lil yachty quality control

At some point between the release of 2018’s Nuthin’ 2 Prove and now, Lil Yachty realized he’s a grown ass man. The universally appointed King of the Teens is now anadult — turning 23 in 2020 — and legacy is weighing on his mind, forcing the one-of-one Atlanta MC to reevaluate what his enormous, worldwide success really means. It may seem surprising, then, that his forthcoming album Lil Boat 3 returns to a trilogy Yachty began at the age of 18, but he views this series finale as both ending and beginning — a way to silence any lingering doubters and own his place amongst rap’s upper echelon. Of course, he’s already done that with production as minimal as it is playfully innovative, and a voice that sways between sweet and deadpan. Yachty’s career thus far has essentially tested and proven the hypothesis that rap music can be both good and fun, and Lil Boat 3 will be his clearest assertion of this philosophy to date. “I'm just trying to enjoy myself,” says Yachty, now on the other side of a couple years of soul searching. “I didn't get to where I'm at now by taking everything so seriously. I'm not trying to be nobody else.” Case in point: Lil Boat 3’s first single, “Oprah’s Bank Account,” featuring DaBaby and Drake. The bubbly cut attests to both Yachty’s renewed energy and magnetism as a creator — even Ms. Winfrey said she loves it. While the song finds Yachty praising a love interest in his own way, the video’s a feat of comedic genius. He dresses as Oprah, interviews Drake about his beard, and shares an infomercial about sliding into rappers’ DMs. In just one move, Yachty unveils a grand vision, shows his refined sound, and displays his signature wit. Produced by childhood friend Earl on the Beat — “My light, my lover, my dawg,” says Yachty — the track both expands Yachty’s established identity and recalls some of his early hits.

When the man born Miles Parks McCollum uploaded “One Night” to SoundCloud in late 2015, he was a college dropout with vague dreams of becoming a rap star. About a year later, after that song went viral, he could be seen at Madison Square Garden modeling a pair of Yeezys for Kanye West’s fashion show. Yachty’s rise has since been a super-charged ascent to the highest stratum of pop culture. He quickly joined Atlanta’s formidable Quality Control family, making him a labelmate and collaborator to Migos, while also banking outside-the-box singles with the likes of DRAM (“Broccoli”) and KYLE (“iSpy”). Two of his three albums hit Billboard’s top 10 (the third reached No. 12) and as if that wasn’t enough, Yachty parlayed his nautical theme into an esteemed spot as creative director for, where else, leisurewear mark Nautica.

During this time, though, Yachty’s entire life was in the public eye. He quite literally grew up with his fans, often the same age as his most ardent supporters. “With the life I've been living, I’ve been forced to mature a lot faster than my peers,” he says. The microscopic attention to his colorful dreads, boundary-pushing music, and unique perspective in interviews made him jaded. After a run of releases stretching into 2018, Yachty needed a break. His grandmother passed away and though he spent time in the studio, music took a backseat to the uncertainty invading his life. Working on Lil Boat 3 helped him get through it, as did the input of the hugely talented friends who contributed. “I had made the album one way,” says Yachty, “then I played it for Young Thug and he told me, ‘Hey, it drags at times.’ I really trust him and take his word for it. I went back in, switched up some styles, made it more hype. I think it’s great now.” 

Lord of the Beans ft. DC2Trill

Hit Bout It ft. Kodak Black

In My Stussy's ft. Vince Staples

Flex Up feat. Future, Playboi Carti

Pardon Me feat. Future, Mike WiLL Made-It

Split / Whole Time

Wock In Stock

Demon Time feat. Draft Day

Oprah's Bank Account feat. Drake, DaBaby

+ Lil Yachty Dramedy Series ‘Public Figures’ Moves From Quibi to HBO Max for Development (EXCLUSIVE), Variety — Oct 29, 2020

+ Lil Yachty Is Not A Kid Anymore, Highsnobiety

+ Q&A: Lil Yachty on music, inclusion, Drake and trust issues, AP News

+ Why Lil Yachty Says It's Time to 'Wake Everybody Up', Billboard

+ Lil Yachty Talks Cancel Culture, 'Lil Boat 3,' and More on Everyday Struggle, Complex

+ Lil Yachty vs Conceited in a Sneaker Battle From Home | #LIFEATCOMPLEX, Complex

+ How Oprah Winfrey And Her $2.6 Billion Fortune Inspired Rap's Latest Hit, Forbes

