathering in Minneapolis
to protest the death of a Black man.
Video shows one officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes,
even after he pleaded that he couldn't breathe.
What began as a crowd of...
LIL BABY: This ain't something that's new to me.
It wasn't my first time seeing it.
I done seen the worst of the worst.
NEWSMAN: ...reportedly fired tear gas...
I done been in real physical altercations with police.
I been to prison.
You know, they do you any kind of way.
(crowd shouting)
CROWD (chanting): No justice, no peace!
Being Black is not a crime!
Same story every time!
Being Black is not a crime!
Don't shoot! Hands up! Don't shoot! Hands up!
Don't shoot!
Hands up! Don't shoot! Hands up! Don't shoot!
No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!
Being Black is not a crime!
LIL BABY: I think I got the same role as every other Black person.
(chanting fades)
Stick together, stand up for what we believe in.
And you got to voice it and speak it.
(police radio crackles)
♪ ♪
I try to make sure I put real life in my music.
We are tired.
We are tired of being beaten by policemen.
We're tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again.
(crowd clapping)
LIL BABY: We've been going through the same shit decade after decade.
Dramatic videotape obtained by Channel Five...
Obviously, we feel the, uh, evidence warranted a conviction.
NEWSMAN: The violence erupted after the acquittal of four white policemen
in the beating trial of Black motorist Rodney King.
No justice, no peace!
LIL BABY: I'm just the new generation to experience it.
NEWSMAN 2: The grand jury would not...
NEWSMAN 3: Grand jury declined to bring charges
against a white police officer in the death of an unarmed Black man.
(crowd chanting)
NEWSMAN 4: ...surveillance video of Ahmaud Arbery just before he was shot...
NEWSWOMAN: The man told the officer, "I can't breathe."
WOMAN: No one has been held accountable.
This is injustice.
LIL BABY: With my music,
I want to show people what's going on in our world.
-(crowd chanting) -(sirens whooping)
And what's continuing to go on.
("The Bigger Picture" by Lil Baby playing)
CROWD (chanting): I can't breathe!
♪ Trade my four-by-four for a G 63 ♪
♪ Ain't no more free Lil Steve ♪
♪ I gave 'em chance and chance and chance again ♪
♪ I even done told them please ♪
♪ I find it crazy the police'll shoot you ♪
♪ And know that you dead but still tell you to freeze ♪
♪ Fucked-up, I seen what I seen, I guess that mean ♪
♪ Hold him down if he say he can't breathe ♪
♪ It's too many mothers that's grieving, they killing us for no reason ♪
♪ Been going on for too long to get even, throw us in cages like dogs and hyenas ♪
♪ I went to court and they sent me to prison ♪
♪ My mama was crushed when they said I can't leave ♪
♪ First I was drunk, then I sobered up quick ♪
♪ When I heard all that time that they gave to Taleeb ♪
♪ He got a life sentence plus... ♪
Like throwing an ice-cold glass of water on somebody.
You didn't expect that, like, "Oh, shit."
So now you got to wake up to Lil Baby, but also you got to really pay attention
to what Lil Baby's saying because it's him saying it.
♪ Every colored person ain't dumb ♪
♪ And all whites not racist ♪
♪ I be judging by the mind and heart ♪
♪ I ain't really into faces ♪
"Bigger Picture" is one of those time stamp records, man.
Like, you gonna hear that record,
and you gonna remember the pandemic of 2020.
You gonna remember how Black Lives Matter was flooding the street.
♪ Every video I see on my conscience ♪
♪ I got power, now I got to say something ♪
♪ Corrupted police been the problem where I'm from ♪
♪ But I'd be lying if I said it was all of them ♪
♪ I ain't do this for the trend, I don't follow them ♪
♪ Altercations with the law, had a lot of them ♪
♪ People speaking for the people, I'm proud of them ♪
♪ Stick together, we can get it up out of them... ♪
CHARLAMAGNE: I don't think you get that record
without those five projects coming out prior,
'cause his pen was sharp, you know what I mean?
Like, his pen was sharp.
He was just, like, just focused.
His energy was different. You could just tell.
He was just looking at the world.
He was like, "I'm-a write about that.
"I done, I done did all the street stuff.
I'm-a write about that."
Wow.
Sign of a true artist, man.
CROWD (chanting): I can't breathe!
