Lil Baby, Meet The Author…
Thursday, February 20, 2020. A very chilly Atlanta morning. I woke up at the airport, but this time I was sitting at my favorite seat when I awoke at 6 am. I had been sitting there writing all night until I doze off for a second. This was one of the biggest tables in the food court section of the airport with four chairs. It was located about 20 feet directly in front of Burger King. I had stayed behind this day, which was after the airport police started running off people who were still sleep. At the airport, the police would wake people up as soon as the Marta trains started back running. I was still there because I had work to do, not sleep to catch! I could not wait to go meet my real estate mentor, Jay Morrison, and see what he was talking about tomorrow. Earlier this week, I had stumbled across his financial advisor, who was a very cool white dude that bought two of my one-man ‘From Suspect To Prospect’ stage play tickets several days earlier.
He was sitting near me at this same location. He got the tickets as a gift for Jay and his wife, for them to come see me perform on Saturday, July 18, 2020, at the Apex Museum in Atlanta. Jay’s financial advisor was very sharp, and you could tell that he was rich from his suit and shoes. I noticed it while he was sitting in the food court on his iPad. I said, “Hey, ya. You hiring?” This was one of my ice breakers, something that I learned at 9-years old while riding in the passenger seat of my grandfather’s pick-up truck. I watched my grandfather pull up on some older white guy back in the day and heard him asked the guy that. And this worked a lot for me since I been legit.
On this table I had my notepad and a copy of the web series poster, book flyer and brochure, and I had my head in the books, focused on this sponsorship proposal and treatment for the reality show for Jay, just when I couldn’t help but to notice these two young boys walking directly past my table. They were heading towards Burger King, but what got my attention is, the taller guy with a big Gucci blanket wrapped around his shoulders. I took a glance back as they walked to Burger King. Then I turned back around to the table to focus on what I was doing. Several moments later, something told me to look around to see what they were doing, and to my surprise, I saw this same young brother looking over my shoulder, checking out what I had on the table.
Once I noticed him looking, I was about to say something to him until he beat me to it. He said, “What’s that you got going on there?” I had heard him loud and clear. However, I had to shoot some of my game out there first. I immediately said, “Damn. What yall coming to America?” They both started laughing and smiling. And that was exactly where I wanted them at. I could clearly see that either they were balling for real, or they just had a lot of fake diamonds on. I said, “Where yall from? Where you from young blood?” I asked as I pointed at him. He responded, “New York. Brooklyn.”
“Oh, so you crazy then!” It really didn’t matter where they said they were from; I still was going to use that same line to break the ice with whoever it was. But once he didn’t laugh, smile, or do nothing after I said that this kind of told me he wasn’t really from New York. It told me that he was lying or something. I added on, “Well, I’m from New Jersey. Plainfield, New Jersey. So, I know how yall get down.” I looked at the table. “Oh naw, I write books, plays, scripts. I’m working on a reality show. It’s called Coming To Atlanta,” I said this just as I pointed at each individual product in the web series poster that I picked up from on the table.
As he looked at it, he said, “Oh, yeah? You write books?"
I repeated, “Yeah. I got four of them.” I pointed at all four of them once again, trying to be very clear of this. I grabbed one of my book flyers. “This is how I advertise my eBooks. How it works is, whoever give me a dollar or whatever, and they get my eBook. On the back,” I said as I turned the flyer around, “It says how they gotta take a selfie with this flyer and then email it to me. And I will email them the book.” He started to dig in his left pocket. He pulled out a crisp one hundred-dollar bill.
“A, look. I got a catch this flight. I need a book. But it gotta be some hard shit. I want something real, something from the streets, you feel me?” I looked at him like he was crazy. “Oh, that’s all I got.” It was perfect timing for me because I still was holding on to the same flyer which had one of my book reviews on it, which is the same flyer I still had in my left hand. I turned it over and said, “Look, a Georgia State University student said this, ‘From Suspect To Prospect is one of the most entertaining books that I've ever read. From start to finish, entertaining. What was really unique about his book is, instead of a boring, factual, autobiography, Adrian does a great job of mixing his real-life events with a bit of storytelling, and the combination was perfect."
After that, I placed the flyer back on the table. I knew my flyers worked because I made over $90,000 with 90,000 of this same exact fundraising idea. As he read it, I said, “It’s about me. Being 21 years old on a 3rd grade reading level. Selling drugs, shot five times in New Jersey. Went to jail for four years and taught myself how to read and write. Wrote these three books in 2007. Came home in 2010 and still had money. And plus, my young boys had money and they was hitting me. I started up a publishing company. Incorporated Best of the Best Publishing. I got 1,000 of my first fiction book printed out and sold them in 3 months.”
He looked at me surprised. “That’s good. That’s good as hell...”
“Yeah. Then somebody who read my book in 2013. He inspired me to write a one-man stage play. It takes place in jail.” Just as I was saying this, some young black guy came walking up to us with his phone in his hand. He was looking at this same young boy with the Gucci blanket on. He asked him, “Can I get a pic?”
