{"id":598907,"date":"2026-08-28T18:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/598907\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T18:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:46:12","slug":"skilla-baby-interview-on-new-album-overcoming-shooting-50-cent-nas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/598907\/","title":{"rendered":"Skilla Baby Interview on New Album, Overcoming Shooting, 50 Cent & Nas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSkilla Baby\u2019s<\/a> life changed forever on May 22, 2025, when the Detroit rapper was targeted in a drive-by <\/a>shooting in Redford, Mich., near 8 Mile. Skilla\u2019s SUV was riddled with more than 25 shots, and he suffered three gunshot wounds, which required multiple surgeries in his road to recovery \u2014 but that\u2019s The Price of Fame.<\/p>\n

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\n\tWhile Skilla had already been working on his debut album, the shooting undoubtedly changed the trajectory of the project. \u201cMy life had flashed before my eyes, now this s\u2013t crystal clear,\u201d he raps on the LP\u2019s title track.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 27-year-old looked to hip-hop grails for inspiration, with prized albums like\u00a0All Eyez On Me,\u00a0Reasonable Doubt, Get Rich Or Die Tryin\u2019 and\u00a0It\u2019s Dark and Hell Is Hot laying the blueprint.<\/p>\n

\n\t2Pac\u2019s <\/a>influence is apparent, with Skilla remaking a famed photo of a wheelchair-ridden Pac<\/a> after a 1994 shooting at Quad Studios for his cover art. He even took a page out of the Death Row rapper\u2019s book for a poignant letter to his mother, tracing the lines of \u201cDear Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Price of Fame is also grounded in faith. Skilla connected with Mary Mary\u2019s Erica Campbell for \u201cStrength in Numbers,\u201d which is his take at a \u201cWe Are the World\u201d type of uplifting track. He still maintains his edge on the gospel-influenced cuts in a way that would make DMX<\/a> smile.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI finally found my love for music again within that time,\u201d he tells Billboard while rocking an icy Cuban link chain<\/a> with an oversized Detroit Tigers logo pendant, which he received as a gift from 50 Cent<\/a>. \u201cI had felt stagnant. This album had me feel more creative and put me in a spot where I liked what I was doing again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSkilla Baby organically picked up New York rap royalty as his mentors. 50 Cent, who appears in a teaser trailer for The Price of Fame, gave him a shrewd ear to lean on \u2014\u00a0and had Skilla set up with an acting agency, which led to a role in the upcoming Starz series Power: Origins, on which 50 is an executive producer.<\/p>\n

\n\tNas<\/a> also saw a piece of himself in Skilla. The Queensbridge legend ended up blessing him with a verse on the DJ Toomp-produced \u201cRespect My Gangsta,\u201d while giving Skilla the ultimate co-sign, rapping about how they\u2019re \u201ccut from the same cloth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSkilla Baby is hitting the road this fall in support of the project, as The Price of Fame Tour<\/a> kicks off in New York City on Oct. 21. <\/p>\n

\n\tKeep scrolling for the rest of our interview with Skilla, who details his bond with 50 Cent, getting features from Nas and Chris Brown and what helped cure his depression.<\/p>\n

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\n\tHow did the album shift creatively since the shooting?<\/p>\n

\n\tThis album shifted my whole mindset as far as life and creatively. I want this album to put me in the favorite lyricists category. The album shifted my mind completely. I don\u2019t think [the shooting] shifted where I wanted to go, but how I went about it. It gave me another story to tell. It gave me something to detail where my head was at and put some more emotion into it. That for sure affected it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe album cover art is inspired by 2Pac, and you got a \u201cDear Mama\u201d-lifting track on Price of Fame as well. What inspiration did Pac provide?<\/p>\n

\n\tI always wanted my album to feel nostalgic. Before the shooting, I didn\u2019t know how I was going to piece the album together. \u201cThick One\u201d was really supposed to be on the album. As soon as all that happened, it put life in a different perspective for me. I started drawing inspiration from things other people went through. Pac always inspired me and going through something like that \u2014 not to compare us, but to show similarities in how he may have felt and how I felt. <\/p>\n

\n\tYou got 50 Cent in the album trailer. What gems did you take from him? He\u2019s got you in Power: Origins coming up.<\/p>\n

\n\t50 helps me separate myself from the pack. Whenever I get stagnant or stuck in a place, he gives me advice on how to get out of my head. It helps me do more things to lean toward all things entertainment and be an icon. I appreciate having him in my corner. He got me this chain on my neck too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen did you originally link with 50?<\/p>\n