+ Madden NFL Celebrity Tournament Highlights: DeAndre Hopkins vs. Lil Yachty, ESPN

+ Lil Yachty Is Out To CLaim What He Rightfully Deserves Ahead Of Lil Boat 3 Album, XXL

+ Lil Yachty Tries Hot Yoga For The First Time, XXL

+ 7 Ways Lil Yachty Went Viral & Built A Brand ESPN

+ Lil Yachty Tells Us About His First Times, BuzzFeed Celeb

+ Everything Lil Yachty Eats in a Day | Food Diaries: Bite Size, Harper's BAZAAR

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Let’s Start Here.

By Alphonse Pierre

Quality Control / Motown

February 1, 2023

At a surprise listening event last Thursday,  Lil Yachty   introduced his new album  Let’s Start Here. , an unexpected pivot, with a few words every rap fan will find familiar: “I really wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, not just some SoundCloud rapper or some mumble rapper.” This is the speech rappers are obligated to give when it comes time for the drum loop to take a backseat to guitars, for the rapping to be muted in favor of singing, for the ad-libs to give it up to the background singers, and for a brigade of white producers with plaque-lined walls to be invited into the fold. 

Rap fans, including myself, don’t want to hear it, but the reality is that in large slices of music and pop culture, “rapper” is thrown around with salt on the tongue. Pop culture is powerfully influenced by hip-hop, that is until the rappers get too close and the hands reach for the pearls. If anything, the 25-year-old Yachty—as one of the few rappers of his generation able to walk through the front door anyway because of his typically Gushers-sweet sound and innocently youthful beaded braid look—might be the wrong messenger. 

What’s sour about Yachty’s statement isn’t the idea that he wants to be taken seriously as an artist, but the question of  who  he wants to be taken seriously by. When Yachty first got on, a certain corner of rap fandom saw his marble-mouthed enunciation and unwillingness to drool over hip-hop history as symbols of what was ruining the genre they claimed to love. A few artists more beholden to tradition did some finger-wagging— Pete Rock and  Joe Budden ,  Vic Mensa and  Anderson .Paak , subliminals from  Kendrick and  Cole —but that was years ago, and by now they’ve found new targets. These days, Yachty is respected just fine within rap. If he weren’t, his year-long rebirth in the Michigan rap scene, which resulted in the good-not-great  Michigan Boy Boat , would have been viewed solely as a cynical attempt to boost his rap bona fides. His immersion there felt earnest, though, like he was proving to himself that he could hang. 

The respect Yachty is chasing on  Let’s Start Here. feels institutional. It’s for the voting committees, for the suits; for  Questlove to shout him out as  the future , for Ebro to invite him  back on his radio show and say  My bad, you’re dope.  Never mind if you thought Lil Yachty was dope to start with: The goal of this album is to go beyond all expectations and rules for rappers.

And the big pivot is… a highly manicured and expensive blend of  Tame Impala -style psych-rock, A24 synth-pop, loungey R&B, and  Silk Sonic -esque funk, a sound so immediately appealing that it doesn’t feel experimental at all. In 2020, Yachty’s generational peers,  Lil Uzi Vert and  Playboi Carti , released  Eternal Atake and  Whole Lotta Red : albums that pushed forward pre-existing sounds to the point of inimitability, showcases not only for the artists’ raps but their conceptual visions. Yachty, meanwhile, is working within a template that is already well-defined and commercially successful. This is what the monologue was for? 

To Yachty’s credit, he gives the standout performance on a crowded project. It’s the same gift for versatility that’s made him a singular rapper: He bounces from style to style without losing his individuality. A less interesting artist would have been made anonymous by the polished sounds of producers like  Chairlift ’s Patrick Wimberly,  Unknown Mortal Orchestra ’s Jacob Portrait, and pop songwriters Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, or had their voice warped by writing credits that bring together  Mac DeMarco ,  Alex G , and, uh,  Tory Lanez . The production always leans more indulgent than thrilling, more scattershot than conceptual. But Yachty himself hangs onto the ideas he’s been struggling to articulate since 2017’s  Teenage Emotions : loneliness, heartbreak, overcoming failure. He’s still not a strong enough writer to nail them, and none of the professionals collecting checks in the credits seem to have been much help, but his immensely expressive vocals make up for it. 