I couldn’t believe he was asking to take a picture with this guy. I looked around to see who in the hell was this fan talking to. But it was clear who it was because the young brother replied, “Sure... Come on!” As they positioned to take pictures, I was still looking around and trying my hardest to figure out what was going on here and who was he. He had to be somebody famous or something.
I said, “Yo, who the fuck is you?” He was silent, as if he was paying me no mind. Several seconds later, I said to his fan, “Dog, who the fuck is he?” His fan was quiet and didn’t say nothing either as they flicked up. I didn’t see the young girl in line waiting up next to take a picture with him too because as soon as the first fan started walking away, she was stepping right in with her phone out in her hand, aiming her phone at the both of them and getting ready to take a pic. I got impatient; I was growing curious to see who this young brother was. I knew he had to be somebody. This is when I pulled out my phone and started recording. I said, “Dog, who the fuck is he? Who is this nigga?”
His female fan said, “This Lil Baby. You don’t know who this is!” I was shocked. I knew who he was, because it was just several months ago in Plainfield, New Jersey, which is when I let some of the homies in my hood use my 12-inch Bluetooth wireless speak to play both Lil Baby and Da Baby music last summer. They were all talking about Lil Baby’s documentary, Preacher Man, which is what made me go in the house later that night and watch the whole documentary on YouTube. So, I was clearly aware of and knew exactly who Lil Baby was, that he was in fact from Atlanta, Georgia, and not from Brooklyn, New York, like he said! I thought to myself, so why did he lie to me?
I said, “Oh, that’s Lil Baby,” just before I cut the camera off the first time. She looked in his eyes and said, “Thank you, Baby.” Then she slowly walked away looking at her pictures and doing something with her phone. I wasn’t going to say nothing about it until Lil Baby walked back over to me and was standing there looking at my material on the table, again.
I said, “Nigga, why you lie? You aint from New York. I know who you is... You dope... You crack... You hard white...” By then, Lil Baby and his homie G-Five was both laughing at me. I pulled back out my cellphone and started recording as if I was taking a selfie with them, but I actually wanted to get footage of them and me in the same scene. However, Lil Baby and G-5 started to make a pose for the camera as if I was, so I just went along with it, acting as if I was taking a picture of us when I was recording. Just as I started to turn my camera off, Lil Baby was already back at the table, picking up the poster and pulling out a crisp hundred-dollar bill. He handed it to me and said, “How I do it? I want to read that book.”
I replied, “Okay. I got you. I gotta get change, but I don’t have any books on me right now. Where you want me to drop the book off at? I will have it by later on today. I print them out at home.”
Lil Baby said, “I’m about to go out of state.” I tried to give him back his money. He said, “Keep it. That’s you.” I sat back in the chair, stunned and in total disbelief. I couldn’t belief it. I was just talking to Lil Baby all this time without even know it was him.
“Damn. Good looking out, bro,” I told him as he was reading my book flyer once again. When he put my flyer down, then he started reading something else on the table. At this point, I started pulling my phone out my pocket again, impatiently waiting for the right time to hit the record button. I wanted to get some more footage of him, but I also didn’t want to do it sneaky, all of a sudden just whipping out my phone from under the table and look all crazy trying to record him, especially without asking him first. I wanted to do it the right way, not as a creep or somebody who he couldn’t never trust.
I said, “I print everything out at home. I do everything myself. My money!” As he was reading my web series poster, again, I hit the record button. Lil Baby said, “If you got it together, you got it all together. I see...” While recording, right before I slowly began to raise the phone up, I said, “It might look shitty, but it's real.” By then, I was slowly but surely raising my phone up to record him. Just as he was finished saying, “I don't go off looks,” the camera was making its way on him.
I said on the camera, “Lil Baby in the building.” He immediately raised my web series poster up, flashing it for the whole world to see. While filming Lil Baby, I said, “That’s crazy, brah. I wish you a ton of money, brah.”
“Likewise. I wish you the same thing.”
I continued, “Much success, much happiness.” Lil Baby then placed the web series poster back down on the table and started to point at the black one-sleeve brochure that was laying right in between my mini notebook pad and web series poster.
“Ah look. I’m a get, take a picture of that. I don’t give a fuck. How I do it? You feel me?” As I started to turn off the camera to the phone to talk to him, I said, “No doubt.” After I cut the camera off, I said, “You can have it. You can take what you want. I can also write you a script.” I had to get that part in because I knew he had to go. As he began to leave, Lil Baby said, “Hell yeah. That’s what I want. That’s to make sure you call me. Ah look. Your number on here?”
I replied, “Yeah. It should be. Everything is me. By myself.” As he started walking off, heading to the checkpoint, Lil Baby shot back, “Say no more, then. I’m a call you for that script. You feel me?” I responded, “Doubt,” as I immediately started checking the gallery of my phone to make sure I got everything...
BOOK RELEASE DATE: SUMMER OF 2021
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