Rap as a Form of Remixing

One of my favorite rappers, Dominique Jones, or more popularly known as, Lil Baby, just released a song titled, The Bigger Picture. This song is very timely, as its main theme addresses the issues of racism and police brutality in America.

First, I'd like to give a little background on Lil Baby. He was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, a city now regarded as the mecca of rap music in the 21st century. Raised by a single mother in one of the city's most impoverished neighborhood's referred to as "section 8", Lil Baby was in and out of trouble with the law throughout his adolescence. He uses his experience growing up in a southern city, which is still segregated to this day, to share a powerful critique of racism in America and offer an empowering anthem of hope as well.

  He begins the song with the chilling lines, "I find it crazy the police'll shoot you and know that you dead, but still tell you to freeze". Right off the bat this hits home in an emotional way. So often rap is viewed in the main stream as a "thug" form of music that only talks about drugs, sex, and money. This could not be further from the truth when it comes to Lil Baby's new song.  Yes, in some of his music, he talks about these things, which he says are prevalent in his community. This is where the remixing comes in. Lil Baby remixes his own story to show the systematic racism in his community and plead for a change in America. 

Lil Baby is extremely honest in this song. He writes, "I can't lie like I don't rap about killing and dope, but I'm telling my youngins to vote / I did what I did cause I didn't have no choice or no hope, I was forced to just jump in and go / This bullshit is all that we know." This is a theme expressed by other rappers as well that is often disregarded by the mainstream public as just thug music. Fellow Atlanta Rapper, who is also from Section 8, writes in his song, Letter 2 My Momma, "Times got hard started selling hard / Before I see you stressing, I'ma break the law." This is the same sentiment that Lil Baby is expressing - growing up in the environment that he did, he did not have much other choices than doing things like selling drugs as a means of survival. He is careful not to defend or promote this in his song, but he is telling the world that where he comes from, kids do this because sometimes they have no other ways of putting food on the table or taking care of their younger siblings. Breaking the law often serves as a means of survival in Lil Baby and 21 Savage's neighborhood.

By engaging with his past actions in a brutally honest way, Lil Baby is able to remix his message into one of hope and encouragement. He writes in his chorus, "It's bigger than black and white / It's a problem with the whole way of life / It can't change overnight / But we gotta start somewhere / Might as well go ahead and start here." By exposing the systematic forms of racism in place in his neighborhood and across the country in America, he sheds a light on America's darkest and ugliest sin. A sin that not only affected his ancestors, but that continues to affect his family and community today. He encourages his community to rise up against this and make a change, inviting not only black people, but people of all races as symbolized by the lines "It's bigger than black and white." This is a very enlightening and timely song that I think every American would benefit from listening to.


 Here is a link to the music video, where you see Lil Baby helping lead a peaceful protest in Atlanta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VDGysJGNoI

Here is also a link to an instagram post that describes the kind nature of the man who the world knows as Lil Baby: https://www.instagram.com/p/CBIc6prjpL9/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet