I really have friends in prison for the rest of their lives for things that they didn’t do. But me, I’m a person who really has family members who’ve been killed by the police. “It’s a never-ending saga for the people who really live in it,” says Lil Baby, “but to the world … stuff like that dies down when no one’s talking about it. It’s the reason why Mallory’s address toward the new administration during the performance (“President Biden, we demand justice, equity, policy, and everything else that freedom encompasses,” she said) became one of its crucial moments. Months after “The Bigger Picture” was released, the protests that the song helped soundtrack have died down, but the problems that they confronted have not disappeared.

Nearly 24 hours after the performance, Lil Baby says that it’s gotten the biggest online reaction out of anything he’s ever done at an awards show - and he’s hopeful that such a reaction helps reminds America not to get complacent in the fight against racial injustice. Lil Baby Met Jay-Z at the 2021 Grammys & He Was on Some 'Boss Sh-'

I see myself following in his footsteps.” Baby also brought his mother to the ceremony, and says, “She was a little mad that I didn’t win a Grammy, but she had fun.” Baby tweeted about meeting Jay-Z for the first time at the ceremony, and says the next day, “I’m really not that fond of meeting other celebrities, but Jay-Z is a guy who I look up to, and look up to the way he moves and the things that he’s done. Meanwhile, Mallory was brought in by Collins, creative director Fatima Reynolds and Thomas the latter describes the prominent Black Lives Matter activist as “a brave Black woman who stands up for what she believes in.”īecause Lil Baby taped his showcase a few days before the Grammys - shutting down the area outside of the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the nighttime setup - the rapper was able to enjoy Grammy night (although “The Bigger Picture” lost in both of its categories) and watch his performance alongside the rest of the stars on hand. Lil Baby describes fellow Atlanta native Killer Mike, who performed a verse from the Run The Jewels tracks “Walking In The Snow” during the performance, as “a person I look up to as a mentor,” and a natural fit for the showcase. We wanted to show these situations to a wider audience.” Thomas adds that the performance required “months of preparation and rehearsal,” and credits Lil Baby, Grammys producer Jesse Collins, executive producer Ben Winston and the entire Quality Control brain trust (Fatima Robinson, Coach K, Ethiopia Habtemariam, Twin, Brian Nolan and Britney Davis) for helping to see it through.

When Rayshard Brooks was gunned down in Atlanta – in our backyard - it hit hard. “Black communities have been dealing with police brutality for generations and I wanted to show the reality. “We’ve been thinking about this since last summer,” Thomas tells Billboard. Lil Baby says that he and Pierre “P” Thomas, CEO of Quality Control Music, had been conceptualizing the performance - which also involved Molotov cocktails, activists squaring off against a police barricade, Killer Mike stopping by for a guest verse and activist Tamika Mallory delivering a spoken-word interlude – throughout 2020, considering the showcase for other awards ceremonies but deciding to save it for Grammy night. 3 last June, the song helped define the explosion of protest music last summer in conjunction with the nationwide marches against racial injustice, and later scored Grammy nods for best rap song and best rap performance. That happened in Atlanta, and I live in Atlanta, and I’ve been in some of those same exact situations.”Īfter “The Bigger Picture” became Lil Baby’s then-highest-charting hit on the Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. I wanted to use something that stood by me. “I didn’t really want to use the George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or something. “I wanted to use a specific situation that would give people an understanding of where I come from,” Lil Baby tells Billboard the day after the Grammys.

The bigger picture lyrics