The “Dale Earnhardt” rapper on the making of his new album Big Baby Earnhardt, gaining the attention of NASCAR, launching his very own beer, and much more.
Big Baby Scumbag is unapologetically authentic. His vision and voice are inseparable. When he pushes the envelope, he does so with what seems to be an infinite knowledge-base of cultural phenomena at his disposal. Ranging from movie references, to Yugioh, all the way to forgotten culinary relics like Heinz EZ Squirt, this guy knows his stuff. And, his music reflects this knack, as his breakout track “Dale Earnhardt” debatably bridged the gap between rap music and NASCAR. The song serves as a culmination between these worlds, flawlessly fusing allusions to Gucci Mane, ramen noodles, and Jeff Gordon into one robust work. Attesting to how brilliant this collision of culture really is, the one and only Dale Earnhardt Jr. cosigned the song on Twitter, stating, “Nascar n hip hop. I like it when they cross paths.”
In September 2019, the Tampa native teamed up with world renowned-producer Lex Luger and released his first project, Juvenile Hell. The duo crafted an impeccably chaotic listen, coalescing Luger’s prestige as trap music’s forerunner with Big Baby Scumbag’s unmistakable delivery. For him, Juvenile Hell, “was just a product of putting out all of my emotions that I felt when I was a juvenile.” The album epitomizes these emotions with songs like “METAL GEAR SOLID,” where his remorselessly intense one-liners collide with haunting church bells and mutating choirs. When comparing it to his new album, aptly named Big Baby Earnhardt, Big Baby Scumbag explains, “[The two are] almost like apples and oranges… With this project, this is about having fun. This is about just being yourself. This is about just living, enjoying life.”
Since the release of his very first song 5 years ago, Big Baby Scumbag has made great strides in cementing his memorable sound and image. Now, he is geared up, and entering new and unexplored domains. Following up on his last project, we spoke with him about his roots, his vision, Big Baby Earnhardt, and everything else in between.
Why did you decide to start making music? Did you always know this was what you wanted to do?
Honestly, I think at the back of every black kid’s mind growing up, you have that thought, You know what? Maybe I want to be a rapper. I was always around music, my big brother put me onto a bunch of music, so I’ve always been a fan of it. Eventually I feel like I would’ve always started rapping. If not four or five years ago, then maybe right now. All of my friends were doing this shit, so it influenced me to do it. Honestly, it’s no telling what I’d be doing right now if it wasn’t for music. This wasn’t planned at all. But, I’m grateful that it happened, you know?
Unlike some artists, you’ve cultivated a very personal relationship with your fan base, actively interacting with your followers on social media. What’s the motivation behind that?
Honestly, I think it’s just going back to the MySpace days. When artists were on MySpace they would totally interact with their fans in the comments and stuff. You can look at Wiz Khalifa’s come up or Mike Jones’ come up. Mike Jones put his phone number out there and it was a hotline to order his new album or some shit. Even Lil B, he made over 150 Myspace pages. What’s crazy with Lil B [is that] he said his reason behind it was that there was a limit on how many songs you could upload to your musician profile. I think it was like five or six songs or whatever. Lil B had said one day one of his fans asked why don’t you have such and such song on your profile. So this motherfucker just made a million pages and went ham with this shit, just putting all his songs up on MySpace. I think I get a lot of influence from that. Like the Soulja Boy era, that whole shit. I think I just make it my own thing now.
What is your method toward staying creative?
I get inspiration from being out in nature, watching sports, everything. I’m like a sponge when it comes to being creative. I’ll take inspiration from wherever, dude, and I’ll make it a way where it’s cool, or bring it back to Baby Scumbag. I watch a lot of documentaries, a lot of movies, a lot of cartoons, a lot of stand-up comedy. Just a lot of shit. What’s so crazy is I was asking Lil Aaron — he’s amazing with songwriting — like, “Yo, what’s the secret to songwriting?” And he flat out was like, “ I just watch a lot of Netflix bro.” I was like word, okay.