Actually, for all the commotion about the genre jump on this project, the real draw is the ways in which Yachty uses Auto-Tune and other vocal effects as tools to unlock not just sounds but emotion. Building off the vocal wrinkle introduced on last year’s viral moment “ Poland ,” where he sounds like he’s cooing through a ceiling fan, the highlights on  Let’s Start Here. stretch his voice in unusual directions. The vocals in the background of his wistful hook on “pRETTy” sound like he’s trying to harmonize while getting a deep-tissue massage. His shrill melodies on “paint THE sky” could have grooved with  the Weeknd on  Dawn FM . The opening warble of “running out of time” is like Yachty’s imitation of  Bruno Mars imitating  James Brown , and the way he can’t quite restrain his screechiness enough to flawlessly copy it is what makes it original.

Too bad everything surrounding his unpredictable and adventurous vocal detours is so conventional. Instrumental moments that feel like they’re supposed to be weird and psychedelic—the hard rock guitar riff that coasts to a blissful finale in “the BLACK seminole.” or the slow build of “REACH THE SUNSHINE.”—come off like half-measures.  Diana Gordon ’s falsetto-led funk on “drive ME crazy!” reaches for a superhuman register, but other guest appearances, like  Fousheé ’s clipped lilts on “pRETTy” and  Daniel Caesar ’s faded howls on the outro, are forgettable. None of it is ever  bad : The synths on “sAy sOMETHINg” shimmer; the drawn-out intro and outro of “WE SAW THE SUN!” set the lost, trippy mood they’re supposed to; “THE zone~” blooms over and over again, underlined by  Justine Skye ’s sweet and unhurried melodies. It’s all so easy to digest, so pitch-perfect, so safe.  Let’s Start Here. clearly and badly wants to be hanging up on those dorm room walls with  Currents and  Blonde and  IGOR . It might just work, too. 

Instead, consider this album a reminder of how limitless rap can be. We’re so eager for the future of the genre to arrive that current sounds are viewed as restricting and lesser. But rap is everything you can imagine. I’m thinking about “Poland,” a song stranger than anything here: straight-up 1:23 of chaos, as inventive as it is fun. I took that track as seriously as anything I heard last year because it latches onto a simple rap melody and pushes it to the brink. Soon enough, another rapper will hear that and take it in another direction, then another will do the same. That’s how you really get to the future. 

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Lil Yachty Officially Signs to Quality Control

Lil Yachty is officially signed. Quality Control COO Kevin "Coach K" Lee posted a picture of himself alongside CEO Pierre "Pee" Thomas and Lil Yachty with a caption welcoming the Atlanta rapper to the label. Lil Boat also went on Twitter to confirm the news.

"I am where I want to be, QC The Label," Lil Yachty wrote. "It's Official."

Lil Yachty also showed some appreciation for his fans with a thankful message. He told them that signing to Quality Control was only the beginning of his journey.

"I just want to thank all my fans.. For being there for me," Lil Yachty wrote. "This is literally only the beginning. Big Things Coming Soon. Summer Songs 2 Otw."

Perhaps the guidance of Coach K and Pee can help Lil Yachty build more of dedicated fan base in his own city. During a recent appearance on Hot 97's Ebro in the Morning, Lil Boat said that he did not feel like he has any fans in Atlanta despite it being his hometown.

"For some reason I still feel like I don’t have any fans in Atlanta,” he says. “Of course they’re there, they’re not as loving [as other places]."

Lil Yachty should be in good hands as Quality Control has overseen the careers of Migos, OG Maco, Young Greatness and many more. With the QC team behind him, the rapper will now focus on getting his Summers Song 2 tape ready along with the many collaboration projects he's got in the works.

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EXCLUSIVE : The film and TV arm of Quality Control , the record label behind artists including hip hop artists including Lil Yachty and Migos, has struck an unscripted TV partnership with Catfish and Celebrity Game Face producer Critical Content .

The deal will see the two companies develop unscripted series for these artists, as well as the likes of City Girls and Lil Baby, and athletes that the company represents.

It builds on a partnership between the two companies that saw them make YouTube original series Home Courts , where Quavo visits legendary local basketball courts around the country to meet the athletes, artists and activists who use these public spaces to effect change in their communities.

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The first project to come out of the deal is Equal Justice , a social experiment that will follow the world’s most meaningful hip hop artists as they leverage their fame and personal resources to secure top attorneys, fair trials and better outcomes for indigent defendants across the USA.

