DaBaby names Eminem, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and more as his influences.
DaBaby, Joni Mitchell, Oprah Winfrey, H.E.R., and others have recently been interviewed by Clive Davis. DaBaby’s face lit up when Davis asked him to name his three biggest influences at one point during the interview. This year, Clive Davis, a music producer who has worked for nearly every major label, from Columbia to BMG to Sony, hosted his annual Grammy gala online. The second installment of his virtual “Pre-Grammy Gala,” which was postponed from its planned airing date the night before the awards, aired last Saturday and featured interviews and live performances from top musicians.
On the show, DaBaby asked about his biggest influences, to which he names the likes of Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West. “Lil Wayne. Eminem. So many people, though. Three is not enough,” he said. “I was definitely a big fan of Kanye, especially early on, so I would … give 50 Cent and Kanye West a tie… I was blessed enough to be able to see a lot of different people have their era, like even like a Nelly, and Ludacris, T.I. … so many people that just had their waves.”
“When I was like 8 years old, Mystikal was my favorite rapper. And that makes sense energy-wise if you think about like my visuals… Three is not enough. I need 300, Clive, I need 300 next time, (so) I can really sit down with a sheet of paper and write down 300 artists.”
The things got emotional as DaBaby talked about the deaths of two of his closest family members. “Every year since I’ve been a mainstream artist, I’ve gone through like personal tragedies,” he said. “Just recently, my brother committed suicide, maybe six months ago. This is when I’m coming off of having the No. 1 song in the country during the pandemic.” When it happened, “I was doing a voting campaign and I was going around to different voting polls in my city of Charlotte, North Carolina, doing my part, what I could do to get more people involved in what we got going on out here in the world. And then I got the phone call… I’m no stranger to going through things. But I gotta give credit to my parents… especially my mother is super-duper strong. I was just always taught to not look for sympathy from anybody… and just keep it pushing.”
DaBaby admitted that missing out on live and promotional appearances while his new album topped the charts in 2020 was a gift. “Really, I wasn’t even done mourning the loss of my father (who died in 2019). I wasn’t done doing a lot of things. I didn’t give myself a chance to grieve… I numbed myself with my work and my hustle, you know? So it gave me a much-needed year to reflect,” he said.
DaBaby’s first studio album, Baby on Baby (2019), reached number seven on the Billboard 200, while Kirk (2019), his second studio album, debuted at number one. The former contained the top-ten single “Suge” on the Billboard Hot 100, while the later had the multi-platinum hits “Intro” and “Bop.” Blame It on Baby (2020), his third studio album, became his second straight number-one album in the United States.
Last year in his interview with KXNG Crooked, Eminem also praised DaBaby. “DaBaby is interesting to me. I never know where his rhymes gonna land and that s**t is so interesting to me cause he does it so well.”
YoungBoy Never Broke Again and DaBaby recently teamed up for their new track “Bestie/Hit,” as well as an accompanying music video for “Hit,” only a few days after hinting its existence.
The four-minute collaboration has two tracks, the latter of which DaBaby teased on Instagram over the weekend. The duo previously collaborated on “Jump,” a tune on the North Carolina rapper’s upcoming album Blame It on Baby.
Check out the video for DaBaby’s interview here on Variety.
https://youtu.be/2_ufYi-MKYc