It makes all the sense you could make. I’ll have writer’s block, and it could be something as simple as scrolling down my timeline on Twitter. I’ll see a set of words in one sentence and I’ll use that to start off a verse or a hook. Like “Hammer Time” for instance, “Chase a check, never chase a bitch.” I’d seen that Tweet somewhere, and I was like alright, I’m going to start it out with this and anything else after this is going to be whatever comes. Sometimes that’s all it takes is that first sentence, it’s like a snowball effect after that.
How would you describe Big Baby Earnhardt compared to your previous works?
It’s very different compared to Juvenile Hell. It’s almost like apples and oranges. I say that because [producer] Lex Luger has such a distinctive sound. There’s no doubt in your mind it’s a Lex Luger beat. I feel like a lot of the time, when you do collab projects with one producer, it does end up sounding one-dimensional. So, Juvenile Hell was really dark, it had a lot of horror movie references and influences. A lot of dark anime. I was watching a lot of Death Note when I wrote Juvenile Hell, so there’s a lot of Death Note influences. There’s a very dark vibe as far as that project went. I was putting out all of the emotions I felt when I was a juvenile. I was listening to Lex Luger when I was 15-16 years old, when he was producing a bunch of shit for Waka. Juvenile Hell — that was Mobb Deep’s first project they released in 1992. With that whole thing, I wanted to take it somewhere where I could let out all my bottled up anger. That’s why I’m screaming on every song.
Big Baby Earnhardt totally embodies Big Baby Scumbag, and it also shows growth, my craft. I’ve been doing this for like four years. The shit I’m making now isn’t really the shit I was making three-four years ago, but at the same time, it still has that Big Baby Scumbag touch to it. I have songs on there that I did a lot of experimenting with. There’s country songs on there, there’s an indie pop song on there. I have this intermission with the homie CadyCutThroat from Sweden. We basically was up one day early in the morning and he kept playing this loop pack over and over again. We made it into a mix. It’s very experimental and it’s very fun. It’s a very fresh sounding album.
I feel like Big Baby Earnhardt is going to open the door up for the fans who don’t know who I am while feeding the existing fan. Just bringing everyone together. There’s nine tracks on the album, and honestly every single feature on the album made sense to be on there.
What was your mindset going into this project? Was “opening doors” your main focus?
Yeah definitely, because I feel like I’m in that in between phase as an artist, where I want to grow, but am I going to remain making the same shit that I’ve made the past three-four years, or am I going to try something different? You know what I’m saying? I feel like with a lot of artists they get stuck in the crossroads with that. It’s kind of like they’re afraid to try new shit, so they just keep doing what they’re doing. And yeah, that’s cool, you can do that. But you’ll never know how shit’s gonna go till you try it. Honestly with me at this point it’s about having fun with it, and keeping shit fresh for me.
A lot of my homies, when I would show them certain songs, they’d be like “Uh, it’s different, it’s different.” They didn’t always give me a, “Oh, this shit fire!” That type of criticism never really affected me because at the end of the day, I’ve always went with my gut instinct when it came to music, so I feel like if I fuck with it, my fans are gonna fuck with it off rip.
As far as the creative process when it came to making these songs, every song on this project, I didn’t want it to sound like anything I’d made previously. Every song is different from the last. Incorporating the country shit, incorporating the indie shit, the ’90s Blink 182 type of vibe. I just wanted to come with some whole new shit man. This is Big Baby Earnhardt. With this project, this is about having fun. This is about just being yourself. This is about just living, enjoying life. You know, being free basically. And all the future projects after this, who knows, maybe I’ma make a love album or something later on, who knows man.
The album sports some iconic features. Did you already know who you wanted on it? Give us the details on the process behind assembling such a star-studded lineup.
Getting Lil Aaron on the “Dale Earnhardt” remix wasn’t even planned out. It just happened. I had Tweeted, “Yeah I need someone to get on the remix of one of my favorite songs.” At the time, I was referring to one of my very first songs, “Jelly.” Lil Aaron ended up responding to me like, “Yo let’s work on some shit.” I was like well damn, “Dale Earnhardt” will go perfectly with Aaron. He’s from Indiana, that’s the NASCAR capital just like Florida is. It was only right to get him on the song, and I know a lot of people aren’t going to expect him at all out of all people. That’s why I hadn’t Tweeted anything about the tracklist. I wanted to surprise people.
As far as Lil B, I’ve known about Lil B since I was like 16, but I can’t pinpoint when Lil B found out about me. There was a point in time when I’d DM him every single video I would drop. He never responded. Like never ever. But Lil B follows everybody. So, I’m thinking to myself Damn, he’s not responding, but I know he’s gotta see this shit. Then, earlier last year, March 2019, he DMs me out of nowhere, it was the most random shit ever. He DMs me his phone number, his email, and says he sees me doing my thing.
I already had “Nicole Richie” recorded and I honestly had no plans of putting anyone else on it. I had cover art for it and everything. Then, the minute Lil B wanted to work, I was like “Oh shit, I got the perfect song for you bro.” I just remember when he sent the verse back, I was sitting in my car. I played the song what had to be six times. I was just freaking out. It’s so surreal, being such a big fan of somebody and then ultimately knowing them and being good friends with them. Like I text Lil B all the time [laughs].
So, how the Project Pat song came about. I have a homie that’s cool with Project Pat. Basically, he was just like, “Yo he’s heard about your stuff.” I was like, “Oh, word.” Project Pat is a legend dude, he’s up there with Juicy J, DJ Paul, Lord Infamous, Koopsta Knicca. He wasn’t a member of Three 6 Mafia but he was Hypnotize Minds, a legend. I was blown away about that shit, that he would even want to work with me. I was on some shit like, alright this is the song, I can’t come with no weak ass shit. I can’t embarrass myself on a song with Project Pat, this is a big deal for me [laughs]. That was amazing. That’s one of my favorite songs on the album.
Black Kray and I been cool since like 2015. I remember I put out my first single, “Tha Trenchez.” I had been following him on Twitter, on Instagram, but I don’t know exactly when he followed me back or when we first chopped it up. Anyways, he had did a Goth Money tour. He had came down to Orlando, I’m from Tampa but Orlando’s like an hour away. I pulled up to the Orlando show, met him in person, and we’ve been cool ever since. He’s one of those people [who I was a fan of] before the rap shit, and now being on such good terms, talking all the time type shit. I’ve went to Black Kray for advice. There’s been times I wanted to quit making music, I’m like, “Yo, how do you still have the drive to do this shit?” And he just gave me a good word of advice, “Music is always gonna to be there. If you gotta take a break, that’s what you gotta do.” Real genuine advice man, I can come to him about whatever and it’s all love.
So, me and Kray, this is like our fifth song we done worked on. Some are sitting around in the vault. Black Kray been doing the country vibe shit, so it was only right to get him on “Toy Story.” Just like any other song, it was all love. He knocked this shit out quick, got it back to me, mixed it down, it was a wrap. Yeah man, shouts out to Kray. I’m still trying to do a little joint EP with him or something. I’m pretty sure we’re gonna let that happen 2020.
Back in October, you released your own Big Baby Scumbag branded condoms and koozies. You also released cassette tapes for your last project Juvenile Hell. Alongside Big Baby Earnhardt, you are releasing your own trading cards. What made you decide on this particular kind of merchandising?
It was just thinking outside the box, dude. I never wanted to do what anybody else was doing. Since I started rapping, there’s always been an inside joke about my name. Big Baby Scumbag, if you read it the wrong way, it’s Big Baby Cumbag. I just wanted to put something out that I could utilize that and bring to a whole new level. Literally one day I just woke up, and I was like, “You know what? I’m gonna make condoms.” [Laughs] It’s as simple as that, dude.
With the koozies, I feel like that just goes hand in hand with the whole branding with the beer, drinking hella beer and shit. The trading cards, that goes into my interest with Yugioh and how NASCAR drivers had their own trading cards. Shit like that. So I feel like with me, branding is everything. If I was a singer, I’d come out with a toy microphone, have little buttons you can press and when you press it it’ll be my voice singing or some shit. Like some damn Barbie microphone. It’s just branding bro, like if anything has something to do with your brand and you feel like you can take that shit and run with it somewhere, fuckin’ do it.
The word on the street is that you’re also about to be one of the only rappers with their own signature beer. And it’s not just any old beer, it’s a Trix-flavored Berliner Weisse brewed by Hidden Springs Ale Works. How did this collaboration come about?
This has been in the works for five-six months now. My homie that works at the brewery, he had DM’d me one day and was like, “Yo I’ve been putting a bunch of people on in the brewery to your music. You should come in, we should talk about getting a beer made.” I was like, “For real?” Tampa’s got a bunch of breweries out here. We have the Budweiser brewery out here, Miller, Yuengling, a bunch of independent breweries and shit. So it’s pretty popular out here. I always thought about having my own beer, but I didn’t know the first step in doing that. I’m not going to pull up to Budweiser and be like, “Hey, I want my own beer guys!” So, this was perfect. I stopped by the brewery, had a few drinks. What’s crazy is that the name for the beer was actually their idea. We were talking about concepts, and I have a lyric, “Silly rabbit, you can’t have it, I got karats in my tooth.” When they mentioned that, I was like, Oh shit, this will be crazy. I wasn’t even thinking in that direction.
As far as the brewing process, I’m very hands on with everything I do. I was with them pouring grains and shit and doing all that, I wanted to get dirty and I wanted to feel that I’m part of this. It’s kind of like when presidents go on campaigns and they go to the factories and farmers markets and see how cheese is made. I felt like the president doing my hands-on duties. You know what I’m saying? It was awesome. We’re going to start making a lot more beers further down the line. This is going to be a seasonal beer, but I want to do something else for spring break. I want to come out with a summer beer. Come out with a little pumpkin spice beer for autumn. You know? Have a beer for the holidays, Christmas time.
I think no other artist has really tapped into the beer game. There’re a million rappers that put on for champagne and liquor. You got Diddy, Birdman, French Montana. All these rappers got their own thing. But nobody’s really doing shit with beer. I know OJ Da Juiceman had his own Colt 45 flavor at one point. Snoop Dogg had his own 4-Loko malt beverage. But even then, those aren’t beers, that’s a malt. I think I’m the first rapper to have his own beer and be endorsing that shit. It’s cool man. Upcoming rappers and people starting out, hopefully they see all of this shit I’m doing with the marketing and merch, hopefully they get some inspiration from that. You can really do this shit. 2020 is the year to make all your ideas happen man. No idea is a bad idea. With this beer, I wanna take it to new levels. Beer conventions. Kind of like some Action Bronson shit. Travel the world. It’s like, going to different countries, trying new beer, Anthony Bourdain meets Action Bronson meets, I don’t even know [Laughs]. Like a lifestyle, bro. I don’t want to be in my 30s and be worried about making a hit record. The music is just a platform and stepping stone for me to do other shit. The music is always gonna be there.
How did you connect with Sad Boys, and how was your recent visit to Sweden?
I love Sweden dude. I’ve been wanting to go to Sweden. I was trying to plan this since like 2018. Last year, I made it a priority, like I’m making this shit happen. I booked the flight in April and flew out there in July. I was staying with CadyCutThroat out there. Cady is that dude, he’s a good friend. I’ve known Cady actually longer than I’ve known Lean, Bladee and Thaiboy. I met them through him.
Back story on that, this is like 2015. Thaiboy dropped a tape called Lord of the Jewels. The whole mixtape was produced by Cady, Kray was on there, Lean was on there, Bladee was on there. All the guys were on this tape. I was like, Yo the production on this shit is crazy. I gotta find out who produced this shit. I look up CadyCutThroat, find his Twitter, but his DMs aren’t open. I end up finding his email and reached out, saying whatever just to get my foot in the door. I only had one song out at the time, “Tha Trenchez.” I sent him a link to the video and he didn’t get back to me until like a month later, but he did get back to me, and we’ve been cool ever since. So, me and Cady dropped this one song, “Tsunami,” sponsored by Elevator. We put that out in 2017. We put out another one called, “Facetime.” We just have a bunch of songs saved in the vault. A Cady and Baby mixtape is definitely dropping 2020, just ’cause we literally have so many songs.
With Cady being so close to them, I was always in their ear. Cady would always show them the shit he produced. They knew about me before I even knew that they knew about me. I remember, December 2017, I had went out to London with Zack Fox. It was his birthday and we had did a show. At the time, Bladee was living in London and I had no idea. Cady had DM’d me, “Yo, Bladee’s out in London right now, you should link up.” That’s how me and Bladee finally cooked up for the first time in person. My manager at the time was living in New York, so I was there all the time. I had heard Lean was going to be doing a show in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, I was busy when he did the show because we were going to link up. So, I thought they left. I figured I was gonna catch them later or whatever.
What’s crazy is, they had stayed in NYC after the show, and ended up going to this VFILES event I went to. This was fashion week, February 2018. That bitch was packed bro. Everybody was there. It was kind of dark though. It lowkey looked like a rave in the warehouse everybody was in. So I’m at the bar, I look over a little bit, and clear as day I’m like, “Oh shit!” Me and Bladee saw each other. Then me and Lean met for the first time, and the first thing he said was, “Oh yeah, you’re Big Baby Scumbag yo!” In my head, mind you, I only knew what Cady was telling me, “Yeah the homies they fuck with you.” Going from that to chopping it up in person is kind of cool. We just stayed cool since then, man.
Me being out in Sweden, it definitely put me in a whole new vibe. Out there, it’s just so peaceful. I was thousands of miles away from home, not worried about shit bro, just living. I was definitely working on music out there, but music wasn’t the main priority. It was just living. Those the homies bro, I’m definitely going to be back out there. Probably this Summer. At this point, they’re like a second family. Being out there, I felt at home, like if you need anything we got you. I felt welcome. That good hospitality only encourages me to come back. Shit, who knows, I might live out there eventually.
What effect did the Dale Earnhardt Jr. cosign have on your career?
That was fucking crazy. So, he liked the video a day after it dropped. And, honestly, I can accredit it to one dude for being the reason he saw it that fast. I have a homie named Dontre Graves, he’s a reporter for NASCAR. He’s really cool with Dale Earnhardt Jr. I remember one time he told me he brought up the song to him, and he said, “Yeah man, I love that song. The only bad thing is, I can’t play it around the wife and kids.” [Laughs] That’s so crazy.
I feel like the impact of that shit, that’s some shit nobody’s ever done, bro. He’s the Lebron James of NASCAR, bro. The Tom Brady of NASCAR. That’s the man. bro. If any NASCAR driver is going to cosign a rap song about NASCAR, it’s gotta be him. He’s the ultimate one.
I feel like with that in itself, even if you don’t like rap music, if you’re a fan of NASCAR, you have no choice but to like that shit. Just because, yeah, you don’t like rap music, but your favorite NASCAR driver just cosigned it, and he thinks it’s cool. It’s kind of like a “me too” thing at that point. “You know what, this ain’t that bad, I do kinda like this song!”
There’s a lot of shit that comes out now where it’s like, I don’t like it, but for some reason this is cool. I credit a lot of the success of that song to people being open minded — me grabbing fans from that side of the board and bringing them back to what I’m doing and just merging this shit. Even [Earnhardt] said it himself, “NASCAR and Hip Hop, I love when they come together.”
Very crazy moment, man. I’ve definitely seen some people try to jump on the bandwagon. I’m not going to say that I started NASCAR rap, because for sure Black Kray was referencing NASCAR. He had been doing that shit. I’m not going to say that I was the godfather of NASCAR rappers, none of that, I would never take that title, but I paved the way for a lot of the stuff going on right now. And this just goes back to Big Baby Earnhardt. That’s my biggest song to this day. It’s such a big song to me, I felt like I had no choice but to name my project that. I know people for sure are gonna fuck with NASCAR shit until I stop doing this music shit. It’s just so culturally right.