-I can't breathe! -(song ends)
Still gonna be tied to that kind of movement
for the rest of my life.
This ain't gonna be the last George Floyd.
It already happened so many times since.
(siren wailing)
HOLMES: When it comes to these big moments,
a lot of times, artists like Baby-- where he's from, what he's rapping about--
get shut out.
There are these things like Rolling Stone
and The New York Times and Billboard
and all of these traditionally white publications, where,
hey, working there, it's so hard to convince people, like,
"No, this is the most important artist right now."
But when you do see a Black artist cut through,
that means something.
(camera clicking)
I just went in there like a blank slate of being like,
"I just want to know what Lil Baby's like."
I had no idea what the story would be at that point.
Coach picks me up, I go to QC, and when Baby gets there,
one of the hardest interviews I've ever done.
I'll remember that day forever because I had a really, really good conversation
with a very, very interesting artist.
And I captured this moment where it's just, like, two Black men,
similar in age but different in every other way,
trying to talk about one of the most
chaotic, brutal, devastating moments in American history.
NEWSMAN: This is a look now at the scene
where Rayshard Brooks was fatally shot Friday night.
HOLMES: The death of Rayshard Brooks was still very, very recent.
And when I'm riding through Atlanta with Lil Baby,
you're realizing Lil Baby's childhood neighborhood
is five minutes away.
When I went to the Wendy's, it was, it was a raw emotion.
I was just like, "This is eerie."
And Lil Baby said something to the effect of, like,
"Yo, somebody's died everywhere we've gone today."
There was a distance that he had.
Because Rayshard Brooks is not the first Black man that
Lil Baby has heard of being killed.
Uh, not the tenth,
it's probably not the hundredth or the thousandth.
This is his life.
And I think that's why I wanted to profile Lil Baby,
not just because of the success that he was having as a rapper,
but because, when he comes out with "The Bigger Picture,"
of course it cuts through.
He comes from a disadvantaged background.
He's a former drug dealer.
He's somebody that a racist system would be very, very quick to profile.
He's the perfect person to talk about that moment
because he's lived it.
And I don't think "The Bigger Picture" is a protest song.
I just think it's a song
that's about Lil Baby, and Lil Baby quite easily
could've been any of the people that were murdered that summer.
(line ringing)
JASON (over phone): Mm-hmm?
LIL BABY: You know that man who died, George Floyd?
JASON: The one who couldn't breathe?
LIL BABY: Right, the one who the police killed?
JASON: Mm-hmm.
LIL BABY: His daughter, she's turning six years old
and she's having a birthday party.
I'm gonna pay for her birthday party.
So you and Loyal, we just gonna show our face and then come back.
JASON: All right.
All right, I'll be home in a minute.
(lively chatter)
("Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars playing)
♪ Just the way you are ♪
-♪ And when you smile... ♪ -(song fades)
(lively chatter continues)
LIL BABY: I feel like I have a responsibility
to keep fighting
and make sure the world is a better place
for the generation I'm gonna leave on.
(kids and adults chattering indistinctly in distance)
(indistinct chatter continues)
(cell phone ringing)
MAN: What's up, now?
MAN (over phone): What's going on?
How you living?
HOLMES: For Lil Baby, music got him out.
MAN (over phone): Doing all right, though?
Hell yeah, I'm all right, man. I can't complain at all.
Man, I'm just happy to be around, be able to do what a nigga doing.
Man, I can't complain.
HOLMES: The sad part is, like, there's a million Lil Babys in America,
wishing they could escape a system that doesn't want them to escape.
Each one. Count it.
Ten, 20, 30, 40, 50,
60...
70, 80,
90, 100.
-100,000. -Well, that's 100.
That's 100,000, then this 100,000, how much it is?
-200,000. -200,000.
-Mental math. -Mental math.
HOLMES: Not everybody explodes.
Not everybody can.
You can see in, like, Lil Baby's early music,
there's Marlo.
MAN: Run it back from the top. We're rolling.
-MAN 2: Let's get it, man! -We're rolling. We're rolling.
-We're rolling. -Let's get this now.
MAN: Look in the camera. Talk to the camera.
-♪ Bitch, wait, fuck a mixtape ♪ -Let's get it.
♪ I got plenty cake... ♪
HOLMES: One of the first projects
that Lil Baby came out with, Marlo was on it.