The project will be pitched to networks and streamers at the start of the year with Quality Control talent attached.

It comes after Quality Control struck a scripted co-production deal earlier this year with The Liberator producer Trioscope Studios.

Quality Control, which was founded by Kevin ‘Coach K’ Lee and Pierre ‘Pee’ Thomas, puts out records by artists including Lil Baby and City Girls and manages NFL stars such as New Orleans Saints’ Alvin Kamara and Detroit Lions’ D’Andre Swift.

The company’s TV and film division Quality Films, run by Brian Sher, produces projects including  City Girls – The Series , a five-part YouTube series about the band’s recent City on Lock album, Instagram Live series  Mastery  and are working with Mattel Films on a movie franchise based on card game Uno starring and produced by Lil Yachty.

“The alliance with Critical Content represents a unique opportunity for Quality Control and the many prominent athletes and artists under the QC umbrella of companies,” said Sher. “Critical’s world-class ability to package, present and sell premium content will enable us to expand Quality Control’s footprint with new and diverse content for our global fanbase.”

“Quality Films team, under the stewardship of Coach K, Brian, and P, has unparalleled access, relationships, acumen and taste,” added Tom Forman, CEO, Critical Content.  “We’re excited to pair Critical Content’s award-winning storytelling and production capabilities with QC’s talent roster, creative POV and proven ability to generate worldwide hits in any genre or medium.”

Coach K said, “I have been a fan of Tom’s work for many years and have recently gotten to know him on a personal level. He clearly understands the culture and knows how to develop the kinds of unscripted projects that Quality Films want to be a part of.”

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Atlanta Rap Keeps Evolving. Quality Control Is Taking It Global.

The nimble record label in the world’s de facto hip-hop capital is working to build sustainable careers, not viral moments, in the streaming era.

Pierre Thomas, known as Pee, the chief executive of Quality Control, holds up his chain in Atlanta. Credit... Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times

Supported by

By Joe Coscarelli

• Nov. 21, 2017

ATLANTA — Unless you catch a glimpse of the eggplant Mercedes-Maybach S600 or the various young men with clusters of diamonds on choker-short chains coming and going at all hours, there is nothing too flashy about the headquarters of Quality Control Music, a record label here in the world’s de facto hip-hop capital.

As the birthplace of the chart-topping , trendsetting careers of Migos and Lil Yachty, this studio and office compound, northwest of downtown, is the latest nondescript landmark to help alter the course of rap music, a near-constant occurrence in Atlanta over the last two decades. But despite its pedigree as a center of luxury and innovation, the space — tucked behind a Goodwill and a full-service dog care facility — is light on bacchanalia and heavy on rules and expectations.

“DO NOT come to the studio UNLESS you are working,” reads a weathered printout taped to a bare wall amid four recording studios. “BE RESPONSIBLE for the company you bring … DO NOT have anyone dropping off or picking up drugs at the studio … This is not your home, this is not a hangout, this is a place of business. PLEASE conduct yourself accordingly and in a professional manner.” (Also: “ANY gambling, all parties involved must pay the house 30%!”)

The artists tend to listen. On a recent weekday afternoon, the promising, singsong street rapper Lil Baby, 21 years old and newly into music after two years in prison, diligently wiped his Chick-fil-A sauce and crumbs from a studio countertop as he played tracks from his next mixtape, “Too Hard.” Expected in early December, the project will be his fourth release of the year despite the fact that he started rapping in February.

Taking in the songs were the stewards of Lil Baby’s fledgling career: Quality Control’s chief executive Pierre Thomas, or Pee to everyone in his orbit, who typed notes on his phone; and its chief operating officer Kevin Lee, known as Coach K or Coach, who vibed with his eyes closed.

Both men, veterans of the nexus where Atlanta’s street culture meets its music scene, have known Lil Baby since he was a charismatic teenager who was respected around town for his gambling prowess, and they had long encouraged him to pursue a career in music.

Hardheaded and fast-living, Lil Baby resisted until his sentence for gun and drug charges limited his options. As he raps on one new song: “Last year I was sittin’ in a cage/this year I’m goin’ all the way/takin’ drugs, trying to ease the pain.”

Pee, visibly energized by Lil Baby’s progress as an introspective songwriter, announced that the track would serve as the intro for the mixtape, only to receive a vehement protest from the rapper.

