There’s no doubt that Lil Baby is rap’s biggest success story of 2020. The Atlanta native gave up his life on the streets in 2017 to try his hand at hip-hop; today, he’s blowing up the charts with tracks off his album My Turn. How has a whirlwind year affected his bottom line? He once complained that his early days as a rapper paid less than drug dealing, but that’s no longer the case. Find out Lil Baby’s net worth in 2023 and learn how he spends some of that hard-earned cash.
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Lil Baby Has Made His Mark In The Rap Game With Dozens Of Hits
Lil Baby was born Dominique Jones on December 3, 1994, in Atlanta, Georgia. Raised by a single mother, he didn’t take to school and dropped out in ninth grade. He hustled on the streets, playing dice and dealing weed, until he was incarcerated in 2014.
Pierre “Pee” Thomas, CEO of Lil Baby’s label Quality Control, says he convinced him to consider rapping when he got out of jail.
“When he was in prison, I used to talk to him and tell him, like, ‘Yo, when you come home, try to get in the studio and rap,'” Pee told Rolling Stone. “I had a big influence in Baby switching over from the streets to the music.”
Days after his release, Lil Baby walked into a studio and never looked back. He released four mixtapes in 2017, starting with Perfect Timing and ending with Too Hard; the latter was certified Gold. The following year, he unveiled his debut studio album Harder Than Ever. The projected boasted a mile-long list of guest appearances, including Drake, Young Thug, and Offset.
But it was Lil Baby’s 2020 follow-up, My Turn, that shot him into mainstream success. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and took the top spot on Billboard’s list of “The 20 Best Rap Albums of 2020.” One particular track from the album—”The Bigger Picture,” inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement—helped him earn two Grammy Award nominations: Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.
Check out Lil Baby’s signature sound in his, “Real As it Gets.”
Lil Baby Still Remains Low Key Despite His Massive Success
Even before the release of My Turn, Lil Baby’s music had already earned over 11 billion streams, and his singles amounted to being 12-times Platinum. Despite this, he prefers to live life in the most unassuming way possible.
“I just ain’t into [stardom],” he told the New York Times in February 2020. “I’m low-key bigger than the people who do that. One day maybe. Probably not, though. I don’t got a thrill for it. Fashion show in Paris, like … cool [shrugs]. I think I got that from prison. Like, just, you’re there, but you’re not there. It’s a mental thing: ‘I’m in here, and I just got to get through it.’; When I got out, it was the same thing. I’m just there, but I’m not there. Even for good stuff. It keeps me going.”
Not that Lil Baby hangs on to his pre-fame days. He said that no matter where his music takes him, he has no plans to do anything that will land him in prison again.
“No way, he said. “I’d die before I go to jail. That’s all I needed to see. And it’s different being a celebrity getting in trouble [than] a regular person getting in trouble. If I went to prison right now, I’d be lit. Prison now wouldn’t even faze me, honestly. But in my mind, I ain’t even dumb enough to think like that. I trained myself to think about how it was then. Hell nah, I’ll never go back.”
Lil Baby Claimed Anyone Making $500,000 Or Less Is Poor
Lil Baby sounds like a grounded dude, but in February 2021, he put his foot in his mouth with a tone-deaf Instagram post. In the now-deleted infographic, titled “Wealth Level by Net Worth,” the rapper breaks down people’s social standing based on their assets. There are 12 categories ranging from “Poor” to “Super Rich,” and he defines anyone making $500,000 or less as being on the lowest rung of the ladder.
Social media commenters went wild over the tongue-in-cheek post, accusing the rapper of losing touch with reality.
“In what world is 500k poor?” asked a Twitter commenter.
“What’s below poor, cuz I’m that one,” joked another.
Lil Baby Makes $400K Per Show
Lil Baby has come a long way from the days of playing tiny clubs in the South, sometimes referred to as the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” for $500 a gig.
“He used to be really frustrated, like, ‘This ain’t nothing. I make more money than this in the streets,’” Pee told Rolling Stone. “I used to always tell him, ‘But you don’t have to deal with the consequences that you have to deal with in the streets. You ain’t taking no chances with your life and your freedom.’ I used to have to instill in his head to just trust the process. I used to always tell him, ‘Baby, just trust me. It’s going to pay off in the end.'”
Sounds like his mentor was right. In a December 2020 interview with the Breakfast Club, Baby told Charlamagne Tha God that he gets paid $400,000 per show.
“Since I started rapping … I been booked two [or] three times a weekend,” he said. “I only did one show this year, and it’s the end of the year. A hundred shows maybe at least in a year, so it’s like a whole year, I did one show.”
What Is Lil Baby’s Net Worth In 2023?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Lil Baby’s net worth is an estimated $5 million.
Unlike some rappers, Baby doesn’t just blow his money on material goods. Yes, he drives a Rolls-Royce truck and has a thing for bling, but he also makes smart investments. A September 2020 GQ profile revealed that he had recently been part of the $400 million redevelopment of an Atlanta mall.
Given the way his fame has exploded, we expect to update this number with a significantly higher figure in the coming years.