♪ She done sucked me up for them brand-new J's ♪
-♪ Trap nigga, six phones... ♪ -MAN: Lil Baby.
Give me a good one. Give me a good one.
HOLMES: But rap money is a very slow road.
For Marlo, it didn't happen as fast.
(song fades)
And I think that,
unfortunately, Marlo ended up becoming...
...a cautionary tale.
♪ ♪
(radio static crackling)
NEWSWOMAN: Yet another shooting in Atlanta
late last night, as the city is working to investigate
a wave of violent crime since the beginning of 2020.
THOMAS: When Baby made it rapping,
he was able to get out of the trap.
Marlo was right there with him,
but his career just didn't take off the same way.
He was still in the street.
NEWSWOMAN: The incident occurred on I-285
at approximately 11:30 p.m. Saturday evening.
He usually always pick up the phone for me
on the first ring.
I called it like three times, and he ain't answer it.
I just started trying to make some phone calls,
and they told me there was a car on the highway
shot up.
And it looked like it was his car.
And they think he was in it.
(siren wailing)
NEWSWOMAN: Several reports have emerged
that the victim was rising Atlanta rapper Lil Marlo.
He was 30 years old.
THOMAS: I think he was pronounced dead on the scene.
We was just standing on the bridge just speechless.
That... that was a tough one.
♪ All I needed was a chance ♪
♪ Show the world who I am ♪
♪ Watch me run me up them bands. ♪
Marlo.
♪ ♪
You just see your man slumped on the expressway,
you kind of feel some type of way.
But...
if you know the situation and you know what's going on
and you know in the back of your head, you know they still come with it,
that's a, that's a part of the streets.
Some people get killed.
I know that that come with being in the street already.
It ain't like Marlo got killed and I was like,
"Damn, boy, you could really get killed out here."
I know this.
This ain't nothing I don't know.
♪ ♪
Marlo a real case of, like,
the streets and the rapping...
...two whole different world.
And he more so got caught up in the streets than the rapping.
THOMAS: He was always supportive, man.
He was always happy for Baby.
"Bruh, even if I don't make it,
if you make it, all us done made it."
(engine revving)
HABTEMARIAM: You know, I think about how you don't get to pick or choose
the family that you're born into.
Right? You don't get to pick and choose the environment that you're born into.
♪ ♪
You can either become a result of that environment...
...or you can be the antithesis of what you've seen and experienced.
Not only is he a survivor but he's gone through hardships,
learned lessons and grew from it.
(indistinct chatter)
LIL BABY: Y'all don't got no coats?
No, I don't have no coat. No, I don't got no coat.
Y'all don't got no coats? You don't got no coat, little man?
Hey, Rashad!
♪ ♪
HABTEMARIAM: A second chance at life.
The willingness to go after it.
(indistinct chatter)
Baby represents the American dream.
Hey, what-what's your son, what's your son name?
What's your son name?
-What's my what? -Your son name.
-Brandon. -How he doing?
Fine.
I used to go to school with him at Brown.
-Yeah? -He used to be...
Or Britain. Brandon and Britain.
-Britain. Britain. -Britain, not Brandon.
Britain is in the Navy.
-For real? He-- I could see him in the Navy, too. -Yeah.
-I could see Britain... -He went one year
at Georgia Southern, but he's in the Navy.
-I could see him in the Navy, too. -Yeah.
He doing good. He's a air traffic controller.
Tell him, um, Dominique asked about him.
-Dominique? -Yeah.
-What's your last name? -Jones.
Jones?
He gonna know who I am, though.
Okay, Dominique Jones. Okay, I'm-a tell him.
♪ ♪
LIL BABY: Ain't nothing like where you come from, you know what I'm saying?
But I get the chills from that type of stuff, though.
You know what I'm saying?
I-I got more love than anything.
I done helped some of them with their businesses.
They... it's like check-up, like...
"What you doing? What you been up to?"
Or I see, like, the people I grew up with,
I used to be bad as hell, now I ain't seen them in a minute.
Niggas I go to school with...
they been to prison, who out of prison, like...
I could've went that route, I could've went this route.
This could be my reality.
That shit give me the chills, you know what I'm saying?
JOE: I came from the trap.
Raised right here in the trap, three blocks up.