Why did NASCAR end up reaching out to you?
Funny story man. So, since the release of Dale Earnhardt, I know a lot of people in the NASCAR business follow me, whether they’re reporters, enthusiasts, amateur drivers. All across the board people follow me since that song. When I posted the Big Baby Earnhardt cover, a couple hours after I get a DM from this dude. He was like, “I’m an official graphic designer over at NASCAR. I wanted to let you know there are certain images that are in the cover that are copyright infringement.” You can’t really see on the cover, but if you zoom in really close, you can see little stuff like Daytona or NASCAR.
He was basically saying, this isn’t a big deal, but for future references, if you want to do anything NASCAR related, run it by him. But yeah, he looked out, he was like “Yeah man, I like your stuff, I’m a big fan.” So, I got cool with him, and now, I think the Daytona 500 is in February, I think he’s going to pull some strings and make something happen so I can show up all three days and rock out. Hopefully, this is kind of a stretch, but I want to perform out there man. I’m definitely trying to see if that can happen. If not perform, I’m for sure gonna be out there with all access passes.
Now that me and him are cool, there is definitely going to be a potential NASCAR x Baby Scumbag collab. If I’m going to have anyone work on NASCAR inspired merch, it’s going to be him. I’m super grateful for that.
As an artist who maintains a close relationship with his fans, what is one thing they might not know about you?
I like to read books. I like to go to the bookstore a lot. Lately, the past year and some change, I’ll go to Barnes & Noble or the library and just have my coffee, reading my books, chilling. Funny thing is, back when I was in school, I would skip class and go reading in the library for like three periods straight. Nobody would say a word. I don’t know, I always liked reading books and shit. Whether it be fictional books, mangas, magazines, you know, inspirational shit, how-to books. All types of shit. I’ll go to Barnes & Noble and just pick up a handful of books.
I own a bunch of biographies. I have the Gucci biography, I have an Ol Dirty Bastard biography. I have this Lil Wayne biography, it’s called Gone Til’ November. Lil Wayne was locked up in 2010 for a little bit. It was either 2010 or 2011. While he was in jail, he wrote a memoir, it was like a journal. It’s very personal, it talks about a lot of the shit that was on his mind while he was in the cell.
More recently I’ve been reading a lot of books on the Law of Attraction. I have The Secret. I have a book on curing writer’s block. I have a book jump starting your brain, coming up with ideas. I have a Tony Robbins book, he’s one of those big motivational speaker type dudes. I’m an active reader, man. Big ass books seem intimidating, but once you start reading, you get lost in that shit. Next thing you know, you’re finished. Like the Gucci Mane biography? I finished that shit in two days, bro.
We are at the start of a new decade. Where do you see your brand 10 years from now?
10 years from now, man. I see Big Baby Scumbag being an enterprise. You know, I look up to Master P, he just has so much shit if you think about his legacy from 1990-2020. 30 years of entrepreneurship, this man has his own record label, he was playing professional basketball at one point, directing his own movies, writing his own scripts, he owns Rap Snacks. He does everything, bro. It kind of goes back to not just wanting to be a rapper. I want to eventually have my own imprint where I’m signing rappers. I want to open up a non-profit charity. Like, this past Thanksgiving I was just thinking to myself, How cool would it be give out turkeys and do shit like that? I wanna have ice cream trucks. I wanna bring that shit back, the ice cream business.
I see myself having all types of different shit coming from different directions, and not just music. Like I said, music is always gonna be there. I’m not even worried about being some super huge rapper. Rap music is so temporary. People are hot one year and not the next year. When you have your imprint stamped bro, like on some Nipsey shit, he had that whole plaza. He was into real estate. Doing all types of things. He was really about setting your feet in stone. I’m here to stay. Like, this rap music got me here, but it ain’t the only thing I’m worried about. I got bigger plans.