Lil Baby Declares He’s Back From The “Darkest Period” Of His Life With “5AM”

Lil Baby seemingly caught wind of people saying his music was starting to sound the same, hit the booth and switched it up. Today (Nov. 14), the Atlanta rapper debuted “5AM,” a warm-up for his long-awaited fourth studio album, which appears like it’s finally wrapped up.

“I’m a gangster, I’m ready whenever, forever, I’m on it / Bronem died, I’m still feelin’ inside of my chest and my stomach / Even my mama be askin’ me ‘Where is the album? We want it’ / Had to get on my business and tighten up on my mental, I’m coming,” he spat over the Wheezy-produced track.

“5AM” is one of two records Lil Baby promised to deliver today. The other, tentatively titled “Insecurities,” will be accompanied by a visual effort as well. As for his follow-up to 2022’s It’s Only Methe artist simply teased that it’s “on the way.”

“Ain’t it crazy how they trynna play me like I ain’t the one! It’s that time! I would say [it] again, but this run will be totally different! I had the darkest period of my life these last two years, but I stayed down and overcame that s**t. Now, I’m back to [f**king] s**t up as usual,” he explained in a caption on Wednesday (Nov. 13).

In December 2023, Lil Baby unloaded singles “350” and “Crazy.” Then, in March of the following year, he shared a new music snippet that unfortunately got sidetracked after DJ Akademiks accused him of wearing nail polish in the video.

Spanning 23 songs, It’s Only Me contained contributions from Jeremih, Pooh Shiesty, Young ThugFuture, Nardo Wick and Fridayy, among others. It also included records like “Forever,” “Heyy” and “In A Minute,” with much of the production being handled in-house by the likes of Chi Chi, Wheezy, ATL Jacob and more.