Baby driving the hood, riding around the hood.
Everybody know Baby.
(laughing)
I ain't seen nobody left.
I seen them pass away.
I ain't seen nobody left.
I haven't.
What Baby saying is
that regardless what you came from, whatever, y-you don't have to be that.
There's other methods and ways and things you can do to make money.
He the best rapper.
He the best rapper ever.
I never heard lyrics come from a rapper like that.
He don't just talk thug, gangster, pow-pow-pow.
Each one of his songs got a meaning.
And I can rap them all.
(laughing)
I'll sing it, too.
(laughing)
And I know them all.
("Catch the Sun" by Lil Baby playing)
♪ Seems like I been running out of time ♪
♪ Yeah, we still so young and got so much to find ♪
♪ We can't never let 'em break our mind ♪
♪ We got to stay strong, conquer and don't divide ♪
♪ I come at peace, my heart already set on fire ♪
-♪ If it ain't color ♪ -Ooh!
♪ What's the difference between you and I? ♪
♪ I'll let you decide or come up with some repeated lies ♪
♪ I'm just tired of my kind got to be the one to die ♪
♪ Looking in the sky, I know you with me, I can't cry ♪
♪ Standing what I stand on, I can't never switch sides ♪
♪ Sometimes I just wanna pop out on 'em, flip by ♪
♪ But I put my head on, I pray I stay from off that route ♪
♪ Thinking 'bout my niggas, I ain't seem 'em in a while ♪
♪ Thinking 'bout my son, I just had another child ♪
♪ I been thinking back on bro like, "What the fuck we gon' do now?" ♪
-♪ On this road to redemption ♪ -(cheering)
♪ This shit get rocky and it's wild. ♪
(song fades)
(horn honks)
So we're gonna start here in this chair.
BRITNEY DAVIS: We are in L.A.
He is shooting because Grammy nominations come out on Tuesday.
So he's doing a photo shoot, and then he's also doing
an interview that will go out to all the Grammy voters.
♪ ♪
DRAKE: I think he's already cemented himself
as a super important part of this time,
this generation.
(indistinct chatter)
This guy's just, like, in a zone that, like, you have to respect.
We were working really hard and strategically to make sure
there was enough awareness on Baby
and doing everything we could to make sure
the Grammy voters were able to read articles
and key newspapers, et cetera,
to understand how impactful the album was.
There's been a lot of conversation
around having music that's reflective of the times,
coming from a-a place of truth,
and I think that that's what Baby's been doing.
And then, I guess the last question here is:
Could you tell-- and you can talk to the camera--
what it means to be heard?
And, like, what it's like to help other people's voices be heard.
COACH K: There wasn't no doubt in my mind
that he was gonna be up for Rap Album of the Year.
We were fighting, you know, for Album of the Year.
HABTEMARIAM: As an artist,
you do want to be recognized for the work that you've put in.
It was early in the morning,
and I was on the live feed watching.
Turn that TV off.
(upbeat music playing)
(turns music down)
All right, so let's talk about the Grammy Awards
and some of the nominations that came out.
Did you hear-- did you see some of these nominations?
Uh, yeah, I saw some of the fuss on social media.
It's the largest selling album of all genres of music
for 2020.
I don't understand what the problem is.
DJ ENVY: Best Rap Album.
Yeah, I just feel like Lil Baby should've been there
-with My Turn. -Lil Baby definitely should've been there.
In order to properly appreciate what Lil Baby has done and is doing,
and to properly appreciate Lil Baby's art,
you got to understand that slum that he came from.
You got to understand that hood that he came from.
You got to understand how hard it is to make it out of a place like that.
White America will never understand that
'cause they don't even understand the world that Lil Baby comes from.
This isn't right.
This isn't reflective of, you know, where music is,
his impact in music.
I'm frustrated with the Grammys, you know what I mean?
It's been a ongoing conversation for so many years
about them being out of touch, and they have a lot of work to do.
You go back to the '80s,
and you remember how they overlooked Michael Jackson.
(DMX vocalizing)
And then DMX in the '90s.
He had two number one albums in the same year
and didn't receive any nominations.
(crowd cheering)
PHARRELL WILLIAMS: And the Grammy goes to...
HABTEMARIAM: And of course Kendrick's loss
really just cemented how out of touch the Grammys are.
