As soon as Lil Baby took to the Riviera stage for a TikTok show, cheers came from across the crowd in appreciation that their favorite rapper was still with us; just days earlier his name or at least its variant had become one of Twitter’s trending topics.
Lil Baby may translate to “little baby,” but that moniker no longer fits with his present reality. With his third album It’s Only Me having just dropped on Oct 14th, and earning over $11.7 Million alone as one of music’s highest-earners last year – not to mention 24-hour security and even a bulletproof SUV at home in his Westside California mansion and while out touring.
Baby is determined to open new horizons and improve himself despite all his wealth, as evidenced by “No Fly Zone,” where he contemplates his growth both lyrically and professionally – vowing to leave an impactful mark beyond simply publishing music.
Baby has expanded his perspective, yet his songwriting remains grounded in old patterns. His music remains functional; 808s reliably thump and snares strike like clockwork; there’s little edginess or eccentricity to the beats that he sources from trap mainstays or newcomers alike; its only moment of brilliance occurs during Future collab “From Now On,” when Baby drops his voice down to an insinuatory whisper and rejects feds; yet even then it feels rote