Lil Baby Is Back From a ‘Dark Period’ With Album Announcement & New Single: Watch

“Whatever Wham say goes.” That’s the phrase that popped up on billboards in L.A., referencing a Young Thug jailhouse tweet from June. The YSL boss teased new music with his fellow Atlanta rapper Lil Baby, tweeting, “Wham let’s drop one on these rats peter,” shortly after coming home from Fulton County Jail.

Now, Baby is ready to say his piece with a brand new album — his first since 2022’s It’s Only Me. On Thursday (Nov. 14), the rapper released the lead single and video to his project WHAM: Who Hard As Me.

“5AM” (produced by Wheezy and Sean Momberger) shows Baby trying to come to terms with the pressure of expectations and celebrity. He starts the song off by talking about those pitfalls, rapping, “How you managed to get everything you want and still ain’t happy?/ Half of me done died, the other half alive, I’m tryna balance it/ Granny said if it’s worth something to you, then it’s worth the challenge.”

Later in the song he raps about struggling with vulnerability and survivor’s guilt, saying, “Five in the mornin’, just me and a ‘Rari, don’t know where I’m goin’/ Thinkin’ ’bout all this sh—t, honestly, I don’t know how I be doin’ this/ Can’t be vulnerable, who I’m gon’ talk to when I’m going through it?/ Am I delusional? Keep tellin’ myself that it’s all good/ All I know is survival and dollars, I come from the hood.”

Last night, the Atlanta rapper took to Instagram and posted footage of himself shooting the new music video and recording the song with a caption that mentions he was going through a rough patch the last two years. “Ain’t it crazy how they tryna play me like i ain’t the one!!! It’s that time! I would say again, but this run will be totally different!!” he wrote. “I had the darkest period of my life these last two years, but I stayed down and overcame that sh—t now I’m back to f—kin sh—t up as usual…, Sincerely, Wham!! Who hard as me. Let’s go.”

While no release date for the album has been announced, Baby wrote on X that he was dropping another single and video this week. He was recently spotted in the studio with Young Thug and Future, so there could be something from the trio coming soon.

Check out Lil Baby’s new video for “5AM” above.