Atlanta stand-out Lil Baby is one of the biggest names in rap music but he doesn't necessarily look the part. His voice is instantly recognizable and, due to his ascent into superstardom, so is his face. While the rapper has extraordinary drip, he has no tattoos on his body, which is pretty rare for somebody in his career path. He explained why it was a conscious choice for him to go inkless, as well as much more, in a brand new interview with the New York Times.
With his album My Turn coming out in a matter of days, Lil Baby is about to take over again. He has officially broken out and this is set to be his biggest project to date. Talking to the Times, the 25-year-old explained why he decided not to get any tattoos on his skin, which is something he's never witnessed from his contemporaries.
"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 go 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," explained Baby.
"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."
As for what he wants to accomplish in the coming years, Baby is hoping to transition into an executive role. "I want to be on some boss [expletive]," he said. "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 percent off of it. Where I’m not even on the scene no more. That’s my mind-set. 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."
Elsewhere in the sit-down conversation, Lil Baby speaks about his experience in prison and why he plans on never going back, what he wants to achieve in the industry, and a drop in drug references in his songs.