What is this system that's been created, and why do we give it so much value?
We're talking about popular culture and rap albums
and what's deserving, they-they missed the mark.
And I think, after some time went on,
there were some conversations about what to do,
you know, because there was an offer for him to perform.
THOMAS: When I seen the shit, I was sort of like--
We been working so hard, and for you to not get
nominated for the album, I feel like...
you got the biggest album of the year...
I don't really want to do this shit.
-I ain't really like it. -COACH K: You got the stats.
You deserve it. You put the work in.
Man, shit just-- it's fucked-up, really.
And for them just to skip over that, that shit like a--
it like a slap in the face to me, bro.
I'm just like--
You know, that's just how I feel.
Ultimately, it's your decision.
I'm saying, so you saying you feel like don't perform there?
Yeah. That-that how I feel.
We "look up to" this shit like it's supposed to be--
this is the-the reward for all the hard work that you put in.
It's supposed to be the biggest award.
But I'm-- I was like "fuck 'em" because that...
that shit don't really determine who you are and what you do.
-You know what I'm saying? And-and... -Right.
-When we bigger than that. -Right.
You see what I'm saying?
LIL BABY: That how I feel, but I feel like...
I be feeling like a performance bigger than the award.
You feel me? Like, I feel like if--
because it's such of a big award space or whatever
and I got a chance to perform, I'd rather perform, then.
'Cause I care about a performance more than an award. I-I, like--
It's something that you gonna never be able to forget.
You gonna keep being able to replay it, especially like with streaming.
I got people in prison who want to see it.
My little kids who can't be--
Like, versus just me getting an award.
Like, I ain't really into the award part.
Like... like, versus just, like, I'm-a be mad
that I ain't get me an award, so fuck it, I ain't performing.
I ain't one of them type of artists.
I really don't, like...
And I get how you saying you feel, you know what I'm saying?
Like, it's like almost a slap in the face,
like you deserve this, you don't get what you deserve.
But, you know, where I come from, shit, I'm-a perform at the Grammys?
Shit, I ain't really trippin'.
I don't got to win or get out.
Some shit you just said to me right there, it goes so far.
You like, "My guys that's in prison,
you know, they get to see me on the big stage."
Yeah, my grandma, she don't want to go out of town.
-She don't want to get on no plane and shit. -Right.
Shit, well, P, go make the call.
Yeah, tell them I'm-a do it. Shit, I'm-a do it.
A'ight. Okay.
-I call Jesse? -Just got to make that
the biggest shit ever, like, "That boy deserve--
-that boy should've had got..." -COACH K: And-and they,
and they got to play, they got to play
on our, on our playing field and what we want to do.
-And then another thing, too... -And what-- his vision.
Right. Make them feel bad, the people who work there, like,
"Why didn't he get a Grammy?
This guy here, why didn't he get nominated for--"
Know what I'm saying?
-Yeah. -However it go.
A'ight, say no more. I'm-a call Jesse.
Y'all figure it out. Let me know if the plan change.
(chuckles)
Nah, we good. We locked in.
-Shit. -Nah, we locked in. I'm gonna make it happen.
We just got to make them see our vision.
I'm with it.
(plane rumbling softly)
("The Bigger Picture" playing)
♪ Throw us in handcuffs and arrest us ♪
♪ While they go home at night, that shit messed-up ♪
♪ Knowing we needed help, they neglect us ♪
♪ Wondering who gon' make them respect us ♪
♪ I can see in your eye that you fed up ♪
♪ Fuck around, got my shot, I won't let up ♪
♪ They know that we a problem together ♪
♪ They know that we can storm any weather ♪
♪ It's bigger than Black and white ♪
♪ It's a problem with the whole way of life ♪
♪ It can't change overnight, but we got to start somewhere ♪
♪ Might as well gon' 'head start here ♪
♪ We done had a hell of a year ♪
♪ I'm-a make it count while I'm here ♪
♪ God is the only man I fear. ♪
(song stops)
WOMAN: Get that in there.
So you'll get that in. Let's go from the top.
From the top, fellas.
I think she just want to make sure, like, in certain moments you just have, like...
you passionate in the moment of performing, you know...
I'm telling her, like, though, like, you don't even got to tell me that 'cause...
-Because you already know what to do. -This is like... (laughs)
-I already know what it do. -I'm serious about this.
