Lil Baby has acknowledged that he cannot meet every financial demand coming from members of his family.
The Atlanta rapper made an appearance on Friday’s (October 30) episode of The New York Times Popcast, where he discussed the “unnerving” connection he still has to financial struggles because of the constant requests for money from close friends and relatives.
“Even though I reached the heights that I reached — I’ve become a superstar, I’ve got multiple hits, I’m not in that same life — but you ever heard of, ‘You could take me out the hood, but you can’t take the hood out of me?'” the WHAM rapper said around the five-minute mark of the video below.
“Now I don’t have to actually be there. But long as I can hear it on the phone and I actually know those people, I can still rap about it,” he continued. “Still can tell the story. Like, I’m rich, but I’m not rich enough for everybody. I made it out. But my friends and my family are still in the same situation, same living conditions.”
Lil Baby also explained what he feels his relatives “least understand” about his financial situation. He used an example of a cousin asking him for $2,000, pointing out that family members often overlook how many other people make similar requests.
“Your cousin might tell you to give him $2,000. To them, they think it’s just $2,000, you got all that money. But they don’t count the 2,000 more people who need $2,000,” he explained.
“I might be sharing it, they still just don’t understand. But it’s more so like, they don’t even want to understand that, because they only see it their way. What can I do for them? Or: “I need you to do this.”
Another Southern rapper who understands the financial pressure Lil Baby described is BigXThaPlug. During an appearance on Club Shay Shay earlier this week, BigX revealed plans to build a 150-acre family compound in Texas where his relatives can live. He explained that the idea is to eliminate the constant requests for financial assistance.
“‘Cause it’s like, now I got to deal with [you’re aunt calling for] mortgage, your cousin calling for rent, this person calling for this, light bill, gas bill. Everything already [taken] care of,” BigX said. “So that’s one less burden on me.”
