They feed you when they want to feed you. You're not in a dog cage, but you're in a human cage. You don't have a leash on your neck, but you got handcuffs on your wrists. KING: I'm going to read you some of your lyrics - they killing us for no reason, been going on for too long to get even, throw us in cages like dogs and hyenas. First, I was drunk, then I sobered up quick when I heard all that time that they gave to Taleeb. My mama was crushed when they said I can't leave. I went to court, and they sent me to prison. LIL BABY: (Rapping) Throw us in cages like dogs and hyenas. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, 'THE BIGGER PICTURE') The song's called 'The Bigger Picture.' And it became kind of like an anthem for Black Lives Matter. It was released as anti-police brutality protests erupted. KING: A human animal - he used that imagery in a song this summer. LIL BABY: Because prison is just like sitting you in a room somewhere that - what does that do to better you for society? Or what does that do to help you change? Or what does that do? It's almost to me jail makes you worse. In the United States, when you do something wrong, you go to prison. KING: I mean, most people would say you did something wrong. So it's like it doesn't even make sense to send me to prison, you get what I'm saying? Like, it doesn't better you. I committed a crime or whatever, but they sent me to a prison for two years with no structure. LIL BABY: It's not about a point of the criminal justice system treating you fairly or not because the criminal justice is unjust as a whole. KING: Do you think the criminal justice system treated you fairly? So it was almost like I kind of knew the people who was there already. LIL BABY: And not so unfortunate, so many people from Atlanta are in those situations that I actually seen people that I knew - a family member, two or three people that are actually from my neighborhood, people I went to school with. He served about two years on weapons and drug charges surrounded by older men, some of them who were in for violent crimes.

KING: Of course, it caught up with him, and after stints in jail, he was sentenced to prison. I knew it wasn't the right thing to do, but it's kind of - I thought was the way to go. I ain't going to say only choice but one of the better choices that I had. So as a teenager, he started dealing drugs. KING: But Lil Baby, whose given name is Dominique Jones, did not think that rapping for a living would ever be an option. LIL BABY: I feel like I can hear the song. When you open your mail and there are song lyrics there, what are you feeling? And you know how in prison you can get letters? He told one friend, don't worry about sending letters, just send me lyrics. KING: Later, when he went to jail and didn't have access to music, he'd ask his friends to play him songs over the phone. So I take someone else song and, like, make it for me. LIL BABY: So I wouldn't really, like, make a rap, but I just like music so much I start putting it into my life. KING: Sometimes he would change the words in the song to make them about him.

Like, that was, like, one of my goals to just know this song from front to back. Like, I used to know every song word for word. LIL BABY: So when I was young, I used to dissect music. He sold drugs in part to help her pay the bills. Matter of fact, none of you guys get high as me, whoa. LIL BABY: (Rapping) None of you guys get fly as me, whoa. LIL BABY: Everyone everywhere I go knows who I am, Atlanta or anywhere I go around the world. And he had no idea that in a few years he'd be famous.Ĭan you walk around Atlanta at this point and not be recognized or does everyone in your hometown know who you are? LIL BABY: (Rapping) Bend her over, then I murk her. His most recent album spent weeks at number one.

His songs have been streamed billions of times. One of the most popular rappers in the country right now is 25 and goes by the name Lil Baby.

Lil baby lyrics the bigger picture