2020 Hip-Hop Power Players: Lil Baby

Kevin Winter | Credit: Getty Images

I mean, where do I start with the streets hottest youngin’? Coming off 2019, Lil Baby didn’t drop a project & hardly released any songs. He hit 2020 like one of them infamous, historic blizzards though.

Though he hadn’t released any solo music in 2019, Lil Baby was still relevant as ever. His music was in steady rotation and unlike most artist in rap, he was far removed from all the gimmicks & nonsense that comes with it.

But I’m not here to bore you, you should’ve been hearing about Baby all year. Whether it was for music, lol. or other things.

Lil Baby gets the No. 1 spot because he wasn’t just the hottest artist of the year some of his artists became household names as well! While he absolutely did his job, it didn’t block the blessings of those around him. He gave several artist verses that brought them attention they likely wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. He was on several platinum singles both features and his own catalog. As well as, one of the few artists to go double platinum in the year.

While Detroit has been steady climbing the hip-hop ladder as a unit, 42 Dugg jumped out ahead of most this year. Thanks to his own work, but also his alignment. Whether you are familiar or not, the numbers and buzz is there. At least for 2020. While Rylo Rodriguez was heavily anticipated by the traps-n-trunks. He delivered GIHF, which got great reception and is steadily gaining more traction in the mainstream.

And all of those things are great, but unless we talking WAP or Savage, what single tops We Paid this year? The Box? Rockstar? Listen, while it’s a great conversation to have, We Paid takes it because while I couldn’t escape hearing it, I still wanted to play it myself.

QC does it again. While it’s apparent there’s more where that come from and that Baby has much more to offer the game. Playing with the advantage of having a real story and not trying to market fabric, it’s enticing to think where he goes from here. Could we look back at 2020 as the beginning of the Lil Baby era? Who knows but in 2020, the no.1 power player in hip-hop was QC’s Lil Baby.