Music is a language that can be understood universally. It has the ability to break down complicated issues into the things we can all relate to. Besides this, it holds the power to capture history in making.
After the incident on May 25 by the police brutality following George Floyd’s death. On the contrary, Lil baby’s song “The Bigger Picture” became the protest song in the movement “Black Lives Matter”.The audio track was launched on June 12, 2020, achieving 14 million views. The official video came on June 13, 2020, achieving 121 million views, 1.8 million likes, and 68 thousand dislikes.
The 25-year-old rapper Lil Baby processes the injustice he faces in America as a Black man. The song shows the documentary on the actions on the streets of Atlanta. The lyrics of the song are powerful- “Every colored person ain’t dumb and all Whites, not racist, I be judging by the mind and heart, I ain’t really into faces”. In the video, we see the Black experiences and the actions on the streets. We first see the rapper in Atlanta city, in the air at a rally. He’s wearing a T-shirt which says “Black Lives Matter”. Then the video continues with the site where the protestors are marching, being tear-gassed, and shot with the rubber bullets by the police. He also dives into the absurdity of the police mind-state and the lack of humanity and thought process of protecting themselves over the communities they are paid to take care of and to protect them.
Baby expresses his frustration at the police for their failings. In the song he raps “They supposed to protect us/ Throw us in handcuffs and arrests us /While they go home at night, that shit messes up/ Knowing we needed help, they neglect us”. The song shows the documentary on the actions on the streets of Atlanta.
The rapper’s inability to express such raw and relatable thinking makes him such an incredible singer. He had one of the most individual successful years in music thus far.