“Listen, you’re getting overruled on this one,” Pee shot back, ending the discussion. “Have I told you anything wrong yet?”

It’s this hands-on engagement with homegrown talent that Quality Control hopes will set it apart. Founded by Pee and Coach in 2013 around the flamboyant, fast-rapping local trio Migos, the company went from a start-up with the growing pains typically associated with a new independent label — exacerbated by their artists’ run-ins with the law — to a joint venture with Capitol Music Group and Motown Records in 2015.

Though prospects like OG Maco, Young Greatness and Rich the Kid didn’t truly take off, Quality Control has avoided the temptations of today’s viral-rap gold rush — in which a meme or one-off video by a rookie can lead to a major-label deal — preferring to stick with its system of developing talent gradually and at home.

This year brought an extended breakthrough amid hip-hop’s domination on streaming services: “Bad and Boujee” by Migos hit No. 1 and led to a smash album , “Culture”; while the human meme Lil Yachty established himself as a ubiquitous brand partner with a loyal youth following .

Now, with two well-oiled moneymakers who have refused to fizzle — Lil Yachty’s “Lil Boat 2” mixtape is scheduled for late December and Migos’s “Culture 2,” featuring the single “MotorSport,” is due out in January — Pee and Coach can shift focus to building sustainable careers for its “farm team” of young Atlanta rappers, including Lil Baby, Marlo and Mak Sauce, while simultaneously expanding its brand into television, film and more. (“Quality Control Presents: Control the Streets, Volume 1,” a compilation album featuring the label’s roster and guests like Nicki Minaj, Kodak Black and Cardi B, is scheduled for release on Dec. 8.)

Coach K and Pee are not your standard record industry players, but more akin to No Limit’s Master P and Cash Money’s Baby and Slim: savvy businessmen who shaped their labels with grass-roots hustling — updated for the internet age.

“Other labels have these A & Rs and C.E.O.s and chairmen, sitting in an office looking on the internet at numbers on SoundCloud and Spotify — they’re just into the analytics,” Pee, 38, said. “That’s part of it. But if I’m being honest — and it might sound ignorant — I don’t own a computer. I’m really out here in it.”

During the controlled chaos of 48 hours earlier this month, the men each wielded two iPhones, speaking shoulder to shoulder with artists, major-label suits, managers, marketers and lawyers, sometimes passing the other a call midsentence — and mid-negotiation — to field another inquiry.

Never in one place for long — and certainly never behind a desk — the duo zipped from the studio to a street-side video shoot, radio station to radio station, strip club to nightclub, treated along the way with the reverence bestowed upon local celebrities and kingmakers.

“QC is in the building!” a D.J. shouted toward Pee and Offset, a member of Migos, at a late-night party. Each time he played the label’s music, most notably Lil Baby’s regional hit, “My Dawg,” he encouraged the group to throw more dollar bills in the air and buy more sparkler-topped bottles. “Where them ones at, Pee?” Even T.I., the Atlanta rap legend, came by to pay his respects to the next generation of local stars.

Coach and Pee also played babysitter and disciplinarian. “Did you get my text messages the other day?” Pee asked Trippie Redd, a rambunctious teen up-and-comer he and Coach are helping manage outside of Quality Control. “You didn’t hit me back.” The rapper stammered on the other end like a high schooler without his homework. “Uh … I got a new phone,” Trippie offered, before receiving a lesson in teamwork and communication.

An imposing presence, reserved until he isn’t, Pee represents the born-and-raised Atlanta backbone of Quality Control, as well as its most direct line to the illicit ecosystems that led to trap music’s sound. Though he declined to say how exactly he first funded his label and studio, his favored euphemism, “before music” — as in, “I had money before music” — nods to his arrests and jail time on gun possession and drug-dealing charges, a history he shares with the artists he is nurturing.

“I know what it’s like trying to get out the hood, trying not to make the same mistakes and put yourself in the position to go back to prison,” said Pee, whose parents battled drug addiction, from the front of his Maybach. “It’s hard getting money out here, especially for young black men with no education, coming from low-income areas.”

Marlo, a local rapper recently brought into the fold, called Pee “a real battery pack in me — he’s going to give you that push.” Kollision, another artist in development, recalled Pee encouraging him to stop carrying a gun until he could get a license for it, and referred to the executive as “police-dad, but in a good way.”