-Exactly. For sure. -Like, I'm telling her I'm gonna...
I'm gonna be there on the floor. Everything.
-I got it. I'm gonna goddamn perform. -Yeah.
She's like, "You better perform." I'm telling you.
Because this is one of them moments. It's a big moment.
-You know what I'm saying? -Yeah. This is gonna be like...
-a moment. -Yeah.
It's a different platform.
Like, it's gonna be on some whole other shit.
Like, some of these people not even heard this song before,
and it's gonna be on some-- "What the hell is this?"
(indistinct chatter)
LIL BABY: No question. No question!
-THOMAS: You going leather again? -LIL BABY: Leather again.
-Ah. -Give me leather again.
(laughs)
I'm in a good mood today. I went shopping.
They killing all the rappers, so I wore a vest.
-THOMAS: I'm telling you. -WOMAN: Oh, Lord.
LIL BABY: They killing rappers, so I wore a vest!
The vest too big, though.
Man, I could perform in this, Britney.
I mean, that's-- you-you could perform in it, bro.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know I'm grateful to be here today, man.
Could be somewhere selling dope.
(laughter)
I got my acceptance speech.
I'm grateful to be here. I could be somewhere selling dope.
(laughter)
You are not gonna say that.
-Hey, man... -Why are you playing with me?
...I'm grateful to be here.
I could be somewhere selling dope, know what I'm saying?
Straight up.
Oh, the Grammys said they want him there? They said they want him there?
-Yeah. Yeah. -On the... on the day?
Well, that must mean that they gon' give him...
-...an award. -I-I think you're gonna win.
Like, I don't see them doing it.
But they got some kind of crazy voting, and whoever...
whoever their board is, it-it go off of their board.
It ain't going off, like, popular vote, so...
I don't... I don't know it be tricky with...
Your performance is the only one that's outdoors.
We're closing L.A. Live and Staples Center down.
Like, it doesn't really make sense.
I'd be very surprised if you didn't win.
(chuckles): I wouldn't.
I wouldn't. Shit.
Don't be surprised if I don't win.
("Allegations" by BIG30 and Pooh Shiesty playing)
♪ The plug say he gon' stop sending the bows ♪
♪ We keep stressing his friend, well, little do he know ♪
♪ His ass next soon as we meet again ♪
♪ Jason hit my phone like ♪
♪ "They just booked me for 'bout 20 racks..." ♪
(music continues faintly in distance)
(grunting)
(mechanical rattling)
(voice vibrating): I'm surfing.
(indistinct chatter)
♪ ♪
Come here, Jason.
(Jason babbling playfully)
-Oh! -(water splashes)
My phone done dropped through the goddamn floor. (chuckles)
JASON: It's okay. You're rich!
LIL BABY: Okay.
I got a little game. All right?
COACH K: My guy!
-How you doing? -A'ight. Good to see you.
(lively chatter)
(noisemaker honks)
LASHAWN: There's somebody there.
♪ ♪
-(camera clicks) -(babbling)
LASHAWN: Look at the camera.
-(camera clicks) -LASHAWN: Come on, Dominique!
-Come on, Dominique! -(clapping)
(camera clicks)
LIL BABY: Know what I'm saying? I said, "Kim, I'll go with you."
LASHAWN: Yes, baby, I think--
-They didn't tell me. -Kim, did they say...
(overlapping chatter)
DAVIS: They been sending the call time...
KIM: They've been sending the call time.
-They want you on time. -No, no, no.
-They trying to show my face when I lose. -Nah, listen.
-(laughter) -DAVIS: You know what?
We need positive energy in here.
-(overlapping chatter) -Hey, hey!
They'll play the hell out a nigga here, man.
They want me sitting in the spot
so they can show my reaction when I lose, man.
I'm-a do like that. Shit.
(overlapping chatter)
Soon as somebody else win, I'm like that.
KIM: But I don't want him waiting around.
They've been asking where he is.
(indistinct chatter)
(man shouting in distance)
-Where my, where my car at? -MAN: That'll be in front.
♪ ♪
I'm going on TV, Britney.
You gon' kill this shit.
-(Velcro ripping) -Make it tight.
HABTEMARIAM: He's so aware of his influence and his power now.
And he doesn't take that responsibility lightly.
