The Bigger Picture- Lil Baby

The Bigger Picture was released during the Black Lives Matter and George Floyd era of 2020. The world was getting adjusted to the pandemic and its consequences, and police brutality against African Americans. There was an alarming amount of tension between black people and the police, which dates back to slavery. The police were originally established to catch runaway slaves and bring them back to their owners, so that would explain the distrust that minorities, specifically Black Americans, have with the police. In the song, Lil Baby talks about “[giving them ] chance and chance and chance again, I believe he is talking about people who still encourage, ignore, and validate the mistreatment of black people. This reminds me a lot of the song Willie Jones published just a year later about how the American Dream can vary from race to race. They both connected to being black in America and how that has affected them and to some extent their perception of the American dream. From an outsider’s perspective, black men can benefit from being men in our society being that it functions under patriarchy however their race will marginalize them. Lil Baby wrote this song as a response to the events of police brutality, you can tell he is tired of not benefiting from the American Dream and being “[thrown] in cages like dogs and hyenas” I believe he is touching on the disproportionate rate in which black men are thrown in jail. “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”, Baby is suggesting that we should look beyond race and understand that ” fighting fire with fire” will only create more division among people. I believe it is only an issue because of how race became institutionalized in our country, being that it has been institutionalized there are stereotypes and prejudices that many people have about all races that lead to discrimination when we as individuals buy into them. Overall, I believe Lil Baby was trying to convey how centuries of oppression and false hope can weigh on people.