Coach, 46 years old and a refined industry veteran with a mostly salt-and-some-pepper beard, said that up to 85 percent of the pair’s job is mentorship. Raised in Indianapolis, he moved to Atlanta after the 1996 Olympics and helped bring the booming drug tales of trap music world wide through his past work with Pastor Troy, Jeezy and Gucci Mane. Coach is also known for his continued connection to the local internet-based youth scenes, especially the weirdo-hipster contingent that completes the city’s duality, dating from Goodie Mob and Outkast to Young Thug and ILoveMakonnen .

“They’re like ‘Bad Boys’ — Pee is Martin Lawrence and Coach is Will Smith,” said Simone Mitchell, one of two women who keep the Quality Control trains running on time with a single-digit staff. Tamika Howard, the label’s general manager, added: “Pee is the street one, Coach is the suave one. Yin and yang, but it’s the perfect match.”

They also keep each other in check. Pee admitted that, though out of character, he’d been enticed by the idea of signing the white teenage rapper Bhad Bhabie (better known as the “Cash Me Ousside” girl), only for Coach to object in an effort to protect Quality Control’s brand identity. “Big hype and then crickets,” Coach said of chasing viral moments.

Pee ultimately agreed: “There’s some artists we could’ve signed if we were trying to get some right-now money, but we’re trying to build something for the long run.”

Ethiopia Habtemariam, the president of Motown who brokered the deal with Quality Control, stressed the importance of maintaining a “boutique label” with a major partner and distributor. “It gives them an opportunity to find things early, develop them, get things bubbling and then we can sign it when it’s ready for prime time,” she said. “They really know how to build things from the ground up.”

Coach, more of a known quantity in the boardrooms of New York and Los Angeles, tends to politick upward, forging commercial partnerships for his artists and eyeing growth and diversification.

In a quick succession of calls between radio station visits with Stefflon Don , a British female rapper/singer the label is hoping to help break in the United States, he discussed a potential documentary on Quality Control; a feature film he and Pee are set to produce with Queen Latifah; an extension of Lil Yachty’s deal with Nautica ; and the possibility of airing a wedding special featuring Offset and Cardi B , the hip-hop Cinderella, on a major broadcast network.

“Everybody’s calling me about this,” he said. “ Ev-er-y-body .”

Pee seemed more comfortable with the ground troops. At a video shoot downtown, he beamed at his protégés while Lil Baby took the shimmering chains from his own neck and put them on Marlo, that afternoon’s star.

Later, in the parking lot of Magic City, the storied strip club that remains a proving ground for rap hits (and reliable source of dinner; it was before 6 p.m. on a Wednesday), Pee palmed stacks of $20s, $50s and $100s that had been bulging from Lil Baby’s pockets.

“This is why it’s so hard for us to stay on track,” Pee said, gesturing with the cash. “He’s so used to fast money that I’m trying to get him to understand: It’s fast money — but there’s a lot that comes with it.

“The streets are going to always be there,” he continued. “But it’s got consequences. I try to show them: Hey, there’s money over here, if you apply yourself. It’s safer money. No consequences. You don’t have to be the best rapper, but guess what? If you keep working hard …

“I know it’s not what you’re used to,” he said, “but the reward will be greater at the end.”

I asked Lil Baby, tucked into a bright yellow hoodie, if he found that logic convincing.

“I ain’t going to lie — I be like 15 percent knowing,” he said. “Some days I get frustrated.” But he knows the stakes. “I’ve been through all the bad parts of the streets. I’ve been to prison — 17 years old, level-five prison, the worst kind you can go to. Shootouts — I done watched my bros die. I’ve been through all that. I ain’t never had nothing good in life.”

With some success in music, though, he’s seen a glimmer of long-term hope. “It sounds like, ‘O.K., duh, go do that.’ But it’s hard to transition. I’ve been rapping for six months, but I’ve been in the streets heavy for like 12 years straight.” He pulled out his phone and scrolled through the missed calls — old friends luring him back.

“I’m transforming,” he went on, as if convincing himself. And yet, “right now, I’d rather be in the hood.” Prison, he said, helped some with those impulses. “I’m starting to build this patience. God’s got something else for me. I need to be with Pee, because ain’t no telling what’s going on in the hood right now, what I could be going into. I look at Pee as a savior.

“Twelve” — the police — “could be about to hit my little spot right now,” Lil Baby said. “And if I’m at Magic with Pee? I’m gonna be so happy.”

Explore the World of Hip-Hop

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