COACH K: Here's a kid that wasn't dealt...
all aces.
All them little guys from his neighborhood...
...he gives all those kids hope.
MAN: Here performing "The Bigger Picture," please welcome Lil Baby.
(crowd cheering)
♪ Trade my four-by-four for a G 63 ♪
♪ Ain't no more free Lil Steve ♪
♪ I gave 'em chance and chance and chance again ♪
♪ I even done told them please ♪
♪ I find it crazy the police'll shoot you ♪
♪ And know that you dead but still tell you to freeze ♪
♪ I seen what I seen, I guess that mean ♪
♪ Hold him down when he say he can't breathe ♪
♪ It's too many mothers that's grieving for no reason ♪
♪ Been going on for too long to get even ♪
♪ Like dogs and hyenas ♪
♪ I went to prison, my money was quoted ♪
♪ My mama was crushed when they said I can't leave ♪
♪ First I was drunk, but I sobered up quick ♪
♪ When I heard all that time that they gave to Taleeb ♪
♪ He got a life sentence plus ♪
♪ We just some products of our environment ♪
♪ How the ... they gon' blame us? ♪
♪ You can't fight fire with fire, I know ♪
♪ But at least we can turn up the flames some... ♪
The whole world like, "Oh, my fucking God, this is--
Who is this guy?" And it's like,
I knew who this boy was. This boy one of the ones.
I knew this.
THOMAS: Seeing him get smarter,
asking questions,
it just make me happy and proud to see him
make that transition in being to where he at now.
♪ It's bigger than Black and white ♪
♪ It's a problem with the whole way of life ♪
♪ It can't change overnight, but we got to start somewhere ♪
♪ Might as well gon' 'head start here ♪
♪ We done had a ... of a year ♪
♪ I'm-a make it count while I'm here ♪
♪ God is the only man I fear ♪
♪ It's bigger than Black and white ♪
♪ It's a problem with the whole way of life ♪
♪ It can't change overnight, but we got to start somewhere ♪
♪ Might as well gon' 'head start here ♪
♪ We done had a ... of a year ♪
♪ I'm-a make it count while I'm here ♪
♪ God is the only man I fear. ♪
-(song ends) -(fireworks popping)
(indistinct chatter)
It's a wrap!
-(cheering, excited chatter) -Congratulations!
♪ ♪
LIL BABY: Coach and Ethiopia, P,
they know the benefits of winning a Grammy.
This shit new to me.
I don't really understand all that yet.
I'm just happy I'm getting my message out there.
(engine revving)
♪ ♪
Trying to show the youngins that it's bigger.
I'm living proof.
COACH K: Lil Baby is a-a name,
a brand that he built.
Dominique is who he is.
I think Dominique is the essence of Lil Baby.
LIL BABY: Dominique is...
...the owner of Lil Baby.
And Lil Baby is an artist.
Dominique is a businessman.
One day, there gonna be no more Lil Baby.
How could it not?
♪ ♪
LASHAWN: That's my child. I know his potential.
Very proud, especially with all the people
who didn't believe he was gonna amount to anything.
"Oh, you know, he gonna probably just end up
like the rest of the hood."
I smile knowing that that's him on the radio.
Their kids listening to him.
Little Dominique Jones who never came to class.
-Say, "Blast off!" -Blast off!
Blast off! Ah!
(laughter)
Y'all, y'all, share.
Jason, you can't be doing all that.
Come here.
(indistinct chatter)
(exclaims)
See it there?
See it?
Want to go over there?
(indistinct chatter)
LIL BABY: I can see my plan, what I'm trying to do, it's gon' work.
(indistinct chatter)
I'm-a have a full legacy.
Like, it's just gon' be started from rap.
'Cause I took it to this point in three years.
I plan on living to at least, like, 60, 70.
That's a long time from now.
Even though I got to this point
where it's damn near you can ask a question like
"What do you think your legacy is going to be?"
'cause I done built a legacy where if I stop right now I could leave it.
It's already a full one if I stopped today.
But, man, you got to just imagine what I'm finna do.
Now that my brain is untrapping.
I'll never be trapped again.
I'm just getting started.
(jet engine whooshing)
("All In" by Lil Baby playing)
♪ Cook that ... up, Quay ♪
(song continues as instrumental beat)
♪ ♪
(music fades)