\n\tI be hanging in New York, so some of his younger guys he knows, my guy, TV. I met him a few more times and met with my manager, Rocket, and we worked on the acting stuff and he works closely with 50. I went to acting school for two years. I got with the agency and they gave me self-tapes to do for the Power role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the \u201cSuits\u201d skit on the album, was that targeting the labels wanting TikTok dances and songs to trend with commercial appeal and you fighting against that?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was inspired by how I keep hearing how hip-hop\u2019s dying. I just wanted it to feel like an old-school hip-hop record, but I still wanted to get some respect. I forgot which Eminem song I was watching the video to, but it was a skit with Interscope.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you link up with Nas and get him on the album? Was it intimidating to rap with him and present a song to him?<\/p>\n

\n\tWe was trying to figure out what role Nas was going to play at first. He was going to executive produce the project or help out. We got on the phone, because he heard the project before he put a verse on there. He told me he appreciates me for making the project and how it\u2019s going to be big for hip-hop. We kept getting on the phone and then I flew to New York and got with him. I hung with him a few times and then it was like, \u201cHe gon\u2019 give you a verse.\u201d That was crazy for me; I was like, \u201cWhat?\u201d That blew me.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat did you think when you first heard his verse?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m like, \u201cThis really Nas?\u201d And he gave me like 40 bars. He didn\u2019t give me no half-ass 16. He really gave me a verse. I was blessed by the rap God.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTalk about your album rollout. It looks like you\u2019ve been having fun with things like the \u201cShow Me Love\u201d bootcamp video.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI just want my rollout to be super creative. I wanted to be kind of edgy and creative. I wanted to step outside the box and push the line without offending anyone. I think people are kinda getting offended by it. I wanted to be edgy without offending anyone. I wanted to show that love comes in all shapes, colors and sizes. It\u2019s okay to show love to people. You gotta hold yourself back with comedy and I come from watching comedy \u2014 my parents were older \u2014 where everybody don\u2019t get offended by everything you say. I know people would feel some type of way and I just want to spread peace and love and it\u2019s not these people versus these people; it\u2019s everybody together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAre you really related to [University of Michigan quarterback] Bryce Underwood?<\/p>\n

\n\tBryce is my little cousin. That\u2019s my family. He\u2019s such a great football player, but as a human being and young man, he\u2019s even better. He goes out of his way to help people. He doesn\u2019t offend anyone. He takes family seriously. He gives back. Everything he\u2019s getting, he deserves it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYou gotta head to the Big House for a game this year. <\/p>\n

\n\tI went last year. I\u2019ve seen like four games and one of them I was in a super big, yellow bubble coat. Ohio State was playing and coach wasn\u2019t letting my boy throw the ball like that. I was sick. I traveled all the way from Arizona, where it was hot, and came to the cold and it was snowing. [He\u2019s a] future Heisman winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHow was working with Chris Brown and Bryson Tiller on \u201cFace Card?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was everything to me. Chris Brown is our generation\u2019s Michael Jackson, to me. Bryson Tiller has an arguably top-five R&B-trap album, in my opinion. This whole album has been mind-boggling for me \u2014 even just getting the Usher sample cleared, meeting Usher and Chris Brown and hanging with these people. That was the first sample that got cleared on the album. Everything else was so ridiculously hard to get cleared. Usher just cleared [\u201cSeduction\u201d] right away. I met Usher before that and he was like, \u201cI\u2019m a fan.\u201d They have a beautiful family; his wife, Jen, I love her.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow about linking up with Erica Campbell?<\/p>\n

\n\tErica Campbell is a beautiful person. I met her husband, Warryn; he\u2019s a pastor. He did a lot of records for Mary Mary, Mario and 2Pac. He\u2019s big in the industry as a producer. I went to their church and met the family. He connected me with his wife for the record. Everything about my album feels nostalgic for me, because I remember where I was at hearing these records for the first time, even though some of them were already out. I remember being a kid listening to these people. I remember where I was when I first heard Chris Brown\u2019s \u201cRun It.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of the rollout, you had a segment with A$AP Rocky, G Herbo and Tee Grizzley explaining what fame has cost them. What did you think about their answers?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think Tee\u2019s connected to me the most out of anybody\u2019s \u2014 because he went left, like, \u201cIt cost me my respect.\u201d As a famous person, people can comment what they want and try to do what they want, because they can hide behind computers. I felt that one. I felt Rocky when he was saying, \u201cMy family, it cost me a lot of privacy.\u201d I felt Herb when he said it cost him friendships, because I\u2019ve been through all these things. Fame cost me a lot \u2014 childhood fun, I don\u2019t do drugs and drink. I had to move faster than I wanted to move.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat work did you have to do to get out of depression?<\/p>\n

\n\tI didn\u2019t really know I was depressed until I was out of it. I think getting out of it was doing normal stuff like working out, going to sporting events, popping up at football games out of state and nobody knows I\u2019m there. Then I got my sanity back and I kind of put life in perspective.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n


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